Welcome to episode 39 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

In this episode, I’m going to continue answering the questions that my listeners have been leaving me on the podcast voicemail number. I’ve been getting so many good questions lately, that it seemed appropriate to go through a number of them. For those who don’t know, in past episodes,  I’ve given out a phone number where you can call in and leave me a question as a voicemail. From time to time, I’ll pick the most relevant questions I receive and answer them here on the podcast.

For this round of Q & A, I answer questions from Christian of Glendale, AZ and Leigh of the Washington D.C. area.

Christian is having some challenges with the recording levels with his Blue Yeti USB microphone. I give him some suggestions on how to avoid peaking when recording more extreme sounds.

Leigh is not only a voice actress, but also works full time. She’s looking for a high quality recording solution so she can submit auditions to pay to play sites like Voices.com and Voice123.com even when she doesn’t have access to her home recording equipment. I give her some suggestions on what she can do to get the best possible recording quality while on the go.

In the podcast I recommend a number of different pieces of equipment and software. Below is a list of them with links where you can purchase them. You can also find them in the Toolbox Section of the website. I hope you find them useful!

For Christian’s Question:
Shure PG-42USB Microphone – A more professional microphone than the Blue Yeti. The PG-42USB is a true large diaphragm microphone with a Pad Switch to allow you to have more control over the gain levels in your microphone.

For Leigh’s Question:
Solution #1 – Laptop Recording:
Sennheiser MD 421 Dynamic Microphone – A broadcast standard and my personal travel microphone. Very rugged and great at rejecting room noise. Unfortunately the signal it produces requires a lot of preamplification. In order to drive the MD 421, I use a…

Avid ProTools MBox Mini USB Interface with ProTools Software – I’ve been using MBoxes as my portable recording solution for years. However, it does require you to use a laptop in order to record.

You will also need a small portable microphone stand. I like the Konig Meyer 231/1 Tripod Table Top Mic Stand.

You will also need an XLR cable to connect the microphone to the MBox Mini.

Solution #2 – iPad Recording:
Shure PG-42USB Microphone
+
Pluggable’s Mini Powered USB Hub
+
Apple’s Camera Connection Kit for Dock connectors or Apple’s Lightning to USB Camera adapter

Here’s the formula, I plug the PG-42USB into Pluggable’s Powered USB Hub, connect the hub to either the Camera Connection Kit for older iPads or the Lightning to USB Camera adapter for newer iPads and then plug into the iPad.

You can then use any of these 3 recording apps: WavePad, GarageBand or TwistedWave.

If you absolutely must record without having access to an electrical outlet, the Apogee Mic or the Blue Spark Digital iPad microphones will also work, but they lack the low end warmth of the PG-42USB.

I hope you find my recommendations useful!

As a reminder, the number where you can call in and ask your question is:

323-696-2655.

Please don’t forget to include your first name and what city in the world you’re calling from. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks for listening!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #39 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 34 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

In this episode I continue my interview with Kimlinh Tran and Edward Bosco, two of my former students who have gone on to play main characters in the popular independent video game Dust: An Elysian Tail. You can find it on the Xbox Live Arcade. If you haven’t heard the first part of their interview, I suggest you check out the previous episode before you listen to this one.

This time around, we discuss both the casting process for the game as well as some interesting acting lessons Edward and Kimlinh learned while working on it. While they each had very different paths to being hired as voice actors for the project, once they were cast, they both faced the same challenge any voice actor has: how to portray a character believably and authentically and not simply demonstrate a caricature of that character. I think you’ll find it very enlightening!

Thanks for listening!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #34 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 33 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

For this episode, I’m honored to interview two of my former students, Kimlinh Tran and Edward Bosco. Even though they are relative newcomers to the voice acting world, you may be familiar with their work in an amazingly popular game that has just been released called Dust: An Elysian Tail. You can find it on the Xbox Live Arcade and it’s been getting fantastic reviews. Kimlinh plays the voice of Fidget, the small but spunky companion to the hero of the game, while Edward plays the voice of Ahrah, the spirit of a magical sword who helps guide the hero on a quest to save his world.

