The VO Meter, Measuring Your Voice Over Progress.
Hello everybody and welcome to Episode 5 of The VO Meter.
Measuring Your Voice Over Progress.
I’m your host, Paul Stefano, and joining me is co-host, Sean Daeley. How are you today, Sean?
I’m good, how are you?
I am fantastic. So, we are here in Episode 5, and we are just humming along. Last I checked, we are over 200 downloads for all the episodes combined, so give yourself a little hand.
The focus of today’s episode is going to be on interfaces. Why you need them, what they do, and all the ones that you and I have run through.
Yeah, should be a lot of fun.
But first, we’re going to talk a little bit about what’s going on in our respective voiceover careers. So Sean, what’s going on in your little corner of the voiceover world?
Well, the last couple of weeks have been quiet. I’ve just been doing auditions. I was out of town for a week, house sitting and pet sitting for my brother.
So nothing really exciting there. But other than that, it’s like just my usual stable of clients and doing projects for them. What about you, Paul?
Same thing, some repeat clients. I did book an ACX book, not through ACX, which is kind of interesting.
Oh, cool.
I booked that on one of the freelance sites. Have you ever done that?
I haven’t had a lot of success with those. We’ve talked a little bit about these sites before. They’re better than Fiverr.
Somewhere between Fiverr and the Pay to Play websites. And I know that they have Elance and Upwork. And there’s a couple of more.
But I know that’s an area that you have a lot more experience in than I do.
Yeah, Elance and Upwork I think are one now. Upwork bought Elance and now it’s just one platform.
Oh, okay.
So that is actually where I booked this most recent book. It’s an ACX title that the author wants to take there himself. Basically I’m doing the audio, handing it off.
It’s a paid-per-finish-hour project. He just takes it to ACX himself, which in my opinion is a pretty good deal where I don’t actually have to produce the book. I’m just doing the audio and he’s uploading it and doing all the legwork, so to speak.
Oh, interesting. That sounds great.
So this is actually the third book I’ve done this way. Two different clients, three books, and it can be a decent way to get a client and have some decent projects.
Yeah, and I really like your initiative because a lot of people think they tend to go to the more obvious choices like the pay-to-play sites or ACX, but you’re looking outside of that and you found a lucrative opportunity, so good for you.
Yeah, it can work out. And then the only other thing going on in my world is I signed this week with a production studio in Singapore.
Oh, cool.
So I haven’t actually done any work for them yet, but I’m on their roster, so to speak. Making air quotes as I say that.
Whatever that means, right?
Yeah, it can mean various things to different people, but there’s a couple of different studios where I’m quote unquote on their roster and we’ll see if there’s any work that comes out of it.
It’s certainly the first step and the hardest, but I mean, it’s no guarantee of work, which is why we’re given a bit of the attitude right now.
Yeah, because especially when you’re new, you can get that email and say, Yes, I made it. I’m on their roster. And then you twiddle your thumbs, sometimes for days and sometimes for months.
So it’s a topic we actually want to talk about in a future episode, but we’ll save it for that.
But anyways, I understand you had a bit of a pretty cool VO related trip recently. Why don’t you tell us about that?
Yeah, over the weekend, I went up to New York City. New York City, across the Mason-Dixon line, way yonder up there in Manhattan for the VO Cafe Holiday Extravaganza. That is another podcast, which you obviously should listen to.
We’re big fans. At least I am.
Oh yeah.
How about you?
So I enjoy the VO Cafe. It’s head up by Terry Daniel, and he works closely with Trish Basanri and I hope I said that right.
Basani.
Basani, that’s right, Trish Basani, and Peter Bishop, who’s actually a New York based British talent and a great guy. He’s given us a lot of advice on gear and even on how to run a good podcast. So if you’re listening, Peter, thanks a lot.
Yeah, indeed. So I met Peter, affectionately known as Bish, and Trish, and Terry, and let’s see, Jordan Reynolds is another frequent contributor and host. Sean Caldwell and Matt Calrick is on there as well, but he was not at the party.
But I did get to meet all the other participants of the VO Cafe and that was pretty cool. And then a multitude of other VO friends as we call them. Let’s see, Peter O’Connell is there, Philip Banks, Lee Gordon, Will Watt, who was a blast to hang out with.
And yeah, just so many people, so much fun. But what we want to talk about is how to approach that sort of event where it wasn’t really a trade show, there wasn’t any classes going on. It was really just a party.
But even in that sort of event, you can still accomplish some things for your career, don’t you think?
Mm-hmm. And I went to a similar event in October. This famous audio engineer in the voiceover community named Roy Yockelson, or Uncle Roy.
Oh, Uncle Roy was there this weekend, too.
