Getting Started in VO, Part 3: My Equipment and Why I Chose It.
I have been giving some thought to the best way to help you think about what equipment you will want to purchase or acquire. There are dozens of videos that discuss the best this or that when it comes to microphones or audio interfaces or headphones. But I thought it might be more instructive to talk about what I decided to get for myself and why . As I mentioned in the last article, you may decide that you want to be able to sit at a desk to record. Or you may want to stand. Or you may want to be able to do both. That’s what I decided I wanted and that’s what led me to purchase an adjustable desk. I looked at quite a few possibilities. I wanted one that was going to be reasonably sized for the space I had for my recording booth. I also wanted a desk that was motorized. I had seen ones that you could crank to raise or lower them, but I thought that would be, more wasteful of time than I wanted. After looking around on various websites, I chose a Flexispot adjustible desk.
To be fair, it’s a pretty heavy desk, which makes moving it a chore. But that also means it’s sturdy, so the desk doesn’t shake and the mic doesn’t wobble. It’s 40” X 24”, can be raised to 47.6”--it moves up and down smoothly and quietly--and supports all my equipment handily. I have a towel spread across the wooden desktop to cut down on any reflections it might pick up. To sit, I use a simple folding chair.
For lighting, I am able to keep an overhead light on and purchased two Elgato desk lamps. They don’t take up much room and do a good job of lighting me when I’m recording a Cameo or TikTok video.
The next piece of equipment that I have is my microphone. Over the last dozen years, I have bought and used (and sometimes returned) probably 15 mics. Early on, I decided I had to have a Neumann U87. I had used these mics in various recording studios and knew them to be top of the line. They were also very expensive, around $3500. And when it came to working with it, I found myself surprisingly dissatisfied. It was, to my way of thinking, clunky to set up and more intrusive than I wanted it to be. When positioned correctly it often blocked my copy.
I continued searching and finally found the Sennheiser MKH 416. This is a cardioid microphone but because it’s a shotgun mic it doesn’t pick up as wide a noise pattern as an ordinary cardio mic. It’s much less intrusive than the Neumann and gives me a sound that I think makes my voice sound great. And as Dan Lenard, the Home Voice Over Studio Master, says: “If it sounds good, it is good!” The mic costs about $1000, which may still be more than you are prepared to spend. But there are plenty of other mics that are much less expensive and that might work just as well for you as mine does for me (I have a link to several sites that discuss microphones and other equipment at the end of this article).
The 416 is an XLR microphone, which means I needed to get an audio interface in order to use it (an XLR microphone is an analog device that requires an XLR cable that feeds the analog signal to an audio interface. With USB microphones, all the analog-to-digital conversion takes place within the microphone, meaning there is no audio interface required). As it turned out, the first one I tried ended up being the perfect one for me. That was the Focusrite Scarlett Solo. It’s a very easy piece of equipment to use. You simply plug the cable from the microphone into the interface and then connect the interface to your computer (for the record, I prefer a MacBook Air but you may like a PC. The best choice, I think, is the one you’re used to working with).
Once you’re connected, you need to have a DAW or digital audio workstation in order to record. In 2015, I took a course on narrating audiobooks from a wonderful teacher named David H. Lawrence XVII. The DAW that David recommended was Audacity. It’s free to download and very easy to use. By way of contrast, Pro Tools, for many years considered the industry standard, costs $299 for an annual subscription and is extremely complicated for beginners.
By the way, you may notice a theme developing here. I have never had any ambition to be an audio engineer. However, these days, one has no choice. VO actors are expected to audition and record from their homes--the days of going into a studio are, for the most part, over. Since I have to act as my own engineer I want to make the process is as simple as possible so that I can focus what I believe my REAL job is, voice acting.
As I mentioned in the last blog I don’t have speakers but have chosen instead to listen to my work on headphones. The Sony MDR7506 Professional Large Diaphragm Headphone came highly recommended from various other voiceover artists and I agree with their assessment. They are extremely comfortable to wear and do a great job of blocking outside noise, while also making sure that the sound you are listening to doesn’t escape and get picked up by your microphone.
So, there you have it. That’s the equipment I use and some of the thinking that went into selecting it. But I would recommend that you look around and decide what you think works best for you. Amazon is very good about letting you purchase a mic, say, and then return it if you aren’t happy with it. Some stores, like Guitar Center, will often let you try out a mic in their store. And if you have friends who are VO folks, ask them what they like and why.
There is no right kind of setup. Let me say that again: THERE IS NO RIGHT KIND OF SETUP! Or perhaps I should say again, the “Right” setup is the one that works for you!
Here are links to the various pieces of equipment mentioned in this article and several YouTube channels that address some of the things I’ve mentioned: