Ep 159 - Basic Start Up Products
Hey. It's Troy, and this is the VO life.
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Troy:Today, we're talking about some start up products. And if you're new to VO, you you maybe haven't even set up your space yet. And let me again say as I've said in 100 of episodes or at least 20 of them, get your space ready, kind of first, then you can start practicing, and then you can up your game with your equipment as needed. But, I'm a believer in why go buy 3 things, when you can buy one thing upfront and use it for a long, long time, especially if it's not that big of an investment. So today, we're gonna be talking about when you're starting your VO business, let's make sure you're not buying the same things over and over.
Troy:Hey. This is Alicia Bake from VO Booth Besties, and you're listening to the VO Life with Troy Holden. Well, first off, let me give you a disclaimer. This is not sponsor based. Nobody's paying me to sell you these items.
Troy:Nobody's endorsing anything. This is straight up things that you probably need to start out with and what worked for me. Everything I'm gonna tell you about today are things that I ended up using more towards the the 2nd year of of my voice over journey. And had I bought them early on, I'd have been better off. One thing you gotta remember with some of these things, especially microphones.
Troy:They sound different on different people. If you can, test them or buy them where you know you can send them back. Be careful because you don't wanna get saddled with, you know, an expensive or semi expensive, and starting out early, they're all expensive, microphone. You don't want that. You wanna make one purchase and be done if you can.
Troy:But if you can't, be sure you can send it back. Well, equipment is the drug that all of us force actors have. Most of us have way too many of everything. But we buy things. We try things.
Troy:Sometimes we fry things and have to have a new thing. Or we just want another something else to put in the, what we like to call the mic locker or the storage cabinet or whatever you wanna call it. So first off, let's talk about those magical microphones. The thing that puts your voice into that DAW. And I don't care which DAW you use as long as you're happy with it.
Troy:I use Adobe Audition. You use whatever you want. I started out with Audacity. I just not gonna preach about DAWs. You just have to make m p threes.
Troy:It's pretty easy. But let's talk about the mics really quick. If you've been in this just long enough, you know there's a difference in mics. The favorite mic of many is a shotgun mic. When I first started out, I bought a Senko d 2 pretty early on.
Troy:And to me, it was muddy. Very mid rangey muddy. It did not enhance my voice at all. I had to sweeten it a lot in processing. The goal with your mic and your setup is that you don't have to do anything to the tone and the sound.
Troy:You're maybe only working on, some mouth clicks or some noise. And maybe your your your floor is not where it needs to be, under your feet. No. I'm kidding. But you know what I mean.
Troy:Your your noise, your noise floor. You know, if you're 60, 57, 63, you know what I'm talking about. But the microphone, it can pick up everything. So what was one of the first mics I bought when I made some money? A t l m 103.
Troy:It's the Kwan. It's the best for voice over. This guy uses it. This guy uses it. It's great.
Troy:I put that thing in my studio, and I swear I could hear crickets in my neighbor's garage. It's that sensitive. It sounded great on my voice, but it was way too sensitive. So about 6 months later, I I was searching around on Facebook, and a guy in Nashville had a Sennheiser 416. For a very good price.
Troy:He had gotten into voice over and said it wasn't for him, and I bought it. And I'm still using it. And I will continue to use it until it craps out, which I'm what I'm hearing, they just don't do that. So I'm excited to have it. I'm happy with it.
Troy:It sounds good on my voice. I don't have to do a bunch of post processing, and it works. And I got a deal. But let me give you the twin brother, in my opinion, for a lot less money. As as our new president will say, for a lot less money, way less money, won't cost you near as much.
Troy:Anyway, the the 875 r, to me, is the best value for anyone starting in VO. I had just recently posted that in the group. To my ear, it is not muddy on my voice. The Senko was muddy, but it's very crisp and very close to the 416. I've done side by side comparisons.
Troy:I cannot tell the difference hardly at all. If there is one, I'm not hearing it. My ear is not tuned enough to hear it. I love it. It's a great mic.
Troy:It's a great price. You'll save a lot of money. Go get the 875 r. Now you may say, I don't want a shot gun. My space is really good, and I'd like to have the big large diaphragm, fancy smancy, you know, bigger mic.
Troy:I don't want a shot gun. Well, that's okay too, but don't go buy the TLM 103 yet or the 102. Don't don't go spend a ton of money on something like that. Let me tell you the best starter mic, and I still have one. I don't use it anymore, but I still have one.
Troy:And that is the MXL990 m x l 990. You can buy these things anywhere from 49 to $99. The $99 usually is brand new with a shock mount. And I'm gonna tell you, for the money, it's one of the best microphones that you'll plug into. I made a lot of money with an MXL 990.
Troy:A lot of money. Now after that, and you say, well, I want a large diaphragm, but I want something a little better. I don't know if it's better, but I really like the Sennheiser m k 4. I have one of those, and I still use it occasionally. More for video game stuff maybe.
Troy:But I've gotten to the point where I can work this 416, and I don't have to pull out that m k 4. This 416 will do everything I need to do. I've never had a complaint in a video game session when I run the 416. But I will say the m k 4 is my next choice when I'm I'm going to a second mic because it almost sounds like my shotgun, but I can do different things with it as far as moving off axis or getting more intimate with the mic. But I have learned to adjust my volume with the 416 where I can rise and fall, where I can do the yelling scenes, where I can do all of that with my 416.
Troy:But the m k 4, around $400 for the mic and mount. And and, hey, for all of this stuff or as much of it as I can, I'll put links in the show notes. If you'll go into the show notes, you'll see the links. There they are, to go look at this stuff, and it's all just about all Amazon links. I do I am not an Amazon affiliate.
Troy:These are just straight links. I don't make any money off this. Don't wanna. I'm just trying to help you. Alright.
Troy:So now let's jump over to interfaces. Interfaces, you hear stories on top of stories on top of stories about interfaces that Apollo is the only interface you should ever have. It's the greatest. It has all this stuff built in, and it puts everything in there up front. It is good.
Troy:I'm using one right now. I have never had one up until, recently, and I actually sold it. And I didn't know it did not work on, well, I I didn't know the person I sold it to was gonna try to put it on a Mac, and it was for a PC. He sent it back, and I said, you know what? I'm gonna give this thing a try.
Troy:And now that I set it up, I like it, but my audience is still on my desk because I'm not positive I'm gonna stay with it. I I promised myself I would try it for a month. I wanted to see how audition sounded. Was I getting better feedback on audio, whatever? I don't think I'll hear any difference on the audio, but I'm trying it.
Troy:And the only reason I have it is I took it on barter. I wouldn't have bought it because I love the Audient ID 4. I have 2 of them, and they're they're just money. I'll just tell you. Alright.
Troy:So let's let me let me get back to the, the whole ball of wax on interfaces because I'm gonna get ahead of myself if I don't slow down. The Audient I d four has one of the quietest preamps on the market. I think it is equivalent to or better than the Apollo as far as the quietness, where I can run the the gain and the noise floor would be good, and I don't have any preamp noise or or anything. Now I started with another interface, and I gifted that to my very good friend, Jake Sanders, who is still using it. He uses it daily, and he just booked a national spot with it.
Troy:It's a Presona Studio 24 c. They are a $129. Also, excellent preamps. But why didn't I keep it? I hated the gain buttons and the way I had to switch back and forth and do things on it.
Troy:I just didn't like it. It was it had little knobs on the front, and I had to to try to tilt it up or put it up at eyeball height where I could see it. But the audience has this huge gain knob on it, easy buttons to push to mute the monitors, easy to reach over and switch another knob to to go from line to mic or mix it in in your speakers or in your headphones where you can hear yourself and other people. Very easy to use. I just the the PreSonus, if you're really active doing different things during the day, you're on Zoom calls, you're doing this, you're doing that, you had to work with it all the time, and you it was hard.
Troy:The audience is easy. And so far, the Apollo's been easy. The thing I have to watch on the Apollo is the I have this the solo model, and you can push the gain knob, and it will mute the monitor. But if you jump on a Zoom call and you forget and you can't hear the other person and you forget you muted that monitor, you'll be going, why come I can't hear them? You know?
Troy:And they're trying to figure it out on their end, and then you go, oh, sorry. It was me. Click click. And that's the only thing. I just haven't gotten in that habit.
Troy:I was used to the ID 4. There was a light on. If the monitor was muted, I could see that red light. And for this, I can too. The the entire, gain meter is red, but I'm just not used to it yet, but I'll get there.
Troy:But it's a great unit. This Apollo solo is a great unit. Alright. So let me let me circle back again. That was the, Presonus Studio 24 c.
Troy:If you don't have to make adjustments all the time, it's awesome for a $129, and it sounds fantastic. Very good preamps, very good unit, little tiny knobs. The I d four is almost a $100 more. It's $210. I think this solo is around 400, if I'm not mistaken.
Troy:But, again, the I d four, the gain knob, the ease to mute things, the plug and play. I mean, it was it's just great. Either of those is a great buy. I'm gonna put the link in there for the I d four, just because I just like it better. And while we're talking about those things, let's not overlook cables.
