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Jane Morgan · **Voice Talent** Joined: 09 Jun 2005 Posts: 64

Hey everybody! I'm Jane E. Morgan, from Fort Dodge, Iowa. I'm half of an all-female morning show, as well as Creative Director (which is just fancy-schmancy talk for "I write commercials.") I'm TRYING to put a studio together in my home...and I'm spinning my wheels!
I would appreciate any advice you can give me on the best equipment to use, from the recording program (Adobe? Pro Tools? Something Else?) to studio monitors to whatever. I've been in radio since Eve was still a rib, and I'm tryin' to break out.

George Karnes · **Voice Talent** Joined: 26 Dec 2006 Posts: 905

Jane-
Start reading through the Pro and geek forums. Tons of good information and lots of helpful folks as you start to have specific questions.

Heather Cooper · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 472

Welcome Jane,

G is right! You can learn a ton on the forums. I am new to the forums also. I have been reading all afternoon and learning a ton.

Sorry I am of no help with your studio thing. I am basically trying to learn the same thing.

Best of luck to you,

Heather Smile

Freddie Molina · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007, 23:01 (GMT) Post subject:

Hello Jane,

Check out these topics on the forum, a ton of good information:

http://voiceoversavvy.com/viewtopic.php?t=321

http://voiceoversavvy.com/viewtopic.php?t=76

http://voiceoversavvy.com/viewtopic.php?t=173

http://voiceoversavvy.com/viewtopic.php?t=690

Jane Morgan · **Voice Talent** Joined: 09 Jun 2005 Posts: 64

Thanks Freddie! Nice to put a face with the guy on the other end of the screen in Voice123 live chat!

Freddie Molina · Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007, 19:44 (GMT) Post subject:

TJ Maxwell · **Voice Talent** Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Posts: 31

Jane, here are some direct answers to your questions. All of this assumes you have a good computer.

I use a computer program called "Audacity". It works well and is easy to use. Google "Audacity" and find the link and download and use it "Free" (good price, eh?)

I also have an Audio-Technica 3035 Mic I bought from some outfit on Ebay for $135.00. Good Mic. But there are MANY, MANY pros and cons about ANY given Microphone.

For a board, I use an Alesis multimix-8 USB that I bought at Guitar center for $169 dollars. The board works very well and also supplies power that my Mic needs. Board connects directly to computer and easy to use.

I also bought a production music library from digital Juice. Check their website for daily specials. I got a Backtraxx library (royalty free) for $99 bucks. Good selection of music beds on 32 disks!

That's my setup. It's certainly NOT the best, but it was affordable and works nicely.

TJ

Cara Carriveau · **Voice Talent** Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 10

It kind of depends on what computer you have. I can tell you of my experience - and I'm in radio, so I understand your needs.

I bought a new toshiba laptop - loved it - but you need an external soundcard of you want to use a high quality mic (which you do, for radio purposes) with your home studio - and all newer computers with XP MEDIA EDITION come equiped with an absolutely horrible internal sound card and worse are not compatable with any external soundcard. I found this out after the fact - luckily, compusa was gracious enough to take it back after the return period expired.

I had never heard any mac owner ever complain about anything - so I finally made the jump and got a macbook pro. It's a great laptop. And easily works with external soundcards. If you don't need a laptop, you can get a mac desktop that will be cheaper and even better - like a nice HUGE screen which comes in handy when editing sound files.

So here's what I use:
MacBook Pro
Mbox2 (though I'd recommend getting the Mbox2 PRO - more input capabilities and it's firewire - a macbook pro is one of the only laptops able to successfully use a firewire - has the 6pin plug like desktops)
Mic: ksm32 for me, shure sm58 for guests

the Mbox comes with PRO-TOOLS. Yes, a bit of a learning curve is involved with pro-tools but well worth it. It's good knowledge as a radio station employee, too - you're bound to be able to use that knowledge to your advantage if you're ever looking for another gig.

Sure, there's editing software out there like audacity that's free. But there's a reason it's free. With protools you can easily edit each track independently and most importantly for radio protools comes with a sweet compressor. You can compress your voice AFTER it's been recorded - even mess around with it, try it different ways, and always have your original recording. Since protools comes inside the external soundbox of the mbox, it's a bargain - because you need an external soundcard, anyway, to be able to use a quality mic and any extra elements.

I plan on also getting a small mixing board because I've been a radio a long time like you and I'm more comfortable using slide-pots than all the digital mixing. But the mixing board is certainly not necessary. It's just "old school", like me! Laughing

You can hear what I've done from my home studio on my podcast at www.CarasBasement.com

There are cheaper ways to get a home studio going - but you'll probably want to upgrade, anyway - so why not start with something great - it is a write-off for taxes, too!!! Very Happy

Cara Carriveau · **Voice Talent** Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 10

Forgot to mention the monitors. I paid a lot of money for great monitors - and to be honest, I almost never use them! You can wait on those. You can simply use your headphones. The salesguy convinced me that the sound is so much different in the monitors, that I wouldn't hear the true sound in phones, blah blah blah...

The reason I almost never use them is because when you power up your system you need to remember to turn on the monitors last, and when you power off you need to remember to turn them off first - and I kept forgetting and would turn on my system and hear a big POP in the speakers because they were already turned on (and shouldn't have been). Thing is, with protools it doesn't play out of your internal computer speakers (though I've never bothered to look if I can change a setting - maybe it is possible) so the only way to hear is through headphones. But you're in radio so you're used to that, anyway!

Good luck,
Cara

Don Randall · Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007, 03:53 (GMT) Post subject:

Cara Carriveau · **Voice Talent** Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 10

I found out about the problem with the design of windows xp media edition from Microsoft - from the horses mouth, so to speak. It is designed for the consumer - not the professional.

You are right that a lot of soundcards are problematic with laptops. Another reason why I chose to get the macbook pro - it has a SIX pin firewire, not a four-pin like all other laptops - and that's usually the reason for the problems. I don't even use a firewire soundcard interface right now, I was just thinking about "what if I upgrade" eventually. Generally speaking, external soundcards do work better with desktops vs. laptops -- but so far my macbook pro is great. The only thing I've noticed I have to re-boot my computer with the soundcard attached if I ever plug in a new element (mic) to the soundcard - otherwise it doesn't record it correctly. But the macbook pro reboots very quickly compared to a pc, so it's not a big deal.

I am curious, though - do you have to use a usb mic if you are using the internal soundcard? If not, how do you connect the mic to the computer?

Don Randall · Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007, 18:31 (GMT) Post subject: