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effects stack

Having VO Industry Friends Matters

November 16, 2022 by Laura Schreiber

Sometimes things Go Sideways

As a well-established professional voice actor I wish I could say that when I recorded my first audiobook everything went well, but that is not the case. I learned quickly that narrating audiobooks is vastly different than recording a 30 second spot. Actually, the recording was fine. I marked the manuscript on my iPad just like Sean Pratt taught me. I used iAnnotate and I was proud of how the audio and the editing when. The snag happened quite unexpectedly when I uploaded my audio to ACX. 

Learning the Ins and Outs of ACX

If you have never used ACX, when you upload your audio it has a tool that immediately measures the quality of your Curve Ballaudio. So my audio was immediately flagged as being insufficient for their needs. You get a little orange or red, depending on the screen settings of your monitor, triangle with an exclamation point in it.  ACX is kind enough to tell you precisely what is wrong with your audio. In my case, my RMS, or Round Mean Sound, levels were not within the precise range of -18 to -23. Mine were between -25 and -27.

First  I called an engineer I work with regularly and he had gone to both college and graduate school for audio production and he had no idea what an RMS was. I sent him a photo of my audio because I could see there was a meter for it in my DAW, which is Twisted Wave. His best guess was to play with how I normalized it. No dice, nothing made this better. And I had already applied my commercial effects stack to the ENTIRE recorded book. At this point the only thing I had going for me was that I had saved the RAW audio. Note, ALWAYS save your raw audio!!

The Meltdown

So at this point, dinner was not being cooked. The audio couldn’t be uploaded. I was in my booth in tears. For someone who has been in VO for years, I was loosing it completely. Just then, I happened to have been, over several days emailing back and forth with Jack de Golia. I had questions for him about some programs I could use for audiobooks, and I had the luck of getting an email from a friend at that moment.

I told Jack I was having a meltdown. Jack phoned. He asked what was going on. He talked me off a cliff. He also showed me how to use the analyze function on Twisted Wave which I never knew was there. Jack actually showed me quite a few thinks that night. 

He told me I needed to call George Whittam and that I needed a stack specifically for audiobooks. The only way to meet the A CX specs is with such a stack. I had no idea. The thing is, you don’t know what you don’t know until you’re in the trenches. I did in fact reach out to George. I paid extra for the stack, and I was very quickly back in business.

When I had my Meltdown, I had people to call  

I was lucky, the right guy happened to reach out precisely at the moment I needed him. If you don’t know Jack de Golia, his is a brilliant voice talent best known for his work in eLearning and Audiobooks although he excels in other genres too. He is a coach as well and is based in Las Vegas Nevada.  

So let’s dissect why I had a friend like Jack in the first place? Jack happens to be a really nice guy, and exceptionally good at what he does, so he’s easy to be friends with in the first place. But how did I maintain the friendship on my end? Well, I have made the effort to go to voice over conferences for years. I had attended Jack’s sessions at past conferences like WoVoCon. When I would go to other conferences like DevLearn in Las Vegas, I kept in touch with Jack and we had lunch. Over the years I also sent correspondence emails because his friendship and the friendship of my industry friends is extremely important to me. I did not have a crystal ball and I had no idea that Jack would one day come to my rescue, but I did know he was a good guy and I valued having him, like so many others I have been blessed to meed in my life.

The Take-Aways

I can tell you that while we all work alone in padded foam booths, we are stronger together than we are apart. Whether we are two months in are ten years in we always need good, smart folks who have our backs. It is worth making the effort to spend time with people on your visit. It is work keeping in touch with people beyond the reach of social media. Make actual friends. It is so important and it is what will make all the difference.

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Narration, Studio/booth, Voiceover Tagged With: ACX, coach, DAW, effects stack, Facebook, female audiobook narrator, friends, iAnnotate, iPad, Jack de Golia, Non-Fiction, professional female narrator, RMS, Sean Pratt, social media, twisted Wave, VO, voice over, voice over coach, voiceover, WoVoCon

Lessons From My First Audiobook

November 15, 2022 by Laura Schreiber

Why Try A New Genre at This Point in My Career?

