Episode 10 of The VO Meter, Measuring Your Voice Over Progress.
Hi everybody, and welcome to episode 10 of The VO Meter.
Measuring Your Voice Over Progress.
So this is an interesting episode. We’re gonna actually revisit a topic that we’ve talked about before on the podcast, and that is acoustics. So we have our guest, Adil Aliev from Vocalboothtogo, coming up in about 20 minutes.
But I feel like acoustics is certainly deserving of another podcast. What about you, Paul?
Yeah, there’s never a reason to stop learning about acoustics in my mind, and I’m sure Adil will agree.
And it’s one of those things that you can easily make small adjustments to as you continue to improve your space and improve your sound.
And as we talked about, it’s probably the most important part of your audio recording chain, so it definitely is worth revisiting.
So, before we start talking about our topic for the day, why don’t you tell us what you’ve been up to, Paul? You’ve said you had some exciting announcements you wanted to share with our listeners.
So yeah, number one, I finished my longest audio book to date. It was just under nine hours, eight hours and like 55 minutes, and it was pretty exciting. I also did it under a pseudonym, so I won’t give away too many clues, but for any of our listeners that are Simpsons fans, if you remember the episode where Homer decided to get into corporate America and gave himself a new corporate executive nickname, you’ll be able to find me.
His slogan was, I found it on my hairdryer.
I’ll just give it away, why don’t you?
Well, you know, the Simpsons are a little bit…
It had a very entertaining guest spot by Bill Clinton or a Bill Clinton impersonator as well. I think that’s enough hints for that one.
So Easter egg for the audience, go out there and check that out. And then, let’s see, I had another audio book that I landed on freelancer.com of all places. And it was a paid per hour, paid per finished hour book and paid pretty well actually.
And I was surprised to get that. And then finally, so I signed on with a large e-learning company about a year ago. And they do all kinds of different e-learning projects and videos.
And I was on their roster, quote unquote. And we talked about what that could mean. And more importantly, what it doesn’t mean.
It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get work right away. So almost a year later, I finally got the call that they were giving me my first project. And that led to my first live directed session with a client.
So that was a lot of fun. I’ve done obviously remotes for the podcast and appearing on other shows like VOBS, but I’ve never actually done one with a client. And I’m happy to say it came off swimmingly and so much easier when you have somebody directing you that knows what they’re doing.
So yeah, that’s pretty much it for me. A couple of exciting things though and milestones for my career really.
Very cool. And so we’ve talked about remote recording on the podcast a little bit. And honestly, we could have a whole episode about it.
But just like the name indicates, you are talking with someone either through Skype or even a phone patch, and you’re being directed remotely while you record in your studio. So I know Paul has been trying to figure out an elegant solution for that for a very long time. So I’m curious, Paul, how did you get it to finally work?
Well, like you said, to explain a little bit more in detail to those listeners who may not be familiar, there’s a number of ways you can do it. What you basically want to do is be able to hear the person on the other end talking to you and giving you direction as if they were in the room with you. So you probably need headphones.
Well, you definitely need headphones unless you somehow have a magical way to hear through walls. And then you need a microphone that can do two-way communication. Ironically, because I was selling and purchasing a bunch of gear that we’ll talk about in a second in our Questionable Gear Purchases, I used my Blue Raspberry USB mic for this gig.
Because it was the easiest solution. I was a little nervous because it was the first time I was dialing into a client. I wanted to make sure I could get it down right.
And I knew that would be the easiest. It’s a USB mic that plugs into the computer. It has its own headphone jack.
So I said, you know what? I’m just going to go with the easiest solution so I don’t screw things up. The less switches and dials to mess with, the better.
And it worked like a charm. I used the Blue Raspberry. They said it sounded great.
They’re putting it together now, and it should be airing in a couple of days.
That’s great.
I mean, as we’ve said before… Sorry, I was going to say, as far as the technology, we just use Skype. I use Skype as a phone patch, and that’s a way you can have somebody talk to you.
So you could use your actual phone in here if you have an actual landline that can reach your booth. That will work. But I just had Skype playing through my headphones from the computer and then recording only my side of the conversation on my regular DAW, which is Twisted Wave.
Yeah, there’s a number of ways to do that. I have and I’ve seen other actors. I’ve actually had Skype up on my iPad, and then I used a little mic that plugged into that to improve the sound.
So the director could still get a very good idea of what I sounded like, and then I just had my headphones plugged into that, and that was sort of freeing up my computer from having to juggle recording and Skype at the same time. And depending on the director, usually they won’t mind if it’s not the exact same studio quality as your mic. Once you reach a certain level, you might have to get a more advanced setup where you can do playback without getting a feedback loop or maybe even using something like Source Connect or ISDN.
But that’s a topic for another day.
Yeah, and I will say, make sure that your sound is consistent. I happen to know this mic sounds nearly as good as my studio mic, which is why I have it in the first place, so I wasn’t hesitant to use it. But I wouldn’t recommend buying any old USB mic off the shelf just for this purpose and using it as your go-to live direction mic just because it’s a USB mic.
So I just want to be careful of what I said earlier.
I got to say, you’re very much a champion for the USB mic, Paul. You’ve had a lot of success with them, I’ve got to say.
Yeah, I mean, there’s ones out there that have really come a long way. I think the Blue Raspberry is one of them. We mentioned before I was on the VOBS episode with a sample, and I’ve used it for several auditions that have landed me gigs.
Well, I think, I mean, we’ve been at this point where I’ve heard people using AT2020s or Apogee mics or Blue Yetis for paid work for several years now. And the technology continues to get better, and those models are still considered professional enough to use for most projects.
Yeah, and I’ll throw this out there. I know he doesn’t mind because I asked him. Our audio coach, audio book coach, Sean Pratt, who has over 900 titles now recorded, they were all done on a Blue Yeti.
Yeah, you really don’t need to spend that much to get a good sound these days. But he also built a very good space to use it with. So keep in mind…
Hey, full circle. Back to the topic at hand.
And talking about consistency in recording, which acoustics play a big part in. So current events for me… As you know, last episode I talked about signing with an agency here in Washington.
And I had to do a number of signing contracts and filling out other acceptance materials. And I finally got all those mailed off today. And then last week, as part of signing with this agency, I had to get new headshots.
So, I mean, I had gotten headshots before to promote myself and to promote my business. And that was… I found a professional photographer, was in and out, had a pleasant experience in like an hour.
This one took like seven hours.
Oh my gosh.
It was a seven-hour shoot from like 1 to 8 p.m. And had to drive down to Seattle and back afterwards. I was just freaking exhausted. Tried on like maybe a dozen different outfits or ensembles, couple of suits and things that I would never actually wear in real life.
Did you get to do the George Costanza on the couch pose with just the boxers?
I am not in that kind of shape yet.
So did your agent pay for the shoot, or did you have to pay for that out of pocket?
That was out of pocket, but as you kind of transition into this on-camera world, you begin to realize that so much of this is tax deductible. I mean, since if you’re doing on-camera work, your body is sort of your calling card. All sorts of things that you might not have considered, like gym memberships or personal training, those can be written off as well, because it’s all about improving your instrument.
Always consult with your tax attorney or CPA.
Yes, we are not tax professionals, but we have played a few.
Is there anything else going on in your world?
Anything else? I’m currently working on a couple of very large corporate narration tours for a returned German client. They’re a very nice production company, and I love working with them, and I appreciate the work.
Other stuff, I’ve just gotten a lot of large projects in this week, mainly corporate narration or audio tours, so I’m really happy about that. Some of the language is a little difficult, kind of like verbal acrobatics, but other than that, it’s good work, and I’m really happy to do it.
Awesome. So as we mentioned, we will be getting back to our revisiting of acoustics and our guest Adil Aliev from vocalboothtogo.com. But first, we are going to have a VO Meter stick this week from Juan Esteves.
Hey, everybody, it’s time for the VO Meter shtick.
What did he say?
It’s time for the VO… Oh, never mind.
The VO Meter shtick?
Oh, got it.
Hello, VO friends. My name is Juan Esteves. I’m a bilingual voice actor from Puerto Rico, currently living in the suburbs of New York City.
I want to thank Paul and Sean for inviting me to be part of their podcast. Today, I want to share an interesting story about agents. Interesting because I don’t have an agent, or at least I don’t have a contract with one.
I do, however, work with an agent who sends me on auditions in Manhattan. Because of that, I’ve booked some nice jobs, so it has worked well so far. For the purposes of this story, we’ll call him Original Agent.
Recently, I got an email from the person who produced my commercial demo. Hey, I know an agent who’s looking for a bilingual actor. Are you interested?
Well, yeah, of course I’m interested. So I send them my demo. Their response is perfect.
I really like your demo, and I want to send you on an audition. Great! Then it gets better.
Do you have an agent? I say no, I don’t have an agent. Okay, then let’s see how the audition goes, and then maybe we can talk about representation.
The audition is the day after tomorrow. Everything feels good, very excited. So let’s call this one new agent.
The next morning, I get an email from old agent, which always puts a bounce in my step. He tells me he has an audition for me tomorrow. Tomorrow?
Wait a minute. Tell me it’s not the same one. Yes, it is the same one.
Ay, coño. I start getting a funny feeling in my stomach. When I write back and explain how I’m already going to this audition, well, let’s just say he doesn’t seem pleased.
We work so well together. And I always arrange your audition times so that they work around your full-time job, all of which is true. He wants me to go to the audition and sign in under his agency’s name.
Now I’m starting to feel even more uncomfortable. I don’t want to burn any bridges, so I explain as nicely as I can that I’ve already agreed with this other agent to sign in under his agency’s name. Of course, I do not reveal his name.
After some back and forth, old agent says, do what you think is right. I know Obi-Wan Kenobi said that to Luke Skywalker in the first Star Wars movie, but right now, I don’t feel the force is with me. But I’ve made my decision and I’m going to stick with the original plan.
It’s settled, right? Maybe not so much. Later in the day, I get another email from old agent.
The casting director for the audition says I need to sign in under old agent’s name, not new agent’s. It’s the casting director saying this, so it’s not open for discussion. Now, I don’t really know what’s going on here.
I have my suspicions, but what I think doesn’t matter at this point. It’s a mess and I need to clean it up. I see no alternative but to contact new agent about this situation.
His response doesn’t surprise me. All the people on their roster are exclusive and he doesn’t want to deal with all this territorial BS. Sorry, but it’s not going to work out.
I tell him I’m disappointed, but I understand and hope we can try again in the future under different circumstances. Now, I reach out to old agent and try to put things back the way they were. I tell him how much I value our relationship and that I hope we can keep working together as we have.
His next email is not about our relationship. It’s about the audition. It has been cancelled.
Of course it has. PS. After all that, things are back to normal with old agent.
The audition was rescheduled and I did go and signed in under his agency’s name. I didn’t get it. Ay caramba.
I just want to do VO that sounds so bonito. Doh.
So once again, that was Juan Esteves. Thanks so much, Juan. That was a great story.
And a cautionary tale that makes sure you have all your ducks in a row before trying to look for a new representation.
So I was actually really, really happy to hear this. Paul was telling me the fact, we had a really large information-packed episode last time with the wonderful Julie Williams. So we actually cut out our questionable gear purchase segment to make more time for her.
And people actually wrote us saying, what happened? Where did it go? So apparently a lot of people are enjoying our sort of foibles.
And I’m wondering if we’re sort of helping prevent, or people are sort of living through us so they don’t spend any money themselves.
Yeah, I’m gonna go with that as the reason that I keep buying stuff.
But I mean, we’ve joked about it before, but now we totally can. We could totally rationalize any purchases we make from now on. Okay, we are just about ready to delve into our topic of acoustics revisited for this episode.
But before that, we have our…
Questionable Gear Purchase.
I can start. And it’s bad. It’s really bad.
I went interface shopping and that sent me down a rabbit hole where I bought a whole bunch of interfaces, once again, trying to look for ways to make the podcast easier. So I bought a Scarlett 6i6 on Amazon, I think it was. Tried that out, it was okay.
It didn’t sound the best and I was having trouble getting enough gain for the dynamic mic I was using. So I sent that back, got a RME Babyface that I found used at Guitar Center for a great deal. And that has this Total Control software, I think it’s called, is it the brand name?
Total Control, I believe, is the… Total Mix. Total Mix, yes.
And it was just dizzying with all the inputs and all the different ways you can route stuff. It was so paralyzing to me that I couldn’t even figure out how to monitor the headphones on a single input. So having several jobs going on at the same time, which by the way, when you have jobs going on, it’s the worst time to switch gear.
And I just seem to never learn. So in order to simplify things…
Or if you would at least hold on to some gear to record with.
That may help too. So in order to, because I don’t do that, and I just jump into things with two feet all the time, I needed something that I could actually record with. So I had the RME Fireface and I went and bought another 6i6 locally on Craigslist.
So all within like the same week because I knew how to use it. So I went through the job I was doing. I think it was an e-learning gig.
Finished that and then got rid of both of those interfaces and bought an Apigee Duet 2 because I had been looking for one of those because I had heard that it had this loopback feature that made it easy to apply virtual inputs to, again, playback over the internet that we could use for the podcast or for a live direction. So I got that and figured out it really doesn’t do that, at least not to my knowledge and with me digging into the software. Now I will say the Apigee Duet does sound great.
It did everything I wanted to do sonically. It has enough gain to power dynamic any condenser and it sounds great, but ultimately it wasn’t solving my software problem. So I went as far off the deep end as I could find, at least without getting into the over $1,000 range and bought an Apollo Twin Solo, which a lot of people use and look to as a really good upgrade once they’ve established themselves and they’re ready to take that next step.
And that’s what I’m using right now.
Can I just gush about the Apollo for a second? So for people who don’t know, like there’s almost like this accepted tier of interfaces for people who are sort of looking to move away from the Focus Rides or the Steinberg units. And you may never actually come to that point, but these three units seem to be the most popular.
The three I just bought, you mean?
Yeah, the Apogee is definitely one of them. Or the Apogee, the Babyface. Those are great sort of more portable units, and they’re a little bit older tech, but they were still certainly very high quality.
And, but nowadays you’ve got ones like the Audion ID22, the Apollo Twin Solo, which like the Audion is supposed to have super clean preamps, but it’s sort of its own beast because it actually is, it’s got this integrated DSP system or digital signal processing. So basically you’re able to sort of emulate all sorts of preamps and other analog gear like compressors or limiters or equalizers within the box.
And that’s the reason I also wanted it because we’ve talked about this rumble problem I have, and I tried a channel strip that ultimately got kind of noisy. Oh, I should mention that, the DBX I talked about in the last episode, gone.
I mean, that thing that you loved more than any other piece of gear you’ve tried.
I did love it for a while, but I found when I was messing around with all these other interfaces, probably because they’re better quality, that it was introducing a hum into the recording that I did not think was there when I was using it with some of the more entry-level interfaces like the Focusrite and the Yamaha AGL3. But I found out that…
Oh, so you’re saying that the higher-level interfaces might have been quieter so that you could actually hear the inherent noise of that.
Exactly. Which I have to give credit to is what George Widom and Dan Linder were telling me was happening all along, and I just didn’t believe them. So I found out it was there.
So like you said, this internal DSP processing has been a godsend because all these classic preamps have been used in the industry for years are now available in this sort of virtual way. Like I’m using a Neve UA610B tube preamp right now, which is…
And that’s one of the free ones that comes with it, right?
It is, and it’s doing a great job. But then there also are some built-in channel strips or virtual channel strips that I plan on using. I have a call in with George.
He’s gonna help me set it up so I can get it right the first time without screwing things up too badly. And I think that will help me a lot with my processing out the rumble.
And that’s probably the main reason why I didn’t get the Apollo. As cool as it looks, I mean, it’s a shiny little silver box with a very bright or volume meter on it. It’s like got shining lights and everything.
But basically, if it was something that I need assistance to figure out, I was like, I probably don’t need it. So, but I’m happy for you. I mean, you deserve good gear.
And I’m glad that you’re having George help you out with it. What’s that?
Right, so there is one other selling point, and it’s Thunderbolt. So, it doesn’t go through the USB bus on the computer. So, if you have a lot of other things plugged into the USB bus in your computer, like a lot of us do, you know, webcams and maybe hubs or microphones.
