- Noise gates: why they usually cause more harm than good
- Noise reduction: AI vs old-school fingerprint NR
- USB mics: when they fail and why they’re limiting
- Expensive mics: shiny gear doesn’t fix a bad room
- Coaching: how much do you really need once you’re working?
- Booths & acoustics: why treatment matters more than a box, and why high ceilings aren’t the enemy
Sponsors: Proudly supported by Tri-Booth and Austrian Audio
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Get ready.
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Be history.
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Get started.
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Welcome.
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Hi. Hi. Hi.
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Hello, everyone. To the pro audio suite.
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These guys are professional and motivated.
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Please take to the video stars George
Wisdom, founder of Source Element Robert
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Marshall, international audio engineering
Robin Roberts and global voice repeaters.
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Thanks to tribal Austrian audio
making, passionate elements.
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George the tech wisdom and Rob Irwin
APIs international demos.
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To find out more about us.
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Check the Proteas sweetcorn line up.
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Ready? Here we go.
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And welcome to another pro audio suite.
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Thanks to tribus.
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And also, check out the tribe memo
while you're at it.
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And Austrian audio making passion heard.
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There's a few myths that are being heard
and shouldn't be heard,
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and one in particular
that Robbo stumbled across just recently.
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My bugbear.
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We actually talked about this
just a couple of weeks ago.
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He's using a date on your voiceover
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site, and I still see it bouncing around
and people talking about it.
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And it's not noise reduction people.
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I just had a gig where someone used a gate
and it really messed stuff up.
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It didn't stop at Harvard.
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Well it was.
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This person had a very long
audiobook to do,
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and you could tell that they were doing it
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in different environments and different,
like in the morning and the evening.
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We throughout the chapter, the noise
would increase and they had a gate.
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But one of the things I noticed
is because they gated everything.
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And I actually found that in some ways
the AI noise reduction
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wasn't as good as the traditional
take a fingerprint noise reduction,
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because it seems like a lot of the times
the AI noise reduction is
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more about just like,
amazing shrink wrap.
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It's like the perfect gate
around the words, but within the words.
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Sometimes the noise is still there
sneaking through.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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But with the fingerprint noise reduction,
it was actually
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like ripping that noise out
more during the driving.
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Slightly more artifacts in the process,
though.
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More artifacts?
Yes. More wishy washy. Yes.
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The AI sounded more natural,
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but this noise was noisy enough
that they wanted more of it removed.
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And the problem with the gate
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that I actually had was that
I had no noise to take a fingerprint up.
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Yeah. Well,
that's frustrating to. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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And it was also short and I couldn't like
get in there and it was very hard.
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Yeah.
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This one I was dealing with had missing
T's and S's and also survived some.
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But let me ask you this
then, you know, did we get to discuss
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where the gate should be used on voice
everyone arguments.
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The last time you put a gate on a voice
as you were recording it never.
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Right. And I rest my case.
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I edit too many,
people set up with a channel strip.
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Like, I know voice actors or
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an audiobook narrator specifically
would not have chosen to do that.
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Some producer
would have set them up with that.
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So they've been using a symmetric 528 E,
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then they get a DB2 86
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because they have expander
gates built into them.
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Yeah.
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And they're told to do it that way.
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And I tell and I've had I have a client
particularly who does a lot of books.
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And I said it's tricky man.
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I said if your input level
is a little bit off that day,
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if you're coming a little bit weak,
whatever, that it's just not going
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to always open on an audio point
where you're acting as well.
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And so you're,
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you know, you're sort of energy's
going to change and all that sort of shit.
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You, you know, so it's in trouble
if it's like the scenario
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that I would least preferred being used
and then it's being like recommended,
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mandated by a production company to do it.
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Then it's like,
come on, if I was the engineer
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for the audio company,
they'd be getting a big, from me.
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Yeah.
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I hear gates all the time on like,
the news.
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You know, you can you can hear that.
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You can hear it chopping down the echo
in the room at the end.
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And it's like, I get it.
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You can't do anything
if it's live in the gates.
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The best thing, I guess.
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But if it's recorded.
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Don't do it.
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It's too risky.
The ultimate of destructive.
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Yeah.
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You know processing
it is absolutely unrecoverable.
