Scott Rummell is heard daily on ABC, CBS, CNN, The CW, Showtime and FOX, and has been heard on thousands of movie trailers and blockbuster film campaigns over the years.
He lives and works at his home studio in Yorba Linda, California. And in this weeks episode, we get behind the voice to find out about how Scott got his start in the industry, what keeps him going and his advice for young players. We also delve into his tips for recording on the road, and the intricacies of his home studio built by our very own George the Tech!!
welcome to the pro audio suite a podcast
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now let’s get on with the show from Los
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Angeles
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George Whitham from Chicago Robert
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Marshall from Sydney Australia
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Rob oh and from sunny Melbourne Andrew
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Peters this is the pro audio suite
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welcome to another pro audio suite this
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week we have a special guest Scott
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Rummel how are you Scott doing great how
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are you guys today
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good now I know you’re sitting on
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George’s knee in your studio yeah that
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small teams yes yes
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no I think the drinking IP David that’s
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another story
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now we were talking before we started
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the show about working remotely and you
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were telling the story about how you got
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into your home studio
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yes well might might drive from Orange
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County to LA it’s about 30 miles
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you know toward the end of my time in LA
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I was doing 40,000 miles a year on my
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car because I would start my day in
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Burbank and go over the CBS and Santa
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Monica to do commercial and I just was
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done with it so I I worked a lot of the
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studio called would Holly which was kind
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of the epicenter of trailer and promo in
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Hollywood and I used to see Don
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LaFontaine every day pretty much that I
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was there because we were both in and
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out of there and I love seeing dawn and
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so I I said to the studio manager I said
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hey where’s Don been thinking he was on
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vacation she goes oh he’s working from
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home and I said what about the limo she
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said yeah no more limo and a light bulb
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went on in my head and I was like well
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if Don’s working from home then I I
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could work from home so we set up my
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studio with the ISDN and everything and
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then I called my agent and I said hey
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I’m not coming back to LA and he said
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what do you mean I said yeah I’m working
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from home now he goes dude this is a
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horrible decision you’re gonna lose
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business I said yeah I don’t think so
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and he said well what if you know ABC or
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CBS doesn’t want you to work from home
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said well I’m not driving to LA anymore
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so that’s the deal and watch her fit
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down and that was true and everybody was
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totally fine with it and my work
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increased drastically because I wasn’t
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at the mercy of traffic and people had
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access to me he were more reliably
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available totally when you were gonna be
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available it was like no question yeah
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and the commute down the stairs was a
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lot easier than the community LA so
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nobody had to wait for me and people
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were happy about that and so I think Hal
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Douglas was working from his home studio
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first then dawn did it and then I
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believe it was me then maybe Ashton
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Smith and Beau Weaver is in there
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somewhere
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yeah but Weaver was in there but I think
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to make the jump to full time I was one
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of the very first and it’s good and bad
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I miss seeing my buddies around what we
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used to say see you around campus which
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was could be anywhere yeah you know we’d
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see at a casting place or a studio or at
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you know Disney or wherever but it made
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my life just a lot better spending time
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more time with the family and and just
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was great taking that traffic out of it
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I felt my sessions were better because I
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wasn’t so stressed and so working from
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home was awesome and I didn’t think that
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I would be a pioneer in this or put
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George to work full-time but you know it
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became this thing and now it’s funny
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because if I’m in LA for an event or a
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Laker game or something and ABC needs me
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I go over there they literally have to
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take boxes out of their booth and
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storage out of their booth so I can sit
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in there because nobody uses their booth
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anymore and that’s and that was the
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other thing too
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liz from ABC
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she’s a story engineer she literally was
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the first person to use the 416
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microphone for voice over
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she was Ernie Anderson’s recording
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engineer Ernie did not want to go in the
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booth anymore
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there was a love book yes yeah so she
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did all these tests with different mics
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no that was Liz this is cool yeah
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because I’ve heard so many pieces of
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this story yeah I haven’t heard this oh
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yeah it was Liz and Liz told me the
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whole story she set up a bunch of
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different mics right there at the
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console and the one that was awesome was
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the 416 and then what she realized was
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not only was it a great mic because
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Ernie was working on a u-87 in the booth
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I think and then not only was it great
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for proximity and not hearing room noise
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but it cut through better than the u-87
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on the promos and and then before you
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knew it was a happy accident it was a
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happy accident and you know like I was
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just up in Eugene Oregon and I had a
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session that I had to run to and I was
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already checked out in my hotel room I
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go to this little studio in Eugene
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Oregon and I had a Disney session and
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the guy has an Avalon preamp into a 416
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he hasn’t my vocal yeah at a house in
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Eugene and I was just thinking Liz
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started all of that but yeah that’s
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anyway that’s that’s my story of how I
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came home to work and and it’s been you
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know now it’s been well it’s been almost
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another 18 years I spent 18 years
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driving and then 18 years at home now
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yeah so obviously having a home studios
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being good business-wise but what are
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the challenges of having a home studio
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in terms of running and maintaining and
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what what sort of challenges D running
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she’s just getting a hold of George
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that’s my toughest issue no podcasts
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with us that’s wise to B’s you know yeah
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well you know it’s hard for me to think
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of a downside
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except for as I we
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thinking about the relationships where
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we would see all of you know all my
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buddies around town it’s really there’s
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there’s there’s not a I don’t think
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there’s a downside to it unless there’s
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something you could could nudge me on
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that yeah I think I can nudge you
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definitely okay I’ve just I’ve just done
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a road trip up to what we call Ayers
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Rock LaRue the big rock in the middle of
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Australia and it was a car trip so it
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was um I think it’s about 2,000 miles I
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guess there and back yeah so 4,000 miles
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there and back chief
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so we were stopping in hotels and motels
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and departments whatever so but the
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thing is of course when you known for
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work working remotely there’s an
