Back in the day a great sounding home studio cost tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up and install.

I’ve worked in quite a few of these expensive basement wonderlands. I wonder what happened to the clunky, multi-track analog tape recorders, the racks and racks of outboard gear that have long since been replaced by a few streamlined pieces of software.

Today my entire portable recording studio weighs less than 5 lbs- laptop included-and I marvel every time I slide the whole thing into a tiny carryon bag. Heck, I can even fit it into a large purse!

If you’re just starting out in voice over, the gear for your home studio is cheaper and easier than ever. But what can still complicate things is the sound isolation.

Do you have to pay for an expensive sound isolation booth? Do you need to build a new wing on your house?

When things take off in your voice over you may eventually want to invest in an isolation booth. But in the meantime there are a few easy ways to create a little pocket of sound isolation wherever you record, and best of all? They’re all free!

I share my tricks with you in this week’s Inside Voice Over video training blog.

This week I’ve got some tips to help you with your home studio. We’re going to talk about how to treat the sound without spending a lot of money, without spending any money, using things you probably already have around the house. So the first thing, the first one of my five tips is turn off the heating or the air conditioning. It’s terrible that you get this great take, you listen back and, oh my goodness, what’s that buzz? What’s that noise? It’s the air conditioning unit that kicked on, or the heating. So make sure you do that first. Second is, if you’re going to be recording at home in your closet, which is a great, cheap, easy, free solution. Don’t remove the clothes, the clothes, leave them hanging in there, because they’re going to dampen the sound. And actually you’ll sound pretty good. You might even sound as good as if you were in a professional voice over recording studio or a voice booth. So that’s two.

The third thing is if you’re on the road, if it’s winter, if you have a heavy winter jacket and you need in a pinch a great place to record, hang up your coat or your jacket, stick the microphone in front of it, and believe it or not, that’ll treat the sound. You have a little impromptu voice booth, and you’re going to sound pretty darn good. Next thing you can try is if you’re at home, try recording in the basement. Now, if you have a finished basement, so much the better, but generally, that’s probably the best part of the house to record in. As long as your air conditioning or heating unit isn’t going, and the reason is, you’re underground, so it’s going to be a lot more sound proof. It’ll sound the best.

Watch this week’s short training video Here Now

After you watch the video be sure to leave a comment. I always love to hear from you so I can support you as you grow your voice over career.

To your voice over success,

Susan Berkley,
Founder, The Great Voice Company

PS

Wondering if you have what it takes to make it in voice over? Check out my brand new program for voice over beginners:
“VO Start Here: Performance Essentials for a profitable home-based voice over career”
www.vostarthere.com