Troy:My cables are crap, if you're not careful. Mainly, mainly, the the plug ins are crappy cheap. Sometimes, the wire is also, but it's usually the connectors. So where did you get ones that are great? Well, Megami is the best, the Megami golds.
Troy:You can buy those Sweetwater Amazon wherever. If you wanna buy Megami, buy Megami. Do it. If you'd like to get the exact same thing for less money, go to Amazon or wherever and get world's best cables brand. They make a pro brand, which is the same as the Mogami Gold or a world world's best cables regular, which is dang good enough, for your studio most likely.
Troy:These are the same cable, same quality, less money. The same components go into the Megami that go into the WBC, pro version. And the regular WBC just has a little more lightweight cable, but you still get the same connectors, and that is very important. Mine are 3 years old, that are in my booth. I've never had a problem.
Troy:I've never had a glitch, a unplug them pretty often and switch things around. Never had a problem with a frayed cable. Nothing. I went through I don't know how many cables my first two years because I had a big bag of mic cables back when I was a musician, and they were I probably went and bought the cheapest, longest ones I could, and I had, you know, 50 foot cables and whatever everywhere, 25 foot ones. I also recommend get them short.
Troy:Use the 6 inch or 6 inch, 6 foot in your booth if you can, you know, and and buy 2. Get a second one maybe for travel if you travel much and wanna have a second one, or keep it as a backup. You should never not have a backup of pretty much everything. I have at least 3 interfaces. 4.
Troy:I have 4 interfaces here, in the house. And, you know, if something goes out, I got another one. And if something goes out, I got another one. I have extra cables for everything except my monitors because I have 2 pair of headphones. I can I can use my headphones to get me by till I get more cables?
Troy:But be sure you have backups. You need a backup interface. You need backup, you need a backup mic, sadly. And that's why as you buy more equipment, retire that other one as to your backup because you've used it and it worked. It made money.
Troy:Right? Save it. And and let me roll over to into your cables and say also, don't cheap out on your, PC cables, especially your HDMI cables. Use good cables. You just won't have to replace them.
Troy:And, you know, a lot of people maybe don't mind buying a a bargain sack at Amazon where they're $2 a piece. But, you know, if I'm looking at the difference in $2.12, I'm buying the $12 cable because I want it to last. I don't wanna replace it. I don't like getting in behind stuff with flashlights and re you know, hooking it up again. Spend the money.
Troy:It'll be worth it. Now let's get into some other stuff that's not as important, but can be, your your mic stand. And I don't it depends on where you are and what your setup is, but I use the clamp on that clamp onto the desk. I I did have a weighted stand. It was a gator that had a a small arm on it.
Troy:It was a really good stand, but and I still have it. Don't throw anything away. Right? But when I when I first got going, I was like a lot of people. I bought a cheaper mic stand off Amazon, and it had those springs in it.
Troy:And those things are junk. They they'll work, but they're they're just kinda junk. They make noise. Those springs reverberate. They they make noise.
Troy:Your mic may pick that up. But what I found after some research, I knew I looked at the road stand. I knew I wanted something without springs. I looked at the gator. They were all a $100 plus.
Troy:And then I found this one on Amazon called mount it, m o u n t dash I t, exclamation point, mount it. It is, built almost exactly like the RODE and the Gator mounts, and it's half the price. It's, $59. It's easy to to mount because the clamp goes on by itself. And then the mic stand has a pin, and it sits down in that clamp.
Troy:And then it swivels, rotates, does everything you want it to do. Now it's not like some of those, and and the Rode may be more touch sensitive that you can lift it and lower it. You can lift and lower this one, but it does have tension adjustments in 3 places. And once I get it set, I'm mainly just swiveling it back out of my way and and swiveling it back. And that way, the angle and everything stays the same all the time.
Troy:$59. I have 2 of these, 1 on my outside desk where I do editing, and I do some, you know, TikTok videos or or, you know, Zoom calls and things out there a lot. I I I think for $59, it's the way to go. It's a really heavy duty, well made stand. Mine is 3, 4 years old, you know, and I'll I'll wipe it off every now and then to try to keep it clean, and it works just like it did the day I got it.
Troy:So go get the mounted from Amazon. There'll be a link down in the show notes. Monitors. Some people don't need monitors. I could not get by without them.
Troy:I like to hear things open room. I love my headphones. I have the Sennheiser, d t 7 seventies, the, 80 arms. I love them. They're comfortable, and they sound very realistic.