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expectation that you’re gonna be
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available so therefore you’re taking a
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road case with you and then you’ve got
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the problem of trying to work out how
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you can make the room sound half decent
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and the equipment you’ve got that’s the
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thing I find difficult it’s the golden
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handcuffs so my question is for you what
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what do you use when you hit the road so
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I will tell you that I have found and I
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travel at least once a month I’m an
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empty nester now and so my wife and I
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will always be travelling like I’m going
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to kawaiii next week and I it this
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sounds crazy but I have a setup that I
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use I you know that I always get a room
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that has a desk I take the luggage rack
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I take two couch cushions off and I put
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them on either side I lay a towel on the
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desk and then I put a couple of actual
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sleeping pillows up on the top in a kind
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of a backward angle so it’s not you know
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perfectly square
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then I tend to do a test with maybe one
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of the studios just to make sure that
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everything’s good and I have never had
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one complaint and then the other thing
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too is some of my friends were doing
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sessions from cars because they were
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telling me you know a car is built like
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a studio it’s built to keep sound out
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and how
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beautiful sound inside and I never did
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it until I was leaving Lake Tahoe
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California and my agent called me and I
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was the voice of the Dunkirk campaign
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and I was on the road and he said Scott
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you have to do a session before you get
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to the airport and so we pulled over
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into a camp area a camp site and I used
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my hot spot and I did it from a Chevy
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Suburban and I heard a backseater
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yeah I went into the backseat and I did
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it and with my you know 4:16 and
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everything and I heard the spot on the
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air and I was blown away at how great it
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sounded I was like and then it makes me
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think why did I build this beautiful
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studio at home I can just do this from
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you know walk down to the camera ever
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but I have grown I in the very beginning
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because I’m old school I really kind of
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fought the whole golden handcuffs thing
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because I was thinking gosh I need to be
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in my studio and then you know the more
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I do out of the studio and hear it on
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the air I’m I’m pretty good with it I’m
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okay and the the trade-off is that
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freedom you know but if you have a hotel
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room that has one of those little
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luggage holders and a desk and a couple
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of cushions you can make a pretty good
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sounding studio I know that II probably
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what we’re not earning board that’s
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without you yeah I’ve never used the
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ironing board but because I have my
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standard Gautier he’ll go to the room
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and I take pictures in every studio and
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I send them out and say this is mine
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APIs to do this is my Dallas studio this
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is my New Orleans studio so you’ve got a
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you’ve got a 41 six on the road with you
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what else do you what else is in there
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road kit so in my road kit I use
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something called a USB pre which is it’s
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it’s actually the box that the m-audio
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box was built
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oh yeah
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model after but it’s built like a tank I
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mean it’s all metal real knobs it’s like
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a nice little piece of gear it’s me
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buddy sound devices it’s a very pro
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level piece of gear yeah it’s made for