Try New ThingsYou might be wondering, as a full time voice actor with pretty stellar commercial bookings, why would I go after a new, and frankly uniquely different genre now? Well, if you are new to my blog you might not know that my twins left for college this year. So at the age of 45 I became an empty nester in the snap of a finger. My life was turned upside down and for someone life me downtime is not desirable. I need to be busy every second. The notion of learning a new skill set, something I could get lost in and spend hours studying, became very appealing. When I started in voice over many years ago, long before I ever had a single client, I looked at the study of the craft of commercial voice over as my full-time job. It served me well. My passion for a given genre can lead me to success when I apply that passion to the detailed study of it. So, non-fiction audio books, here I come!

Working With an Awesome Coach

As a voice over coach myself, I can tell you that learning from a top coach is essential to success. I started to work with Sean Pratt. He is a perfect fit for me. If you don’t know Sean, he has a very specific curriculum. He takes you through both the craft or study of how to work on the copy, and also teaches you about the business side of audiobooks. I LOVE my lessons with Sean. I love the homework he gives. I can actually feel myself learning. I very much enjoy working through the assignments. The challenge, the struggle, is something I have not had for years. His curriculum is excellent. I am confident that next year, after going through all of the lessons, I will be prepared to work in audiobooks.

Applying the Skills

In our last session Sean told me it is time to start putting myself out there and auditioning on ACX. Sean advised me that I need to get titles under my belt. Fortunately, I have a sense of where my voice fits in and what kind of texts I want to read. I seem to have a decent booking ratio here too, and in the first two weeks I actually booked two books. After doing my elated happy dance in the booth and celebrating with my husband, the real work of recording the books began!

What I didn’t Know…. The Tech

Well, if I thought I was learning a lot from Sean in terms of technique and craft, I can’t tell you how much I learned from actually working on a book. Initially I began marking my script in iAnnotate just as Sean recommend. I was using my trusty Apple Pencil and quite happy. I realized I needed help with iAnnotate so I paid for Karen Commins’ videos. They are outstanding by the way, as are all of her resources, and if you are new to audiobooks like me her website is a must visit!

Organizing the audio and staying organized was the next part of the learning. I found myself writing notes both on the iPad and in my booth. I also found myself creating lots of different subfolders in dropbox that were new to me due to the length of the audio.

I was quite pleased with everything and it was time to upload it into ACX when I hit my first major snag. ACX has something that analyzes your audio when you upload it. I had processed it same as I always do for commercials and eLearning. The same stacks that make producers all over the world happy got flagged. I learned about something called and RMS and apparently my number was too high, which actually meant my sound was too low. If you are on Twisted Wave, this is the meter on the right side. Well, I was in a panic. I had no idea what to do.

All these years as a full time talent and it was like I was starting over. I was at a total loss. I called an engineer who does commercial and explainers and he told me to normalize it. I did that and I was still not within the range. If an engineer who went to college and graduate school for this couldn’t help, how on earth would I sort this out? I went to YouTube and I did find videos with others talking about the issue, but most of them used Audacity or Audition as their DAW, not Twisted Wave.

Friends MatterIn the midst of my break down in the booth, I heard from a friend and fellow coach Jack de Golia. G-d his timing was good. He told me I needed to reach out to George Whittam (AKA George the Tech) for a specific stack just for audio books. Hallelujah. There was hope in site. If you don’t know George, you can actually pay for 911 emergency service to get bumped to the front of the line in cases like this, otherwise it takes about a week.

I got online and both emailed and Facebook messaged George. George is a G-d-send, and angel, and a genius all wrapped up in one. To me delight he was available and helped me right away. I followed the steps of sending my audio and my gear. George followed up, within the hour, (I actually think it was less) of sending me a stack and a video just for me about how to work with all of this.

I got lucky. George happened to be free when I needed him and I had a friend who could point me in the right direction. Crisis averted! This is the very short abridged version of the story that skips the details of missed dinner, a very supportive husband who tried hard to do what he could, and me acting like a toddler having a tantrum. The good news is that very night I submitted the book to the ACX specs. I wish I could say I behaved better, but I did learn so much!

