Hart Voice Overs

I haven’t posted much about the design and construction of my studio, mostly because I don’t want to give you the impression I’m unable to work for you.  I am available and ready for your project.  With that in mind here’s an update:

The new voiceover booth is coming along nicely thanks to the generosity of some fantastic people that know much more about acoustic design than I do.  The isolation walls and ceiling are done.  Over 300 square feet of acoustic insulation is on it’s way.  The new door should be delivered on Monday or Tuesday of next week.  It’s a heavy beastie but it has to be to provide the kind of isolation I want (and feel that you as my client deserve).

The Hart Voice Overs Booth

Today I got the flooring installed. Boy it looks pretty. And it won’t mess with the high frequencies in the voice range the way carpet does.

The new floor in Hart Voice Overs Vocal Booth

I’ll have the door system installed next week. The acoustic insulation should arrive in about another week. As soon as it gets here I’ll be able to treat the walls and hang a “cloud” on the ceiling. Then the new booth will be ready to go!

I’m very excited about the upgrade to this booth and I hope you, as a client or potential client, are excited about the great enhancements it will provide for your projects with Hart Voice Overs as well.

photo credit: re_birf

How do you write good copy for voice over?

Writing for the spoken word can be dramatically different than composing a piece that is meant to be read.  Take a magazine article or newspaper and read it out loud and you will quickly see what I mean.  You have to think about the context, the target audience, the speaker’s point of view… and on and on.  A lot goes into good VO copy. (more…)

I’ve participated in several radio station builds over the years as well as building two studios for myself.

I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly ways to hang acoustic foam.

While there are options for leaving an air gap between your panels and walls, for this discussion we’ll focus on placing foam panels directly on the wall.  Here are a 5 examples of how and how not to hang that expensive foam. (more…)

Australian John Sayers is one of THE guys when it comes to studio design and construction. He has built professional studios all around the world that are not only functional but also beautiful.

In addition to being such a great designer, he is also kind enough to help out the little guys and do it your-selfers. John hosts a wonderful forum at www.johnlsayers.com that is all about studio design and construction and is one of my main sources for research into studio construction. There is a ton of great knowledge and plenty of experts willing to help you apply it as long as you show them you’re willing to listen and learn.  Bookmark it. Read it. Use it.

John has posted a sketchup file of plans for a vocal booth designed to fit in the corner of a room.  (Click on the sentence to go to the post).  You need to install the free  Google SketchUp to view the plans.

John Sayers' designed vocal booth

John says the aircon ducting is an option.  Anyway, at first glance the plan looks fantastic!  Pay particular attention to the wall construction as well as the absorbers in the corners.

Two more thoughts:  If you choose to build this design or something similar you should create a build diary on John’s forum.  You’ll get lots of advice and expert help.  And if you do build on John’s design consider making a donation to his site to help him defray the costs of providing all the great information for free.

Today Stephanie Ciccarelli posted on the Vox Daily blog at Voices.com the list of scheduled cities for upcoming Voices.com mixers.  Check it out and see if one is going to be near you.  They are free to attend and sound like a great place to meet others in the industry:

Voices.com Mixer Schedule and City Tour Coming Up!

My friend and excellent VO pro Dave Courvoisier has discovered a very promising new website/application called chirbit.  It holds a lot of promise for those of us that work in the audio industry, whether voiceover or radio.  Dave had an excellent back and forth with the chirbit developer and posted about it on his blog Voice Acting in Vegas:

The site struck me as a delightful use of the potential of audio and social networking.  I eventually asked the originator of the site – Ivan Reyes – if he’d mind responding to a few pointed questions about Chirbit, specifically the possibilities for voice-actors.

It looks to me like the future holds a lot of promise for this way cool application – Chirbit.  Check it out by clicking on the quote.

Tom Dheere has written a great post on the RogNog blog about voice actors and tax time.  He starts off:

I’m going to see my accountant this afternoon to get my taxes done. So, for those of you who’ve never filed your taxes as a performance artist, let’s cover the basics… (click the sentence for the rest of Tom’s post)

Check it out.

This weekend I was painting my voiceover booth when I realized how much painting and voiceover acting have in common.  Now I bet you’re saying to yourself, “Brian you’ve sniffed too many paint fumes.”  You’re probably right but humor me and keep reading.  I think you will agree with me in the end.

I spent a part of my life as a professional painter almost by accident.  I worked with a construction company for a while and ended up being quite good at painting so eventually the boss made me the “go to” painter.  I mention this so you know that I actually do have a legitimate perspective in comparing voice over to painting.

(more…)

Twitter is an amazing tool.  Links get “tweeted” and “re-tweeted” and it can be a real time suck.  Sometimes a great nugget comes along like this gem I picked up from Anthony Mendez‘ timeline today.  So thanks Anthony.

Last month Grace Smith,  owner of Postscript5 Web Design in Ireland, posted How To Say No To Spec Work Requests on her site gracesmith.co.uk.  While her specialty is web design the post is relevant to anyone who produces creative content.  It’s a good read and she has a template letter you can modify for your own use when turning down speculative work. Check it out.

Follow Brian Hart on Twitter

One Additional Note:  Speculative work is not the same thing as an audition.