Month: August 2010

  • WHERE DID THE TIME GO?

    Seriously.  I feel like it was only a few years ago before this entry.

    2 more chunks of this exact time frame and she’s about ready to drive.

    Then 2 years after THAT, she’s off to college.

    Sheesh.  

  • My Audio book of “PETER RABBIT”

    As mentioned in the previous entry while researching stuff in audiophile-land, I constantly kept reading about one key component that I was missing… a pair of STUDIO MONITORS (a fancy term for speakers).  

    This entry from Paul Stamatiou is stellar in explaining why monitors are a necessity for editing: How to Upgrade to Studio Monitor Speakers

    Basically, if I were to just use my recording booth solely for auditions – a pair of studio earphones would be sufficient to make sure the audio was clear.  However, I have also been playing around with editing/sound effects with the SECRET IDENTITIES promo videos and discovered that without monitors, you will never hear the proper audio levels if you have several tracks.

    Monitors put out a ‘flat sound’ and normal speakers make audio sound their absolute best.  So if it sounds like junk when you originally mix it – with monitors you’ll immediately hear it and can correct it accordingly.

    Whereas with normal speakers — case in point in this SI video, around the 3:30 mark it’s really hard to hear poor Keith’s dialogue over the music.  And I didn’t know the mix wasn’t right until I basically showed it during a presentation and had to jack up the volume for the attendees.

    I wound up purchasing a pair of Rokit 6′s and watching/listening to stuff has been so much more enjoyable on my computer but now also I’m able to really hear the true audio mix.  So after I lay the audio down in the booth, I bring it all over to the desktop station with the monitors to edit the mix.

    The first project I officially got to use them was for my sister-in-law.  She’s a first grade teacher and asked if I could re-record the dated audiobook she had of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit“.  She needed the pace slowed down for her students to follow along, the read to be engaging, etc.  Not knowing I had this set-up, she gave me a cute ‘lil analog cassette tape to record it on (hee, hee).

    But as anyone who has seen the past SI videos knows — my favorite part is putting in the sound effects/music.  

    So here’s where the monitors played a vital component in making it fly.  As you can see, I’ve got 10 different audio tracks that I had to make sure didn’t overpower each other.  One track was for the book’s dialogue, one for ad-libs, one for the page-turn sounds, 3 for music, 2 for sound effects, etc (it kinda looks like a computer screencap from Star Trek:TNG).

    A lot of man hours went into this because I kept going back adding more and more stuff.  So I figured I might as well share it with you guys too if you have your own kids/nephews/nieces or friend’s with children that might be interested.  Plus since it includes music from GLEE, Taylor Swift, and James Horner — so there’s no way I can sell it!

    You can download the audio book here (The link will EXPIRE in seven days on AUG 18, 2010 – but if you still want it after that date, you can shoot me an email at: parryshenwebsite@yahoo.com and I can send you an updated link to download it.):http://www.yousendit.com/download/aHlTL0dGUnI5eFUwTVE9PQ

    The page turns are set to be read along with: The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter – The Original and Authorized Edition – ISBN-10: 0 7232 4770 6.  You can get the book here for $4.00 (.01 + $3.99 shipping).

    The downloadable link will include 5 items:

    1 & 2) The version WITH page turns and its artwork.

    3 & 4) The version WITHOUT page turns and its artwork  

    5) CD artwork.  

    Avery and Kori were always listening to it when I first burned the copy for them and it’s pretty rewarding when they follow along with the book.  Their favorite part they kept repeating is the ad-libbed line, “Mmm, crunchy” and “Now, that’s a radish”.

    Anyways, tonight you can be off the hook for a bedtime story — enjoy!

  • MY RECORDING BOOTH

    One personal project that I’ve been working on this summer has been putting together a recording booth in my bedroom closet.

    Whenever my voiceover agent emails me a script for a video game, commercial, animated show or movie… 90% of the time I can just record it in my closet and email it back as an MP3.  It’s super convenient when I have the kids and can’t drive into the city.  And it’s AWESOME when you can say, “I booked a job from my closet!” — like I did with TRUE CRIME: HONG KONG and a Fruit Roll Up commercial.

    But as some of you may have seen from this video – my original setup was ghetto.  

    Straight up.  

    A tiny vaio laptop, my USB Blue Snowball microphone and my clothes as sound buffers.

    Since I’m looking to work more in this medium, I decided it was the right time to invest in a quality setup for auditions and my own projects.