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But at least you can be somewhat re
you know if you're cued,
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if it's a little bit too bright,
a little bit too big, whatever.
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Even,
even a compressor can almost be expanded.
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But a gate,
especially one that goes down to zilch,
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get nothing.
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I commented on a post on Facebook, I
this was a while ago now.
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Someone posted something about noise
reduction and someone mentioned the gate
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and I said, well,
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if you think you should use a
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gate on your voice over,
next time you're sending your final audio
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to an engineer, go through
and just slice out a few bits of audio
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and send it to them
and see what their response is.
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Here's the thing about the gate
if you put the gate on,
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you might not get caught in real time
and you might think you're okay.
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But even if you don't hear about it later,
they will curse you later.
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Absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Exactly.
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Yeah.
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If you're on a phone patch or,
as we like to say, almost never happens.
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But if you're on a zoom
or any kind of a remote.
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Correct.
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You're recording yourself.
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Absolutely.
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Don't use a gate in that scenario
because you have 100%
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post-production control of that audio
before it sends out.
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So even if you're embarrassed
by some noise or something that happened,
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you can always rerecord it to punch it in
or just fix it in post.
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Don't commit yourself to reach for it.
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And if you're on source Connect,
I guarantee they won't want to hear it,
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because the first thing they're going to
hear is what you're doing to the audio,
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because they're listening
to your little studio mic
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in your little booth
over there, $10 monitors, man.
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They hear everything,
so don't even try to fool them.
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And even if they're distracted,
they're going to hear it later
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when they get into it
and then they're going to be upset.
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Well, that's what I find interesting.
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When the sessions are done for,
you know, zoom or teams or whatever,
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is that the person at the other end
is not hearing the audio.
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Really.
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They're just hearing something
coming down the channel.
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They're not hearing what's actually
they're not hearing what's going on.
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It's even worse when they don't even put
an engineer on the other end.
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Yeah, we'll just record it ourselves
and direct and have the talent send us.
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And we assume that the town's a full up
engineer and has everything taken care of.
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Oh, yeah.
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You know, and it's.
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I didn't get that with engineers.
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I mean, I've, I've talked to engineers
who have done the same, you know, who,
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who did this.
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Where they, we do the session over zoom
and then I forward the recorded
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audio to them to, to do what
I did, trying to build more hours.
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But I think, you know,
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because we've talked together about this
one studio. Yes.
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They really do want to get Source Connect,
but they haven't at this stage.
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But, which we must talk about actually
get them to do it.
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But, anyway, so that when they get audio
I've talked to them about.
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But surely some of the people sending you
audio must be garbage.
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It is all good old what that.
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And it's like a lot of it.
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In fact the majority of it
80% is really bad.
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Yeah.
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This is why you radio guys make everything
sound like a radio filter and stuff.
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Because you got you're like,
oh, crap, crap, I got it.
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The only thing I can do
is make it sound crappier.
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Yeah, distort
it and put a telephone filter on it.
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Yeah, well,
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I mean, there's always that, you know, you
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sort of wonder why you're worrying
about recapturing pristine audio
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and then putting all these sort of effects
and shit on and any distortions.
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Yeah, it does make it easier than trying
to start from shit, as I'm sure you know.
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Well, it's
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it's really funny when you say something,
you go, you know, it's a bit of reverb.
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Your room is a bit lively.
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Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah.
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And then, of course,
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if you send pristine audio,
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they go, oh, much like a bit of redid on
that to give it a bit of zing.
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Yeah.
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Specific references I get to control
how much reverb goes on that.
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Yeah yeah yeah.
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It's a different
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it's like not like a short slapback sound
compared to an actual.
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Yeah. Paul or something.
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The other thing I've seen is actually
honestly like full up studios are like,
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oh yeah, we built our room,
but the air conditioning is always noisy
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and they're putting signal
through with like,
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real times noise reduction.
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Yeah.
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Like see Vox I was going to say
is the better one, I think.
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I think that's more benign.
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I've seen them use, the isotope one
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that takes a fingerprint
of the noise, voice denoise that.
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And I don't think
that one is so transparent. It's.
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No it's not.
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Yeah.
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If you you know, the problem is
it's just not that different from this one
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and others
is that you can only use like 5%.
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Yeah. Out of 100.