Like sometimes I plug in my USB microphone. If you can get your interface not on that same bus in the computer, it helps a lot. And my Mac…
Oh, I had to get a new Mac, by the way, in order to make this work. So, more questionable gear. So, I have a new shiny iMac as well with a Thunderbolt connection.
So, now that’s how the Apollo is connected.
Very cool. And like in most modern Macs these days really don’t have very many USB ports, maybe like two or three at most. But they do have at least two Thunderbolt ports.
So, like you said, it’s a great way to free up those other ones.
Yeah, that helps. So, there’s a whole rabbit hole of microphones this past couple of months too. Do you want me to go through that or do you want to take a turn?
Well, I’ll start with the microphones.
Maybe you can tell the story that involves me as well.
Oh yeah, yeah, we can sort of bounce it back and forth. So, you guys know how I feel about the American-made CAD E100S. A lot of voice talent find this to be an amazing, popular microphone.
It got really popularized when VO blogger Paul Struquerda wrote a very stellar review of it. And since then, there’s been a couple of waves of voice talent who have bought it, who’ve been very happy with it. And unfortunately, when I ordered mine, I was in Japan and I finally got it after waiting like six weeks.
And then it was noisy. And this mic is supposed to be dead silent. It’s literally like they actually, in their marketing materials, they say lowest noise rating in its class.
And so basically any noise would have been unacceptable. But no, it was noisy. And after troubleshooting it for a couple of days, I decided to send it back.
And so they told me they sent me a second one and then a month goes by and they just tell me like, oh, we don’t know what happened to it. So it’s probably somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. And then my third one…
Wasn’t that around the same time as Fukushima?
Oh, no, that was a few years after Fukushima. You’re terrible. That’s awful.
Sorry.
Awful, awful, awful. Yeah. When is it?
Not too soon. But anyways, so that one got lost. And then they put in another order, but it never went in stock again.
So they just canceled it and gave me my money back. And then so I was very bitter for a couple of years. And then somebody was selling theirs, like a gently used one.
They had it for about a year without any problems. And they were selling it for $200, which is more than half off. And the lowest I’ve seen it for Mike in that condition.
So almost on impulse, I said I’d buy it and I did. And it was almost, I just wanted to know what it sounded like when it worked basically. And so I put it up with all my other mics.
At the time, I had like a big four mic shootout. It was that one. It was my Jay-Z J1, which I got as an alternative to the CAD.
And then my 416 and my Blue Mouse. And it actually scored pretty high. It was pretty much the second place next to the 416.
And then…
Yeah, I actually listened to that. And I think I thought it was the 416 before you told us.
Yeah, that’s right. Because even though I had said in my email… It was sort of a blind test, but Paul just assumed that I was listing them in order.
Right.
But yeah. And no, it sounded quite good. And I see why it’s often compared to the 416.
But it is a little bit darker. And it’s a little bit less aggressive. So it would be good for like long form stuff or like longer narration.
But anyways, so I had two good mics and then two okay mics. And I finally accepted that I was never going to get the amazing sound out of the mouse that I had always dreamed of. And Paul, I remember that you were interested in it.
So we decided to do a trade.
Yeah, because Paul’s a psycho. And I had just made a trade with a fellow voice talent to trade away my Sennheiser MKH 415 for a Neumann TLM 102. It was a Facebook post, and this talent said, hey, I had this 102.
I’m looking to trade for a 416. And basically my salesmanship skills talked him into taking the 415, which I think sounds pretty similar and maybe even a little better.
Well, to your credit, I feel like from everyone who’s recommended it or used it, they’ve said it sounds as good or better than the 416. So I don’t feel like you really, like, you didn’t jip him or anything.
No, I don’t think so. So we made that trade, and TLM 102 was a disaster in my space. It sounded, it picked up way too much of the boominess that I had trouble with, more of that rumble.
It was way too sensitive. So that’s when I called you up and said, let’s try and make a trade ourselves.
Yeah, and so, like, the costs are about the same what we paid for it, and so I was like, and the 102 was a mic that I always wanted to try. I mean, it’s so tiny and cute, and it’s an ointment. Like, I had never tried an ointment in my space before.
So I was like, why the hell not? And then a couple of days go by, and then it arrives, and I’m like, oh, wow, it’s a little bit bigger and a little bit heavier than I thought it would be.
And why was that?
And then I put it away, and then I’m like, now, wait a minute, it doesn’t… If you look at the 102, it’s got this very distinctive sort of like chrome metal ring just underneath the headbasket. And then, and that sort of sets it apart from other models like the TLM 103 or the TLM 49 and all the other stuff in the 1000 plus range.
But I was like, wait a minute, that didn’t look right. And then so I got the mic out of the case again, and then I looked at the side, and it says TLM 103. So not only did Paul not realize he had an industry standard in his booth that he hates, but the person who sold it to him didn’t realize they had a 103 instead of a 102.
And I mean, he hasn’t contacted you, right? He seems like he’s happy with his trade.
No, he told me he loved the 415 and was super happy with it.
I’m not sure if it was a typo, because we didn’t actually talk on the phone. We just emailed back and forth. So maybe there was a typo.
Maybe he always knew it was a 103. Maybe I’m an idiot and just didn’t read. I don’t even know.
No, I saw his post, and he didn’t even have pictures of the mic itself. At least if he did, I think I actually told him. I said, that’s a 103.
But I mean, I’m happy with it because I had been looking for a decent condenser for a long time. And I think the 103 does sound nicer on my voice than the Blue Mouse did. But it brings with it its own set of sensitivity issues because it’s a very sensitive mic.
