Customer Reviews

Voice Actor's Guide to Recording at Home and On the Road

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was looking for a book to explain how to record one's voice on a home computer. This very practical, easy-to-understand guide to voice-over recording comes through loud and clear, with excellent signal-to-noise ratio. Best of all, these guys "get" direct-to-computer USB recording, mixing software, the Internet, and other modern technologies, integrating them with timeless recording advice gathered in real careers.

Hogan and Fisher tell you what works, and why what you think might work, won't. Rather than showing off their geek-speak chops, they use regular English and even poke fun at the technical lingo in the process of demystifying it. Other home recording books lavish excessive technical verbiage on how to pad your walls. These guys offer practical solutions (including "move") and even show how to make a portable acoustic foam-lined mic box. You will discover exactly what you need to buy -- although the USB-audio-interfaces section is surprisingly short -- and how to use it. They won't tell you exactly what mic to buy, though, and it's for your own good.

Warning: the jokes are abundant, mostly terrible and distracting, especially the comments from "Prunella," whose parenthetic remarks, although they mercifully trail off, are the editorial equivalent of lip smacks. (The full harshness of this comment will be appreciated upon reading the otherwise excellent text.) Failed humor notwithstanding, the tone ends up being warmly self effacing and encouragingly user-oriented. These guys take seriously the job of helping you, including a strong index and glossary, and plenty of URLs.

Chapter 12, Advanced Production Techniques, is alone worth the price of the book. Embedded in an economically worded step-by-step script for editing recordings are the exact frequencies to manipulate to address problems such as thin sound, dull recording, and sibilance. You end up feeling as though you have two buddies in the recording business; telling you every tip they know, and hammering on mistakes that could ruin your project. Don't let the light tone fool you: this is a seriously great book!

This is the best Voice Over beginners help book I have found. My only criticism was on the advanced production techniques. Since I am trying to learn how to use "Pro Tools" their advise left me in the dark when they only discuss procedures using other audio tools. But other than that, the book was very useful.

I'm a voice over and director of a training program. I was never trained as an engineer but to be competitive today, you have to have some technical knowledge of how to record at home. These guys have made it fun to learn how to do it and have done a very thorough job of laying it all out in a very easy-to-understand way. Plus they offer very clever ideas for home and on the road recording.

This is the most useful (and fun) book on the actual process of recording the voice for acting, demos, audio books and so forth I've ever seen. Technically detailed enough (though written in normal people lingo, not "geek speak") to guide the construction of your own home "studio," it also has the basics of processing and promoting voice work at home or on the road. Written in a very breezy style, it also includes lots of advice for the aspiring voice artist and has pages of references for equipment, vendors and services. Highly recommended!

It's an enjoyable and informative read from beginning to end. Once you make Voice Actor's Guide part of your reference books, you find it's a gift that keeps on giving. The more you come to understand about recording at home with time, the more you get out of this book over all!

The two authors, Hogan and Fisher, are well known and highly respected within the industry, in their own right. Together, they've collaborated on this book to provide easy how-to-do-it info for beginners and even those experienced in providing voice-over talent. I've spent a number of years on both sides of the mic and can validate every word written here.

I made the right choice with this book! Very helpful even for experienced and non-english speaking voice talents, like me.

In a future edition, I'd like to find some info about power conditioning for VO studios.

I would also like to recommend the Harlan Hogan's Portabooth for on-the-road recordings.

Well written and I appreciate the humor which keeps it from being a dry read. Basic, good info that you need to know or be aware of in the world of voice recording and setting up your own studio.

This book is a God-send for any new or veteran voice actors, or even those who are recording fanatics. It not only give you all the info you'll need to set up your own recording from virtually any location, but it does so with wit and insight that I just don't see in any other books of it's kind. These guys not only answered all my questions about equipment and the industry, but they made it great fun to read!

Thorough, helpful, enjoyable to read and something I'm sure I'll be going back to for information time and again!