I've been a writer, director, producer for 30 years and throughout my career I've also worked as a voice actor. Now, I'm looking to do more VO work. Over the years, I've learned to rely on the sound advice of engineers. (No pun intended).
I have a home VO studio consisting of the following: 4X4Vocal Booth (vocalbooth. com / Silver series). Neumann U47fet mic, ProTools LE & M Box, MAC Intel computer, Universal Audio 710 amp., pair of KRK "Rocket 5" speakers, hybrid phone patch. I have a deep, baritone voice with good flexibility and can read from Movie Trailer deep to mid-range DRTV easily. Since putting together the above package, I've been having trouble getting that crisp, clean sound out of my system. When I bounce my ProTools sessions to mp3 (which is how I send my audition scripts to clients/48k @ 256) I get a less than great sound. It sounds a bit muddy and doesn't have that great, crisp sound with plenty of bottom and mid pop. I guess I'm not hearing the punch. I've been told that I may not be using the right mic pre. Although my U47fet is one of the most sought after mics, I wonder if it's the best mic for me. Also, a lot of VO guys I know say they love the Symetrix 528 voice processor. Not sure if a piece of hardware like that has any advantages over the ProTools EQ, compressor/limiter, reverb, etc. that it comes with. All I do is voice work, so I'm interested in knowing what you'd recommend. What strips, pre-amps (tube or transistor) would you recommend, based on your experience?
Although I'm not a novice, perhaps the big questions here is my lack of experience working the EQ, compressor/limiter, de-esser and other controls within ProTools LE. The UA has no controls for these items, so I'm doing it all inside the ProTools software. Software vs Hardware...any thoughts? I'd like to know what experienced sound recordists / engineers think about using the ProTools LE software to EQ, compress and limit, as opposed to a piece of hardware (Amp/strip). Am I missing anything?
Much Obliged
I have a home VO studio consisting of the following: 4X4Vocal Booth (vocalbooth. com / Silver series). Neumann U47fet mic, ProTools LE & M Box, MAC Intel computer, Universal Audio 710 amp., pair of KRK "Rocket 5" speakers, hybrid phone patch. I have a deep, baritone voice with good flexibility and can read from Movie Trailer deep to mid-range DRTV easily. Since putting together the above package, I've been having trouble getting that crisp, clean sound out of my system. When I bounce my ProTools sessions to mp3 (which is how I send my audition scripts to clients/48k @ 256) I get a less than great sound. It sounds a bit muddy and doesn't have that great, crisp sound with plenty of bottom and mid pop. I guess I'm not hearing the punch. I've been told that I may not be using the right mic pre. Although my U47fet is one of the most sought after mics, I wonder if it's the best mic for me. Also, a lot of VO guys I know say they love the Symetrix 528 voice processor. Not sure if a piece of hardware like that has any advantages over the ProTools EQ, compressor/limiter, reverb, etc. that it comes with. All I do is voice work, so I'm interested in knowing what you'd recommend. What strips, pre-amps (tube or transistor) would you recommend, based on your experience?
Although I'm not a novice, perhaps the big questions here is my lack of experience working the EQ, compressor/limiter, de-esser and other controls within ProTools LE. The UA has no controls for these items, so I'm doing it all inside the ProTools software. Software vs Hardware...any thoughts? I'd like to know what experienced sound recordists / engineers think about using the ProTools LE software to EQ, compress and limit, as opposed to a piece of hardware (Amp/strip). Am I missing anything?
Much Obliged