Oh, cool. Yeah, because he’s over in Jersey, so that wouldn’t be too far for him. But anyways, he’s got this annual voiceover barbecue.
And as Paul was saying, these things aren’t… They’re not a convention. They’re not a trade show.
They still fall under a networking event, but it’s far more relaxed. It’s far more laid back. People might actually frown on you if you try to be too salesy before they get to know you.
So, my advice would be to just be yourself. Don’t look to make clients. Look to make friends and make relationships that way.
Yeah, that’s great advice. I would add though that it’s still good to have a game plan. So I didn’t go there looking to sell anything.
I think I only handed out maybe two business cards the whole time, but I did have a definitive list of people that I wanted to meet. And because I wanted to get to know these people, and some I actually knew through Facebook or other social media, but hadn’t met in person. But I sort of went at it like a trade show, where I went down the list, a mental list.
I wasn’t carrying a legal pad or anything, but I said I wanted to meet Philip, I wanted to meet Lee, I wanted to meet Liz Dinesner. All these people that I knew I wanted to talk to, and I did. I made sure I talked to them before the night was through, with a few exceptions.
I kept staring at Rob Siganpaglia in the corner, and never actually got a chance to introduce myself. But I think I met probably 90% of the people who were in my sort of mental Rolodex. I think that could be beneficial.
Otherwise, you might just not meet the people that you want to talk to.
No, exactly. If you don’t have a goal, you risk not accomplishing anything meaningful from the event, aside from just having a good time. And you’re right.
You don’t need to go in here expecting to get clients. But I did have a happy incident come out of it. We were gathering for a photo.
And then someone asked this man named Hugh to take the picture. And I was like, wait, I recognize this guy. And his name is actually Hugh Klitsky.
He’s sort of a casting director and an agent in New York. And I had read a number of his articles on Voice Over Extra, because he’s also got a blog called Voice Acting for the Actor. So, he works with TV and stage actors and tries to coach them out of those habits and sort of pick up the skills necessary to do VO effectively, because it is a different skill set.
But anyways, we had a great conversation and he was really interested in my working in Japan both as an English teacher and a voice talent, and was really interested by the fact that I can speak Japanese, believably, and we exchanged contact information after that. And it was just great to meet him because I’ve definitely benefited from reading his articles. They’re short and to the point and they’re a great read.
Yeah, I’ve read several of those too. Speaking of VoiceOver Extra, John Florian was there over the weekend too and talked to him for a while. And I wanted to mention that he actually added the VO Meter to the VoiceOver Extra list of resources.
So I want to thank John for doing that. And if you’ve come to us from that link on VoiceOver Extra, be sure to thank John because that’s a really cool thing.
Yeah, he’s constantly looking for new resources to offer the VO community. I told him that it was very flattering and humbling, or flumbling, as I have just invented, to be included on that site because I’ve been referencing it for almost four years now and it has been a huge resource for me in my career. So thank you, John.
Thank you, VO Extra. Thank you, Hugh. And thank you to all the other contributors who have written articles for that website.
It’s an amazing resource and it’s free.
I agree. So, there’s a myriad of events out there, both actual organized trade shows and just social events. I recommend try as many as you can.
Definitely have a plan, but also have some fun because people know when you’re stiff and just out there to look for business. It’s a lot more fun when you can do it with a smile on your face.
Absolutely. And I believe voice over talent Rob Marley also has a series of articles. It’s more directed towards sort of conventions, but he’s got some great general advice on networking events in general and like having a plan, making sure you’re prepared.
Even things like making sure that your breath doesn’t smell bad and stuff like that. It’s a great article. You can check it out on his website at Rob Marley Voice Over.
And don’t eat any onions.
Don’t eat onions. But I love onions.
So Sean and I will get to our talk on interfaces, why you need them and what to do with them in just a second. But first, we’re going to go to this episode’s VO Meter Schtick featuring Pennsylvania Voice talent, Ken Foster.
Okay, everybody, it’s time for the VO Meter Schtick.
What did he say?
It’s time for the VO… Oh, nevermind. The VO Meter Schtick?
Oh, got it.
Thank you, Sean and Paul, and greetings, VO Meter podcast listeners. For most of us, the holidays in winter are about to descend upon us like a two-ton heavy thing. My VO setup is probably like a lot of you, home-based voice actors auditioning and recording from home-based studios.
We spend a lot of time locked in a small, dark room alone, basically talking to ourselves. This time of year, the holidays may be giving you feelings of stress, anxiety, guilt, even glee. Sometimes it’s hard to stay productive and focused.
You may begin to experience some cabin fever. I’m familiar with this. In a previous life, I was a software consultant, a business traveler, but mostly telecommuting from my home office.