And while I can use it occasionally in the space I have now, it is far more sensitive to ambient noise. And honestly, I don’t feel like I could use it consistently until I get an isolated booth.
Yeah, that was a problem I had too. Even though I thought it was 102, it was way too sensitive for my booth, where it was sucking up every possible low-end frequency. And it sounded maybe the muddiest mic I’ve ever had in here, which is saying something.
So that brings us to what I’m using now. We went ahead and made that trade actually a two-for-one deal with a little bit of bartering on some work going on, where you sent me both the Blue Mouse and the CAD E100S.
Well, yeah, because now I had two industry standards and a mic that I don’t really need. And I will say the CAD was pretty close. Basically, I just kept the 103 because I thought it would look better on paper.
And I wanted the CAD to go to someone who could actually use it and benefit from it.
Yeah, and I’m using it right now. And it sounds great. I actually really like the way it eliminates mouth noise for me.
I’m not sure why, but it’s the best condenser I’ve used to help eliminate some of the mouth clicks without having to do a whole lot of post-processing. Maybe it’s the way I positioned it.
I think both the mouse and the CAD sound really good on you. And I think something that they offer that I haven’t heard so much in other mics is that it’s very clear, but it’s gentle. It’s a little bit softer.
It’s not like right in your face. And that might be whatever levels you’re using right now. But I think it sounds like you, and it sounds nice.
Yeah, I agree.
Please hold on to these for a little bit, at least a little while.
Yeah, so we’ll see what happens. But at least we can say that there weren’t really many questionable gear purchases. It was more questionable gear bartering.
Maybe we’ve learned something.
Maybe we’ve. So you got me to relax and sell some things and get rid of some things. And hopefully.
And I saved you. I don’t know.
Well, fans, I hope you’re happy that we brought the segment back just for you.
Yeah, I think we’ve just opened up like a whole new tier of expensive things to try. Like, we’re going to get like an Antelope Zen desk or whatever. It’s like a $5,000 interface.
Yeah, I will say it was kind of ridiculous when I was thinking to myself, from where I started with the Vocalboothtogo Blanket Booth and the AT2020, to now being in a Whisper Room holding a TLM 103 in my hand, it just kind of blows my mind.
Well, yeah, I mean, I was about to say, it sounds like you’re doing pretty well. I mean, like, I’m able to reinvest in all of these crazy purchases. I’m not going broke yet.
So that wraps up Questionable Gear Purchases. Talking a little bit about our topic for today of acoustics, Paul and I have actually been doing some experimentation in our booths, because we’re constantly trying to make it either more ergonomic or have a more logical workflow or a more efficient workflow.
In my case, it’s always different equipment.
It’s always different equipment. But there’s different ways to change or improve the sound without actually changing the equipment. You can actually get just the positioning of items within your booth.
So for example, and this is relating to acoustics, I swear. So right now, I have my mic and my iPad screen, which I’m reading off of, sort of buried in very close to this wall of clothing. And so right now you’ve got about seven inches of absorbing material that’s sucking up those waves and anything that does bounce off the back wall has to go back through that and then it has to go through clothing on the other wall.
And so it sounds quite dead in here. But I wanted to kind of move everything out into the center more so I could have the mic a little bit closer to me and then I could have the iPad be level with my eyes. And so just like better for my neck and my body when I read.
And so I got a mic stand and then I got some accessories so I could put everything on one mic stand and have the mic sitting down and I moved it to the center of the room. And it sounded terrible because one thing that you actually can’t hear right now is there’s actually a full wall mirror behind me that doesn’t… yeah, you would never guess.
But when you move about five or six inches back into the center of the room, you hear that flat surface. And it was even worse when I was using a large diaphragm condenser like the Blue Mouse or the CAD or what have you. So it just did not sound as dead.
And all I changed was the position of the mic in the room by less than half of a foot. So that was a big wake up call. And I know you’ve been experimenting with sort of acoustics in your booth as well, Paul.
What have you been up to?
Well, I had a very similar situation actually. I wanted to try and get to a point where I was using one mic in one position because I had these two sort of mic stations, one standing up in the corner and one sitting down the other corner in a very small space. I have a four by four whisper room.
So there wasn’t a whole lot of room for gesturing or moving and acting when I was reading. So I thought it would be easier to have the mic in one place. So I took everything out, including the chair and the stand I was using for the mic, and put the boom arm that I have drilled to the wall right in the middle of the whisper room.
And then I had the chair, the little tiny bar stool I use right next to that, and I thought this would give me more space, and I do everything sitting. And like you, it sounded awful. It sounded like I was in an echo chamber, and all I did was move the mic maybe three feet from the corner to the middle of the room.
And I tried it in all different positions, but what I discovered is that there really are only two sweet spots in this room. There’s the top right-hand corner and the bottom left-hand corner. And if I don’t have the mic right there, it sounds awful.
So I had to go back to where I was before, and that’s where the cat is now. It’s on the boom arm in the far corner with a blanket, one of the vocalboothtogo.com blankets, and a corner bass trap and two bottom bass chunks. And that’s the only way I can get a good sound.
So it goes to show that once you find that sweet spot, just sort of stick with it, and it may be the only place you can actually record that’s going to sound that good.
Yeah, definitely. When you’re trying to find the best sound when placing equipment in your booth, you definitely want to take notes or take pictures so you can easily replace it if you accidentally move it to a place where it doesn’t sound as good. But like we were saying, you really have to experiment and fine tune, whether it be adding more treatment or adding a bass trap or even putting a little mat or a towel on your desk.
