laura@volaura.com

973.747.6800

  • Home
  • Demos
    • Demos
    • YouTube Bumper Demo
    • Commercial
    • Covid Response And Emergency Management
    • Radio Imaging
    • TV Affiliate
    • Narration
    • Audiobooks
    • Political
    • Tours
    • Character
    • Kids Voices
    • Baby Voices
    • Promo
    • eLearning
    • Explainer
    • Telephony
    • Government
    • Medical Narration
    • French Commercial
    • French Narration
    • Podcast
    • On Camera
  • Copy Writing
  • Studio
  • Clients
  • Coaching & Demos
    • Voice Over Coaching
    • Book Online
    • Business Coaching
    • Demo Production
    • Prepaid Scheduling
  • Blog
  • Contact

voiceover coach

The Travel Rig Low Down

June 27, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

Our Clubhouse Panel

clubshouse panel ask the VO coachesEvery Friday at 2 PM Diana Birdsall and I co-host a Clubhouse in our room “Ask the VO Coaches.” I am always excited about our awesome panels, and every week I might say it’s “the best one ever,” but holy smokes was this an awesome panel! This week, just in time for your summer get-away, we talked about travel rigs and what gear you need and what you don’t need to bring with you on that much needed trip. Whether you’re going to the beach, to the mountains, or just to see family you missed during covid, we talked about it all, and we talked about it with some of the best in the field! We had George- the-tech Whittam, Dan Leonard, Dave Scott, and Rick Wasserman. So, here’s a review of some of what we chatted about in case you missed our beyond awesome chat!

What’s the Point

The point of a travel rig is to be able to provide continual service to your clients. If you are booking work daily and earn your income from VO, you likely have or need a travel rig. If you are earning your income from voice over, odds are you provide your clients with good quality audio. The goal is to continue to do that on the road. Can you match your home studio? The consensus was probably not, but you can do your best. Dave Scott, video producer with All Systems Go AV, explained that when they cast a voice talent, they need good quality audio. If they are doing an explainer, and there is likely minimal music behind it, there is not a lof of wiggle room to mask reflections. If they are doing a commercial, at least there is a music bed behind it that gives some additional flexibility. It is always important to be transparent with the client and let them know you’ll be out of the studio, and work from there.

The Gear

So you’re probably wondering what mic and what pre-amp you need? You’ll hate me for saying this, but it depends. It depends on how much you travel and what your budget is. Rick Wasserman also brought up the important distinction between what sounds the best and the “in a pinch or in a pickle” scenario. Ideally, you have time to test your gear and determine what compliments your voice, and you are not recording in a pinch, but rather in a planned and controlled scenario.

There are some great travel mics for your travel rig, including but not limited to:

  • Apogee 96K
  • Apogee Mic Plus
  • Apogee Hype
  • Sure MV51 USB
  • Rode NTUSB

For travel Preamps, Dan and George were clear to point out that all tested well in their shoot outs, but that they like the:

  • Steinberg UR12
  • Scarlett Focusrite Solo
  • Mixerface
  • Rode Ai1

Portable Booth Vs. Pillow Fort

Most traveling voice actors start with the pillow fort. At conferences, we typically all post photos of our pillow forts on social media. So, how do you know if it’s time to make the investment in a portable booth like George and Rick’s Tri Booth or the Vocal Booth to Go? Again, the answer is it depends on how much you plan to work while you travel, how much you travel, and how much you book. If you are just doing it to audition, you would not want to spend the money. If you are, however, booking substantial work daily, one of these booths will come in very handy.

https://youtu.be/lvdIGgVXb9Y tri booth video

During our panel professional voice actor Dave Braxton also joined to talk about recording in a car. He explained that it not only provided the ideal sound proofing, but also offered an escape from his family. While chatting about this, George shared this video from Rode which talks about how to do just that.

https://youtu.be/C6gE2_VdImU

Laura Schreiber in her VoMoMy Rig

My own rig has evolved a lot over the years. I know use:

  • a Vocal Booth to Go
  • a Sennheiser MKE 660 Microphone
  • a UAD Apollo MK II Thunderbolt Preamp
  • a Ninja clamp (essential to good positioning of the mic)

My thoughts as a Coach

We talked a lot about on the panel how having good mic technique matters. You have to set yourself up for success and going out and buying expensive gear doesn’t not mean that you will start booking. Once you are booking, then upgrade. Once you have steady clients, give them the curtesy of letting them know when you’ll be our of the studio. Don’t start new projects on home gear before a trip. Always let them know, and plan ahead,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Apogee, Clubhouse, coach, cohost, Dan Leonard, Dave Scott, Diana Birdsall, gear, George-the-Tech Whittam, mics, Ninja clamp, Panel, preamp, record in car, Rick Wasserman, Rode, Sennheiser, Stenberg, Sure, travel booth, travel rig, tri-booth, UAD, VO, vocal booth to go, voiceover, voiceover coach

VO Booth Set Up Q and A

May 17, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

Q: What tweaks have you made to your set up that work well?

