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VO question about best solution within our budget
Hey everyone, I have a question about some VO I need to do for a travel channel style show (like no reservations style VO). Basically, my client is an upstart producer/host of the show and has already invested 15 grand into equipment and I would like to complete the show for him without forcing him to purchase anything else.
The problem with the VO has been that going directly into the Avid it sounds awful because he doesn’t have an analog to digital converter, going directly to tape using a shotgun mic (I know, not the greatest solution) was decent but sort of fuzzy, could I improve this by taking off the foam cover? Also, I was thinking about maybe having him do it directly into the camera mic (Panasonic HD camera, not sure what exact model, but a professional one). Any help would be greatly appreciated. OT: I’m not a real big audio guy, but Sonic Fire Pro is absolutely awesome.
Thanks!
-Mark
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6 Replies
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What model of shotgun mic are you using? What is it plugging into?
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I’m not sure what model the shotgun mic is, but it is going directly into the camera using an XLR cable, and is being recorded to DV tape and then being digitized through firewire into the Avid from the tape.
-Mark
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It’s likely not a good shotgun, or, it’s not set-up properly.
I had a friend with the same problem recently. I recommended he get a Blue Snowflake microphone:
https://www.bluemic.com/snowflake/
It’s a $69 USB mic. It worked out really well for the voiceovers in my friend’s documentary. He was using Final Cut. As long as Avid allows you to use external USB devices like this, you should be fine.
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Reality #1. The human voice is very limited as to pitch and complexity. As such, it’s not very difficult to record accurately. In fact, it’s done every day with microphones that cost less than $100 with excellent results.
Which leaves you with to possibilities – one unlikely – one vastly more likely.
The unlikely possibility is that you have such a terrible recording chain in operation that it’s screwing up your recording.
The FAR more likely possibility is that you have an amateur voice talent and you’re trying to make them sound like a professional talent – when in fact that’s not what they are.
VO is a talent. Just like tennis playing. If you want someone to look like an excellent tennis player on camera – you need to hire a player that can play. Same thing with VO. If you want to record a voice that sounds great – you have to hire someone who’s trained to sound great.
Excellent voice talent plus inexpensive but decent gear EQUALS excellent results.
Crappy voice talent plus $4000 microphone at best yields a pristine recording of a crappy performance.
End of story.
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Thanks for the link Sam, I forwarded it onto him.
Bill, I’m not sure how well saying, “It’s not the microphone, you just are terrible at VO’s” would go over. Thanks for the advice though, I think I will have to make due on this project, but I will definitely keep that in mind in the future, and not only with VO talent, with all talent for that matter.
-Mark
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You’re welcome
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