Best Voice Over Mic for Women? It’s Not That Simple
The Pro Audio Suite
Is there actually such a thing as the best voice-over microphone for women? It sounds like a simple question, but once the Pro Audio Suite starts pulling it apart, things get much more interesting. This week, George, Robert, and AP look at why choosing a microphone based on whether the talent is male or female probably misses the point entirely. What matters far more is what the voice is actually doing. Is it bright or dark? Sibilant? Mid forward? Deep and chesty? Does it have a lot of mouth noise? And does the microphone complement those characteristics, or simply exaggerate them? The crew...
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Can You Build a Proper VO Setup in a Tiny Room?
The Pro Audio Suite
How do you build a voiceover audition setup when the room is tiny, space is precious, and you really don't want to pull the whole thing apart every time you're finished? AP's daughter has moved into a share house in Melbourne and needs something permanent enough to give her consistent audition audio without taking over the room. The gear is already pretty capable: a RØDE NTG3, CEntrance MicPort Pro, Porta Booth, TwistedWave, Source Connect and a trusty old pair of AKGs. The question is how to put it all together so it actually works. That gets the guys talking about mic placement, portable...
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In Ears for Voiceover: Brilliant Isolation or Total Overkill?
The Pro Audio Suite
Do voice actors really need in ear monitors? They offer excellent isolation and can sound fantastic, but they can also feel uncomfortable, create an unnatural sense of pressure, and make it harder to hear your own voice unless your direct monitoring is set up properly. In this episode, George, Robert, Robbo and AP look at when headphone isolation genuinely matters, including WALA sessions, radio interviews, music driven reads, remote recording, pickups and situations where headphone bleed can end up permanently embedded in the recording. They also consider the complete opposite approach....
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Mic Splitters, Patchbays and the Search for Clean Gain
The Pro Audio Suite
What is the cleanest way to connect several microphones, preamps and audio interfaces without constantly crawling behind the rack? AP starts with what sounds like a simple question about expanding the line-level inputs on his Audient iD44. That sends the team down a glorious rabbit hole involving passive switchers, mic splitters, USB converters, matrix routers, the Heritage Audio Synth Buddy, ESI interfaces, Broadcast Tools, Source-Nexus and the Passport VO. Eventually, one decidedly old-school solution keeps winning the argument: the humble patchbay. The team discusses quarter-inch, Bantam...
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Do Voice Actors Really Need a Neumann U87?
The Pro Audio Suite
The Neumann U87 may be one of the most recognisable microphones in the world, but does that make it the right microphone for voiceover and animation? This week, the team digs into the reputation, sound and real world value of the U87. Andrew is considering one for Somerset’s animation work, which sparks a much bigger discussion about why certain microphones become industry standards and whether producers genuinely require them. We compare the U87 with alternatives including the Neumann TLM 103, TLM 193, U89, Sennheiser MKH 416, Microtech Gefell models and the Austrian Audio OC818. The...
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AI Fixed the Audio, But Should We Tell People?
The Pro Audio Suite
This week on The Pro Audio Suite, the crew dives into the weirdly perfect world of AI fixing AI. Robert shares a corporate video job about AI adoption that was, rather beautifully, rescued by AI audio cleanup. Robbo jumps in with his own tale of a big corporate shoot where the lapel mics were fitted, but somehow the camera mic was what got recorded. Enter Source Elements ReGen. The team talks through where tools like ReGen sit in the real world of audio post. Not as a first choice, not as a magic button, but as a serious get out of jail option when the recording is so far gone that traditional...
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SSL One First Look: Tiny Interface, Real Knobs
The Pro Audio Suite
This week on The Pro Audio Suite, George brings out a little show and tell with the SSL One, SSL’s compact single mic preamp interface aimed squarely at the same world as the Scarlett Solo and other simple home studio boxes. The team gets into what actually matters for voice actors and home studio users, including physical gain knobs, direct monitoring, high pass filters, 4K mode, USB-C connections, headphone control, auto gain, clip protection, and why simple interfaces are sometimes the best interfaces. There is also a little live testing with Twisted Wave, a quick look at Source Elements...
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Can You Trust What You’re Hearing? Monitoring, Headphones and Room Lies
The Pro Audio Suite
This week on The Pro Audio Suite, the crew dives into one of the biggest traps in audio production: trusting what you think you’re hearing. Robbo talks about working in an unfamiliar studio and being reminded how much your room, routing, monitoring chain, headphones, templates and habits shape the way you work. The conversation moves into headphone mixing, crossfeed, SPL monitoring, virtual control rooms, Sonarworks, Waves room emulation, EQ Mac, old school graphic EQs, and the fine art of not destroying your mix because your room has a 120Hz attitude problem. There’s also a proper old...
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Source Elements Recorder, First Look
The Pro Audio Suite
This week on The Pro Audio Suite, we take a first look at the new Source Elements Recorder, a browser-based recording tool designed for voice actors, producers and modern remote workflows. George opens it up live during the episode with no rehearsal, no manual and no safety net, while Robert walks him through the setup, recording options and deeper features. Along the way, they explore sample rates, bit depth, mono and stereo recording, loudness targets, waveform displays, peak meters, noise floor readings, take management, ratings, notes, level conforming and export options. What starts out...
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Acceptable Audio: What Voice Actors Should Listen For
The Pro Audio Suite
The team breaks down what “acceptable audio” really means for voice actors recording from home, from reflections and noise to mic placement, editing, clothing rustle and using reference recordings. What actually counts as acceptable audio when you’re recording voiceover from home? That question came up after Robbo spoke with a group of aspiring voice actors in Perth. The advice was simple enough, don’t overprocess, don’t gate everything, and send clean raw audio when asked. But one student asked the thing every beginner wants to know: how do I know if what I’m recording is...
info_outlineWhen you talk about pedigree, Des Decean is the antipathies when it comes to building Radio studios...
Des is one of Australia’s most qualified and respected engineers. He has been instrumental in the introduction and launch of Digital Radio in Australia, and back in 1980, Des was the very first employee of Austereo when commercial FM radio was first launched in Australia.
As chief engineer, Des built SA FM in Adelaide into one of Australia’s first FM stations. He was a member of the Acquisition Team when Austereo acquired Fox, B105, 2DAY FM and the Triple M network. With the merger of the Triple M and Austereo networks, Des project managed the simultaneous relocation of Triple M Adelaide, Triple M Melbourne and 2DAY FM Sydney studios.
In 1988, Des was appointed to the first Ministerial Committee on Digital Radio as the representative for Commercial Radio Australia and he was inducted into the Australian Radio Hall of Fame in 2009.
So when we wanted to do a show on Room ratios, and building challenging rooms in general, where did we turn? Where else...
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.”
― Hunter S Thompson