Dave Courvoisier's Blog

Archive for the ‘Equipment’ Category

Over time, you just begin to discern who are the real-deals in this business of VO.  The Pat Fraleys, DB Coopers, Nancy Wolfsons, and Grover Gardners of the world.

George Whittam is like that.

On the few occasions I’ve met him, and the many times I’ve heard him referenced, the singular impression is: EXPERT.  Expert at equipment.  Expert at recording, audio engineering, acoustics, mics, soundbooths, software, hardware…get the drift?

He’s responsive, helpful, knowledgeable and experienced.

Now, he’s holding a day-long course on Advanced Home Recording.  It’s in LA, and it’s only about a week away…but ya never know…maybe you’ve got the time and the proximity and the wherewithall…if that’s so…you’d be glad I told you, right?

See below for the absolute basics on the event, or click HERE to see George’s FaceBook page on the event.

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‘Love love love this unit!  See HERE for the specs and capabilities.  If you look in the archives, you’ll see I’ve often blogged about the Zoom H4.

For the price and features, it’s among the top buys in the field.

I may be making a huge mistake…but I’ve got my eye on other possibilities for a portable recording unit (see future blogs — don’t want to let the cat out of the bag), and I’d LOVE to see this recorder go to a voice actor who could really use it, and will take care of it.

For my part, I promise to agree to a fair price, to pack it well, and to ship it promptly.  Let’s talk!  Oh, and I’ll throw in a 2-Gig SD card.

CourVO
702.610.6288

My friends at Rain Recording are running some specials on equipment, and there might just be something that tickles your fancy.

I've written some articles for Rain, and they have done work for some of my voiceacting friends on the East Coast.  Plus, they've contributed to the sound system of some Cirque shows here in Vegas, most notably "LOVE"…the new Cirque show developed around the music of the Beatles.

Yeah, I think they know what they're doing, and they honest businessmen and women to boot.

See below for their flyer.

CourVO

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Let me just pass along the name and contact info of the person I often talk to at Sweetwater.

Sweetwater is certainly one of the top online equipment suppliers for the kind of stuff a VO/VA would want.

They're based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, they have a great reputation, and their prices are as competitive as anyone's.  Often, they have "can't-miss" incentive sales.

I'll get a call once in a while from my contact:  Tom Maxwell.  He's always friendly, helpful, and not pushy.  The calls are usually of a very helpful variety…and they get the needs of voice actors.

The last couple of times he's called, I've denied him any sales, and he still keeps a smile.

Below, see his e-mail from today, which gives a little personal touch, and here's his contact info:

Tom Maxwell 
Sales Engineer 
Sweetwater Sound, Inc. 
Phone: 800.222.4700 x1313 
E-mail: Tom_Maxwell@sweetwater.com 

Be sure to drop my name when you call him!

CourVO

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Zoom is now marketing the next generation of its popular H4 studio-quality hand-held recorder.

I was an unabashed fan of the original H4.  It was arguably the best of the first generation of hi-quality portable recorders.

Not long after, Tascam, Sony, Marantz and many others got into the game in the $200-$400 price range.

Zoom later came out with the H2, but it didn't quite match up to the H4.

The nex-gen H4, the H4n, seen at the left is a nice upgrade.  Much bigger display (my biggest beef about the previous model), and a significantly larger removable media slot (32Gig SD card)…as well as retaining the excellent twin stereo microphone configuration, the onboard mic emulations, 4-track recording, and XLR inputs…and I'm just getting started!

Do yourself a favor (besides saving up for the $350 pricetag (Sweetwater)…go to the Zoom site, and take a look at their excellent explainer — complete with nicely-done graphics — and educate yourself on what is once again the best portable studio-quality hand-held recorder on the market.

Click HERE.

CourVO

ProTools is the epitome of sound editing software…or has enjoyed that status for a long time. 

Many is the convincing argument that it's overkill for most independent working voice-actor entrepreneurs, but for the professional sound or audio engineer it's still the tops.

I haven't moved to ProTools 8, and may not.  Legendary are my battles with the software, and its proprietary nature as a one-two punch with ILok.  I'm not sure which battle was my Waterloo.  The one with ProTools, or the one with ISDN.

Regardless, I marvel at the technical advancements DigiDesign keeps pushing in this product.

Below is their latest newsletter… if you're a ProTools follower, you may find some interesting tips 'n' links.

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Amazon's 2nd-generation Kindle is out, and all the geeks in the newsroom have come by to oooh and aaah.  I like this model.  It's pretty slick in a lot of ways, but falls short of the glory of it's potential of it's genre, and THIS article explains why… I'm not going to go into a lot more of that.

