Covid taught me a good few things. It gave me the ‘heebie jeebies’; but it also forced me into the attic to create a wigwam of sorts. When I had to do a VO for Public House and FBD that’s what I did. I went into the attic and build a tent. I bought myself a home starter kit. A Focusrite mic, pre-amp and headphones. It came in a box. I still have the box. Then I bought a mic stand, a pop shield and and got busy building a tent out of blankets in the attic. My wigwam. Child’s play and I loved it. What else would you be doing, this is work.
Almost three years on, things are different, I collapsed the tent, panelled the attic, put in a desk and a chair and slowly began the process of building a home studio. I could be here for a while, and I was, and now that the pandemic is over, I love getting out. I love being back in a real studio but I do so love my studio, ‘fancy word that Mark, ‘studio‘, well I made it fancy, and I built it, still shite at carpentry, still shite at technology but I know my bits from my bobs, my 32 bits, my phantom power, my WAV file and DAWS.
No that is a lie, I don’t know much about DAWS, I know the basics, and I will learn AUDITION, that is a DAW, ( A digital audio workstation), oh that is impressive, Mark, look at you kid! But you know what, the little I know, is due to a lot of people in the advertising and recording industry being so generous with their time in answer to my dumb questions. So do ask, coz there there are a lot of talented and brilliant people out there, who love answering those dumb questions from actors like me. So thank you Dean at Scimitar, my manager Paul at Volcanic, Noel at Beacon Studios, Cormac at Themaplerooms studios, Colm at Raygun, there are others.
Do I have a tip? You can have a fancy swanky mic, there are expensive ones out there, but unless you treat the room, it ain’t worth a dime. I have made loads of mistakes and have got some great advice. Keep the mic away from the corner of the room. I did it once. Make sure the mic is facing you, the front of the mic, isn’t that obvious, no actually, the RODE NTA-1 has a gold spot to tell you that the mic is facing the right way. Such a klutz I am.
What you hear in this new demo, almost all in fact began life over the last two years in my home studio. So when Paul asked me to do a VO from home, I say, ‘Yes Paul I am shite at technology but look what have I’ve learned.’ If anyone has a question about setting up a home studio, the dos and don’ts I’d be very happy to answer them and if don’t know the answer I know just the person who does.