Troy:But I'm not I don't wear them as much as some coaches told me I should wear them. But it's just because I don't like them. I don't wanna hear myself when I'm auditioning, so I don't put them on. I I I leave that to the room. Maybe a mistake, maybe not.
Troy:Is that why you're not booking so much? No. I don't know. I mean, I do okay. But, monitors to me are important because I do a lot of radio imaging that I mix.
Troy:I do full production. I do a lot of commercial production that I do for companies that I my I do the whole commercial. And I wanna hear how it's gonna sound coming out of speakers, like, in a car or somewhere. And I even sometimes sometimes put stuff on my phone, listen to it on my phone, and then go listen to it in the car on my phone. I have done that for a client's project before I sent it because I wanted to make sure no matter where I played it, it sounded good.
Troy:And that's just being picky. But monitors in my studio, in my booth, and my booth is 6 by 6. So it's not huge in here, but I used to be in one that was about 3 by 7. And monitors have not changed. These are the same ones I had when I was, in my other area.
Troy:And they are the Presonus. Oh, there's Presonus again. They are called the Eris, ERIS, powered monitors, and they are the 3 and a half inch. You don't need much bigger than that in a small room. They make these, in in other sizes.
Troy:I think of maybe the 5, and there may be another one. I can't remember. But I do know there's a 5 because I've looked at them several times thinking I'd like to have some that are just a little bit bigger, but you don't really need it. In here, these things are crystal clear. I cannot say enough about their clarity.
Troy:I run them at about 60% gain on on the monitor itself, and, you know, I don't have to crank my my volume at all. They they deliver real sound to me, like what I would hear in the car, what I would hear on a TV. It's that it they're just that good. They're very, very good. 3 and a half inch Eris PreSonus.
Troy:You can get these Sweetwater. You can get them at Amazon or wherever. But here's the thing, $110. And they're heavy little speakers, but you will have to buy a couple of quarter inch cables depending on how your interface hooks up, but they have 2 quarter inch that plug in the back. One goes to the to the to the interface, and the other one goes to the other speaker.
Troy:And, you know, it's the same thing there. Get get good cables and get the ones that aren't 12 miles long. Mine are too long, and I probably should up upgrade them. It's a good time of the year too, Christmas. Right?
Troy:I should upgrade those. But, you will love these PreSonus Eris 3.5 inch power monitors. They're excellent. Excellent. Now I have a few other things hanging around that I'm gonna tell you about, that you may not need, but the these have been lifesavers for me in this past couple of years.
Troy:And as you know, like I said, I do quite a bit of Zoom stuff. I'm on Zoom a few times a day, it seems like. I'm doing podcast. I do some greens not green screen, but long form stuff, but I do I do some live stuff, you know, where I gotta have decent lighting or I gotta have this, that, and the other. So here's some of the things that I've done to help me in my booth to cut down on cable traffic, to cut down on lighting issues, etcetera.
Troy:I have an Anker, a n k e r. It's a 10 port USB hub, and that's on my desk. That keeps me from running cables out of the booth over to the PC or to the back of the PC or having this outside the booth, and I can control what's plugged up in here. My dongles, like, for my keyboard mouse, are in here that feeds right back to the PC. Things like that, it makes it a lot easier.
Troy:I bought a cheaper one when I first started out. It may only had 5 ports. I don't know what it did. It didn't it wasn't powered. This one is powered.
Troy:It it just saves a lot of hassle. And I think it's around $40, you know, but like I said, I had a cheaper one. It it caused me a lot of issues. I do I did not put a link in there for this. It was just something I kinda thought of, but it's the Anker, a n k e r, 10 port USB hub.
Troy:And and it's and it's somewhere right around $40. If you look on Amazon, you'll find it. I also bought a Furman power conditioner. Furrman, s s 6 b, it is only $35, but there are power conditioners priced up to $500. And I studied it, and I studied it, and I looked at it, and I looked at And I said, look.
Troy:I'm just gonna plug my PC into it. That's it. I just wanted to make sure that anything that ran through my PC was not picking up the house's electrical buzz. And this thing does the job. I was having issues, and once I started using this, it stopped.
Troy:I would get a in my monitor sometime, or I'd get a in my headphones. And all of that went away with this power conditioner. And like I said, they come in all prices and types, but the Furrman SS 6 b, about $35. There will be a link in here. Check it out.
Troy:It it was worth it for me, and it works. And somebody might say, there's no way a thing could work for $35. It works. If you do, any videos much or you're on Zoom much, and you'll notice this when you're in workshops and stuff, some people, well, you see their their face up there, and it's all so nice, and it looks like a professional or whatever. Sometimes it's their camera, but a lot of times, it's just they have, some decent lighting in the room.
