A recent post from a newsgroup I belong to offers some pointers for new folks looking to set up a home studio: While there is no single, one size fits all answer to a home studio set up, consider the following:
Harlan Hogan and Jeffrey Fisher’s book, “The Voice Actor’s Guide to Home Recording,” is very good. So is Jim Alburger’s E-Book, “The VoiceActing.com Guide to Building Your Home Studio.” As is Pat Fraley’s “The Gypsy’s Guide to Professional Home Recording.” Not included in Hogan & Fisher’s book above, or on Hogan’s good Web site ( www.harlanhogan.com ) is an excellent photo-illustrated short article Hogan wrote, which can be found at:
http://digitalprosound.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=89503#
Jim Alburger and Penny Abshire have a superb Web site ( www.voiceacting.com ), with a catalog section on hardware and software.
Of course, there are many opinions about what makes for the best quality sound, especially regarding particular microphones, recording software and ambient room noise.
For me, room sound and noise intrusions over which I had no control was a biggie. I solved it with an isolation booth completed earlier this year. I documented the building of my sound booth from scratch in this blog, whihc one will find under the “Studio Equipment” posts.
I’d suggest anyone be open to learning from others who are well-seasoned pros, experimenting, and ultimately finding the best fit for his/her own physical space, finances, voice, and time investment.
There are many voice over forums on the internet one can join, and learn from. Many have technical, equipment and “gear” section which have a tremendous amount of information.
My in-home studio set up is a continuously evolving one, as I search and learn, test, and upgrade my hardware and software.
Harlan Hogan and Jeffrey Fisher’s book, “The Voice Actor’s Guide to Home Recording,” is very good. So is Jim Alburger’s E-Book, “The VoiceActing.com Guide to Building Your Home Studio.” As is Pat Fraley’s “The Gypsy’s Guide to Professional Home Recording.” Not included in Hogan & Fisher’s book above, or on Hogan’s good Web site ( www.harlanhogan.com ) is an excellent photo-illustrated short article Hogan wrote, which can be found at:
http://digitalprosound.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=89503#
Jim Alburger and Penny Abshire have a superb Web site ( www.voiceacting.com ), with a catalog section on hardware and software.
Of course, there are many opinions about what makes for the best quality sound, especially regarding particular microphones, recording software and ambient room noise.
For me, room sound and noise intrusions over which I had no control was a biggie. I solved it with an isolation booth completed earlier this year. I documented the building of my sound booth from scratch in this blog, whihc one will find under the “Studio Equipment” posts.
I’d suggest anyone be open to learning from others who are well-seasoned pros, experimenting, and ultimately finding the best fit for his/her own physical space, finances, voice, and time investment.
There are many voice over forums on the internet one can join, and learn from. Many have technical, equipment and “gear” section which have a tremendous amount of information.
My in-home studio set up is a continuously evolving one, as I search and learn, test, and upgrade my hardware and software.
Bobbin,
Thanks for this excellent piece. Even folks who’ve been doing this for a while can profit from what you’ve written and linked here.
Be well,
Bob
Putting together your home studio
My friend Bobbin Beam has prepared an excellent summary blog post linking to a number of valuable resources both in print and online that will help boost you along your way in putting together that home studio you want to build.
Bookmark to:
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Thank you Bob for your kind comments and for the trackback as well. Love your blogsite!
Hugs, Bobbin
Bobbin,
Wow!!! Your Booth is amazing. It has my cogs moving. I was looking to build something very similar and I think your concept would be perfect for me. One question though, are the wall reinforced or did you apply the studio foam right on the ply-wood?
Great blog.
Jon
Jon,
Thank you for stopping by and for your kind compliments. The 1/2 inch plywood exterior walls are covered with industrial carpet. The interior walls are primed grey (for esthetics in case the foam application missed a good seam job!) and then we used auralex studio foam for the interior walls, top to bottom, including the ceiling, and door, using spray adhesive that wouldn’t eat into the foam. I made a foam removeable “curtain” for the window, and the floor is anti fatique foam mat. Hope this information helps.
Bobbin