I know that feeling, like you’re on an island all by yourself. Time management can be a struggle, trying to stay productive. With winter and the holidays, you want to avoid turning into Jack Torrance from The Shining, isolated in the Overlook Hotel with your family going nuts.
This can negatively impact your auditioning, your performance and your growth and success. It’s easy to get distracted, especially if business is slow. It can become a huge challenge not to get sidetracked by those voices in your head.
Ooh, did someone say they have some extra time? How shall we fill it? I really should get back to making those phone calls.
Do you need to dry homemade pasta before you freeze it? Not now, brain. I wonder if my third grade teacher is on Facebook.
Focus. Hey, how about that video of a cat that can walk upright on its back legs? Come on, Ken, stay on point here.
Ooh, remember that Chapelle Show sketch about the behind the scenes of the Nat King Cole Holiday TV show? That was really funny. Wouldn’t you love a cottage cheese right now and a tall glass of iced tea?
Actually, I’m feeling a bit peckish. Wait, no. Get out of your own head.
There’s plenty of things you can do to quell those distracting voices. Focus on marketing. Make some introduction calls or emails.
Check in with customers or touch base with your agents. Anything to advance the ball and keep your eyes on the prize. Find and join a VO Meetup or workout crew.
Start one if you can’t find one in your area. And area doesn’t matter nowadays. There’s plenty of online, peer-directed workouts you can join.
Or how about some additional coaching or training to improve your performance and your craft? Or drown out those distracting voices in your head by diving into some of the great voiceover podcasts. There are tons.
Hey, you’re listening to this one right now. Do whatever it takes to survive the holidays, the family, and a lack of focus. Turn that island of one into an army of one.
Don’t let cabin fever distract you from your prime directive, growing your voiceover business and being successful. This is Ken Foster wishing you all spectacular season’s greetings, tis the time of Christmas and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and Festivus. The nativity, if you’re a non-believer or atheist, the notivity, whatever you earthlings celebrate.
Celebrate it, enjoy it, and have a Happy New Year, everyone.
So once again, that was Ken Foster, our guest for this week’s VO Meter Schtick. Thank you very much, Ken. That was some great advice.
I know I have to pull myself away from the internet plenty of times when I’m trying to get to be more productive in my own business. Speaking of which, we’re going to go ahead and jump into this week’s topic, which is audio interfaces. So first…
Dun, dun, dun. I’ll admit, when I first got started with audio recording, this was sort of the first mystifying piece of equipment that I didn’t understand and I didn’t want to use. But they’re really not that complicated.
So going back to that, what is an audio interface? An audio interface is a box, a piece of equipment that allows your analog gear, and this could be a microphone or an instrument like an electric guitar or bass, to communicate and interact with your computer. Why is that good?
Because if they can’t talk to each other, then you can’t record. And if you can’t record, then you can’t be a voice talent. So, using an audio interface.
So once you have your studio space set up, what you will do is you will take your mic on its mic stand, you will insert an XLR cable into the back of your mic, you will insert the other end of that cable into the input of your audio interface, and then on the back of the interface, you will have either a USB, firewire, or now even Thunderbolt cable that you will connect into your computer. And then, once you have set up all of your audio routing preferences in your system preferences and in your recording software, then you are off to the races. So, if that sounded…
Which of those connections is the fastest, by the way? I really don’t know.
Well, the majority of the interfaces that are on the market today are actually USB 2, because it’s stable, it’s fast enough that you can have low enough latency. And honestly, latency isn’t something that we need to worry about too much because we’re not live monitoring our sound unless we’re doing a…
A podcast?
Unless we’re doing a podcast or unless you’re doing a live directed session. So certain terms like latency, they’re not that important for us yet.
You know, I’ll have you know, by the way, VO friends, I suffer for you so much that I’m hearing myself in a two second delay while we do the podcast and I’m going insane, but I do it all for you.
I know, I’m lucky. I don’t have that issue on this end. So, but thank you, Paul.
We appreciate it. We just need to figure out the best ways to do that.
We’re working on it.
We’re working on it. Every day is a journey. So going back to interfaces, before we had talked about USB microphones and why you might want to use them, why you might not.
So a USB microphone has three components in it. It has the microphone, the analog digital converter, and a preamp. While it’s convenient to have all of these things in the same device, because it’s pretty much just plug and play, where you suffer is in the digital conversion and in the sound quality.
That’s why it’s more beneficial to even have an inexpensive XLR microphone and an audio interface. And these boxes can be quite complex or very simplistic. Let’s talk about one of the more basic models, say the Focusrite Scarlett Solo.
