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Creating Your Recording Space

Lesson 24 from: Voice-Over for Real People: Complete Freelancing Guide

Keith Harris

Creating Your Recording Space

Lesson 24 from: Voice-Over for Real People: Complete Freelancing Guide

Keith Harris

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Lesson Info

24. Creating Your Recording Space

Next Lesson: Sound Proof Booths

Lessons

Class Trailer

Welcome to the world of Voice Over

1

Introduction

02:13

What Is Voice Over?

2

Myth Busting

03:17
3

Where is all the money?

02:54
4

Quiz: What Is Voice Over

The Voice Over Performance

5

A Conversation With One Person

03:34

Lesson Info

Creating Your Recording Space

now that you have the equipment, you need to capture your performance and you know how to deliver a great performance. We're going to discuss where to record your voice over. How do you set up a room or space and get the best recording. You do not need a soundproof booth And you might be surprised how many spaces in your current home or apartment already have exactly what you need to capture a good recording. What we are looking for in a voiceover project is a dead recording, meaning no echo from the room and no white noise in the recording, meaning the room itself is very quiet. The white noise is known as the noise floor and the industry standard for a noise floor is negative to negative 60 DB for now, all you need to know is that means a really quiet space away from the hum of electric units and air or white noise from outside traffic. One of the best places in most living quarters for echo and sound is a closet and of course a walk in closet is even better. Closets are often locat...

ed on inside walls have no windows to let sound in and are already very padded due to all the clothing. While you might need to add some padding or a sound blanket to your closet. Also leave the clothes, the more fabric you have in the closet, the more dead your sound will be. And this is great for making voice over recordings. Now that we have a space to record in. The next step is setting up the workspace itself. If your computer has a fan, I recommend keeping it away from the mic or maybe even putting it outside of the closet. That white noise from the computer fan can end up sounding really loud at the microphone in a nice dead room. Again, we want to avoid any white noise as it will create a lower quality audio. You can stand or sit and I recommend having something like a mic stand for your script. You can certainly use an ipad or print your scripts as they are sent to you. An ipad of course is quick and easy and will save you on the paper. You don't need to see or run your computer from the closet or makeshift booth simply hit record, close the door and perform to the mic. It's as easy as that. Once you're done, you can open the door and work on the computer to edit and deliver your file as I have already mentioned. I love voice over as a side business because it's quite travel friendly. How do I pull this off in places like hotel rooms? I have found the best travel booth is my suitcase, two pillows and the comforter from the bed. My suitcases, a large samsonite that I stand on top of the desk. I put a pillow on each side and put the comforter over the top. This builds a great little on road booth and I have recorded hundreds of projects this way, as long as there is no echo and your audio is high quality. Your clients won't care where you are recording by having a few tricks like these. You'll be able to keep up with clients even when you're not at home and that keeps the business growing. The final tip that works really well in a pinch, when you're on the road is to record in the backseat of a car. Maybe you're in a hotel where there is excess noise or you're in front of the highway and simply can't find a place to get away from the white noise of traffic. The back seat of a car is a great fallback drive your car to a quiet location. This might even be the back of the hotel parking lot and set up your mic in the back seat. Cars today are well padded and very dead on the inside by placing the mic against the front seats. You create a natural sound dead in er and the acoustical setup is great for voice over. If you want to deliver files from the car, simply set up your phone as a hot spot. This will allow you to get online with your computer and deliver your files right from the car. It's a great little booth. When you're in a pinch to close out this video. I wanted to offer a packing list for traveling your studio will pretty much fit in your backpack, which is great for keeping up with clients when you're on the go for your road kit. Be sure you have one computer, two pre amp and mike cables and stand three pop filter, Four headphones, five IPad. If you'd like to read scripts from a device other than your computer screen, but this is not required. That's all it takes. Just those five things and you're ready to go and have what you need to record good audio for your clients. So now you know where to record and how to set up the space for great sound and a comfortable workflow. In the next lesson, we'll discuss soundproof booths.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Audio Assignment
Tongue Twisters
Practice Scripts
Video Template (mp4 video)

Ratings and Reviews

Joe Wiese
 

Keith Harris is an amazing teacher. His coarse is timeless. Thank you Keith. Please come up with another coarse.

Matthew Longmire
 

Sabrina Lungen
 

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