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Road use it’s like maybe four and a half
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inches long and 2 inches tall so it fits
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in great it’s a little heavier than some
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of the ones that are made of plastic and
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I bought that probably 15 years ago and
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I’ve just never had a need to go to
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something else it just works it sounds
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good
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it sounds very much not perfectly but it
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it mirrors the Avalon which is my thing
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and it sounds great and then I’ve been
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using a program for the same amount of
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time called audio TX oh yeah and the
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thing is I’m Mac based so the audio TX
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is not it’s windows-based so I just have
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my bat MacBook Pro and I have boot camp
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and I just go over to that and that’s
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the only program I run on it and then
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agility it just does that one thing yeah
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it’s just that good appliance yeah and
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it works great it always sounds great
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the thing I like about is I don’t have
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to have super high speed internet for it
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to work awesome and yeah so I’m I if
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it’s not broke don’t fix it guy yeah I
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don’t even then someday it’ll break but
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when it does I’ll be here yeah ok that’s
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not foreboding I don’t mean that he’s
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rubbing his hands together right now it
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might be installing Catalina might break
13:14
that long tradition Oh baby yeah
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Catalina OS yeah and now we’re dealing
13:19
with a problem in the US with ISDN I
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don’t know if you guys have heard about
13:24
that but words being pulled out here
13:27
they do not want to continue to support
13:30
ISDN so what’s crazy is at my beach home
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I have a studio and I got my bill and I
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haven’t used that studio for a while
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because they’re rebuilding that house
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right now
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and this the the price was $800 for one
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month with not one usage AT&T; it was
13:57
AT&T; and so guess what no more ISDN
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lines at Bob I had at Dana Point
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California because I you know that’s
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ridiculous
14:09
the other thing though is to really my
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only clients now that are doing is dn
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are the networks so like ABC CBS FOX but
14:20
truthfully most of the movie trailer
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stuff that I’m now doing is all just
14:26
record and send I might have one
14:28
directed session in the beginning of a
14:31
campaign like for Avengers endgame I had
14:33
one recorded session and then I had
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maybe a hundred not supervised sessions
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is that a trend I mean a trend in terms
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of it’s not it’s it’s it’s just the way
14:45
it’s done now yes and I have a theory
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and my theory is that the Millennials
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who are now taking over the position sir
14:54
do not want to talk to anybody okay they
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want to text an email that’s it they do
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not want to get the human voice involved
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and and you know to me it’s okay because
15:09
a lot of the direction I’ve been getting
15:11
from the Millennials is yeah that was
15:14
good
15:15
could she do it faster you know that’s
15:18
like the number one piece of direction
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you know and so it’s a that is a whole
15:22
new world where we used to have these
15:24
directors that were just crazy good you
15:29
know that had a a vision but now the
15:32
trend is I would say 90% of my trailer
15:35
work is done read and send so that means
15:38
that the art of trailers the way you
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know it is dead because all anybody who
15:43
wants to get into trailers now doesn’t
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have 10 years of experience working with
15:48
directors anything yeah and I was so
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blessed to have some some of the best
15:52
directors ever these guys were really
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filmmakers and they had a complete
15:58
vision
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that is not what they’re doing today I
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mean I think they do have a vision but
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what it’s cause the voice actor to do is
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I have to think ahead for them many
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times there’s not even direction on the
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copy and like I’m doing I’m doing a
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campaign for Disney now called
16:17
Maleficent mistress of evil by the way I
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don’t say it like that when I’m doing it
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Maleficent mistress of evil that’s more
16:26
the style yeah but we have to do kids
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spots that are appropriate for the
16:32
Disney Channel we have to do very scary