Now you see a lot of these one channel interfaces out these days that have a one channel mic input. So you can plug one mic into them. They will have a phantom power option.
So you can send phantom power to your microphone, which you will need if you’re using a condenser mic. And then they have a USB out on the back and then maybe some speaker outs to plug in some additional monitoring speakers and the headphone jack. And that’s it.
And then maybe a couple of knobs for adjusting your volume for your headphones and for the mic. Now, when you get into some more expensive options, like say the Audient ID22 or the Apollo Twin Solo, these are about $600 units. What happens is you have better preamps, you have better conversion.
So you have a super clean signal, a very quiet signal, and you have additional features like different input and output capabilities. You might have more preamps, you might have two preamps, four preamps, six preamps, eight preamps. So you can hook up even more microphones.
Probably don’t need that. But you also have the ability to route your audio signal in and out of your computer. So you might be able to use an external preamp, you might be able to use a phone patch, if you have a phone patch device, or you might be able to use an ISDN box, which would allow you to be recorded by another studio in real time.
So when you’re just starting out, you probably don’t need those more sophisticated, more expensive units. There’s a lot that you can do with one of these more basic one or two channel interfaces.
Yeah, so let’s talk about some of the simpler ones that are out there. You mentioned the Scarlett Solo. I personally started with the Scarlett 2i2, which I know is a really popular model.
It’s made by the company Focusrite. And what I liked about that was the simplicity, like you said. It did have two XLR inputs and they were both able to be phantom powered, but it really only had four knobs on it.
Two gain knobs, a headphone, and an output for speakers, like you said. So that was a good one. Another simple one that I also tried out is the Shure X2U.
It’s a inline device that sort of looks like a XLR plug. You can plug the mic right into it, and it’s only about, what, three and a half inches long.
It’s one of the smallest interfaces you can find, really. And you just hook it up, like Paul said, at the back of your microphone. It’s about the size of a pack of gum.
It’s not very big at all, and you can usually find it for less than $100. So it’s a popular option for people who just want something that just works. And it’s also very portable for travel, too.
Yeah, that’s the reason I bought it, was to use traveling to do auditions on the road, possibly even in the car. I did use it a few times for that, because it’s so small, it can fit in your pocket, like you said. It’s more, it’s round, so it’s more like a roll of lifesavers, really.
But the issue I had with it was… Yeah, Mentos, the fresh maker. But the issue I had was, the dials were really difficult to control.
Yeah, they were…
They were thumb switches.
They’re really small and…
And really hard to roll back and forth.
They have like sort of an infinity scrolling feature, so you can’t really record individual settings for later. So you kind of just have to adjust it each time to make sure it’s where you’re at. They have a similar, more expensive model as well called the Micport Pro.
It’s been out for a while now, at least six years, I think. About as long as I’ve been studying voiceover and stuff like that. A lot of people use it.
People tend to either like the Shure X2U or the Micport Pro. They both do the same thing. They’re a one channel interface, very small footprint.
And you can either hook it up directly to the XL hour out on your microphone, or you can hook it up to the cable as well. Whatever works best for you. And so those ones are really convenient.
Like we were talking about, we had the Focusrite Scarlett Solo, where you have these sort of like little rectangular boxes with the one channel, usually a one mic input and a one instrument input. And now you see these guys everywhere. Like they’re sort of, I like to call them the singer-songwriter interfaces.
Cause they’re a newer product for sure. Cause what you see is that these interface companies will go from these larger units. And once they’ve worked out all the kinks, they just keep reducing features and inputs until you’re left with this small box that amateurs or people who just want to like plug and play can use.
So hooray for exponential technology increases.
So we talked about some of those one channel or even the 2i2 was a two channel interface.
Yeah.
Let’s talk about some of the other ones that you and I have personally used.
So like I said, my very first one was the Focusrite iTrack Solo. And I got that for a couple of reasons. One, it was on sale.
It was less than $100. And it is iOS compatible. It actually had a little jokingly small device link cable.
So this was one that connects directly to an iPad or an iPhone and it was just this…
The original, like the 30-pin connector?
Yeah, it was the 30-pin connector and it had this, it was like super small and it had this ridiculous right angle. So it was just bad. I don’t know, they had to, Focusrite had to meet Apple’s very strict cable requirements.
So that’s why they had such an odd shaped one. Nowadays, when you have iOS or Android compatible interfaces, they usually are fine with the cable that comes with your device or they come with it. So like I said before, the technology is constantly improving to make this stuff usable with a variety of devices.
But anyways, use the iTrack Solo, sounded great, very quiet preamps, very accurate preamps. But the one thing I didn’t like about it was the durability. Cause I mean, you’ve got this hollow metal chassis, like this folded aluminum, and then like a plastic faceplate and rear plate.
