Newbie

Marques Bridgeman · **Voice Talent** Joined: 20 Nov 2006 Posts: 2

Hello,

My name is Marques and I'm new to this big world of VO. I'm really looking forward to being a part of it. Can someone be so kind as to point me in the direction of what equipment would be nice for a newbie on a budget. I appreciate the input and also do you have to be a premium member to do work, or audition?

Thanks everyone

Marques

Ed Gambill · **Voice Talent** Joined: 04 Jun 2007 Posts: 585

Marques

Tell us the budget amount or rang you have and we can give better advice

Ed

Marques Bridgeman · **Voice Talent** Joined: 20 Nov 2006 Posts: 2

About $250. Not much.

Amanda Geyer · **Voice Talent** Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Posts: 245

You have to be a premium member in order to be considered for invitation by SmartCast to leads (Premium membership does not guarantee invitation to audition to all leads that match your profile). As a Standard Member, you will receive notification of all leads that match your profile, but will be unable to respond to them.

You do not need to be a premium member to participate on the forum (this place, now, where you are reading my words, thusly).

Do you have a closet or small room that you can soundproof fairly effectively? The more soundproofed your recording area is, the more professional your recordings will sound. I ain't professional-soundin' yet Wink

Can't get the stupid window to close and I can't stuff the gap with a pillow or sumfin'.

Are you on a mac or pc, windows or linux? If you're in Windows, AUDACITY is a freeware sound editing program that, while fairly primitive, is adequate for multi-track recording.

Check out the Geek forum, where there are some good equipment discussions.

Amy Snively · **Voice Talent** Joined: 04 Jul 2005 Posts: 1028

Welcome! I might be wrong, but I don't think you can actually get started for $250. You might be able to squeak by with $1000. Maybe. While you're checking the couch for change, what kind of acting experience do you have? What brings you to the world of VO? It's a friendly group, very willing to answer questions. I hope you'll enjoy hanging out with us.

Ed Gambill · **Voice Talent** Joined: 04 Jun 2007 Posts: 585

Marques Amy is right $1,000.00 will get you a decent rig.

But I went shopping for you and this is the best I can come up with. Its good stuff to start with. I you voice acting skill are low, and then you will need to work on that before you even think about minor league. But with this kit you can get started, study and practice and probably get local jobs. Actually I did work for a TV station that had less gear than I show below.

You need these essential items. (I hope you have a quite computer with USB interface, If not you are out of luck)

$185.00 Edirol UA-25 This is the I/O It take the analogue audio and turn it into 1’s 0’s
$50.00 Sony MDR7502 Small Diaphragm Headphones
$60.00 Behringer C-2 small diaphragm condenser
$20.00 Mic Stand
$30.00 20Ft Proco Ameriquad Mic Cable. Don’t get one any shorter, you will most likely need the length to get away from a noise computer.
$0.00 Audacity software it free and good
$3.00 Embroidering circle
$0.00 One Panty hose

TOTAL $348.00

Did not includ shipping check here [url]http://www.zzounds.com [/url] for gear prices

Study get gigs that you can do, save you VO money and then you can move up to the higher end stuff.

By way of referen the mic you see in my avatar is a RCA 44 to by a good copy of that mic $4,000. To make serious money take serious investment.

Good luck, if you want to do it you can. I look forward to hearing a demo some time soon.

Amanda Geyer · **Voice Talent** Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Posts: 245

Embroidery circles can be found in 2nd-hand stores for cheap-cheap. Just as a head's-up Smile

Jacob Ekstroem · **Voice Talent** Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 721

I'll have to agree with Amy (as I usually do, btw!) - on a $250 budget, forgetaboutit. You couldn't even buy a prober microphone with that (IMHO), and you need some kind of preamp and interface, too. Don't even get me started on preps for the recording room!

As a minimum budget solution, look at something like:

- MXL or ADK microphones;
- Behringer preamp or small mixing console
- M-Audio/Midiman interface (soundcard) - your $25 SoundBlaster WON'T do!
- Audacity recording/editing software (that's actually free - yay!!!)

This would run up to something like $500 or so, at least in danish prices, but you may find it cheaper.
But this is really just to get you started with demo's and stuff, I wouldn't think that it would cut it for serious VO-business.

EDIT: Ed's examples are probably even better, f. ex. he has suggested an interface with built-in preamp for your mic. and he has the right prices, too. Go with that.

Lance Blair · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007, 03:49 (GMT) Post subject:

Marques,

I can't think of a business that I could start with only $250. I could take the $250 and then use that towards earning enough money to really start a business, but $250 won't cut it as an initial business investment, even if you want to just run a lemonade stand. In other words, save your money for equipment, recording a demo, and perhaps most importantly marketing that demo; and meanwhile spend your time improving your skills.

I wish you the best of luck,

Lance.