Just like desktop publishing changed the printing business, home studios have forever transformed the world of voice-overs.
If you enjoy hanging out in a stuffy, cramped, dark claustrophobic enclosure all day long, having a home studio is heaven.
Most clients seem to love it. They no longer have to hire an audio engineer and a director and pay for studio time. Theoretically, hiring voice talent with a home studio may save a lot of money, but it can come at a price.
Let me tell you about the downside of home recording.
1. $$$
At some point in your voice-over career you want to get rid of the egg crates and the moving blankets hanging from a pvc frame, and move into a real recording space. You have two choices: Prefab or DIY.
Even the cheapest Whisper Room™ will cost you more than three grand and this does not include shipping (these booths weigh as much as an elephant). The standard, single wall models usually don’t offer enough isolation. Double wall is your best and more expensive bet.
Most booths sound boxy and you will need bass traps to tame the “boominess.” Imagine putting these huge babies in your 3.5′ x 3.5′ space. If you enjoy breathing fresh air, add another $500 for a ventilation system.
Ka-ching!
Of course you can always build your own recording cave. This is not a project you can do on a Sunday afternoon. It might take many months and eat up all your spare time, energy and extra cash.
I designed and built my own booth, but I couldn’t have done it without the help of a contractor-friend. Thanks to him, I was able to keep the costs down. I couldn’t be happier with the result, but if I ever move, my studio stays and I’ll have to start from scratch.
2. More $$$
Dan Friedman says
Great article as always and thanks for the mention Paul!
Paul Strikwerda says
Don’t mention it, Dan. For those who haven’t clicked on Dan’s picture, try it!
Well done! and thank you for the mention. A home recording space seems to come down to the three choices, fast, cheap, or quality. Pick two. I’m fortunate to have some construction skills and know how to scrounge material, (Yay RE-STORE!) and have been planning out my studio for a while. Instead of watching tv at night, I do a project. It can be as simple as putting new outlets in, or polying the trim.
I am surprised how long this is taking me, I started in DECEMBER! but so far costs are below 2k for a 12.5’x15.5′ studio space. (not including my time, which I see as sweat equity and an investment)
A home studio project can be a chicken and egg kind of thing. I’m busy and want to be busier, and to do that, I needed a more consistantly quiet space. Never mind the neighbor’s dog, I’ve got two of my own that want to talk to the squirrels! 🙂
For me, if I was going to do it, and spend the time doing it, I was going to do it right. Hire a pro to design it, and run the calculations, then get right into the detail. I’ll be done by the end of April..(or May) Then my new Neumann u87 will have a comfortable home and I’ll kick my game up to the next level.
Thanks again Paul for some great posts and reality checks. VO work is rewarding, but the work isn’t just reading and talking. It takes tenacity and a willingness to ask for help when you need it. Every top athlete has a coach, and very few make their own sneakers…
You gave me a perfect opportunity to rant about home studios. It’s relatively cheap to dampen the space you’re recording in but there really are no shortcuts to soundproofing it.
Any professional chef needs a good kitchen, sharp knives and some very nice pots and pans. As voice-overs, we need our own Iron Chef kitchen.
However, as voice talent we bring the ingredients, recipes and experience to make everything work.
Great article as always, Paul!
Whisper Rooms are definitely expensive. I was toiling away at how I was going to set up my own “home studio” when I decided to go on craigslist.org where people can literally sell whatever they want at whatever price they want. I found a Whisper Room on there for $500 from a production company about 6 hours from my house that didn’t need it anymore. It’s like new and has a ventilation system.
My point? Keep an eye out for people selling their old (like new) equipment! You never know what you’ll find, and you can avoid the big $$$.
Be on the lookout for voice-over artists leaving the business. They’ll often sell their stuff on Craigslist. It sounds like you got yourself a great deal there, John!
By the way, I really enjoyed your blog http://www.VoiceOverGenie.com/blog/
I’ve always been interested in the Psychology of Persuasion and you’ve definitely persuaded me to read your blog regularly!
I found my booth on CraigsList too! A guy leaving the country and couldn’t take it with him. He lived 3 miles from me! 🙂
Lucky you! Well, it’s almost serendipitous. How do you like it?