And after using the interface a couple of times, the faceplate was coming forward. Like I felt like I could just yank it out, you know? And so I just gave that to a music friend as like a birthday gift.
And then I got the Steinberg UR12, which is almost the same device, very similar, similar sounding preamps, maybe a little bit louder, but they have a nice musicality to them, for lack of a better word. They’re pleasant to listen to. And they’re very stable, they have stable drivers, and it’s built like a tank.
It’s seated very well in the chassis. It’s got a lot of the same features. It’s got one mic input, one instrument input, works with Macs, PCs, iOS devices.
It was a cool little device. But then after that, I decided to make a major upgrade in sound, and then I went all the way up to the Audient ID22.
Yeah. That’s a big jump.
That was a big jump.
You mind sharing the difference in price between those two?
So a lot of the ones that we have been talking about before are in the $100 to $150 range. So with the exception of some newer devices like the Audient ID4, which is another one channel interface, which comes in right at $200, most of these things are $100, sometimes even less, to $150. I mean, voiceover is filled with expenses, but these ones are pretty minimal comparing to how expensive a microphone or like a whisper room or some other piece of equipment can be.
But the Audient ID22, at least at the time, was, because it’s gone down a little bit, was $600. Oh! So that’s a big leap in price.
Yeah, honestly, that’s really not that, like you said, voiceover is expensive and that’s really not even that huge of a leap.
Yeah, it’s not. Like I said before, why would I go up? Why would I make this jump?
And the reasons is the additional features. So I think the most important question that you need to ask yourself when you’re looking at an interface is, what are your needs? What features do you actually need?
Do you have one mic? Then you just need one channel interface. Do you have two mics or do you plan on getting two?
You should use a two channel interface.
And the reason you might use two mics, not just to have one because you feel like having two mics, but you may use different mics for different styles of VO. I use my AT875R. It’s a shotgun primarily for commercials, e-learning, basically anything that takes me less than 10 minutes of constant narration.
But I have an Electro Voice RE320 for long form when I do longer e-learning pieces or audio books.
Absolutely. Your mics might have certain characteristics that you like. For example, a lot of people use the Sennheiser 416, which is a shotgun mic for promo, some commercial work, and even some documentary I’ve heard in Los Angeles.
But some people think that it’s far too aggressive for longer reads and can cause listener fatigue. So a lot of people will use a different mic, like a large diaphragm condenser, like say the Neumann TLM 103 or the CAD E100S or the Rode NT1, which is what I use, for longer, more straight passages. And I understand Paul likes his 320 because it’s got a little bit warmer sound to it.
It’s pleasant. It’s a little less sensitive to ambient noise, things like that.
That’s the key for me. But yeah, like you said, you have to make sure you know your needs and having more than one mic might be one of those.
And for some people, it’s not even that difficult just to swap mics and swap cables, but some people, they just want to be as efficient as possible and have access to both mics, depending on the project. And then going back to that Audient ID 22, why the difference in cost is the features. So it had a lot of desirable input and output routing features that I was interested in.
One of the things that sets this interface apart is it has something that’s called an insert send. So what that is, is that allows you to hook up an external piece of analog gear like a preamp or a compressor or an equalizer or some other analog device like that. The difference is, is that this will go into the device, it will not go through, it will bypass the audience internal preamps.
One of the confusing things about talking about audio interfaces and talking about analog gear is that you’ll hear people say interface and preamp almost interchangeably, and it can be confusing. The reason is, most interfaces have their own preamp inside of it, because these companies that make audio interfaces were making analog gear beforehand. So that’s the technology grew out of the analog gear.
So usually your interface will come with its own set of preamps. Some people might be happy with those preamps. Some people might not.
So they might want a different character preamp. Now the problem is, with a lot of those less expensive interfaces, there is no way to bypass the internal preamps. So that signal will be affected by the audio interface.
That could be a pleasing effect, or it might be an unpleasant one. That’s the issue. You would want to find something that you could plug into your device and have sort of an unfiltered signal.
Yeah, but again, that might be something you need, but maybe not.
I think we can safely say it’s not something you need at the beginning of your career.
Probably not, yeah. But there’s a lot of established voice over talent that have an interface with a built-in preamp and are perfectly happy with it. Mm-hmm.
And this may be something you need, it might not be, because I feel like there are two schools of thought. There are people who have been doing voice over for a very long time. They’re seeking a very specific sound.
They may or may not be audio engineers as well. And they’re looking for a specific sound. There are a number of preamps that are often recommended for voice over, like the Avalon 737 or the Avalon M5, the Martin Sound MS-10, the Universal Audio Twinfinity 710.