    So I immersed myself for weeks into this strange, new world of an audiophile – various books/jargon/techniques/websites and sorted it all out for what I needed.

    The first order of business was to get a new, quality microphone.  

    The Snowball was a great and affordable mic to start with but I found that I often needed to get really close for it to pick up sound.  I wanted another USB mic so that I wouldn’t need a preamp and a whole bunch of other stuff/wires that I didn’t want to deal with.  Just plug it in and hit record.  Easy peasy. 

    Then the key is to surround the nearby area of the mic entirely with acoustic foam – as that’s the only thing picking up the sound.   Since acoustic foam is very pricey, that bit of advice was very helpful so that I didn’t go broke covering the entire closet.

    As for the design, I followed in theory of what this guy did but with actual wood since I needed it to be sturdier.  I used double stick tabs to attach the foam onto two light pieces of plywood. The top portion is acoustic foam attached to a piece of foam board.

    I also mounted the plywood onto hinges to the wall, so that the ‘studio walls’ can fold back if I ever need my closet as… well, a closet for actual clothes in the future.

    And a simple lanyard attached to a large paperclip holds up the material/dialogue in front of my face.

    I knew from prior experience with ghetto setup 1.0, that mounting the monitor on the wall was important as there would be no room on the shelf with the keyboard there.

    I made use of my old pc to record all the audio and stuck it under a little table, surrounded by carpet pads that fit under the shelf where the mic sat.  

    Again, another critical feature as the fan of the computer needs to be buffered so the mic doesn’t pick up its sounds.

    I still can’t believe it all worked out the way I had it in my head and on paper – with all the products, mounts, hinges, etc.

    I did a few trial recordings but found that as I backed off from the mic to do some ‘yelling’ dialogue (for video games) – my voice sounded echoey despite having my entire wardrobe buffering the vocals.  

    What I realized was that the sound was bouncing off the 10 ft high bare walls and ceilings.  So a friend of mine got me a bunch of mattress foam for cheap.  I cut it up with a serrated bread knife and began applying it to certain key areas around the room.  

    I’ve read mattress foam doesn’t absorb as well as acoustic foam but it seems to do the job fine for the walls (remember that the foam around the mic is still the acoustic material). 

    My latest auditions have sounded PRISTINE with this new room.  

    With ghetto setup 1.0, when the kids would yell downstairs or the doorbell rang — I would have to redo a take.  Now, the mic doesn’t pick up any of it. 

    However, it does get hot in there during long sessions – so I need to figure a cheap and quiet solution besides the current solution, which is to do my sessions topless (ah, the perks of working from home).

    I did put the old snowball mic to good use and packed it into the new mic’s flight case and made it my travel VO Kit complete with pop filter/mic stands/usb cords so that if I ever get an audition while on the road (speaking at a college, on vacation, or on location filming), I can just record it in my hotel room during a free moment and never turn down a potential job.

    While delving into audiophile territory, I also kept reading about one final key component that I was missing… but more on that in the next post.

    Now to book something with this new setup to pay for all this!

  • FIRST ENTRY INTO RACE RELATIONS

    I know, I know – I haven’t updated in sooo long.  

    Life just gets in the way so much these days that writing about it is the last thing on my mind.  I barely even watch TV these days anymore.

    But something recently came up that I thought was pretty interesting to pass along.  It was my first entry into the topic of skin color with Avery when we were playing a board game called, “Guess Who”. 

    Each player starts the game with a board that includes cartoon images of 24 people with different faces/traits/accessories, etc. 

    Each player selects a card of their choice from a separate pile of cards containing the same 24 images.

    The object of the game is to be the first to determine the character your opponent has selected.  

    As you can see, I chose ‘CONNOR’.

    The players then take turns in asking strategic questions to eliminate the potential tiles:

    AVERY: “Does your person have white hair?”

    ME: “No”

    Then she would close the tiles with people who possessed white hair.

    AVERY: “Is your person a Girl?”  

    ME: “No”

    Then she would eliminate all images of girls, etc.

    Finally when she got down to her last two tiles, she couldn’t think up of any more questions.

    I tried to help, “Do they have different color hair, facial features, a hat, glasses, eye color?

    She answered, “They’re the same.”

    Confused, I looked at the two tiles she had remaining:

    Sigh.  

    I wanted to say: “Yes, honey.  They ARE the same” to keep her innocence intact.

    This game should be called, “Guess Who’s PROFILING?”