But there are all kinds of things that you can do to improve the sound. For example, downstairs, I have, like you guys know, my famous blanket booth from Vocalboothtogo. And that one sounds great in there, but since I just had his portable version, the Carry On Vocalbooth available too, I decided why not put that in there too.
I’m not sure if it really needed it, but I can tell you it is super dead in there now. But an interesting thing about that space is it works great with a mic, like a shotgun mic, like the 416 or a large diaphragm condenser, like the Jay-Z J1, which has a slightly narrower pattern than similar mics. But I would never use the 103 down there, because it’s in the center of the house.
And so you’ve got plumbing above it and underneath it. So if anyone takes a shower or goes to the bathroom or turns on the dishwasher or the washing machine downstairs, you’ll hear this rumbling in the walls. And it’s summer right now, and we’re kind of out in the woods.
And so we’ve got all sorts of animal sounds, like dogs and birds, and you’ve even got a donkey next door who honks every now and then.
Really?
No, it’s really bad. It’s really, really bad. It’s like the same time every day at like 8 p.m. But the point I’m trying to say is if you have a directional mic, like a shotgun, then those might not be an issue for you.
And you can be a lot more… You have a lot more options when it comes to finding an ideal space in your home to record. But when you’ve got something with a wider pattern, like the 103 or another large diaphragm, then you have to be much more selective about finding a space because acoustics and ambient noise is that much more of an issue.
Right. So there are a number of ways you can treat your space from very simple to full-blown soundproof booths. And our next guest can cover your bases, whatever you need.
So without further ado, let’s take it to the Zoom room, and we’ll get to our interview segment with Adil Aliev from vocalboothtogo.com. We are now so excited to welcome Adil Aliev, and we’re really excited to have you on. So thanks for being here.
Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me. And I’m also excited that, you know, you’re the customer, and you came in this, that you got the booth, and you gave me that positive feedback that makes everything going.
And Sean also, you know, is the carry-on.
Adil, for people who may not be familiar with you and your company, could you just tell us a little bit about the history and how you got started?
Sure. Well, I used to have a moving company, and then I started selling moving blankets. And at one point, one of the customers actually, I kind of noticed that I have musicians and producers buying the blankets for the purpose of acoustics.
And some of them said, listen, can you design the blanket that would give, kind of beef it up? So it would give more acoustic properties and special. I said, sure.
And we did that. We actually beef it up, put more padding in, change things. And then I started to look into that, how they use it.
So over the time, we changed the… So it’s not a moving, it’s maybe looking like moving blankets, it’s not the moving blankets anymore. We changed the inside filler to make it pure cotton, because at one point we had issues with the smell.
People would say, oh, it’s smelling. And we realized that that was because of certain impurities that come with the stuff that they use for moving blankets, a lot of synthetic fiber. So we made it all pure, and we tested and tested it at 80% sound absorption, which is great.
And that’s how it is. And the guy said, don’t do anything, just it’s perfect. And then at some point, and at that time, I wasn’t really kind of into that much, but James Alberger in Santiago, he runs the Voice Acting Academy, they invited me for the Voice Over Conference.
And that’s when I went over there, and at that time, I already made up the first kind of prototype of the Caryln Boost. I showed it up over there, and I received very, very good, very nice positive feedback. And more and more I started to improve on the products and add different ones.
And that’s how, over the time, the Vocalboothtogo actually kind of taking more and more time. Basically, it’s now 70% of what I do, I think maybe even 90%, and always designing new products. The idea behind it is Vocalboothtogo, because I realize that the voice actors, they want to be mobile.
Then musicians, practicing singers and everybody else, they also want to be not really mobile, but they need the solution that would be effective and still easy to use. So they can put it in the apartment, take it down if necessary. If you have to go to the client, you can take it with you.
So these two things, the mobility and efficiency, is kind of like a cornerstone of all the designs that you make. And yeah, so that’s how it develops. So now we have more and more products coming out.
Very good.
Are you using the Carry On Vocalbootht right now?
Yeah, it’s a Carry On Vocalbootht.
The Carry On Vocalbootht. And we actually use that to do episode 3 of the podcast in the middle of the trade show floor for the Mid-Atlantic Voice Conference. And it works fantastically, where some of the interviews sound better than some of the ones we’ve done over Zoom.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I can’t believe how well it sounded like in the middle of a lecture hall. I mean, obviously, you’re going to hear the noise of the people and the other attendees, but the audio quality itself was quite good.
And it works very well for on-the-site news gathering or kind of podcast or live recording like that. So it worked out very, very well. Actually, what I wanted to go on, because you talked about your history and like about continuously making new products, do you have any new things that you’re excited to talk about with us now?
Like any new products or modifications of current products that you have?
Well, one product that I’m working on now, the product I’m working on right now is a soundproof sound booth. The very first… Well, one of the very first, not the very, very first.
The very first of this sound booth, what we call SPB33, had Velcro on it. So actually when people would get inside, the hair would get caught on that. And it was not pretty.
But people liked it anyway because it worked well. It was very comparable with other solid shell sound booths. But there was a problem.
So the current that we have right now was with a zipper. So we did away with the Velcro and put the zipper in there. So it’s better.
It’s better. But it’s still not good because, let’s say the audiometry people, people who do the test hearing tests, they’re using the product. And for them, they say, open it up for 30 people a day, it’s not convenient.
And Paul requested that I do the swing open door.
I did.
Yes, he did. So if Paul requested that, I had to do it. And this is what I’m currently working on.
So the new modification of the soundproof booth will come with the open door. So I made it. I made the frame for that.