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Just the problem
with all these plugins is the scale.
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The range of the control
is dramatically out of whack
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with what is 10%
should be like 80 or 90%, right?
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Yeah.
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And so they get numerous
range of controls.
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Yeah.
So what are you going to do as a user.
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I mean, you know, you'd probably assume
maybe start somewhere in the middle,
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somewhere in the middle
is like drew grossly over MP3 sounding.
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Know like, yeah, I mean if you put an
this one at 50%, it's,
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it does sound like
it chops the hell out of the audio.
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So that's another problem too
is the design of the tools.
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You know,
I use the ones built in Adobe Audition.
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Same thing.
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I used more than 5
to 8% out of those noise.
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It sounds crap.
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So that's part of the problem.
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So what are some of the other mics
do we reckon?
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I mean, for me, USB
mics is a big one for me.
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And also the other one
that gets me about mics too
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is that I see a lot of times
these are you you've got to have a man
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or you've got to have
a, you know, know something or other,
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you know, one of these expensive
mics to be able to do.
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VoiceOver I kind of feel like,
what's the myth?
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So what what exactly is the myth
about USB, micro USB like securing their
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they're acceptable. I mean,
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I kind of I think I'm on the fence.
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I mean, there are some maybe
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I think there's some areas that it's good
in scenarios where it's bad.
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I think the scenarios where it's bad is
if you're live directed,
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because then if they're like,
can you make it
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a little gain adjustment on your mic
and you don't either one have a gain
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knob to control period,
which many of them don't like to run into.
00:10:03
One fifth gen there's no gain.
00:10:04
This is 32 bit.
00:10:05
You don't have to worry about
gain anymore.
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Right? Exactly.
00:10:09
And then so then some of the actors, like
I don't even know how to adjust the gain.
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Right? That's one problem.
00:10:14
Another problem with USB
mics is when the gain knob is on the mic.
00:10:18
Then they're like,
yeah, I'll adjust the gain.
00:10:21
And yeah, playing with the microphone,
you're like, what?
00:10:25
What are you doing?
I said, adjust the game.
00:10:27
Well the knobs on
the mic like that doesn't look right.
00:10:30
Let me show you the professional.
Yeah, yeah.
00:10:32
But at the same time you can buy a road,
you can buy the road 91 to a ten.
00:10:37
And it does record
very good quality over USB.
00:10:39
But I think it's fine
in, in a, in a self-directed home record,
00:10:44
you know, doing like a game
or doing like music or something.
00:10:48
But yeah, in a real time session,
00:10:51
if you're going to record
in that situation anyway, okay,
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if you're going to record at home,
why not just invest
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in a decent sort of even just a Scarlett,
I mean, be done with it.
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I mean, rather than, yeah,
I think here's the thing about USB mics
00:11:04
is that as with any microphone thing,
it is first and foremost placement.
00:11:09
Putting an iPhone in the right place
will sound better than annoying.
00:11:13
You 87 in the wrong place.
00:11:15
We all know that.
00:11:15
Yeah. Placement. Yeah, but that's scale.
00:11:18
It's like you want to be
if you're charging whatever, $400 an hour.
00:11:23
As a voice actor or whatever,
you know, Union is,
00:11:26
you want to be in the top 90,
95% of sound quality.
00:11:31
And what sounds good enough
might not really be good enough.
00:11:35
And it's really,
really easy with the USB mics to fall
00:11:39
very far down
that because of a lot of things.
00:11:42
You can't get a cable that's long
enough away from your computer,
00:11:46
so you're stuck in many other ways.
00:11:49
Sometimes they don't have a monitor
plugged into them.
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They're just so limiting.
00:11:53
And I just don't think that, like, you
know, except for the most basic setups,
00:11:57
they're not worth the investment.
00:11:59
You can buy an XLR mic, and now
you have something that you can use
00:12:02
pretty much for a lifetime, or a USB mic,
which is guaranteed
00:12:07
to be outdated at some point
and chuck it in the garbage at some point.
00:12:12
So yeah, they're not, they're not.
00:12:14
It's like either I don't think
the USB interface is same thing.
00:12:17
I mean, there'll be landfill
of so many interfaces
00:12:21
now that are just so out of date
and just don't work properly anymore.