I spoke to a guy today who found out what I do for a living and proceeded to ask me how to get started because his friends tell him he has a good voice. He told me that he had been looking at equipment at the Guitar Center and he figures he can get started with about $150.00. I told him that I have over $4,000 tied up in microphones alone. That doesn’t include mixing consoles, processors, computers and other equipment… and we aren’t even CLOSE to building a “real” studio space here. Add that to the 20+ years I have spent “learning to read” and he decided that maybe a career in voice overs is not for him. I have this conversation about 3 times a week with some random person and it either ends out with “oh.” and a blank stare, or someone who thinks that I don’t know what I am talking about and believes that they can leave their day job at Wal Mart and be successful with a USB microphone and a netbook computer in 2 weeks or less.
I am an engineering type who gets just as much satisfaction out of building a studio as I do in using it. I am in my third personal studio at this point and you could fly a jet overhead and you won’t hear it in here! I have built numerous radio studios over the years. That is no easy task, let me tell you! Similarly, too much auralex on the walls will give you an un-naturally “dead” sound, while not enough will give you all kinds of standing waves and slap back! There is an equasion to all of this and the average person who used to be a radio DJ just isn’t equipped for “the other side”.
Just like anything else that “Looks easy”, it probably isn’t! Great blog!
Thanks for your valuable input, Tom! Everybody should check out your voice and studio social network where producers, engineers and talent mix and mingle.
All of us have had the same conversations a million times. Here are my three standard responses:
1. It’s not about the voice. It’s about what you do with it.
2. You can buy first-class equipment but you can’t buy yourself a voice-over career
3. It takes time, training and talent to make a dent in the voice-over universe.
Another great article, Paul, pulling no punches, dispelling myths, telling it like it is … as usual.
I think you could set a lot of people straight on this one.
And you did it in your usually entertaining way!
Oh, the things I do when I get bored….
Seriously, writing stories like this one is my way of welcoming aspiring voice artists to the club of … aspiring voice artists.
Of course I’d be the first one to admit that this is a very one-sided look at home studios. However, people should know that we have lost something prescious in our industry that will never come back.
Well, Paul, it really creeps me out that you saw me walking the dog, weeding my garden, and puttering around the house yesterday, when I should have been recording. What the heck! But I have to applaud you for disemboweling the home studio reality for all to see. It’s not a cakewalk. There are noises you never knew existed in your home until you begin recording. If you really want to hear the background noise, put on the cans and turn ’em up when you listen back to what you’ve recorded. Don’t fool yourself by saying “Oh, but people will be listening in their car or while they’re jogging or on the train, they’ll never hear my dog snoring in the background.” Another well-written blog, Paul. I’m sharing it with a few newcomers I know. It should be mandatory reading.
Yes, I’m keeping an eye on you Ann. Great talent such as yours should not be wasted weeding and walking the dog.
Everybody deserves a shot at success, but as reality shows like “Idol” prove time and again: people overestimate their talent and underestimate what it takes to succeed.
Any gardener can tell you that the most beautiful flowers don’t grow overnight and the strongest trees have the deepest roots.
Paul,
Great post. I may borrow some of it for a future post on Why You Need an Engineer. 😉
While my studio is in my home. I have spent gobs of money making it as acoustically neutral as possible as well as making it as soundproof as possible. I can have a full band recording at 10pm and the loudest you can hear at the neighbors window, is a very quiet radio.
My largest client base are the DIY musicians and VO guys who try to record themselves at home, and eventually realize their demos sound like a 1985 cassette recording, when played back on something other than earbuds.
Most certainly. Have fun at the recording session. I’m sure the band is in good hands!
DCWAVE is on the right track. I am amazed at how few take advantage of the resources available to them via Internet these days. Don’t try to do EVERYTHING yourself. If you are a control freak, you are going to have a very stressful time trying to succeed in business. Ask for help, use your resources, outsource, and manage your time carefully. Virtual assistants await to help, and even virtual engineers!
Experience is the slowest teacher, yet so many people try to reinvent the wheel.
My advice: outsource what you’re not yet familiar with and let the experts handle it. This will save you time, money and needless stress.
I was forced into the solo career by geography (and convenience, I admit) and have managed to make a success of it. As a result I have often been pointed to as an example of what’s possible. But I got here after 15 years working at the BBC and gaining an understanding of those many other trades one needs to know to be a succesful home narrator/VO talent. Then 20 years of slowly building from the corner of as garage to a stable set up – but still not as good as a professional studio with ‘proper’ engineers… I so wish I could hand all those ‘other’ responsibilities to someone else.
Great blog Paul. If it hasn’t been linked to on some of the other places I linger I’m going to do it myself if only as a service to prepare people fully.