I designed the opening. Also, that new product will be a little bit different. It’s going to be different because you can actually use the same parts and modify it in different sizes.
For example, right now we have it in 3×3, 6×3, and 6×6. But with that new modification, you can extend it, make it 6×12, 6×18.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, you can kind of… For voice actors, that’s probably not important. But if you have a recording band, like drummers and a couple of more instruments over there, so if they want to jump together, then…
Fill out the whole garage.
Yeah, that would be something to use. So, yeah.
That’s very exciting. We talked about that in Atlanta. I did bring that up to you in Atlanta.
I said, you know, I had the booth and I liked it. It sounded great with almost no modification. My one concern was the door.
And the reason because I have my computer outside the booth, so I can minimize the noise as much as possible. So every time I need to go edit or look at a file, I have to go out the door. So sometimes when I’m doing an audio book, I’m out the door, you know, 10 times during a session and like you said, the zippers can be cumbersome, it works, but it’s not for someone who moves around a lot.
If all your stuff is in the booth, then it’s probably okay. But I really appreciate you taking that to heart and actually trying to innovate.
I try all these comments to heart.
I take all the time. Once the prototype is done, I’m going to go out there and do some video maybe, try it out. Sure.
That’s a question I want to ask you, because I talked about how you’re a local company to me basically. I’m just outside Baltimore in a town called Lutherville, and you’re in Frederick, Maryland. How is the market in this area, the DC and Baltimore metro region, is that a big market for you, or is most of your products shipped outside of this area?
Well, we mostly do it online. We mostly do it online. We actually did not approach the local market, so to speak.
And if I look at the sales, I think about 60% of the sales go to California. Yeah, 60% go to California. Maybe the other 30 go to New York, and the rest is the rest of the country.
And do you have a lot of international sales?
We do have international sales. We pretty much send all over the world. We send to Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, all over Europe, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, everywhere.
In Mexico, we have this Jehovah’s Witness company in Mexico. I think they bought by now 30 carry-on booths.
You say Jehovah’s Witness?
Jehovah’s Witness, yes.
What were they using it for?
That’s a good question. That’s a good question. I meant to ask them, so once they get it…
Because they ordered once five, then they ordered another five or six, and then they ordered one. And I said, listen, the shipping to Mexico with all the customs and duties, they’re really expensive. If you want to order something, order two.
So she took a week to think about it, then she ordered 15.
I don’t know, maybe they’re using it for missionary work or, I don’t know, recording sermons.
Well, yeah, recording sermons, the recording, I don’t know, they also do the podcasts. Yeah, they do a lot of different podcasts on the radio, and it works well. It works well for podcasts.
So, yeah, Canada, Canada is a big market. We send a lot of Canada. And I think we did send to Russia, we did send to Norway and Sweden, and yeah, I think each and every country we sent to Turkey.
We even sent to Afghanistan.
We sent to Afghanistan, we sent to Dubai. Yeah, I can’t really think. India, India got a couple of booths.
By the way, the other aspect, I think it will be interesting for us to talk about is the rental opportunity. Because our booths are so compact that you can pack them in a bag and it’s small enough, we can ship it anywhere. And for example, we have voice actors who come from United Kingdom.
For example, they come for a week to LA. We ship them the booths, they go over there, they record there, they send it back, they go back to UK. Netflix, Netflix got two booths for rental for like six to 12 weeks.
Whatever they do with that, I don’t know, but it’s good. Microsoft recently bought one soundproof booth to take on the tour. So yeah.
I did one and I came to the warehouse and picked it up in the back of a Nissan Versa. So it’s really compact. For those of you who don’t know, the Nissan Versa is like the smallest car in Nissan’s lineup.
It’s basically the size of the SB33 when it’s stretched out. I was able to take the whole booth in the back of there and drive it back home.
And I love that kind of flexibility because for people, especially voice actors who are starting out, getting a booth of any kind can be a very large investment. So people want to be sure that they either get the right one or they can get a good return on it. And you just letting people rent it out for a temporary amount of time just takes so much pressure off them if it doesn’t work out.
So thank you very much for offering that unique service.
That’s true. That’s kind of… It’s kind of rent before you buy.
So people would rent it first and then you usually keep it. Unless it’s a business. Business, I think, they go on the project.
So let’s say if they go to the trade show, they take the booth to the trade show and then they return it. But people who want to test it, they rent it for a week. And actually, I understand that all the voice actors, they, you know, one army, one person army, their own business.
So we do have some financing options, too. We work with a financing company. And they right now actually offer 90 days no pay deal.
So basically, you get the product. For 90 days, you pay nothing.
So 90 days is cash type of deal. That’s great.
Yeah. And after that, you can pay in installments to them.
Is that for both size booths, the 6×3 and the 3×3?
It’s for any product. It’s for anything over $1,000. I think they have a threshold of $1,000.
Anything over $1,000, they offer that financing. Well, we together offer that financing. You know, there’s a button over there, Financing.
If your cart, overall, gets more than $1,000, the button will appear. And you just click there, fill out the form. And it is convenient.
They go through the approval process, of course. It’s very convenient.
Very cool. So do you have any other exciting products or other developments going on right now that you’d want to talk about?
I do. But that product would be a smaller version. It’s even a smaller version than the carry-on.
And what it’s designed for right now, the working name for that is YouTube or Vocalbootht. So it’s designed for something small, like a smartphone or video camera. And one of the kind of stimulus for me to make that product, some photographers call in and say, you know, can you have that booth that would open on the back?
Because, you know, when you take a video, you need to look at the viewfinder, and you look at something, so you have to have a see-through, so to speak. And then you cover from all sides, so it protects from the wind and noise and everything else. So that’s the product comes in.
