Loe raamatut: «Blueprints To Building Your Own Voice-Over Studio»

WELCOME:

This book is a manual on how to build your own studio for Voice–Over work and narration. It is a technical book, therefore, I suggest that you read it completely through to begin with before you go ahead and build your own Voice–Over Studio.

It may sound confusing at first, but stick with it and all the pennies will fall into place for you.

Also, for your convenience if you are not familiar with Metric Measurements (which is what I use throughout this manual), I have included a very handy chart, converting each and every measurement I have used into Imperial measurements (Inches).

INTRODUCTION:

There is a world of opportunity a stone’s throw away from you; in fact, once you are sitting in front of your PC or LAPTOP, you are staring into a gold field and all you need to do is pick a spot and start digging. You will need tools, of course, and the mine where you choose to start harvesting will determine the tools that you will need.

This book is a guide to developing the tools you need for PROFESSIONAL VOICE–OVER WORK. This field is huge! You supply the talent and I’ll show you what to do with it. But there is no point in digging these fields if your talent is not here. You’ll obviously need good articulation and confidence in your vocal abilities. You’ll probably need some proper training too, but this is not what I’m offering. I’m giving you practical guidance on how to build a space to work from, at a very low cost.

The key thing to always bear in mind with voice acting and audio works is to fight the chief enemy of recordings… and that is ‘noise’. Electronic humming, fan noise, bumps, bangs, bad weather, echoes and lawnmowers… you name it. So, I’ve developed a small recording space that gives you plenty of room to gesture wildly within as you articulate that most dramatic audio book, yet you can still get up close and personal with the microphone to create your own take on the ‘Voice of God’ for that movie trailer you might be cast for. And don’t forget you’ll need to share that space with some equipment. This Home Studio Space, or Booth, is solid and well designed with these considerations in mind.

I’ll clarify other things you will need to consider as you read this book and undertake this project, so you know what to expect. My book is filled with photos, plans with specific measurements, and detailed instructions and guidance.

First, though, is the ‘why’ we need to consider the enemy of quality recordings, and why we must battle it so vehemently. I’m talking about ‘that NOISE!’

NOISE: This comes in many wave–shapes, forms and sizes but, whichever way they come, all of them will destroy your recordings and render them unacceptable.

There are external noises like cars running up and down your street, dishwashers cycling through a load, people talking and babies crying. All these need to be reduced somehow. But try telling your whole street to be silent while you are performing your recordings… Good luck!

Then there are internal noises you need to get rid of too, keeping them out of your recording space, like computer fan noise, humming caused by electricity problems, echo sounds, or boxy–sounding results and so on. Internal noise is a significant concern in recording which is why the Personal Studio is specifically designed to assist you in achieving professionally acceptable results.

This Personal Studio has a minimum of three walls of defence:

1) Insulation to REPEL external noise

2) Absorption to, well, absorb and treat internal noise

3) Design to also reduce internal/external noise, leaving you with a cleaner and clearer result.

I’ll expand on these three:

i) Insulation. The 12 mm plywood walls used to construct the studio are lined with an insulating, muffling shield that you can likely get for free, much of the time. Visit some whiteware or brownware stores (fridges, TVs) and even furniture stores to source sheets of polystyrene 15–25 mm thick. The bigger and thicker the sheets the better.

ii) Absorption. You cannot cheat on these important elements; for proper absorption, you need proper industry standard Acoustic Foam Panels which are not overly expensive. Egg cartons or mattress foams do not have the right properties to deal effectively with ‘noise’ and use of them will lead to a ‘boxy’ or ‘tacky’ sound, or a sound that is lifeless and limp, leaving your recordings undesirable to the professional end consumer, and they are your audience who ultimately pay you for your work.

iii) Design. The design of this studio is tapered and of a specific size for various reasons I will briefly touch on.

Imagine a pond that you throw a stone into. What happens to the water’s surface once the stone has made contact? Of course, it produces little wakes and ripples. These wakes and ripples are very much like sound waves. Notice what happens to these lil’ critters as they spread out and eventually hit the edges of the pond. They bounce back, don’t they? And then begin travelling in another direction (often, right back into your recording mic).

When we bring this information into the perspective of what we are talking about here... audio waves! These are the very things we need to eliminate as much as possible.

A tapered shell design has several advantages:

a) It takes up less space, and it looks prettier than a boring, square box.

b) The tapered walls are not parallel, thus forcing those lil’ bounce–back critters to travel longer and further distances before hitting another surface and therefore changing direction again… this resulting pattern of wave–travel eliminates much of those amplification troughs and peaks of sound waves intensity.

c) The front (where you will be moving your arms and hands, and operating your equipment) becomes a useful working space, whereas the rear (end) of your studio is neither wasting space nor adding weight to the final product.

Unfortunately, some slapped–together home–recording spaces for recording audio books and voice–over work in general can leave a boxy, irritating noise that can be difficult to listen to over extended periods of time. That is the reason this design is so brilliant! It’s not very expensive to build, it does a magnificent job of supporting your voice talent, and it gives you a place to produce an excellent final result.

Below is a list of things you will need with approximate costs. Everything I have specified below has design in mind.