When I first built my professional home studio, I worked with my MacBook Air in the booth. For years I did this without issue. About two years in, I noticed that after very long recording sessions i had a lot of fan noise. I had gotten a great tip from Jack de Golia, a brilliant voice actor in Las Vegas, to always have ice packs handy, but after a while this became burdensome so I upgraded and put an iMac outside the booth and a monitor in the booth. This works MUCH butter. Here is a video made from a recent instagram story based on this very set-up question. If you can have this kind of set up, it’s great.

https://youtu.be/KGkESZa0X3o

Well Placed Hook with Head PhonesI also recommend having practical hooks in your book. I have a hook for my cans and a hook for my wires. It helps keep things neat and organized.

Q: What is your favorite way to connect for live sessions?

I have a new favorite way to connect: Zenncastr!! I have used this quite a few times recently, especially for long, guided eLearning sessions and it is great. There are no latency issues and it is very easy to connect, even easier than Source Connect. If only one person who is connecting has it, you can send them a link so it eases the financial burden as well. There are multiple price points, all of which are affordable. I love that when we speak during the session, all participants are recorded on separate tracks. So, if you are a coach recording a demo, or a voice over actor recording for a client, you never have to edit out any back and forth as you might on zoom. Then, at the end, you simply upload the audio.

Laura Schreiber Female Voice Over Talent In Her BoothI also do love having Source Connect. So many clients and agents require it. I occasionally need to have support sessions, and they do offer great support from Source Connect. Again, like with Zancastr, there are no latency issues. There are, though, sometimes quirks connecting. Sometimes people are confused with how to use it. If you are not both connecting with the same sample rate, for example, you won’t connect smoothly and it will be an issue, so that all needs to be decided ahead of time.

I also do still like to use zoom for the ease of use. Sometimes, even with the latency issues, it is great to just throw up a link and go! Especially this year, everyone knows how to use zoom, and it is nice to have a stress free connection for a live or guided session.

Q: If you could change anything about your studio, what would it be?

This might sound trivial, but it is not meant to. My booth is a rectangle and I have all this wasted space behind me. I could have saved a lot of money by making it a smaller square. The space behind me goes unused and is just a waste. I have to work with an acoustic board behind me, so I don’t even get to enjoy the roominess. 

I have blogged about this before, but I would also choose a different color foam if I had the option.  I hate that my white aurelex foam has turned yellow. I would either do panels or grew foam next time around.

Q: Can a voice over coach help with your studio set up?

A good voice over coach is still not an audio engineer. While I love to talk about gear with other voiceover actor and with students, it it is fun to talk about set up, I did not go to school for sound engineering. I do not have a degree in audio engineering. Everything I know about my studio, I know from having training with various audio engineers. As a voice over coach, I do work with students on microphone technique, but that is NOT the same thing is telling you how to set up your studio. Dave Scott, who  do demo production with, can give you expert advise on how to set up your booth and guide you about what to invest in and how to actually set it up.

Q: What do you wish you knew when you first started your voice over studio?

Travel Rig then and NowI wish I know how important a good travel rig is. It took me five years to get my travel rig to sound as good as my home set up. That is WAY too long. If you are just starting in voice over during the pandemic, I realize it is hard to imagine actually packing up and leaving home, but when we do, the rig matters.

I wish I know how important my website was. I spend so much time working on inbound marketing through my website now, but my business was going for several years before I figures that out.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: audio engineer, booth, Dave Scott, demo production, directed sessions, gear, iMac, Jack de Golia, live sessions, Mac Book Air, mic technique, monitor, professional voice actor, Source Connect, studio, studio set up, travel rig, VO, voice actor, voice over, voice over actor, voice over coach, voice over studio, voiceover, voiceover coach, Zencastr, Zoom

5 Top Questions Your Should Ask a Demo Producer

March 22, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

Getting Started

For us voice over professionals, few things are more exciting than doing a new demo! It’s up there with booking a huge Nothing is More Expensive Than a Missed Opportunitycommercial campaign, getting signed by an agent, and seeing an old friend. Why is a new demo so exciting? A voice over demo means opportunity. It is a new moment for us to say here I am, listen to this. This is what I can do for you! As a full-time, professional voice over talent, there are plenty of other female voice over actors booking lots of commercials. How do I make myself get noticed? The demo. So who you do your demo with, the coach and producer you choose to spend your time and money with matters, a lot. I have worked with some of the top coaches in the field, and I can tell you that I have had outstanding experiences and I have had experiences hat should have been better. Now that I am work as a voiceover coach and am on a demo production team myself, I am trying to educate my students along the way, so that they understand what to look for and how to advocate for themselves. Here are some questions you should ask every single time you do a new demo, whether it is a commercial demo or another genre:

