How important is the tech side of Voiceover?
Bryce: Well, I was lucky because I always had engineers I could rely on when it came to tech…ACTUAL experts in mic positioning and fixing anything that goes wrong. That all changed during the pandemic, when I discovered that I had to learn all the tech stuff myself – and fast!
I was able to work all through the pandemic, but that’s because I really dug in and learned a lot in order to get that true studio sound at home.
What tech do you work with?
Bryce: I have a Universal Audio LA 610 MK2 preamp, and an inbox that pushes into ProTools, but I didn’t start with this setup – I worked my way up to it. My first mic was worth $50 that I bought from Guitar Center, and I positioned that mic in the corner of a closet, and hung some drapes to get the bounce to stop.
Back in those days that’s all you needed to submit an audition. These days so many more people have invested into home studio equipment, and you can get a much cleaner studio quality sound much easier now.
At the start of the pandemic I didn’t have a full studio built out, so I built one in a closet. I was very fortunate because my uncle builds studios for musicians, so he was able to advise me in how to build something quickly.
Nothing was available during that time either, but we were able to finagle a pretty decent closet studio space. I’m pretty vertically challenged and I don’t take up much space, so I snugged myself in there and recorded Sword Art Online, Demon Slayer, tons of video games, and tons of shows and anime.
I also had to be conscious of kids, dogs, and birds. We had wild parrots living near us at that time, and engineers would constantly ask “Is that a parrot in that take?” And it was! But I was like “No, no, that wasn’t a parrot. Just some weird sound – probably from source connect!”
How do I audition when I’m on the road?
Bryce: It’s tough on the road and I’m not the best at packing equipment when I travel. I always bring my laptop, but I don’t bring an external mic anymore. I’ve found that iPhones have gotten a lot better, so I just utilize the phone, which surpassed my external mic in quality. I’ve booked off my phone a couple of times, which is pretty cool.
To treat the space when I’m on the road I build a pillow fort. I go into the pillow fort and scream, and hope my hotel neighbors don’t call security! That’s happened before when I was doing a military audition – screaming “GRENADE!” in a hotel room at 2am is a lot of fun.
I’ve also found casting directors pretty forgiving when it comes to audition quality. If it’s terrible, and hard for them to hear your performance, then of course that’s a problem. But if the quality of your acting and the character comes through, even if a little distorted, it can still be enough to get their attention.
Steve: I would add that you should always let your agent or the casting director know if your audition was recorded on the road, or on a small device like an iPhone. You want to make sure they know it’s not your home studio. If you get a call back they’ll likely want to hear what your room sounds like too, and you’ll be able to really shine.
Recording when it’s noisy
Bryce: Not only do I have three kids, but they’re also as loud as me.They were very hard to keep out of my takes when I began recording at home, because I was in a space that wasn’t fully soundproof. This is GREAT practice though! If you end up with outside noise for any reason, you get to do that take again exactly the same, and learn how to edit your takes together seamlessly.
It’s a very good skill to learn, to pull your takes together and make it sound like you didn’t do any editing, AND you’ll also get really good at repetition. These are skills you’ll need to have anyway, because even if you’re in a studio with a professional engineer and high-end microphones, you can still mess up and need to redo a take exactly the same way.
ProTools crashes even in the most pro studios, and microphones don’t always capture the sound right. You might do a great take and they’ll say “Ah can you step back a little bit?” or “We didn’t catch that one” for whatever reason. You need to be able to capture that moment again and again if something like that happens.
So roll through those auditions, and if something messes up your take – just do it again!
Steve: And the great thing is we do have the digital ability to manipulate now. I was just in a hotel room a couple of weeks ago that was very noisy. There was machinery going on and off outside, and I was desperately trying to get a piece done. I just did it over and over and over again and tried to catch it between the noise. So even if you get just one phrase of the audition, cut it together with the next piece. Wait until a break in the noise, and then jump in and record.
Make use of recording software
Steve: You should learn how to duplicate through repetition, but if you also have decent recording equipment, look at the sound waves as you’re recording. For practice, see how many times in a row you can record a line identically. Start with something short – just three or four words.
Being able to match yourself and duplicate your lines is a skill that will come in really handy in live sessions, especially if you’ve got a director asking for that “perfect take”. They’ll ask “Can you duplicate that?”. Maybe you won’t even know what you did, but they’ll happily play it back for you, and they’ll LOVE you for having the ability to duplicate it exactly. Often, they’ll ask for exactly the same intention and music of the read, but faster, slower or more or less projected, etc. Another great thing you can practice on your own time.
Editing Yourself
Steve: Let’s say you’re working on your own, recording a piece, and you get three quarters of the way through and make a mistake. Power through to the end before starting over again! There might be parts of that first take that you really love, so keep going. This happens in the studio all the time. They’ll say “Oh God, why did you stop? It was so good! Yeah, there was a problem there, but we can cut that together.”
Don’t edit yourself to the point where you lose the spontaneity. Just roll through with it, go back and listen to it, and see if there’s something salvageable in there.
And just so you know, most of my auditions are cobbled together like Frankenstein. I’ll do three or four takes and then cobble together something that sounds great. But I always know I have to be able to duplicate that end result, so make sure you can too.
Regardless of what tech you’re working with or where you’re working, it comes down to your own skillsets once again.
If you develop the skill to duplicate yourself exactly, to roll through regardless of mistakes, and to edit together the bits you like, it’ll be time well spent that will make you even more valuable!
Excerpted from Class 91 with Guest Teacher Bryce Papenbrook and Steve Blum. Want to become a student and take part in LIVE classes with Q&A? Click here.