Preamps like this are often mentioned with the same mics over and over again. Problem is, a lot of these things cost $1,500, $2,000, $2,700, and that’s just one link in your chain. And then they’re hooking that up to a $600, $700 audio interface, and they’re using a $1,000 to $3,200 mic.
So as you can see, the cost can go up exponentially. And you have to ask yourself, is that additional cost a worthy return on your investment? Are you getting that much of an edge with this particular equipment, or can you sort of strip down and have a perfectly usable, perfectly competitive sound without all that extra gear?
I would say for most of our audience, the answer is probably no. Absolutely. We’re probably looking for a, what we call a prosumer grade device, where it has great built-in preamps as well as the interface.
And that’s all you’re going to have. You’re going to plug your mic into that, plug the interface in the computer, and you’ll be done.
Absolutely. And funny story about that. So I had, I did have the Audient ID22 for a while.
It was like my first big step up in quality. And I did, I did notice a big difference. It was great.
And it’s very encouraging when that happens, when you do have a noticeable upgrade. But unfortunately, after a few months, I had a bit of a funny story. The unit got wet because there was a storm at my house and the ceiling leaked and the unit got wet and it went kerfluffle.
Yeah, it was an unhappy time. But so I didn’t want any downtime, but I couldn’t afford to replace it. So I got the Audient at that time had just come out with a stripped down version, the Audient ID 14.
It had the great preamps and conversion of the ID 22, but it didn’t have some of the additional routing features. And then I was like, you know, I wasn’t using any of those. So it was like, because I didn’t, I wasn’t using any external gear and I didn’t have an ISDN box.
So I was like, wow, I, maybe I should have just waited for this to come out. So that was, that was a little expensive mistake, but I mean, it was a happy one. Cause you’re, you’re like, wow, I really didn’t need it.
And it has such a smaller footprint and it’s portable. You can use it as a travel solution and it just sounds great. I’ve never had any complaints.
And just sort of as an experiment, Audient came out with an even smaller one, their version of the one channel interface called the ID4. And honestly, I haven’t noticed a difference in quality. Between those three units, which go from $200 with the ID4, $300 for the ID14.
Although I’ve been really impressed with some of the great deals I saw during cyber week. Some people were selling theirs for 200 or 250. And if you can find it for that price, get it.
And then the ID22, which is gone from about $600 to $500. Sometimes you can find them for $450 or so on eBay. But honestly, I was like, yeah, I don’t need any of these additional features.
I just need a good preamp and good conversion.
Yeah, for our longtime fans, of which I know there are many, we recorded the whole Mavo episode, episode three on the ID4 live at the trade show floor.
Yeah, and I also used it for my little review of the Carry On Vocal Booth. And I thought it sounded great. It’s really nice.
So other than that, figure out what your budget is. If you can’t spend $600 on an interface, then don’t. There are definitely less expensive alternatives.
So once I found my interface, I got the ID and ID14. I used that for a while. I’m really happy.
And then I saw the video for the Yamaha AGO3. This one’s an interesting device. What is it?
About $125. It’s a one channel interface slash USB mixer. And what’s attractive about this unit is it has a lot of what’s called DSP, or Digital Signal Processing.
So if you’re an audio engineer or if you like to produce your own stuff, you can play with equalization and compression and some other settings, and then you can actually save those into that device for later. So for its price, between the $100 to $150, it sounds just as good as the competition as like the Focus Ride or the Steinberg stuff, actually Yamaha and Steinberg work together. They use the same preamps.
So you know you’re getting good quality with that. And then it had all that additional routing features. We’re using it for the podcast right now for its loopback feature, which allows me to record Paul remotely.
And it’s super simple. You just switch a button and then you can record someone from anywhere else in the world. Although we still haven’t figured out how to turn off that whole headphone feedback for Paul.
Right, and the reason you would want that feature, aside from doing a podcast, is if you’re being remotely directed by a client or a production house, where with some other interfaces, you may have to run another chord or use another interface to get that magic to happen. This creates basically a mix minus out of the box with just a flip of a switch where you can play back for the client what you just recorded and they won’t hear themselves looping back behind it. It’s really a great feature to have for those who are just starting out and may not understand the routing.
Or honestly, for those who have been doing this for a while, like me, and still don’t understand the routing.
Yeah, it’s a really elegant solution to a very specific problem. One that you might not even have, it allows you to actually record both ends of the conversation and play back. That’s the unique aspect of it, is actually being able to go to an earlier place on the track and then play it back for someone on the other end.