00:12:25
Yeah, absolutely.
00:12:26
Yeah.
00:12:27
Stability is a problem
with some USB interfaces.
00:12:30
I mean I mean, what a USB mic is,
is basically the cheapest,
00:12:33
tiniest USB interface they could buy.
00:12:36
Like at the bottom right ship.
00:12:37
It's like the mic preamp
and the USB interface on one ship, right?
00:12:41
Yeah, there are some exceptions.
00:12:43
I know I've heard some apogee
mics to sound pretty good.
00:12:45
I know that Sennheiser's mic for digital
is really a decent USB my,
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but those are exceptions,
but very much of an exception.
00:12:55
Most people are buying USB mics
because they're inexpensive.
00:12:58
They're not buying them
because they happen to
00:13:01
be good at what they do
and that they're 3 to $500 mics.
00:13:04
They're buying them because
they're not cheap, then they're cheap.
00:13:07
And if you want the convenience of a USB
mic but you don't want to, you know,
00:13:12
consider something like a sure.
00:13:13
And the and the new one,
00:13:17
it's like the b x to you, mvcs to you.
00:13:19
Right.
00:13:20
You'll take any mic
and turn it into a USB mic.
00:13:23
I'll give you all the convenience
of the USB mic
00:13:25
without making the dead
end investment into a USB mic,
00:13:29
because once all that stuff is bolted
together, you can't separate it.
00:13:33
And now one of those components going old
00:13:36
bad renders the whole thing useless.
00:13:39
Yeah, I think that's disposable.
00:13:41
Like to me it's
kind of like the iMac problem too.
00:13:43
You can get a cool iMac,
they look nice and they work fine.
00:13:46
But when the when the computer is obsolete
00:13:49
or the screen goes out,
you're throwing out everything.
00:13:52
That's
another thing that never made sense.
00:13:54
I think the iMac is good for,
00:13:56
you know, the front desk
at an aerobics studio or something.
00:13:59
You know, like
00:14:00
it's like it's like a laptop
without the convenience of a laptop.
00:14:04
Yeah.
00:14:05
It's it's like it's not even fair to say
because it's not a bad computer.
00:14:08
I have clients and have them,
but that's what bothers me about it.
00:14:12
It's like the USB.
00:14:13
My problem when the my something goes
wrong, you throw the whole thing out.
00:14:16
It's you're done.
So it's it's another myth here.
00:14:19
Okay.
00:14:21
So is, is this a myth.
00:14:23
Like how much coaching do you need once
00:14:26
you are in a career
00:14:29
compared to like, like I can understand
needing coaching
00:14:33
if you've not been in sessions
and you need to simulate a session
00:14:36
and get a feel for what
it's like to be directed.
00:14:39
But once you've been in sessions,
00:14:42
I've seen a lot of like
00:14:44
successful voice actors
seeking out coaching,
00:14:47
and sometimes I think if anything,
you should be coaching somebody.
00:14:51
But then when does the coaching end?
00:14:53
Well, I don't know when coaching ends,
but then it's also interesting
00:14:57
to see some people who are coaching
who you think
00:15:01
you've been around that long and.
00:15:03
Yeah, right.
00:15:05
What do you got to do there.
00:15:07
Yeah, yeah yeah.
00:15:09
It's funny.
00:15:09
I mean, look, I agree you should,
00:15:12
you know,
I want to show you the employer coach.
00:15:13
I never had a coach, but
you certainly learn stuff pretty quickly.
00:15:17
In session, the dos the etiquette of of.
00:15:20
You're doing this for a living.
00:15:22
But I had no clue that
when I was booked for a job for,
00:15:26
you know, you do an hour session,
that's you're booking is an hour.
00:15:29
I used to think, well,
I didn't do the whole hour,
00:15:31
so they get their money's worth
00:15:33
and get the hell out of this really quick,
because that's what I thought.
00:15:36
I thought,
you know, well, you pay me for the hour,
00:15:38
so I should stay here for the hour,
and all they want is like you.
00:15:41
You stay here.
00:15:42
If you get out of here in five minutes,
we're going to be very happy.
00:15:45
That's right. Right.
00:15:46
So, you know, then the rest of the time
we can get this done and pay less. But.
