VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[georgethetech]

Don LaFontaine once told me, and I am paraphrasing...
"I could be talking into a can on a string, they'd still hire me"
During the time I worked with Don, he had several different mics in the booth besides his venerable Manley Cardioid, such as an SE2200a, and Brawner VT1 (I think), and a few others. Didn't really seem to matter all that much at the end of the day...
It's the voice and the talent, the mic chain comes a distant second. Get the basics under control (quiet room, acoustics under control, quiet mic chain) and there just isn't much else to worry yourself about in the equipment department. Hey, if you get to the point where you can buy toy-ools, do it because it makes you feel good and it's fun. If you are concerned about making the rent, stick with what you've got and keep at it.
And yes, you CAN plug a U87 into a MicPort Pro and an MXL909 into a Avalon 737 and get fabulous results either way.
BTW... Thanks for the great deal on the 416, Philip. My client is very happy.
_________________
If it sounds good, it is good.
George Whittam
GeorgeThe.Tech
424-226-8528
VOBS.TV Co-host
TheProAudioSuite.com Co-host
TriBooth.com Co-founder

[Philip Banks]

I tried a room test with a known quantity - A bad mic, or in the case on my control item, mics. I took my camcorder into my wee huttie and recrded something to see what would happen.


dud mics

Lets be honest, balancing a camcorder on my copy stand and reading something was only going to show the weakness of the mics, a known quantity, the weakness of the performance, another known quantity and the weakness of the room - The unknown quantity. So, what did you hear?

Why does the picture quality of most home videos look bad? Poor lighting.
Why do most home studios studios sound bad? Poor room.[/url]

[Ed Gambill]

Philip

Camera Noise, you need a Blimp. Ambiance is every thing.

The transducer is next in line. Bad glass or bad capsule and the quality will suffer. Poor image capture device or poor electronic (mic) and a continual degradation of the raw input.

You need a Blimp on the camera. Now as to lighting, I use as Sekonic L-508 it works wonders for lighting and keeping the key to fill ration in balance.

Other wise it’s all good.
_________________
Esse quam videri "To be rather than to seem"
www.SaVoa.org No. 07000 Member AES

[Tom Test]

Great to meet you this afternoon, Justin!

Okay, I hope I don't embarrass myself here. I have not cheated. I listened to the file as is first. But the levels seemed too low, so I opened the file up in Sound Forge 9.0 and processed through Wave Hammer, which adds some compression and normalization. Then I noticed that the level on mic 3 was still too low compared to the other two mics, so I boosted that a bit to make it the same volume (because, other things being equal, louder sounds better and that was affecting my evaluation).

I found that mics 1 and 2 sounded very similar. Both sounded good, though a little boomy/boxy. But I liked mic 3 the best. It sounded most natural of the 3. Interestingly, before I tried to boost levels and even things out, I liked mic 3 the least. So that shows the importance of trying to get the levels as equal as possible when doing a mic shootout.

Also Justin, I think it might be most helpful if, instead of just saying words, you actually read from a few different styles of scripts with these mics. Maybe I'd like mic 1 or 2 better on a hard-sell retail read. Maybe I'd like 3 best on a warm fuzzy spot for a hospital. I get closer to the mic on the warm, authoritative reads that I do a lot of. How would you sound if you did that with these mics? It's not really possible for me to know for sure if you are just reading words.

Speaking of which, I wondered if 10 inches away was too far. Unless it's a really hot mic.

Okay, so now I'll read other's comments and hope I haven't made a fool of myself! Thanks for doing this - I always enjoy mic shootouts.
_________________
Best regards,
Tom Test
"The Voice You Trust"
www.tomtest.com

[Tom Test]

Okay, now that I've read the comments, I see you did another test file evening out the levels and playing around with your proximity.

Funny, from your 1st test, mics 1 and 2 sounded very similar, but on the 2nd test, mic 2 did sound quite muddy. I know some folks rave about Lauten mics, so I wonder why I didn't like it at all. Maybe it would work better with a different preamp? Maybe it's a mic placement thing? Maybe it's just not good for your particular voice.

I still like mic 3 best. Sounds like you - and others - do, too!
_________________
Best regards,
Tom Test
"The Voice You Trust"
www.tomtest.com

[jrkaiser]

Tom, great to meet you as well as Pam, TC, MO and Husband, Pat, and of course Bob. What a great time and great company.

Thanks for taking a listen. The 3rd mic is the Mojave Audio. It seems to have everything I'm looking for in a sound.

All this talk about acoustics has me researching this a bit more.

Without trying to overthink this, yeah right, I hear an ever so slight loss in the low mid...

It's interesting though how we hear things. I had a friend tell me that although mic 3 might edge out mic 2 a bit, he would choose mic 2 as it’s not as “full” in the lower freqs yet has all the charactersistics of my voice.

Again, some people hear things differently. Some said the room was appalling, some said it sounded perfect.

The big project now is trying to figure out what to do with the computers without spending hundreds on cables or KVM Extenders...

Again, great to meet you and thanks for taking a listen!

JK

[Gregory Best]

I concur with the opinion of the high court of VO. (Justin, the following is generic and in no way reflects on your space or delivery) Now back to the regularly scheduled program.

I too was sucked into the vortex of gear-itis. I bought a tube mic which is way too sensitive for my space and not that much sweeter sound. I am now back to my first mic an AKG C-3000 condenser I purchased used on eBay for what I think was $60 and a $20 Behringer dynamic I use when room noise is more of an issue, e.g., no background music/sfx or long-form narration work.

I've been hired from auditions done on my $20 Behringer mic using the pre-amps on my Behringer Xenyx mixer. I am in the process of reworking the sound of my space and get rid of computer noise.

These guys are right. It is all about what works for you and is comfortable. You don't have to keep up with the Jones nor is the xxx mic the "industry standard". I am now only concerned with my own standards which start with how I relate to the client and my performance. I don't hear clients ask me what pre-amps I have or what mic I am using. I have had them ask can you do it more like the 1st track on your demo? They do select you for a reason which probably isn't your equipment.

They may not hire you if your sound (you, your environment) and is horrible. They will not hire you if your read sucks or is not what they want.
_________________
Gregory Best

greg@gregorybest.com

[jrkaiser]

Greg, that is well put. Thank you for responding. When I get the gear-itis I always tend to forget my most valuable tool... me.

[Monk]

valuable tool.
I want a T-shirt that says that.

hmm, or maybe I don't.
_________________
Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me...

www.monksvoice.com

[bobsouer]

My T-shirt doesn't have the valuable part. Is that bad?
_________________
Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

[JBarrett]

On mine they misspelled tool. Starts with an "f" instead.

Is it bad that I like it that way?
_________________
Justin S. Barrett
http://www.justinsbarrett.com/

[bobsouer]

Justin,

I think it depends on what the other 3 letters are.
_________________
Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

[jrkaiser]

The acoustics project continues. I've eliminated the computer noise almost entirely by eliminating the 2 PC's in the room and going with Mac Mini's.

See the update on the construction of the bass traps and info over at this thread...

http://www.vo-bb.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8777

[Yoda117]