Home Studio Show & Tell: A New Monthly Voice Over Event

A New Event at Edge Studio

“Hey Siobhan!” David Goldberg greets me in an early January email, “Have you had the chance to talk to the team about the Home Studio Show & Tell?” Like many folks, I struggle with coming back to my inbox in the new year. So many things to think about, so many new goals I’m trying to meet, as well as so many wonderful new ideas to consider. 

One of these wonderful new ideas, I will admit, did not come from me. For anyone who knows me via Edge Studio’s Ask Me Anything series, or anyone who has taken my Social Media for Voice Actors class, you know that I love a spotlight, but I have to give credit where it’s due: this event was all David, and it was all kinds of fabulous. 

Thoughts and brainstorms had been swirling for a few weeks now: what if we got our community together on Zoom, but instead of featuring our team and their talents, we’d feature our community at large and THEIR talents? What if, with the magic of our cameras on, a boisterous chat and some fun facilitation by yours truly (okay, there’s my self-endorsement), we could showcase the magic of our wildly different home studios? Thanks to our Director of Education, Sarah Glugatch, an honest-to-goodness mover and shaker, we put a date on the calendar. Sarah advocated for an evening event, to juxtapose with the afternoon AMA sessions, and to bring in more community members that we may not get the chance to see during the day. And, because it’s a community event, we ALL agreed we wanted the Show & Tell to be free. 

Prep for the Big Night

Leading up to our first Show & Tell, I created a super preliminary Google Form and popped it on our Twitter and Instagram pages, as well as our newsletter. I was truly chuffed to find that 18 people had filled it out on the Monday morning when I needed to make my selections. That was ALSO a challenge–so many fun studio spaces, so many enthusiastic voice actors, and goodness knows that I don’t like to be a bearer-of-bad-news. Because it was our first ever session, I went with three folks that I know and trust: Amber Battaglia, Brian Wiggins, and Dena Dahilig. Sometimes you gotta play it SAFE when you’re doing something NEW, right??

On February 2nd, ten minutes before the event started, I pulled the three voice actors into the Zoom for a “pre-show” gathering. David joined us, as did Sarah, we lifted the “curtain”, and suddenly we had a HUGE audience of 200 people.. Our hopes of “bringing a few more community members” into the space surpassed our expectations big time and all I could think was “Is this NERVOUSNESS that I feel? Excitement? Thrill? Stress?? Let’s welcome them in, and let’s give this a go.”

Amber Battaglia

Amber Battaglia Zoomed in from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Amber showed off her studio where she records audiobooks, which essentially was a regular room that had been converted. She got her curtains from Vocal Booth to Go, her foam from Sound Assured, and her iPad holder–to keep those hands FREE, from Lamicall. 

Brian Wiggins

Brian Wiggins, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is working his way towards becoming a full time voice actor in his booth at home, that he built HIMSELF! His microphone is a Golden Age PRoject TC1, his interface of choice is a Steinberg UR12, he listens through Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones, he mounts that gorgeous mic on a combination of Heil RS-1 and Heil SB-2, and he treats his space with Green Glue Noiseproofing Compound and 2” Rockwool. 

Dena Dahilig

Dena Dahilig, last but not least, joining us from the Bay Area, California, showed off her long journey of moving, upgrades, and a wide array of variables in a glorious photo presentation of her series. She shared with us her studio choices: the booth itself is a Whisperroom Booth, her computer is an Apple Mac mini w/M1, her microphone is a Sennheiser 416 Microphone, mounted on a Røde Shock Mount, connected to her interface of choice, the Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 in a room treated with ATS Acoustic Panels. For her ears, she’s got  Audio-Technica ATH-m40x Headphones, for her LOOK when she Zooms, she’s got the Canon EOS M50 complimented by her 10” Sensing Ring Lights, she broadcasts her workflow through her Elgato Stream Deck paired with an Elgato Light Strip and Elgato mounting hardware. For folks seeking teleprompter tools, she’s got the Parrot Teleprompter and Monitor Mount. Lastly, she recommends these Cable protectors and Shower rods. 

Major Takeaways from Our First Show & Tell

GADZOOKS! We clearly talked through so much amazing content, and if you missed it, you can watch the whole Show & Tell on the Edge Studio Youtube channel (make sure you subscribe while you’re there). I have to thank the community, my team, and my stars for the night. Our featured voice actors were INCREDIBLE: smart, funny, thoughtful, hard working people who showed us their home studios with joy and focus. Thank you to the amazing energy of Amber, Brian and Dena.

Show & Tell was, gosh…a success. A genuine success. 

I’m so grateful to our community of voice actors who continue to make real effort to help each other to grow. Your growth is important to us at Edge Studio, and we’re so very happy to be a part of your journey. 

Join us Next Time at Home Studio Show & Tell!

If you’re really feeling the FOMO and wondering what’s next–well, I’m here to tell you we’ll be hosting Home Studio Show & Tell once a month! Our next session is on Wednesday, March 9th at 8:30 PM ET and we hope to see you there.

As we keep coming together monthly, we’d love to meet YOU and show off YOUR spaces. We’re looking for voice actors who are NEW to the biz and have what they’d call a “beginner” setup that other new folks can aspire to. Also: if you’ve got a killer on-the-go recording situation (think: in the car in a pinch, or in a close when you’re visiting mom) we’d LOVE to explore that with you, too. We’re interested in it all.

If you haven’t filled out the Google Form yet to participate in Home Studio Show & Tell, you can do that right here! 

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Home Studio & DAW Resources at Edge Studio

If you loved the Home Studio Show & Tell, but need some more personalized attention for YOUR home studio needs, our team at Edge Studio has got you covered. Here’s a list of some services and classes we offer:

• Mics & Interfaces Webinar coming up on February 24th, 2022
• DAW for Beginners Webinar coming up on March 24th, 2022
• Home Studio 101 Webinar  taught by Dan Friedman (happens monthly at Edge)
• Home Studio Private Consultations with Dan Friedman
• DAW Consultations with Art Bruder