Portable Voice Over Studio - VO on the Road

Every once in awhile, I'm able to escape.  I mean, full on escape.  Just leave town, alone.  At this stage of my life, a solo 7 hour road trip is really a lot of fun.

I recently took such a trip from my home in California to meet up with my brothers, one of my sons and my nephew for a guy vacation.  We met in St. George, Utah for some amazing mountain biking.

Along with my mountain bike, luggage and a crate for my new Border Collie to be picked up on the rebound, I also brought my portable voice over studio.  My travel studio consists of an iPad, Twisted Wave, and an Apogee Mic.

But come on, its vacation, do I really want to WORK on vacation?  Well, sort of.  I actually love doing voice over.  And while I don't go out of my way to audition on vacation, if I client needs something right away, I want to be able to provide it...

Sure enough, after I left the house, a client emailed and needed a script read.  So I drove up I 15 and found an offramp to nowhere.  I pulled down a dirt road, where the only noise I could hear came from the shrieking cactus.  I whipped out my studio, put a towel over my head, recorded, edited and sent.

If you're serious about voice over, a portable rig isn't a bad idea.

Trevor

http://www.trevorjonesvo.com

The Ultimate Portable Voiceover Studio

Most of the time, I'm within about 30 feet of a voice over booth.  But sometimes I'm on the road.  Yes, I know, I should take a real break every once in a while and totally relax.  But, I  love voice over - even doing auditions. Sometimes, a client needs a job done, no matter where I am in the world.  I've traveled with a big chunk of my real studio and I've also left town without anything.  Neither option worked.

I researched and tested and finally found what I think is a pretty amazing travel studio.  It consists of the iPad 3, TwistedWave, and the Mic by Apogee. 

When the iPad first came out, I thought it was a waste.  Just a big iPhone.  Now that I have one, it's indispensable.  I use it all the time - from email, to reading auditions and of course, recording auditions.

I tried other apps for recording on my iPhone and later on my iPad, but nothing met all of the features I needed. Specifically - recording quality of at least 48k/16 bit, the ability to easily and quickly edit and exporting options that included both mp3 and AIFF.  TwistedWave meets and exceeds my needs for voiceover. 

For a mic that costs $199, the quality is incredible.  Joe Cipriano AB'd the Mic against his Sennheiser 416 and the results are impressive.

I thought I was the first one to notice this exact set up, but right after I recorded this video, I saw a post on Kara Edwards wall on Facebook and she found exactly the same thing!  Brilliant minds think alike.

Check out the the video to learn more.

Go ahead and shoot me an email with your questions, I look forward to connecting with you.

trevor@trevorjonesvo.com
www.trevorjonesvo.com

I'm Afraid. Will Apple Become Dead To Me?

I guess you could say I'm sort of an Apple fan boy.  I've had Mac's since the days of the LC.  Right now in my home we've got 4 Macs, 4 iPhones, maybe 3 iPod touches, an AirPort Extreme, an Apple TV and who knows how many other iPods. 

I've been editing on Macs using Final Cut Pro since version 1.   I record voice over using Soundtrack Pro.  I'm addicted to all things Mac.

But that could be changing. 

Apple abandoned Final Cut Pro in favor of iMovie Pro.  When I first read about Final Cut Pro X I was giddy, and planned on buying it the day it came out.  Then the reviews started coming in.  Uh oh.  I went to the Apple store and tried it out.  Horrific. Unprofessional.  Unusable. Don't get me wrong - I'm all about new stuff, changing the paradigm, going tapeless and such.  But are you kidding me?  Basic functionality available in the first version of FCP isn't even there in FCP X.

And over the last few months we've heard rumors that they might discontinue the Mac Pro.  No. Way.  My Mac Pro has 4 massive internal hard drives and three video cards.  I'm sure thunderbolt is amazing, but I really don't want more cables and hard drive enclosures cluttering my studio, attached to some high powered iMac. 

I get it.  From the narrow view of a business exec, the real Final Cut Pro has a very small market base.  Laptops are 70% of computer sales. The pro market is a tiny fraction of the consumer market.  But why in the heck do you think the consumer market does so well?  One reason is because the pros tell the world how amazing Macs are.  Why has my immediate and extended family embraced Apple and spent 10's of thousands of dollars on Apple products over the years?   It has a lot to do with the fact that big brother and daddy (me) has worked in the entertainment industry for a dozen years on a mac, and sings its praises.

Please Apple.  Don't make me get a Droid.

www.trevorjonesvo.com

My New Video Series! Take 63 - Breaking Into Voice Over

I love voice over.  I love doing auditions, being chosen, and recording the finished audio.  I love some other stuff too, so I thought I'd put together a video series where I talk about voiceover, and, well, "other stuff" - which leaves me open to talk about whatever I'm excited about at the moment.


Here's episode 1:

http://www.trevorjonesvo.com