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spots because they want to get that
16:37
audience and then we have to do
16:38
middle-of-the-road
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so I have to make sure that in each file
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I send that I’ve covered all of that
16:44
direction because they may they can’t
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even say it’s a kid’s spot because they
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may use that same copy that script on a
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scary one so I had to do it all three
16:56
ways so I have to kind of think ahead
16:57
you’re anticipating I’m anticipating
16:59
that I don’t want them to call me back
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and say hey could you do this again but
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you know make it more fun or whatever so
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that’s just kind of part of my standard
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operating procedure which is exactly the
17:13
same as I do for my overseas clients
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Singapore and the Middle East so I will
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always give them three reads and I
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didn’t know that was even a voiceover
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market how do I get in there I got to
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take over all that work you’ve got well
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I’ll tell you what you get me into trial
17:30
is over there and I’ll give you it we’ll
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just walk by the way you have a you have
17:35
a absolutely gorgeous voice oh thank you
17:38
for yes beautiful we should hang out
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together I can hear that beautiful chest
17:43
and nasal resonance and I’ll bet you’re
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I bet you’re very busy with what you do
17:49
over there funny you should say that and
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you know the best thing about how to get
17:54
really busy is to go away on a road trip
17:57
we look at trip yeah control I used to
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do that crazy I swear to you guys I used
18:04
to call my agent in the morning and say
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hey you know what I’m taking today off
18:08
and and they go what yeah you can call
18:12
me if you want to but I’m I’m
18:13
just gonna go to the beach today and
18:15
literally that would be a ten session
18:18
day because you reached out to them now
18:24
they’re now you’re like top of mind yeah
18:25
like um but Scott would be perfect
18:27
imagine what would happen then if you
18:28
turned around and say to your agent hey
18:30
listen I’ve had to think about it I’m
18:31
actually retiring yeah oh there we go
18:33
man the other thing I found too cuz I
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did used to take ten days two weeks off
18:40
a year from Mike I was off Mike and
18:42
whenever I would tell my agents they
18:46
would call all my clients and suddenly
18:48
there was this huge rush rush of work
18:52
right yeah yeah so even though I’m still
18:54
available you know I still tell them
18:57
call everybody and tell them I’m going
18:59
on vacation because it tends to really
19:02
increase you know they’re thinking it
19:05
rapidly what are we for we’re gonna need
19:07
Scott first this you know is right so
19:10
yeah I had a classic I went to we had a
19:14
couple of weeks up on Heron Island which
19:16
is a remote island on the Great Barrier
19:17
Reef
19:18
Oh Michael you’ve got no telephone no
19:22
internet the only place you could get
19:23
internet was either a reception or the
19:26
bar so the day would start I go to the
19:30
bar in the morning not for the internet
19:33
connection I have a quick chin and tonic
19:36
for breakfast no and I’d check my emails
19:39
get all the scripts downloaded to go
19:41
back to the room record the strips in
19:43
the morning and then in the afternoon if
19:46
nothing else kami and I go back to the
19:47
bar and then send everything out and
19:50
that was the only way I could work it
19:51
was so remote that is really that’s cool
19:54
I mean I think we all have these stories
19:58
my some of my favorite stories is and I
20:02
think it was 2016 I was on the Jack
20:06
Reacher campaign and I was on this big
20:09
Royal Caribbean cruise ship and with the
20:13
rock climbing wall and all that yeah fun
20:15
stuff so great with my whole family yeah
20:18
and I literally did the majority of the
20:20
Jack Reacher campaign from the cruise
20:23
ship
20:23
and it was awesome and fine
20:27
well then I like to sail and we were
20:30
down in the British Virgin Islands and
20:32
we had a 50 foot catamaran and I was
20:35
with another voice actor and a producer
20:38
and their wives and we have a great
20:42
burger place over here called in-and-out
20:44
burger I don’t know if you have heard of
20:46
it but it’s that’s an unfortunate name
20:47
for a food yeah it’s an odd name for a
20:51
good burger it’s wildly wildly popular
20:55
lying around from around the country
20:57
they fly into LA the first place they go
21:00
is in an out burger and they’ve got like
21:01
three of them around LAX right so anyway
21:05
my friend has been the voice of this
21:07
in-and-out burger for 30 years so I’m in
21:10
one cabin of a catamaran that’s
21:13
literally on the water and we have a hot
21:15
spot he’s in the other cabin and we are
21:18
both doing voiceover I’m doing movie
21:21
trailer and promo stuff and he’s doing
21:23
his commercial stuff and again I think
21:27
when you talk about the golden handcuffs
21:30
I think it’s changed I think we can do
21:33
this stuff I think we can have more
21:35
freedom to be able to travel and do our
21:38
thing and I don’t know if if it’s really
21:42
that the companies don’t care as much
21:45
about the audio as they used to there
21:47
may be some of that but I also think
21:50
there’s so many new tools now that
21:53
people can use in post to do stuff that
21:56
they it’s just never it’s not an issue
21:59
anything you can’t really do deal with
22:01
is like if you’re in a super hollow
22:03
space like really mm-hmm
22:05
reverberant and echoey that’s not good
22:07
no but as long as you kill off the echo
22:10
yeah if there’s a little hiss or Rumble
22:13
or whatever they can fix that sound
22:15
easily in post now and what I find
22:17
honestly is that the 416 is just the mic
22:21
to use in those situations and I think
22:24
when you have it in a space like I’m
22:26
talking about with the cushions and
22:28
everything you are part of the blockage
22:31
of that so you’re not getting a lot of
22:33
room noise
22:34
though I will tell you we had one
22:36
incident in Boston where we had a room
22:40
where we could not turn off the air
22:41
conditioner and I was hearing that his
22:43
so my beautiful wife got up on a chair
22:46
with a stack of pillows holding it up
22:48
against there man and it was a long
22:50
session and the poor thing her arms were
22:53
like jelly but that’s the support of it
22:55