00:15:49
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
00:15:51
And also like, you know, using your eyes
00:15:54
in a session, which we don't so much now
because we're usually working remotely.
00:15:57
But using your eyes in the session,
watching body language through the glass,
00:16:02
even though you're hearing one instruction
verbally, you can actually pick up more
00:16:07
from looking at the visual cues
of the person, what they really mean.
00:16:12
Right?
00:16:13
So then that was a so so is is coaching
something that more is like,
00:16:18
you know, if you want to get experience
and you've not been hired on a job,
00:16:22
you can have a coach simulate
what it's like to be in session.
00:16:26
But really
the true coaching is just getting gigs
00:16:31
and being directed
and screwing some up and winning some.
00:16:35
And like, I don't know, I think that
00:16:39
there's a lot of coaching going on that,
you see, like I said,
00:16:42
I see people doing getting coached
that are like, you know, need coaching.
00:16:45
Like exactly.
I don't look, I don't get it.
00:16:48
And it's certainly in this country,
in Australia, the coaching is very, very
00:16:55
unusual.
00:16:56
There is a little I
00:16:57
mean, it's funny, look, I mean, I,
I can put my perspective on this
00:17:01
having never been a voiceover artist,
but as an audio engineer,
00:17:04
I've never had a lesson
or a formal lesson in 36 years.
00:17:09
Right.
00:17:10
So technically, in terms of,
00:17:12
you know, all the stuff
that Robert and George are very good at,
00:17:14
I'm not great at that stuff, but
what I think I have is a good pair of eyes
00:17:18
and an understanding of how to get a sound
to sound the way I want it to sound.
00:17:23
But technically there's, you know,
AP there's stuff that George and Robert
00:17:28
talk about that goes over both our heads,
but I kind of feel like
00:17:30
and maybe that's
where coaching can make up the difference.
00:17:33
And you might put
a voiceover perspective on that.
00:17:35
But I kind of feel like
00:17:36
if I did coaching now, I wouldn't
want to know about the hands on stuff.
00:17:40
I'd want to know
00:17:41
about all that technical stuff
that I've never really learned or under.
00:17:46
Well, I understand that,
but I've never really learned the whys
00:17:48
and wherefores, you know what I mean?
00:17:49
And I wonder whether coaching fills
those gaps in a voiceover sense.
00:17:55
I don't think,
it's it's interesting with coaching
00:17:57
because I think the best coach
you're ever going to work
00:17:59
with is an audio engineer
who's got a lot of experience, like,
00:18:04
if you're new to the game
and you go into a director session
00:18:07
with a person that's worked with,
you know, done a thousands and thousands
00:18:10
of sessions,
00:18:12
you're going to learn a hell of a lot more
00:18:13
with that person than you're ever going
to learn from a coach.
00:18:16
Yeah.
00:18:17
I mean, a lot of the best
coaches are both directors.
00:18:20
Yeah. Directors. Right.
00:18:21
Slash engineers or producers by far?
00:18:25
Absolutely.
00:18:26
I have a totally different myth
that's more tech translated.
00:18:29
Yeah, that getting a booth
00:18:32
means you have an instantly great sounding
recording environment.
00:18:35
Yeah. Yes, that's a nice one.
00:18:37
No. Yeah.
00:18:39
Give that man a cigar.
00:18:40
It is not true at all.
00:18:42
I just delete that on my on.
00:18:43
The job
I just did was, a voice talent at home
00:18:47
and another voice talent
who went to a studio.
00:18:50
Man, it's like against that thing
that you don't notice
00:18:52
when you're in session as much,
and then you start getting into it.
00:18:55
And as, you know, when you take a signal
and you compress it and boom, all the all
00:19:00
come out. Yeah. Yep.
00:19:02
And it's like, oh, I hear the booth.
00:19:03
And I was sitting there trying to like,
knock it out.
00:19:05
And it just, you know,
00:19:06
sometimes you try to knock it out
and it makes it sound worse.
00:19:08
You're just like
I it's it's stuck that way.
00:19:10
And and you can hear it
that the like we did the spot and the,
00:19:15
the English version sounds great.
00:19:16
And the foreign language
version was a booth at home.
00:19:19
And it just has that sound.
00:19:22
And to a lot of people,
they won't know what that sound is,
00:19:25
but it's the sound of a small box
and you just can't get away from it.
