Home Studios: The Obvious and the Less Obvious

Whether you’ve just begun thinking about your home studio, are ready to update, or are struggling to refine it, you’re in luck. There is far more than one right way to construct a home studio space!

That’s exactly what led us to start our Home Studio Show & Tell series. We wanted to offer the opportunity for voice actors to connect and share with their peers and colleagues. Every single Home Studio tour on the web series is unique, and no two voice actors have all the same preferences.

When building a Home Studio, there are two categories of elements to consider: the Obvious, and the Less Obvious.

Obvious examples of gear include:

• A microphone – From a $100 USB microphone to a $1,300 Neumann TL-103, pros book work using a wide range of microphones.
• A computer with a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) – A laptop with Audacity works just as well for many pros as a desktop PC with ProTools.

• Sound treatment – From cost-effective options like travel blankets and window screens to professional-grade, expensive ATS 4-inch panels (for comparison, watch episode 12 with Todd Stark and Nicole Franco).

• Headphones – Monitors are great, but over-the-ear studio headphones beat all else for editing and monitoring yourself during recording.

However, as many of our guests on HSS&T have proven, there are some Less Obvious items that can make a world of difference to your Home Studio experience. 

Less Obvious examples include:

• LED-lighting – It can get quite hot in a small booth, and lighting that does not produce heat can help a great deal with this. Just ask Terry Briscoe, featured in Episode 5 [at 31:25].
• Air filtration – An often overlooked one, since it’s a bit trickier to achieve quietly. However, Tony Beltran has come up with a brilliant way around this in Episode 4 [at 35:50].
• “Recording” or “On-Air” sign – If you live with other people, this one can be particularly useful. Can you spot Jason Berminham’s in Episode 10? [at 4:40]
• 2 or 1? – If you’ve got the space, will you keep your editing bay and recording booth separate? Will you use 2 monitors, or 1? If you watch the very 1st episode, Brian Wiggins has 2 separate spaces, and 2 monitors! [at 22:45]

If you’re stuck on where to start or what to do next in your Home Studio, it’s absolutely worth it to check out these episodes of Home Studio Show and Tell. Watch, learn, get inspired, and then join us in a live episode! They take place on the 1st Tuesday of every month. Learn more, and start binge watching, by clicking here!

After just one episode, you’ll see that your options are vast.

If you’re ready to begin acquiring the gear you need but don’t know where to start, just ask Harlan Hogan. Harlan has been in the industry for decades as a leading voice talent for a vast multitude of projects. Noticing a distinct lack of voice-over-focused shops out there, Harlan started Voice Over Essentials as a one-stop shop for all things voice over. From microphones to the famous Portabooth, you’ll find everything you need over at Voice Over Essentials! And just for you, the Edge community, Harlan has graciously provided 20% off of their inventory. Just click here to start shopping, and use this coupon code when you check out: HARLAN23! For a limited time only!