Because occasionally during a Skype or a phone patch, they will ask to hear a track played back. And you can do this with other software, with other solutions like IPDTL or Source Connect, or it’s essentially what an ISDN box does as well. But at a much lower price point and with far fewer cables and headaches.
Yeah, there’s actually another model, the big brother, so to speak, of that series. It’s called the Yamaha AGO6. So the AGO3 is a single channel.
The AGO6 is virtually the same, except it has another mic input. It doesn’t have phantom power to that second mic input. But if you’re using, say, a dynamic mic, or the inputs are actually combo inputs, both XLR and quarter inch jacks.
So you could plug a guitar into it, or another piece of music equipment, like a keyboard, and play that through the mixer at the same time. Now again, voiceover artists would necessarily use this. But I’m using the AGO6 right now on my end of the podcast, again, because I have those two mics.
My second mic is a dynamic mic that doesn’t need phantom power. So that’s why I’m able to get away with having the two inputs with only one phantom power.
Really, it doesn’t work, it doesn’t turn it on for both channels?
No, it does not. I found out the hard way, actually.
Oh, no.
I didn’t know that at first. I was trying to power a condenser with the second channel and didn’t know why it wasn’t working. So that’s one of the primary reasons I use a dynamic now for that second mic.
Okay, no thine device.
Yeah, again, it goes back to knowing what features you need and which features you’re going to use, or at least what you think you might use in the future.
And you know your preferences. So we’ve talked to some of our friends and some people, for example, me, Paul, our friend Mike, who’s been on the VO Meter Schtick. We’re gear heads, unabashedly so.
We like experimenting and trying out new gear that we can afford, hopefully. But then another friend of ours, lovely lady named Heather, she just wants to know that her equipment is going to work. So she bought the best that she could afford, and then she was done.
She was done looking. So you know yourself best if you just want a good sounding preamp, one or two channels, something from Focusrite, Steinberg, or Audient in the one channel or two channel category, you’ll be fine.
Yeah, I can’t stress enough, know your needs, because you may buy something you may not end up using, like Sean was saying, or in my case, I actually just recently bought an ID14, and was completely overwhelmed by all the features. In addition, one of the reasons I bought it was because I was having a technical difficulty with my Yamaha EGO3, and it turned out it was just a user error on my end. So, I bought the ID14.
Yes, it did sound great, but like Sean was saying, I wasn’t using any of the features in that at all. And in fact, it was confusing me so much that it was getting in the way of the work. So you want to make sure you have equipment that actually helps you do the work.
If you’re spending all your time adjusting features and turning knobs, and troubleshooting, it’s going to screw with your performance.
That’s why we’re at this beautiful time where the technology has really caught up, and you can get by with less. With spending less, with less inputs, with all of it. So it’s really a good time to get into voiceover.
Indeed.
So we were talking about that. Figure out what features you need, and honestly, you can get by with one of these one or two channel interfaces, maybe for your entire career. You might never need to upgrade.
But if you’re like me, you might get frustrated after a while, and you might try to fool around with something and hope that the next piece of gear will improve your sound. You might ask yourself when to upgrade. Well, like we said before, if your equipment is not meeting your needs, for example, if you need to be able to communicate with clients via Skype or Phone Patch, and your interface doesn’t allow you to do that, you might need something with more IO.,
with more input-output capabilities. If you’re not happy with how it sounds, you might want to try the preamps from a different company. I’m currently looking at this one interface from SPL, which is a German company called the Creon, which is supposed to have very neat…
Of course you are.
Of course I am. I don’t… Keep in mind, I don’t need it, and I probably won’t buy it, but I am looking…
Because you never know when you’re going to find a good deal on eBay, right?
Yeah, I’m still keeping my eyes open for an Apogee Duet.
Well, I think that’s old technology, honestly. And I know people have used it for a long time, and they’ve been happy with them. But recently, with some of the Mac OS upgrades…
Because keep in mind, Apogee’s only work with Macs.
Well, actually, the Duet 2, I believe that works with both platforms.
Ah, they might have changed it. But for a while, Apogee was only Mac, and the recent OS upgrades weren’t compatible. So here you have a product that is incompatible with the one product it’s supposed to be compatible with.
Yeah, I could be mistaken, but I’m pretty sure the Duet 2 is compatible all the way up to El Capitan, last I checked, and also Windows.
So what is it about that unit that’s interesting to you?
Well, I’m constantly chasing an easier way to route audio back to clients and or my podcast host. So that was the initial reason I got the HD03, so I could play the loop back to clients. And actually, the way I first used it was with my coach.
So if you’re in a coaching session and you’re doing it remotely and you want your coach to hear your performance, it’s a great feature for that too.
