If you haven't had your audio quality checked out by a professional, you need to do that right now. Like, right now. Let's talk about a few people I trust to be able to evaluate your studio setup and audio quality.
How's your audio quality? How do you know?- 6:33
Hey guys, it's Gabby. Thanks for joining me. So today, I want to pose a question to you: is your home studio actually good? Is it? Yeah... are you sure? Like, really sure? How do you know? Let's find out.
Like a lot of people, you went out you bought gear. I know, I know, if you've watched my other stuff you know how I feel about this, you know -- you know! But let's assume, let's assume you went ahead, you did it, you did it, okay? I'll forgive you. It's okay. You went out, you bought a mic, you bought an interface, you bought, I don't know, some acoustic treatment, right? And you put it all together, you got some software and effectively, you have a studio. It may not be top-of-the-line, but it's a functional recording space, nonetheless. But is it good? Is it broadcast quality? Above broadcast quality? Below broadcast quality? Does it sound right? Is it problematic? Are there issues that you may or may not even know about? How do you know?
Here's the deal, and there's so much content on the web and in voice over, just throughout voiceover, about studio and tech and gear that I know it can become completely overwhelming. But I'm a big believer in the ends justify the means. I don't really care how you got there, okay? Truthfully, I don't care what gear you bought. I don't care what you spent on it. The proof is in the sound. Is the sound quality good or not?
If you are relatively new to audio recording, to voice over, to audio production, to all of this stuff, then somebody -- not you -- with more experience, with a more trained ear, has to assess that recording; something out of your studio, dry, raw, very raw, to help you determine if the sound quality is good, if it's usable, okay? And if it's not, what steps can be taken to improve it? There are people who do this. It's a really common thing, believe it or not, but it's not something you can guess, okay?
There's no guessing in this. You have to know with certainty, because just because you went out and you bought the gear, does not mean there's not an issue you're unaware of, and the last thing you want to have happen is that you start answering auditions or trying to build a demo, or you know, put yourself out there in the voice over world and then come to find out your studio sucks and you didn't know it and you kind of made a fool of yourself.
There are loads of people in our business who offer studio assessments, and they're really accessible and really great people, so I'm going to give you some names: George the Tech Whittam. He is the dude that most people think of first. He has a really long-standing following in voiceover. He does these assessments basically where you follow the instructions on his website. He also has like a waiting list that's I don't even know how many miles long, so you gotta be patient, because it might take him a while to get back to you, but you follow his instructions and he will get back to you and let you know, "Okay, here's your situation, here's what I'm hearing." It's basically kind of a pass or fail sort of thing.
Tim Tippets is another guy, he does a very similar thing. His methods are a bit different. Tim gets a little bit more hands-on. Tim is the guy I use for pretty much all of my tech needs and great guy, can't say enough about him. He's another one that I highly recommend. Dan Lenard is another guy who actually is partnered up on a podcast and on a YouTube channel with George Whittam. They do a bunch of stuff together. Uncle Roy at Antland Studios. Gosh, um, Mike Delgaudio from Booth Junkies, who you may know from YouTube there, and a lot of other coaches do as well who are less technical, myself included. I do what I consider to to be a pass-fail. Now, I'm very upfront with people about saying it... literally, I do a pass/fail grade on your audio quality, meaning if you fail, I'm going to refer you to one of the people that I just mentioned in this video. But if you pass, hey, yay for you! Then you're in great shape and that's sort of what you need to have happen at this point if you've already gone ahead and built a studio.
Now if you know somebody who works in Pro Audio and you trust them, great, you can go that route as well. I would caution if it's one of those, "Hey you know my cousin's a musician or maybe not..." it's again, what we do is a little bit different and you want to make sure that you're meeting up to the standards that exist in our industry, so it's wise to have somebody at the very least who works in pro audio from an advertising or multimedia production background, that would be helpful. TV, film, radio broadcast, that sort of thing.
Somebody has to validate that studio that you have now built. That's your mission because until that happens, you really don't know if what you've got is up to standard, because realistically if you don't, you're not going to book work, because here's the thing: everybody else who's in the same boat you are and just built a studio? That's what they're doing. They're making sure that their studio is up to snuff. So yeah, make sure you do it. Thanks for watching, guys! I hope this video helped.
704-674-8294 / GabrielleNistico.com / gabby@voiceovervixen.com
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