00:19:30
It's so you can
00:19:32
become complacent to it.
00:19:33
And it's not really like that.
You don't care.
00:19:36
Maybe that's not the right word.
00:19:37
It's just that it's like nose blindness.
00:19:39
Yeah.
00:19:40
You know,
you come home, you go from vacation, go.
00:19:43
This is what, my house.
00:19:45
Yeah, I don't know.
00:19:46
Yeah, but yeah, but it's like when you're
used to the sound of your own booth
00:19:50
in the way it sounds, day after day,
week after week, month after month.
00:19:53
It's normal.
00:19:55
I mean, I was used to the sound of bad
sounding whisper rooms
00:19:58
for quite a long time.
00:19:59
I just thought
that's what it sounded like.
00:20:01
When you get a nice open sounding studio
recording, like from a nice
00:20:05
a nice big dead booth
that doesn't have all those nodes,
00:20:09
and then you get the other tight
when you're like, oh, like
00:20:12
what was because I was working
with like the my first 5 or 6 real paying
00:20:15
voiceover clients were all home studio
promo voiceovers.
00:20:20
So that was the norm, you know?
00:20:22
And then I would start hearing
good, really, truly great recordings.
00:20:25
And I was like, whoa, okay.
00:20:27
I started to learn what it's supposed
to sound like and what it well,
00:20:30
what it could sound like.
00:20:31
And then it really opened my eyes.
00:20:33
And then, you know, ever since then, it's
been a pursuit of trying to capture
00:20:37
or recreate that great sound,
you know, from a really small space.
00:20:41
But, you know, if you're like, oh,
I have a really high ceiling.
00:20:43
I hear that's bad. I'm like,
no, no, no, no, that's really good.
00:20:46
That's really. Yeah, yeah.
00:20:47
They're like they're like,
oh I heard that's bad.
00:20:50
I'm like, no, it's just another myth.
00:20:52
It's just there's
so many myths about acoustics
00:20:55
because many of it
maybe is are not conventional wisdom.
00:20:58
It's not logical to you or whatever.
00:21:01
But, it's not the case at all.
00:21:04
You want to have you want to
you want to have every hard surface
00:21:07
as far away from the mic
is humanly possible, right?
00:21:11
You want
00:21:12
you want no hard surfaces in the room
and you want them all to be far away.
00:21:16
Like the booth can kind of do
two things for you.
00:21:19
It can deaden it up
and it can deal with noise.
00:21:22
As long as there's not excessive noise
00:21:23
outside the booth,
it can take care of those two things.
00:21:25
Right? It's like noise reduction.
00:21:28
It's going to solve your problem
and it's going to cause you a new problem.
00:21:31
Right, right.
00:21:32
It's the irony.
00:21:33
Like when you buy this very expensive
confining
00:21:36
hot uncomfortable box,
shove yourself and you're like in there,
00:21:43
you torture yourself for an hour
only to deal with the fact that you're
00:21:46
getting for many people's an occasional
noise from the neighborhood or something.
00:21:52
But 99% of the time it's probably fine,
you know what I mean?
00:21:56
And so that's the reality.
00:21:58
I mean, it's not true for why?
00:22:00
I mean, it's been abnormally quiet for
the last hour in this in my home studio.
00:22:05
But I mean, normally you hear of crackers,
usually a couple.
00:22:08
And listen, listen is
so now you got the whole air conditioner?
00:22:12
I'm in a very light room.
00:22:15
I mean, yeah, it's.
00:22:16
Yeah, it's it's my technique.
00:22:18
It's how loud you are to projection.
00:22:20
It's all these things.
00:22:21
But it is definitely a misnomer
that spreads, you know, far and wide.
00:22:26
There's only one voice over Booth company
that has worked with me directly.
00:22:30
And I'm not trying to say I'm
the king of all voiceover studios, but
00:22:34
I don't know anybody making voice over
00:22:36
Booth, who have collaborated
with a voiceover engineer
00:22:40
to ensure and listen
and try to make it sound better.
00:22:43
But vocal booth.com here in the States
is done, that they're the only ones that
00:22:48
I think you're right with me and yeah
invited me over and let's play with stuff.
00:22:53
I think we chatted while you were there
didn't we. Didn't we do an episode.