I'm here to explain one singular feature of the Kindle that voice actors may find helpful and another that is a chimera.

To wit, the Kindle-2 offers a text-to-speech feature that no one here has to worry will take away voiceover jobs.  I guess this is helful for people who are making cookies while trying to read the latest TIME magazine article on the warnings of Gardisil, but the Txt-2-spch not that great.

The feature that IS great is the one that lets you send copy, scripts, text ANY file in a .doc, html, .txt, .pdf, .mobi, etc. to your Kindle-specific e-mail account address, and for 10-cents Amazon will "beam" it to your Kindle for you to read.  (For no charge, they'll send it to your computer, and you can just sync it into the Kindle memory).

The same portability that makes the Kindle handy for reading books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs make it convenient for THIS feature too.

– have clients send their copy to your Amazon Kindle e-mail, and in less than a minute you can see it on your Kindle screen
– load the audition script you're going to read for your next client, read it on the way to the studio
– upload the copy you have to cut for your next job, read it on the bus
– peruse at the park the e-learning script you're going to record that night
– save paper in the process, take Kindle into your private studio, and read your work off the screen

Got an IPhone?…sure it'll do all that stuff, too, but the Kindle screen is bigger, better, and "looks" more like paper.  Kindle uses the same 3G network your phone does to recieve info, so you don't need Wi-Fi.

At $359 that may not be the only reason you'd buy a Kindle, but I plan to use it that way, ON TOP OF all the other stuff it does.

And besides, I'm a geek, and I love new technology.

CourVO

In a perfect world, every voice actor would be able to enter their whisper-quiet studio and cut noise-less audio with a sound floor that's in the basement.

In a perfect world.

I see some lovely home studios being built by many voiceover artists.  I've blogged about it here 'n' there.
Dan Lenard
Michael Rhys

The Holy Grail of home voicover studios is absence, not expense.  The absence of extraneous sound.

My cross to bear is the fact that I've got my DAW inside my studio.  Computers are notoriously squeaky, whiny, whistly, hummy, and airy-sounding contraptions. 

One answer is to get low-noise components: fans, hard-drives, and power supplies.  Some places will even BUILD you such a thing.  That's probably the lowest-cost workable solution.  You can do it yourself.  Call Doc Phillips.  I seem to remember he's the ace at that option.

Then there are enclosures.  My PodWorx friend, Scott Whitney just tweeted me about THIS solution.  It's pretty slick.  Not cheap…and I have no first-hand testimonials to rely on…but I may have to go with something like this in the end — or just find a way to move the darn box outside the door, like a REAL voiceacting pro.

CourVO

Kerry Hancock, the very capable CEO of "House of Hancock" — the very
same company that designed my logo (above) and my website, first told me about
MAGIC JACK several months ago.

Magic Jack, and it's website reminds me of the phrase "as seen on TV" or "…but wait…THERE'S MORE!!!…"

The website is dripping with testimonials, awards, and hype. 

But you know….it's all pretty much true.  The unit is easy to install, use, and lives up to the maker's promises. 

You plug it into a USB port, and plug your phone into the other end. The software installation and account set-up begins automatically, and takes very little time.

It lets you choose a phone number from any area code.  I chose Oregon, but for the life of me, I can't remember why.

Since we all are looking for ways to do a "phone patch" in voiceover work, Magic Jack may be yet another inexpensive and painless way to do that.  I'm just not sure I understand how.

Click on THIS link to a discussion on the VO-BB, and you'll see more…including my question of George Whittam of how exactly to configure that.

BTW, George (and his company Eldorado Recording Services) is about the most knowledgeable, nicest, helpful guy you'd ever want to get to know in this business.  As they say:  "He's forgotten more about technology, than I'll ever know."

Let me know if you've had any luck with Magic Jack yourself.

CourVO

Dedicated voice acting professionals usually love to tinker with their studios.  Some more than others, but I think we all try to make them not only practical, but imminently usable day-in, day-out.

Michael Minetree is an artful and skilled audio booth tinkerer.  He wrote me to say:

"This is the first part of a two part video detailing the final touches
on our long awaited voice over isolation booth. The booth is finally
done – and has already patched its first LA voice over session. I can’t
believe were finally done…"

Voice Over Isolation Booth Video – Part 5.1

"This is the second part of the two part series of the voice over
isolation booth videos. The booth is complete and already serving VO
patch sessions."

Voice Over Isolation Booth Video – Part 5.2

Click on the links above to see his videos of the booth. 

Impressive, Michael!  Thanks for sharing!

CourvO