BBC Trained
Well the main problem is that you’ve been trained by the BBC for live radio and recording work, and here you are in your back bedroom, trying to recreate the same environment. Urgh. You’ve trained your ears to pick up the slightest extraneous noise and then guess what happens? Well you can hear EVERYTHING.
Is this an advantage or not? Well, to be honest, yes and no.
Yes, you are going to strive for the very best but No, you can hear everything – an airplane from Heathrow for example, 5 minutes before it arrives, and then when it does, it won’t even be picked up by the microphone.
The Home Studio
Every voice artist has to have a home studio these days. It’s incredibly convenience for the performer and way cheaper for the client but the kiss of death for independent studios. However that’s another blog.
Eventually I did get my perfect working acoustic that didn’t cost the earth and which wasn’t in the same room as the computers. My husband drilled holes through the wall, the cables could be run through from one room to the next and all was indeed quiet. This worked brilliantly for a number of years until just a month ago.
But we need the Spare Bedroom!
We agreed to have a young house guest from a European country invaded by Putin‘s Russia. You can guess the rest as regards this blog. I had to decamp into my office in which I run two computers and which doesn’t ( as yet) have the triple glazing I would like.
Building a Tent in your Office
But thank goodness for moving blankets. I’ve been an avid user of them ever since I started voicing 7 years ago. Just stitch them onto clothes rails – you know, the type. You see in clothes shops on wheels. The trouble is, they are rigid and don’t curve. So with the invention of a 10 year old trying to build a tent in the garden, I’ve managed to create an indoor tent, complete with roof. The only problem was that at first it was so low that it brushed against my head. However a spare mic stand propped up the tent’s roof like some washing line. Bingo! I feel even more sound proofed than before. Well, that’s acoustics for you.
Best of all, I received an email from a new client who noted how good the sound was. Result!