Your Home Studio
GREAT NEWS: you do not need to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a home studio setup!
You can set up a VO studio in several ways in your home; it depends heavily on how much you want to spend. My advice is start simple and upgrade as your career and income grow.
The most important element to your home setup is a quiet space. Don't get swayed by what stuff anyone else has, and avoid online groups full of dudes who insist if you don't have a $10K mic you'll never work. All of my mics put together cost nowhere near that, and I work all the time. Be smart with your money.
B&H Photo in New York has a great article that lists items in detail here, so instead of repeating that info, I'll list below the different equipment that I've used at what stage in my career.
If your funds are not unlimited, I’d encourage you to shop around for the best prices. Sometimes I'll buy on Amazon because it’s quick & easy; other times, I’ll look online, then go in and get it at the Guitar Center on Sunset because I am impatient, I don't always trust fragile stuff in transit, and I believe they still have a price match guarantee (and I like seeing who comes in just to play the drums).
If I were putting together my first home studio kit today, here’s what would be on my shopping list:
MIC: AKG P120 @ $85 HEADPHONES
XLR CABLE: Mogami // $60/6’
PRE-AMP: Scarlett Solo // $99
AUDIO SOFTWARE: Audacity @ FREE!
HEADPHONES: Sony MDR7506 // $90
Mic Stand // $26
Pop Filter // $10
for a budget-friendly total of:
$369
REMINDER: start with some good basics and reinvest in your career as it grows!
MICROPHONES
(the first six are listed in chronological order of mics I’ve personally owned; the others are mics I’ve heard others use and like, but haven’t used myself)
My first mic ever. I think it cost about $99. It was fine, and I used it for years. I remember dropping it a lot because I used it hand-held because I didn’t know what I was doing, really, and I never thought to get a stand. When I dropped it one too many times, I started getting a click when I recorded and I moved on to…
Blue Snowball USB Condenser Mic
This is the mic I used to* recommend to anyone who wants to jump in and start recording on the cheap cheap cheap. It was around $100-150 when I bought my first one, it is now $49 on Amazon. In my opinion, this is a decent value for a USB mic.
I also used a Yeti briefly. I didn't notice much of a difference between that and the Snowball, but a lot of people enjoy the Yeti.
Sterling ST51
I upgraded to this mic when I had been working for a while and was recording more on my own. It was also when I had the cash to invest in a more complex setup. This mic requires a pre-amp and cable, which I'll get into below.
Sterling ST55
I bought this mic when I started coaching and wanted a second mic. I liked my other Sterling, and this was on super sale at Guitar Center, marked down to around $150 from like $500. To be honest, I couldn't tell you the difference between the audio of the ST51 vs. the ST55 (although the ST55 does have a -10db switch, but as far as the output goes, the two mics have always sounded similar to me.
This is the mic I currently use most. It’s not cheap, but it is very nice. If the Neuman TLM 103 is the top choice in large diaphragm mics, the Sennheiser 416 is the TLM 103 of shotgun mics. I love it so much.
AKG P120 🌟
I got this mic as a backup/travel guy after watching this review— he seems to know more about audio equipment than I’ll ever need to, and his tl;dr was that it was pretty good for the price. I picked one up for about $85 and so far, I’m a fan.
I’ve never owned this one myself, but I know a lot of people who like it for a mic at an entry-level price point.
My old agents used to have this one in their office. I tried to buy one once from the Guitar Center on Sunset. They wouldn’t sell it to me, insisting that the Sterling was a better mic on sale for the same price. I insisted that I didn’t need more of a mic than the mic my agents were using, as I was using it simply to record auditions. They insisted more, so I got the Sterling. Bottom line: the MXL 990 is a large-diaphragm mic at a very affordable price, no matter what the guys at Guitar Center on Sunset say.
If you’ve ever recorded at a professional recording studio, chances are you were working on a TLM 103. It’s a top-of-the-line large diaphragm condenser microphone, and it makes you sound all warm and lush and lovely. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up, but YOU DO NOT NEED THIS MUCH MIC TO START.
PRE-AMP
A preamp is that little box into which you plug your (non-USB) mic with an XLR cable, then the preamp plugs into your computer. The preamp takes the audio from the mic and sends it to the computer as a digital signal.
I bought this because it was the one I had heard that people bought. It was expensive and it shit the bed in less than a year. Not recommended, unless you hear from someone who really knows what they're talking about that it's worth it.
A few years ago, I moped into the Guitar Center, near tears and broken Mbox Mini in hand, and didn't really want to drop another $400 on a piece of equipment. A very nice gentleman who worked there recommended the Scarlett, which he said was better than the Mbox and a fraction of the price. I gave it a shot and have been using it ever since with no problems. They also make the Focusrite Scarlett Solo, which I would recommend, as if you're mostly just recording VO, you won't have much need for more than one mic, and it'll cost you about $50 less.