00:22:56
Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:58
And you
know I give them huge props for that.
00:22:59
I mean studio bricks
00:23:01
has got an engine acoustician
now that works in-house which is great.
00:23:05
And they're doing some you know
their new booths do sound pretty good
00:23:08
but it's taking them 12
plus years to get there.
00:23:11
Other companies never got there.
00:23:14
They just keep doing the same stuff
over and over
00:23:16
because most people don't know
the difference.
00:23:18
It's like the blind leading the blind.
00:23:19
And you know, and for the certain
level of work, it's good enough.
00:23:23
It's good enough.
00:23:24
I've got an audio book,
audio books and can get away with murder.
00:23:28
Yeah.
So he does books. A lot of them sound bad.
00:23:31
They don't even matter. Right?
Yeah, he'd say it.
00:23:33
And so it's like the boost
will will get you a certain level,
00:23:37
and then you either have to hire
someone like you, George, to tune it out.
00:23:42
But I would argue
that you can't ultimately
00:23:46
completely tune
a booth to not sound like Booth.
00:23:49
It's very difficult because by the time
you treat enough of the surface
00:23:52
with a thick enough treatment,
there's no room for you.
00:23:55
You can't move around very much. Yeah.
00:23:57
And you're like, you're like,
I can't bump up into the walls, right?
00:24:02
I mean, I had a client just very recently
send me a sample,
00:24:05
and he's like any listed
00:24:06
painstakingly, all the panels he had
and how thick they were in his notes.
00:24:11
And I was like, Jesus, no
00:24:14
six inch thick panels.
00:24:16
And I listened to the sample
and it was amazing.
00:24:19
That was like,
that's one of the best sounding raw files
00:24:22
I've heard in a long time.
00:24:24
It's like you've consulted
you on Booth design,
00:24:27
and he didn't really make that too clear.
00:24:29
He just said, I insisted on these panels.
00:24:31
The guy making them or the dealer selling
them was like, no, you don't need that.
00:24:36
And he was like,
no, I this is what I want.
00:24:39
And then sure enough, it sounded fantastic
because he had the right
00:24:43
and the right amount and thick
enough panels in the right places.
00:24:46
My studio work this here behind me
that you guys can't see on the show.
00:24:49
Sorry, but it's got up to six inches
of paneling on the walls.
00:24:52
Well, the only like like the
the two inch or one,
00:24:56
the one inch stuff deals with a lot, but
it does not hit the low end well enough
00:25:01
to just get the meat of the frequency
range of most voices, even women.
00:25:05
It there's a tremendous amount
of standing waves and resonances below 300
00:25:10
over three, three and one hertz,
and those panels do zero to those.
00:25:14
So so in my case I just put the thickest
panels above my shoulders.
00:25:19
Right.
00:25:19
So yeah they're encroaching in my space
but they're not in my wingspan,
00:25:24
if you know what I mean.
I can move my elbows around.
00:25:27
And so yes, it's a little claustrophobic,
00:25:30
but not so much
because I can still move around.
00:25:33
But I have that six inches
of paneling at my head
00:25:36
level, you know,
and it works surprisingly well
00:25:39
without feeling too cramped,
but so you just had to be clever about it.
00:25:43
And if you need help, talk to people
like us, because man, like, you know what?
00:25:48
It's supposed to sound like.
00:25:50
I can still remember the first setup
I had, which I,
00:25:52
when I think about it
now, is just ridiculous.
00:25:56
Yeah.
00:25:56
And, and then the second one I built,
which was not quite as ridiculous,
00:26:00
but still pretty ordinary.
00:26:03
It was
00:26:03
basically in a cupboard,
that kind of thing.
00:26:07
With acoustic foam inside the cupboard.
00:26:10
It sounded like you'd isolate
00:26:12
recording inside a motorcycle helmet,
00:26:15
but also Vox.
00:26:16
Yeah. Exactly.
00:26:18
Exactly the helmet.
00:26:20
And, and then the third one I went,
I actually sort of thought
00:26:24
I'd better get
a bit more serious about this.
00:26:25
And, I got a guy came over and help me.
00:26:28
We built one
which sounded really, really good.
00:26:31
And then, of course, this was the
this is the last one I built here.