You can view a trailer for the game below:

I’m very proud of both Kimlinh and Edward for their wonderful work in this game and I’m happy the project has been such a success! When I decided to interview them, I felt that sharing their experiences as they begin their voice acting careers would be helpful and inspiring for you, my listeners, and I hope you enjoy their story.

Thanks for listening!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #33 Here (MP3)

My wonderful friend and colleague, Juan Carlos Bagnell, runs a fantastic blog called, The Ramblings of Some Audio Guy. On it, he posts his wisdom, tips and musings on the world of voice over and recording technology. Juan’s pithy insights into voice over come from his years working both as a voice over agent and more recently as a booth director for voice over projects at The Voicecaster, a famous casting agency in Los Angeles.

Juan just put up a great video post about proximity effect. For those of you who’ve listened to episode 11 and episode 12 of my podcast, I talked at length about microphone technology as well as microphone pickup patterns. I mentioned the fact that a microphone with a cardiod pickup pattern will produce what’s called a proximity effect, meaning that the closer you get to the microphone, the more low end or bass will be amplified by the microphone.

Well Juan has posted a wonderful video demonstration of this phenomenon in action on his blog. It’s entitled, The Proximity Effect and You! I highly recommend you check it out!

Welcome to episode 12 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

In this episode, I continue my explanation of microphone basics. Specifically, I talk about the directionality or “pickup pattern” of a microphone.

As little as 5 or 10 years ago, no voice actor needed to understand any of the details of how or why a microphone worked. However, in order to be competitive in today’s market, every voice actor is expected to have their own home recording studio. That means that you need to be able to produce professional sounding tracks yourself. It’s vital, therefore, to understand some of the basic attributes of microphones and how they function so that you can sound as good as possible.

The directionality or pickup pattern of a microphone refers to how that mic treats sounds coming at it from different directions. Does the microphone capture all sounds equally from all directions, or does it prefer sound from one direction and reject sound from other directions? All microphones break down into two types:

1. Omnidirectional Microphones
2. Unidirectional Microphones

There are many different types of unidirectional mics, but the most common used in voice over uses a cardioid polar pattern. It’s named that because it favors sound from the front, but rejects sound from the rear. This creates a polar pattern graph that looks “pinched off”, almost like an upside-down heart. Another common pattern is the “shotgun” pattern that’s used for recording actors at a distance on TV and movie shoots.

Here are some pictures of the three polar patterns I mention in the podcast:

Omnidirectional Polar Pattern

Cardioid Polar Pattern

Shotgun Polar Pattern

All unidirectional mics, including the cardioid and shotgun patterns, also exhibit a behavior where the closer a vocalist gets to the microphone, the more bass or low frequency sound is recorded. This bass buildup is called Proximity Effect and can be used to create different effects when recording. I discuss all these topics at great length in the podcast. I hope you enjoy it!

If you have any questions, please post your question as a comment to this blog post. Chances are, someone else has a similar question. By posting your question here on the blog, I get to communicate with all of you at once.

Thanks for listening!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #12 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 11 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

In this episode, I explain the basics of how a microphone works. I also outline the differences between the two dominant types of microphones in voice acting, dynamic and condenser microphones.

Historically, microphone technology was the responsibility of the recording engineer. It used to be that you could spend your entire voice acting career not knowing how a microphone worked as long as you knew which side of it to talk into. Those days are now gone. In the age of the internet, voice actors are expected to be able to make professional quality recordings from their home studios. A solid understanding of microphones and how they function is invaluable to understanding how to use the most important tool a voice actor has.

While there are many different types of microphone technology, there are two that have become dominant in the world of voice over:

1. Dynamic Microphones
2. Condenser Microphones

Here are some pictures of the two microphones I mention in the podcast, the Shure SM58 Dynamic microphone and the Neumann U87 Condenser microphone:

Shure SM58 – Dynamic

Neumann U87 – Condenser

If you have any questions, please post your question as a comment to this blog post. Chances are, someone else has a similar question. By posting your question here on the blog, I get to communicate with all of you at once.

Thanks for listening!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #11 Here (MP3)