  1. What is your script selection process like?

In my mind, the demo script selection process should be collaborative. The coach should work with you to find scripts The Right People Support Youthat show both your range and are appropriate for your brand. If you have dream VO clients, this is the time to include those scripts. So for example, if you are doing an automotive demos, and you love Audi, you would include an Audi script. If you are doing a commercial demo and you love shopping at target, why not include a target spot? The scripts should not simply descend from above on demo day, be handed to you, and recorded. They should be meaningful to you and they should show both your range and what matters to you. They can be an interesting glimpse into your interests too! So, it is very important that you can easily talk to your voice over coach or demo producer about the scripts that you have.I find it to be the ultimate irony that we use our voice to speak for others, but often, even when we are making investments in our own business, if can be so hard to advocate for what makes the right sense for us. The strength of your demo very much depends on your scripts and you should love them!

2. How will the Demo Session Go?

Whether you are recording in person in a recording studio or remotely via Source Connect, ipDTL, or Zoom, the Demo Session is extremely important. It is your day to shine. Put frankly, you should be the star and by put on a pedestal on demo day. Nothing else matters except your ability to rock every spot. Since you have likely worked with your coach before, by the time you get to the demo, they should be able to bring out your best. There should not be any drama. I have worked with some coaches who move very quickly from script to script and some who spend a lot of time going through each script so they have lots of options, but at the end of the day you should feel amazing about your session. Anything short of that is not ideal.

3. Where do the video clips come from?

The world of video demos presents voice actors with an exciting opportunity to market yourself. Whether you are new to VO or new to a genre, having a video demo either gives you an instant bod of work in voice over or it immediately enhances your existing body of work. The catch, though, is that you cannot simply take an existing video or commercials and dub over it. That is not legal and violates all sorts of copy write laws. Instead, video producers, like the team that I work with at All Systems Go AV, need to pay to belong to a content library where they are legally and lawfully accessing the content. A video demo by any other means can get you into trouble.

The exception to using branded content is if you are putting together a video reel of actual work that you yourself have done. If you are the actual voice in the video, and were part of the team, you can then have a reel produced using the branded content! Those are amazing marketing tools and are legitimately yours to use.

Take a look at this demo. Ever single clip here is legitimately used from a content library my team pays to have a membership from. These logos, while they may seem familiar to you, have been altered more than 30% from the original, and are also legitimate to use. Every video demo should be done this way so that you are never at risk of having to remove it.

https://youtu.be/qBE2CK8h0D0

4. Deliverables: What is part of the package?

Different coaches price demos differently, so you are often not comparing apples to apples. Some coaches include some sessions, a video demo, and an MP3, others are charging for an MP3 only. You need to be very clear about what you are getting from the coach for their fee. When my team does a video demo, it includes necessary prep, script selection, the video demo as a whole and in parts, and the MP3 as a whole and in parts.

5. Is the demo producer flexible with the order of the spots?

Be Flexible by Bruce LeeThis is really important. Demo producers typically send you their preferred order, but at the end of the day the demo is yours to live with and their preferred order matters less than your preferred order. I personally have had demo producers make changes without any fuss, and I worked with others who refuse to make any changes at all and insist that it must stay the way it is.

Filed Under: Coaching, Marketing/Branding, Voice Over Demos, Voiceover Tagged With: agents, choosing a coach, collaboration, commercial demo, demo session, female voice over actors, ipDTL, Marketing, MP3, pay to play, professional voice over actor, professional voice over talent, Source Connect, split files, video demo, VO, voice over, voice over coach, voiceover, voiceover coach, Zoom

Primary Sidebar

Loading

Laura Schreiber Voiceovers Recent Post

Recent Posts

  • How to Publish a Public Domain Audio Book
  • Having VO Industry Friends Matters
  • Lessons From My First Audiobook
  • Why Positivity Matters in a VO Coach
  • Nutrition and Voice Over
Laura Schreiber Voiceovers Categories

Categories

  • Laura answers every correspondence with a smile and a prompt reply. In addition to RUSH jobs and quick turnarounds, guided sessions are available and Laura works hard to make every project perfect. Do not hesitate to call or email anytime :) The one exception to this is erotica. Should you need someone for adult content, all the best to you, Laura is not your gal, do not reach out.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Laura Schreiber Female Voice Over Talent Contact Image

973.747.6800

laura@volaura.com

SKYPE: lauraschreiber324

ipDTL: Laura Schreiber Voice

Laura Schreiber Female Voice Over Talent Sourceconnect

LAURA IS REPRESENTED REGIONALLY IN THE UNITED STATES AND ABROAD.

©2023 Laura Schreiber Voice. All rights reserved. PRIVACY POLICY.

Voice Over Site by Voice Actor Websites  // Site design by notobelladesigns.com.