Amazon has a package deal on the Scarlett Solo + RODE PSA1 Swivel Mount Studio Microphone Boom Arm if you’re looking at a suspended mount for your mic..
About a year ago, that Scarlett glitched out and I had about 50 auditions due the next day. I hopped on to Amazon to get a replacement, but found myself having a hard time buying another of the thing that just shit the bed. I clicked around, read some reviews, and decided to go with the Behringer U-PHORIA single input interface. It was about $60 and was perfectly serviceable for the better part of a year. I have learned that you very much cannot drop these things. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Universal Audio Apollo Twin X 🌟
I invested in the UA Apollo nearly 2 decades into my career. It was pricey, but it is NICE and I understand why people talk about it like it's the end-all, be-all of home studio equipment-- it reduces the background noise on my recordings like no other pre-amp I’ve used. I'm sure I'm still not using all of its bells and whistles, but I plan on blocking out some time soon to hop on a call with a Universal Audio engineer to tell me what I'm missing. The UA Volt is less pricy interface if you want something a little sturdier than the Scarlett but without the price tag of the Apollo.
SOFTWARE
The best software is the software you know. I repeat: the best software is the software you know.
To record your own auditions, you do not need to know every shortcut Pro-Tools, unless you want to go deep into audio engineering. If you know someone who can teach you one type of software, use that one. But they mostly all do the same stuff, at least when it comes to what we need software to do as voice actors.
I started out using GarageBand, which you should already have on your computer if you're a Mac user. Used it for years, until I switched to Twisted Wave—mostly because it was what they used at the SAG VO Lab, it looked cool, and I didn't mind dropping $79 on the license.
A free copy of mini-Logic came with the Mbox, but I didn't feel it wasn't worth the time to learn a whole new software.
If you don't have any of these, you can download Audacity for free.
If you love to geek out on stuff like this, check out other software and see what you like best. Consider Audition, Reaper, Studio One, Logic, or Pro-Tools. I'm sure there are others. Let me know what you find and like!
The learning curves on each of these programs vary, but in general they work mostly the same way. There are approximately 500,000 tutorials on YouTube given by brainiac 11-year olds that you can watch that should answer any and every question you can come up with.
ACCESSORIES
This is the little round screen in between the mic and your mouth, and it is an absolute must-have, no matter what mic you use. It filters out plosives (Ps and Bs) that will POP if spoken directly into the mic.
You can make one out of a coat hanger and a nylon sock or pantyhose, but they now cost like five bucks, so why ruin a good pair of pantyhose? No brand is better than another-- it's literally a piece of nylon held in by some plastic. Just buy the cheapest one.
When you're using an analog mic and a pre-amp, you'll have to purchase a male-to-female cable-- the female end goes into the mic, and the male end into the pre-amp.
I've tried cheap cables and I've tried pricier cables. Honestly, the cheap ones shit the bed fairly swiftly, so I'd say a "splurge" on your cables is worth it. I'm currently using Mogami cables🌟. Price will vary depending on the length of cable you need.
You'll want a pair of Studio Monitor headphones-- these will give you the clearest take on what your recording sounds like. Your computer speakers will do in a pinch, but avoid any fancy external speakers or noise-canceling headphones that will make the tones richer than they are.
I use the Sony MDR7506🌟 which aren't the cheapest, but I find incredibly comfortable for when I'm gonna be in them for a while. I also have a pair of Tascam TH-03, which you've probably used while working with me. Solid quality, especially for the price.
*you do not need headphones to record. (note: bold italics underline) You're not in a soundproofed studio where the only way to communicate with your engineer/director is through cans. You're also not Mariah Carey (or whoever fills this joke best when you read it) where you need music in your ears or really need to hear yourself to maintain pitch. Sometimes hearing yourself back gets in the way of recording. I rarely wear my headphones while recording anymore, but rather just when I edit.
A free-standing boom mic stand🌟 vs. a suspension boom arm. Basically, standing on the floor vs. attaching to a desk or shelf... or wall, if you're really going for it. The cheapest scissor arm is really tricky if your mic is heavy; you want to make sure you have a solid place on which to clamp it because if that thing goes down, it goes down hard. If you don’t want to print your copy, you may consider a mount that attaches to you mic stand for your tablet or phone.
If you do a lot of audiobooks, you may want a desktop stand. Here’s one that comes with a pop filter.
And if you tend to bump into your mic stand, here’s a little one-two shock mount-pop filter combo.
You can go nuts buying acoustic foam panels or squares on The Foam Factory website, or you can just go into your closet where the clothes you already own will do that same work for zero dollars. Another trick I like are these shag carpet squares from Ikea -- they cover more ground than the foam, and you can pretend you're in Johnny Bravo's groovy home recording studio.