Troy:And one of the things I ran into was I wanted my desk to have lighting, but I didn't want it to be bright in my studio. So I have a a, a light that is very similar to the Elgato lights that are very expensive, well over a $100 each, I think. And I looked at those, and I almost bought just one. And I said, well, you know what? Here's some right here.
Troy:It says they're comparable, $39. Let me try this one. I ended up ordering a second one because it really did a good job. The brand is Wielisi. It is spelled w e I l I s I.
Troy:And I will put a link in for these. $39. It is a 10.2 inch. They call it a desk ring light, but it's not a ring light. It's it's the flat round panel, and it will change tone, I guess, is a way to put it.
Troy:It'll go from a more of a portrait looking tone to a more fluorescent light or a brighter light. You can adjust, the dim on it. You can dim it. You can brighten it. You can change the setting.
Troy:And it comes with a nice desk clamp, and it also is you can let it up and down, and it and it folds back and forth. It's just for the money, a dang good light. The link's in there, and like I said, $39. And you can get these things adjusted where you got it set if you're doing a a Zoom call or whatever or if you're in here working. And I've got just enough light in here to see my desk if I need to write something down.
Troy:It doesn't blind me looking at my computer, and it works great with my camera. So that's it for that. If you do, like I said, any video stuff, get get get a couple of these. You know? $39.
Troy:Get one. Just put one on your desk and put it right up behind the middle of your PC. One will do the trick. I only bought a second one from my other desk. And and had I not wanted one for the other desk, I wouldn't have done it.
Troy:Yeah. It's just great. You don't you don't really have to have 2. Just have 1 and have it centered at you, and, you know, I've got some backlighting anyway, and it works great. Is there more?
Troy:Heck, yeah. There's a lot more, but these are some basics and a couple of extras that I threw in. And, hey, the links are down in the show notes for all these products if you wanna check them out. And remember, like I said, I get nothing from this if you buy them. I'm telling you, I use them because they're it's good stuff, it's reasonable stuff, and it works for me.
Troy:Now, so thanks for, catching up with me on all that, and I hope it helps, because I don't wanna see you throw away money on stuff you don't need to throw it away on. Hey. I got one more thing coming up right after this. It's still me, but listen. I just wanted to tell you.
Troy:If you're needing a little bit of a boost in your career, you're ready to book more, you want to feel more confident in your reads, I want to invite you to sign up for Train Your Brain. It's a workshop that I'm doing several times this next year. 1st one is in January. Six people, and we will dive into making sure you are getting and understanding what the copy is telling you to do, and how you can deliver solid takes. This may not change your world, but it will open some doors, start you thinking, and help you be better.
Troy:I will be offering Pick A Card Coaching this year. That is my new coaching that I'm coming out with. This will be the 1st year that I've done this. It is a 3 session minimum. You have to take 3 sessions.
Troy:I will help you develop a method where you can make good choices in your auditions that will help you choose and execute a good read. If you've never been privately coached before, this is a great place to start. It's a great starter package. I'm also offering a 30 minute evaluation for new talent, where you read for me and we'll talk about your natural sound, and evaluate where you should go from there. Or, I may tell you: this ain't for you.
Troy:I'm going to be straight with you. You can also get a free 15 minute consult on my website, if you just want to ask a few questions about the business. Look, I'm gonna tell you, it's not easy out there. But if you have the talent, determination, and the time and patience, that's number 1. It takes time, years, not weeks.
Troy:If you have that patience to persevere, learn and grow in this very competitive business, we'll figure that out. Well, reach out and schedule time with me, and we'll talk about it. I won't steer you wrong. If you're past start up coaching, you've already been coaching, I can recommend some awesome coaches that I think you should talk to next that have done wonders for what I do. So, be watching for that in the VO Life group, or, come check on my website from time to time, troyheldenvoices.com, and be sure and sign up.
Troy:I'd love to work with you. Alright. Enough of that. It's very uncomfortable for me to start doing this, but, I know it's time. Hey.
Troy:I hope this episode helps you not waste money. Don't like, you know, don't do what I did, end up with all this stuff you don't need, because you either have to give it away or put it in the closet if it doesn't work for you. And remember, not every mic's for every voice, and your space may not allow that TLM 103, but start slow, invest in you more than you invest in stuff, and you'll see that it leads to a good place. I'm Troy Holden. Hey.
Troy:I hope to see you next time right here on the VO Life. I'm Casey Hock, and you're listening to Troy Holden on the VO life.