00:26:34
This one you have sounds pretty good.
00:26:35
And it's got a good length to it.
00:26:37
Like, that's one of the things
it's a it's not a small booth, am I right.
00:26:41
Yeah.
00:26:41
The booth is over behind me.
00:26:43
I'm sitting on the.
00:26:44
Yeah, mine room
here, but, is it it's big enough.
00:26:48
Oh. Just at least like six foot, isn't it?
00:26:51
More. More.
00:26:51
Yeah. Exactly.
00:26:52
Yeah, yeah, I think we all go
through the same sort of progression.
00:26:56
I mean, Jesus, if I,
if I think about my first time studio,
00:26:59
it was in 2002
00:27:03
and it was the old G4 Mac, you know, the,
00:27:07
the great thing and all that
sort of stuff in the Quiksilver.
00:27:10
Yeah.
And it was an M1 mirror on the front.
00:27:13
Yeah, that's the one.
00:27:14
And an M box and a version Pro Tools
and and I had no treatment in the room.
00:27:19
There was a,
the wall behind me was a big long
00:27:23
wall of bookshelves
and full of books and trinkets in the.
00:27:27
So that was right.
00:27:28
So exactly.
00:27:29
So I didn't do anything
really in the room.
00:27:31
And I would sort of just mix in headphones
and all that sort of stuff.
00:27:35
And I compare it to now,
you know, with panels
00:27:37
I've made on the walls
and now the curtains
00:27:41
and all the shit that I've, I've done and,
you know, all that sort of stuff
00:27:45
in the bookshelf
00:27:46
intentionally down there because for
some reason, stuff was ricocheting.
00:27:50
I was originally going to have that behind
me, but I shoved it down in that corner.
00:27:54
So, yeah.
00:27:54
So, you know,
I'd like you think about the progression
00:27:57
and if you could see the,
the studios in the middle of all that,
00:28:01
it was certainly sort of just upper level
each time, I suppose.
00:28:04
But then I guess
each time you build a studio,
00:28:06
you think, okay, well,
what am I going to do this time?
00:28:09
That didn't work last time and stuff.
00:28:11
So it's probably logical
unless you have an interest
00:28:14
in this at a young age and you intern
and you get to be in the environment
00:28:17
and talk to the designers,
those things just never happen.
00:28:21
It's a black art,
and so you just learn it as you go.
00:28:24
Because unless you're lucky enough
to get to the right person early on
00:28:28
and you get to not have to make
a lot of mistakes, that happens.
00:28:32
But it's very, very rare.
00:28:34
And so you really just learn as you go
and you get better and better over time.
00:28:37
I'm still learning stuff all the time.
00:28:39
That's what's fun about on
is that you're always learning stuff.
00:28:41
It's never over.
00:28:42
It's yeah, it's like a continuous thing.
00:28:45
It's like because it's it's like
that thing where I remember when I was a
00:28:50
at a high school
just beginning to record drums, and then
00:28:53
every time I was like, every drum kit
I recorded, oh,
00:28:56
this one's better than the last one I did.
00:28:57
And I got even better.
00:28:59
And it's like, you get this feeling.
I finally got it.
00:29:01
And then you do another one. You're like,
oh, it's even better.
00:29:04
And you start learning
how to deal with it.
00:29:06
I won't do that again.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
00:29:08
Well there's always that
00:29:10
or you start realizing what it is that is
like, oh, that one recorded really well.
00:29:14
And what was it?
00:29:15
It wasn't anything I did.
00:29:16
The damn thing was tuned.
00:29:18
Oh, you can tune drum.
00:29:19
Oh yeah. You know, it's amazing.
00:29:21
And so that that whole journey
and it's like it's exciting
00:29:24
when you're improving,
you know, it's like anything. Yeah.
00:29:27
Oh totally is. Yeah.
00:29:29
And that's not a myth.
00:29:30
That's not. That's a fact. Yeah.
00:29:33
And if you missed this episode,
go back to the beginning.
00:29:38
Well, that was fun.
00:29:39
Is it over
00:29:41
the audio sweet things
00:29:43
to try and Austrian
audio recorded using Source Connect.
00:29:47
Edited by Andrew Peters
and mixed by Robert Go.
00:29:50
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00:29:51
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00:29:53
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