Hi Simon, I have had the pleasure of working at the BBC for a short period of time and I learned a lot from my time in London. The level of professionalism was incredible and it forever shaped my personal standards.
Your story is yet more proof of the fact that a voice-over career cannot be bought but has to be earned.
Thank you so much for sharing my story!
You nailed it! Thanks for this great article!
You’re very welcome, Tim! I always wanted to write an “Ode to the Audio Engineer” and at the end of the day, I decided to broaden the topic to home studios. Glad you liked it.
I really liked this too.
Something funny happened yesterday at NY Tech Day in NYC, an event for website start ups.
I met a young Dutch man starting a website whose dad is a voice talent “back home”, as he put it. He knows about you, Paul, and when he mentioned wanting to do voiceovers, brought up your name. LOL
I think that illustrates one thing I hate about home studios. When we spend so much time at home, we never get outside enough to remind ourselves of the importance of personal social skills, or learn face to face, what people really think.
I still find many admire working-from-home voice actors for what they accomplished, and the end result of accomplishing something, means others will try to follow you…and you can never talk them out of it, nor should you treat your fans that way. 🙂
What a small world, Steven! You did know that I’m a celebrity in Holland, didn’t you? 😉
You’re absolutely right about meeting people face to face. There’s no substitute for that and that’s why events such as Faffcon and Voice 2012 are so popular.
Lastly, I’m not trying to talk a people out of the booth, but I’m not trying to talk them into it either. Home studios are here to stay and that’s that.
Your fabulously wonderful at verbally expressing your thoughts and experiences into amazing elements called words, but you already knew that.LOL .:*
I have to agree with TOM Moog on too much auralex can give a wonky deadness to the atmosphere and too little foam sounds ..well,you know, wonky too …and …Your right about the DIY studio is just as costly and time consuming! I don’t have the contractor to help me with my sound room , but through researching and reading lots of forums and stunning blogs like your , Paul…I ‘ve educated myself in getting what suits my needs best, (living in an airplane community) I just ordered my first whisper booth due to arrive next wednesday. Yes, I bit the bullet but Im elated at this investment! (enhanced ISO 4×4 charcoal interior) A supportive family helps too! Your blogs are like a soap opera to me, can’t wait till the next episode!
Congratulations on the arrival of your new booth, Helene. It is wonderful to witness the signs of your success! I know how hard you work and how much you have grown. I can see your career go to an entirely new level now that you’ll be able to record regardless of the jumbo jets flying over your home.
Hi,having been full time at vo since 89 and radio before i agree totally,its harder for me to do a home recording because i am splitting my brain…when i do a voiceover i dont think i do,but when i am the engineer as well,i have to think,that takes away from the first part…lol.I have been blessed to do mostly national work in studio and so much of direction comes from the spaces in the words of direction or the faces of your clients because whats written on the page is not all they wish to convey…lol.Body language can tell you the thing they cant verbalize.By the way, watch the ventalation closely on these boths,i worked in an older box type with another person present and the air was so bad i passed out and hit the wall,human exhale is poison is a big enough concentration,if you get a headache everytime you work,its a problem.be Great,mark trafford,www.marktrafford.com.
And with bad ventilation you have to watch what you eat too! (sorry, I just couldn’t resist)
As one who started out narrating podcast audio books with nothing more than a cheap condenser mic and an old laptop in my walk-in closet i concur on the cost of becoming “pro”.
In the past two years since I started to doing “real” audiobooks for “money” (money in quotes because it is always surprising to me how such a real, physical thing as cash can vanish into thin air so fast with little trace it was ever there) I have pumped several thousand dollars into building a usable, more professional sounding studio. And yet, I am still in my closet, albeit a much more well sound insulated closet with a desk and chair now.
Next step is to replace the make-shift sound dampening materials with good acoustical foam and figure out a way to get air circulating so I am not sweating like a fat guy in a Finnish Sauna.
Hi Basil, I think it’s wise to let the growth of your business drive the improvements you’re making. Without investing you can’t grow, but you need money to finance the improvements.
Ever since I created a soundproof studio, I become much more productive and marketable. Every improvement has paid for itself.
I’d add “needing to wear glasses when working on the computer”…
Great article, Paul. I’ve implemented a “no-turning-on-any-recording-equipment” day to deal with #7, and joined several workout groups to help out with #6.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and saying out loud what many of us think and feel.
Thanks, Sylvia. I love my orange-colored anti-glare computer glasses. I see the world in a new, more colorful way.