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Business Management, Voiceover Tagged With: ACX, coach, effects stack, female audiobook narrator, George the Tech, George Whittam, iAnnotate, Jack de Golia, Karen Commins, Non-Fiction, professional female narrator, RMS, Sean Pratt, twisted Wave, voice over, voice over coach, voiceover

It’s Always A Good Time For Good Tech

October 26, 2020 by Laura Schreiber

A Case Study in Fixing A Tech Issue

Houston We Have a Problem MemeOn Thursday I got the email that a professional voice over actor never wants to get from an agent. One of my most attentive agents took the time to email me that something was wonky with my audio. She said it sounded off, and in addition she could hear clicks and plosives that she could not normally hear. This is odd because I used isotope RX7 in my effects stack, so that never happens. She also said that my “Fs” did not sound like they usually do. While I was profoundly thankful for the feedback, my heart sank. In voice over, we are only as good as we sound, and I had recently made a ton of studio upgrades. So my mind was racing. When did these issues start? What had I submitted that sounded this way? I knew I had to fix it, and fast. I had a live commercial session the next morning with a producer I work with regularly but the client was new, and this had to be fixed prior to the session. I only had a few hours and the clock was ticking.

Quick Response

Time is of the EssenceI immediately reached out to Tim Tippets, aka the VO Tech Guru. I had worked with Tim on the recent upgrades I made and he had created my new effects stack. I was not sure where the problem began, but I was confident Tim could fix it. I must confess, I stalked Tim. I emailed him sound to compare our baseline audio from when we had worked together several months ago and my audio from Thursday. I also texted him to see when he was around and to let him know my availability with a desperate hope that he was able to fit me in. Tim answered my prayers and made time in his super busy schedule for me later that evening. I was profoundly thankful.

Fixing The Glitch

Don't Change the SettingsTim and I had a zoom session. I gave Tim control of my computer. Tim right away determined I was having a UAD software issue with my Apollo MK II Thunderbolt preamp. Somehow, at some point, I had checked a box that for my settings should never be checked. In this case, it is the preamp box. Once that box was checked, it changed all of the settings, the gain, the input, basically all the levels were completely different. We quickly realized that the baseline for the Manley Voxbox that I use was not saved on my iMac. Rather, it was still on my MacBook Air that I had used before my recent upgrade. So, I needed to send it to my new computer. Tim was amazing. He was patient and confident and in very little time he had my preamp settings restored. Further, he made sure that I was now able to restore them on my own in the future. He also took the time to tell me how to do audio play back in zoom to make my live sessions with clients better.

Why It Matters

Quality MattersPut simply, in voice over, we are only as good as we sound. If we want our base of clients to keep coming back, we must offer nothing less than consistently pristine audio. If my agent could hear sibilance and plosive, then it is likely it was heard in auditions and work submitted around that time as well. Part of being a professional working voice actor means having broadcast ready audio, and broadcast ready audio is perfect. Broadcast ready audio sounds as good as our demos.. It matters because our clients depend on us to provide them with great audio. It matters because our agents need us to have bookable, quality work. It matters because there is a difference between professionals and amateurs and sounding broadcast ready is one of those defining qualities.

Reflections on the Situation

If we can’t sound as good as we sound on our best day every day then we need to know how to fix it. I was fortunate, since the start of my small business, I have made a habit of surrounding myself with people that I can trust. As a working professional, I can tell you that every day is not perfect. Here is why this situation is something to write about: I had a problem, I took action, I knew whew to call, and the problem was resolved within hours, before it effected client work. As a working voice over actor, it is essential to have go-to industry partners that you trust. In this scenario, my agent was my alarm. She had my back. We always need others who will fix our crowns when they get knocked off. Then I had Tim. He had my back too. He scheduled me right away when I let me know how urgent my need was. So in the end, my audio problem was fixed because I have meaningful relationships with people in my industry. Our success may be about the sound, but it is also built upon the relationships with other people in voiceover and without that my sound would likely still be a mess.