That comes, when it’s folded, it’s actually the size of the laptop. It’s that flat, it’s about an inch thick, maybe, I mean, maybe an inch and a half thick. And it’s going to be about 14 inches by 16 inches, by one inch, that small.
Wow, very cool. So that’s similar to sort of your carry-on tracking booth that you used, I think it’s a discontinued product, but you used to have it a few years ago. So it’s going to be even smaller than that?
It’s going to be even smaller than that. It’s going to be, the design is totally different. Yeah, but it’s going to be kind of like that, yeah.
Very cool. I’m excited to see it. And maybe send me a test unit when you get it.
Yeah, I have a working product, but I just need… It’s marinating, as I call it, marinating, because I usually make a design, and then it has to sit for a while, so I can think of some improvements to make.
Until somebody complains to you at a trade show, and you decide to go with that idea.
Well, something that I was… Speaking of that, Adil, one modification that I was very happy to see is… I mean, I’m actually currently using your carry-on vocal booth inside of your hanging acoustic vocal booth right now, and I love this booth.
It’s probably my favorite portable recording solution, but one thing I did notice is that occasionally, if you’re in a very reflective space, all of these portable acoustic solutions, whether it’s yours or someone else, didn’t really have an effective dampening thing behind you. And then I saw it via Atlanta. You would actually fix that problem.
What did you do?
Oh, yes, that’s right. Thanks for reminding me. You see how it is.
Once the product is finished, it goes back in my mind, and I concentrate on something that is new. Yeah, that’s right. It’s already been sent to production.
What we did, we created the hood, and I call it surround sound hood, because it kind of goes over your back and over your shoulders. You might have seen on other booths that they have a little black piece of fabric that you pull over and throw behind yourself and kind of sits on your head. No, we have the whole blanket, the same sound absorption blanket, and there is a support structure designed so it doesn’t sit on your head.
Your head is kind of free to move, and the booth is just being supported in the support structure. And yeah, that surrounds completely. And if you go on the website, actually Rachel Naylor, she’s running a voiceover network in the United Kingdom.
Yeah, we both…
Yeah, we met her at VU Atlanta, yes.
Yes, yes, yes. She did to VU Atlanta, and she needed to do the urgent voiceover for Virgin Atlantic, because she is the voice of Virgin Atlantic.
Oh, wow.
And yeah, so I gave her that booth with surround sound, and she did the work for Virgin Atlantic. They were very happy with that.
Excellent.
So, Adil, one question I had that everybody asked me actually, some fans of the podcast. So you see where I am right now, I have your blankets behind me.
Yes.
Should I have them the right way? Should they be white side out or black side out?
The white side in. The black side out, yes.
I have them backwards, huh?
Well, from an acoustic point of view, it doesn’t matter. Okay. Either way, it’s going to do the same job.
But from claustrophobic… It’s better when you have white around you. It’s kind of…
It looks more spacious.
Well, it reflects light very well. So if you like to do…
It makes it lighter too. That’s right.
Yeah. Like you said, it helps with claustrophobia. I occasionally make videos in here either for like on-camera auditions or just product review videos for fun.
And it definitely looks more professional than having an actual studio, you know?
A good friend, Juan Esteves, who’s actually doing the VO Meter stick this episode, asked me that very question. He said, I think I have mine backwards because you and Sean have the white side out, but I’m glad to hear it. It doesn’t really matter.
I think it’s all personal preference, you know?
That’s totally fine. He wants to use the black side. I’m glad that it’s reversible.
Never heard of that. But you’ll learn.
All right. That pretty much wraps up our questions for Adil. I just want to say thank you so much.
You’ve certainly helped Paul and I create a much better sounding space in our own respective spaces. And we hope to have you on again, because I know you’re constantly developing new products and modifying existing products. So if you have any new announcements, we’d love to have you back, Adil.
Yeah, basically it was our start in getting a great sound.
Yeah, thank you, thank you. And I’m really happy to be on the show. And the more I know, especially Paul and Sean, always coming in positive, always coming in these constructive comments.
And that’s exactly what I need. And you were saying before how the idea that I treated your comment about the door seriously, I treat all the comments seriously. All of them, because they all kind of give me what people need, and I like to solve those problems.
Well, it’s really funny that you mentioned it, because I’ve been watching your products for about four or five years now, and you see an actual evolution in the quality and the effectiveness of the product, even little things, like the cool little travel bag that the Carry On Vocalbootht is a part of. And you are constantly making things better and better at a pretty affordable price. So thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you.
We look forward to seeing what’s new and upcoming soon.
All right. Maybe next month. Thank you.
So once again, that was Adil Aliev from vocalboothtogo.com. Thanks again, Adil, so much. I’m so glad that you were able to join us today.
Paul and I have both benefited from a number of his products.
We’ve talked about them so much.
Almost every episode. But I highly recommend them, especially for beginning or aspiring talent because it’s a reasonably affordable and highly customizable solution for a variety of spaces.
They’re a great company and he’s a great guy. So thanks so much, Adil.
So that about wraps up episode 10 of The VO Meter.
Measuring Your Voice Over Progress.
If you guys have any questions or if you have any ideas for topics you’d like us to talk about, just hit us up on Facebook at either Sean Daeley or Paul Stefano. Or you can post right here at vometer.com in the comments section. Thanks a lot, you guys.
Have a great day.
Bye, everybody.
Thanks for listening to The VO Meter. Measuring Your Voice Over Progress. To follow along, please visit www.vometer.com.