Yeah, or if you want to listen back on your own coaching sessions, I’ve done that as well.
Yeah, that’s true. But the feature about the Apogee Duet is it has an internal loop back feature as well. There’s really only a few prosumer-grade interfaces that have that feature.
The Audient is one, not the four, but the 14, the 22, the HD03. There’s three or four focus rights that do that feature. And the Apogee Duet is one of the only other ones I’m aware of.
I believe you can do it with…
I’m talking about under the $400, $500 range.
Because there’s this big gap. It’s like most of those things are in that $100 to $200 category, and then you have some in the $250 to $500, but mostly it’s just additional inputs. I mean, you’re just kind of tacking on IO.,
and then it’s not until you get to the $500, $600, $700 category that you really get those additional routing features, and then you have a step up in preamps and digital conversion and stuff like that. And I believe you can do the SPL that’s got, it’s a monitor controller, so you can route a lot of stuff like that too, similar to the ID22. But since I’m such an Audient fanboy, I just wanted a different flavor and try something new.
And it had certain things like, for example, a high pass filter at 70 hertz. So a high pass filter is something that takes out all of the low frequencies in a recording that are far outside the scope of the human voice. So like rumbling from equipment or things outside that you don’t want that muddy up a track.
Well, that’s a good point. A lot of these companies we’re talking about do have a built-in high pass filter. You do have to be careful because in some cases, it’s a little high.
I think the audience are actually 80, aren’t they?
No, those are at 100 Hz.
100.
So a lot of audio users, that’s one of their big tips, is that it’s not at a desirable frequency. It’s a little bit too low.
Too high, don’t you think?
Or I’m saying it’s affecting things that’s beyond what they want.
Right, because certain voices, mine included, when they’re deep, will have voice power between 50 and 100. Definitely 100. And in some cases, mine is actually one where I have some power in my voice around 50.
And a high-pass filter at 70 will cut out some of those frequencies that are actually desirable for my voice.
Yeah, so you’ll get a thinner sound. It’ll lose richness or fullness. So that’s why I was looking at the Creon, is that it had a desirable 70 hertz high-pass filter.
And then it was just laid out very logistically, or very logically, and it’s got all these cool buttons, of course, because who doesn’t like buttons? But it just seemed like a great step up, and it did have some useful features that could help me out. But at the moment, I don’t really need it.
I’ve got an interface, I’ve got a backup, and I’ve got a backup for a backup, so I think I’m okay.
Yeah, exactly.
All right, so I think you guys have been inundated with enough information about audio interfaces. So just to sort of wrap up, an audio interface is something that allows your microphone to communicate and be recorded by your computer. They can be incredibly simple or very complex, and when you’re looking for one, just keep in mind what is your budget.
Buy the best one that you can afford. And keep in mind, the $100 to $200 interfaces can go a long way. You can use these with $500 to $1,000 microphones with some of the industry standards, like the Neumann 103 or the Sennheiser 416, and get a competitive sound.
You don’t need to spend $500, $800 on an interface right off the bat, especially if you’re just getting started and you’re not sure if this is going to pan out. So, if you take anything away from this, know your budget and know your needs, and then try to stay within those. If you want a backup or an upgrade, then it’s fine to buy additional pieces of gear.
But other than that, don’t go too hog wild, unless you like gear, and that’s your reason right there.
It’s not a bad idea to plan ahead a little bit. Like you said, don’t break the bank. But early on, I knew I was probably going to use two mics because I wanted to make sure I could stand for certain styles and sit for certain styles.
So I really needed an interface that could take two mic inputs. So that was my only criteria for buying an interface. But I did plan ahead and buy one that was probably a little more than I needed because I was trying to future-proof.
And then I sold it anyway and bought three more. But that’s beside the point.
Having room to grow is definitely important. But as you might notice, even though we’re trying out different units, we have very specific reasons for doing that. It’s not just like, oh, this is cool.
Even if it’s just trying something out to be able to recommend it to other talent. Like, that’s the whole reason why I bought that Audient ID4 is because I was a big fan of Audient and I was able to get a discounted demo version. And I can wholeheartedly recommend it to talent because it’s super easy to use, looks cool, and sounds great.
I think we have beaten the digital converter box debate to death. Hopefully, we have been able to give you guys some good information and some recommendations if you’re in the market for a new interface. So, I’m Sean Daeley with The VO Meter Podcast with my co-host Paul Stefano.
Come check us out over at vometer.com to subscribe.
And if you’d like to be featured on The VO Meter Schtick or have any other comments, please let us know in the comments box. We’ll see you next time.
Thanks again for listening and happy interfacing. Thanks for listening to The VO Meter. Measuring Your Voice Over Progress.
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