Filed Under: Voiceover Tagged With: Apollo MK II Thunderbolt Preamp, audio, baseline, booth, effects stack, isotope rx7, New Setup, plosives, pristine audio, Professional Home Studio, Professional VO, sibilance, tech, Tim Tippets, UAD Software, VO Tech Guru, voice over, voiceover

A New Computer for My Studio: My iMac DeskTop

July 5, 2020 by Laura Schreiber

Why The Change was Necessary

I will start by saying that the past five years have flown by and while I have had to seek help with my studio gear, my MacBook Air has been dependable in every way since its purchase. I have not had issues with my computer. I have been extremely happy since switching from a PC to a Mac, and have been extremely happy with the MacBook Air specifically. So, why switch? Well, as per my blog last week, I made a lot of gear upgrades in my studio recently. The early 2015 MacBook Air I have only has one Thunderbolt B port and NO, as an not a single one, Thunderbolt C ports, and it was not possible to have both my pre-amp and my studio monitor hooked up simultaneously, while both are essential. So, I made the choice to upgrade.

Why Did I Pick the iMac?

To be clear, my MacBook Air is still running fine. It completely functions and has not changed in any way, it is just missing some essential ports. This is sad. So, when looking at apple offerings, I decided that since I have a working laptop, I could focus on a great desktop. In truth, I have always wanted one. In the pre-pandemic world, when I could actually enter a store and look around, I always thought it would be great to work at a desk top. I decided this time the desktop made sense. The iMac had the right requirements in terms of storage and speed. I got a track pad and the 21.5 inch screen. All I had to do was wait about 10 days for the iMac to ship from Shanghai to New Jersey!

The SetUp-How did it Go?

The set up went well. It took me most of the day. It arrived around 10:30 am and by dinner I was up and running, and the timing was pretty good. Coming the Friday of a holiday weekend is ideal as the bookings I have for live sessions will not be until next week anyway. I had heard some horror stories of industry friends recently setting up new computers, so I was not optimistic or overly enthusiastic and I expected it to take a while. The initial backup from iCloud went ok. Then I had to install my UAD software. Since I had just done this with Tim last week on the laptop, I still remembered how and it was not fast but I was able to do it. I was worried about getting my settings onto the iMac, but I was actually able to use airdrop to move them from one computer to the other. Twisted Wave setup was a little tricker for me. I spent a while putting in my many keyboard shortcuts. I could not figure out why my effects stack would not open in its entirety. I realized I had to find my initial izotope purchase, download that, enter the ilok, and then open the effects stack. I was getting a little nervous that I would need a session with Tim, but to my own surprise I was able to get it going! I am happy to report that the monitor in my booth connected with ease and I am so thankful to have my booth in working order. I am still making tweaks like syncing my drop box and connecting my pay to plays in my chrome short cuts, but for the most part it is set up how I want it!

What Is Still Missing- Source Connect

I was successfully able to download and install the software for Source Connect. I use the Pro version 3.9 and thankfully I pay for support, so there is no crisis, I just wish I had it up and running. The hiccup for me is repointing the location from the MacBook Air to the iMac. I am also curious if I can run Source Connect on both computers or not. I set up the soonest support session I could, which will be this coming Tuesday at 5:30, and all my questions will be answered. This also made me realize that I had to get zoom up and running, so thankfully that is now set up on my iMac as well.

Thoughts and Plan- Upstairs/Downstairs

Rome was not built in a day, and I am sure that in the coming days and weeks I will realize other applications that need to be installed on the iMac. I am thankful, though, that I accomplished as mush as I did at the start. My plan is that the desktop will live in my office space and my MacBook Air will now reside upstairs and will also be dedicated to my travel rig. It has only been since Friday, 48 hours, but so far this seems like a really wonderful upgrade. Ultimately, this isn’t about just changing computers, right. I had a setup that was working until it wasn’t. I made a change. I used to really fear change, but I know know (more than understand, actually know) that change makes me better and presents opportunity.

Filed Under: About Me, Studio/booth Tagged With: Apollo Twin, apple, effects stack, gear, ilok, iMac desktop, izotope, live sessions, MacBook Air, rx, Source Connect, studio, travel rig, twisted Wave, upgrade, voice over, voiceover, Zoom

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  • Lessons Learned From Recent Live Session
  • How to Publish a Public Domain Audio Book
  • Having VO Industry Friends Matters
  • Lessons From My First Audiobook
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