a good voiceover wife right yeah yeah
22:58
but yeah mostly it works out great you
23:01
know so I think we’re in a new era and
23:05
it’s given us a little bit more freedom
23:07
which I love you know you don’t have to
23:10
find someone with eyes to get any more
23:12
you can still you can beam straight in
23:13
with source connect from your hotel room
23:16
which is perfect yes and source connect
23:19
is very much like audio TX yeah the only
23:24
difference for me is I had audio TX
23:28
really before source connects had fit
23:30
fixed a lot of it along and that was out
23:32
a really long time ago yeah I my audio
23:34
TX communicator yes the name of the app
23:37
and that was out 15 years ago yeah it
23:40
works every time like a charm I’ve never
23:43
had an issue with it and in the early
23:45
days I did try a source connect and
23:48
there was so many dropouts there was an
23:51
issue yeah it was so I just didn’t feel
23:54
that I should change now everybody’s
23:56
telling me source Connect is great and
23:58
you guys sound great and so at some
24:02
point when audio TX isn’t supportable or
24:04
something I’ll probably make that move
24:06
yeah no way well this is yeah we’re
24:08
using source connect now which is the
24:09
one that runs on a browser I don’t think
24:13
it’s being used as so much for an actual
24:16
set like a like a record where they
24:18
record you remotely I think it’s being
24:20
used more for direction so it’s like a
24:23
really high quality foam patch but
24:26
source connect is being used more for
24:28
the source connect standard and pro I
24:30
think are being used more for actual
24:32
sessions but this thing is great because
24:34
suppose connect now will work in a
24:37
less-than-ideal it’ll work on bad
24:39
networks it’ll work on firewall networks
24:43
a lot better so if there’s pros and cons
24:45
between all this stuff
24:47
and I you know I think it’s kind of like
24:49
the whole beta versus VHS I think one’s
24:52
gonna rise to the top because you know
24:54
people are telling me about IP type B
24:57
detail or yeah it’ll yeah
25:00
if diddle right and people are telling
25:02
me about V ISDN and they’ll tell me
25:04
about other things you know but one of
25:06
these is gonna rise to the top the same
25:08
way source Connect has right
25:10
the Reno Romano a friend of mine he has
25:14
a new version of audio TX there he just
25:16
raves about and I don’t really even know
25:19
what that is but he said there’s
25:20
absolutely no delay do you know what
25:22
that is no but Reno is a total closet
25:25
and geek man yeah he tries everything
25:28
new and he loves this is his go-to is
25:31
the audio TX the new version which I
25:33
don’t have hmm but unchecked it up yeah
25:36
we’ve talked about your road rig Scott
25:37
what about your home studio where you
25:39
are right now how did that come about
25:40
and what what are you running so you
25:43
know George is right here and he’s built
25:46
both of my Studios do you want to tell
25:48
them what’s here George or do you want
25:50
me to tell them well you can tell him
25:51
how what’s new what’s the same and
25:53
what’s new in this room because this
25:55
this was a mist you’ve been in this room
25:57
for quite some time yeah
25:59
and eighteen years it was time for a
26:01
makeover yes so what’s the do I I drew
26:05
up a design that I felt would be more of
26:10
a cockpit and I had a number of issues
26:13
one was I would have to be out of my
26:16
studio booth to go press the record then
26:19
come in record then go out and edit and
26:22
everything so George knew that that was
26:25
something I wanted to take care of I
26:28
also wanted to have the ability to have
26:30
two microphones so something other than
26:34
the 416 for when I’m doing something
26:36
that’s appropriate where I could use
26:39
that mic for narration or you know
26:42
whatever and so that was something I
26:46
wanted to be able to monitor in the room
26:48
also this is a weird request but I am
26:52
I’m kind of a collector and I love to
26:55
have
26:56
like stuff on the walls around me it
26:59
just makes me happy and so I needed to
27:03
figure out how to get some of the sound
27:05
absorption off the wall and off the
27:08
walls in the room and so then I wanted
27:14
to maybe have access to other sounds of
27:18
preamps and different things and so
27:22
really what I had before was just a
27:25
studio booth that had my ISDN my Avalon
27:30
and my 416 and now when you walk in it
27:35
really is striking because it it looks
27:37
like a real studio it looks like
27:39
something you’d walk into and in
27:41
Hollywood and I kind of had just you
27:44
know I had a rolling rack that George
27:46
got me I had a you know I just had a
27:49
regular mic stand I had a music stand to
27:53
hold my copy on which I I didn’t even
27:55
use a little cluttered you knows cobbled
27:57
together yeah stuff and now I walk in
28:00
and George just did a beautiful job and
28:03
I have this these beautiful built-in
28:06
cabinets I have my beautiful monitor
28:11
right in front of me that I can record
28:12
and read from and as I mentioned before
28:16
I if it’s not broke don’t fix it and so
28:20
I’ve you know at a certain point being
28:24
at other friends studios going you know
28:26
what I should probably really have a
28:28
real studio you know I mean my studio
28:31
was working but let’s have a real studio
28:33
yeah and you know I I just wanted to
28:36
make sure that this voiceover thing was
28:38
gonna work out before I spent the money
28:41
but you know thirty years later or
28:45
whatever I have this really gorgeous
28:47
studio that I just love is there
28:49
something unique about the room the way
28:51
you built it who designed it the thing
28:53
that makes the room special for us is
28:55
again we it did have a lot of acoustical
28:58
panels scattered around the walls which
29:00
is pretty conventional I mean that’s the
29:02
way we do a lot of booths but you know
29:05
ended up that those panels ended up
29:07
being placed to hang things so the north
29:09
stuff tacked all over the pan
29:10
it was quite a cluttered and you know
29:12
there was a lot of room to display
29:14
things so that was part of the idea is
29:16
to reduce the amount of panels on the
29:18
walls to the absolute bare minimum so
29:20
now at this point on the wall flanking
29:22
his monitor where he’s facing it’s just
29:24
2 2×4 foot panels on the wall that is it
29:28
you know the rest has no wall stuff on
29:31
the walls ordinarily that would not fly
29:33
but the entire ceiling is one gigantic
29:37
acoustic panel or a panel system it’s a
29:40
cloud and it was quite a project to
29:45
build it we actually build it twice the
29:47
first time it just didn’t work it didn’t
29:49
look as clean it didn’t have the
29:51
division that Scott had and so we
29:53
rebuilt it again and now when you look
29:55
up at the ceiling you kind of don’t
29:57
really see anything you see what you see
30:00
6 light cans in the ceiling you see the
30:03
air-conditioning vent and then it’s it’s
30:06
a fabric ceiling so what you’re not
30:08
seeing is what’s behind it which is all
30:10
the acoustic treatment so it’s all
30:12
behind the fabric and it well I mean it
30:16
speaks for itself we have two
30:17
microphones in here right now or so we
30:20
have two open mics which is usually a
30:21
problem in a smaller studio but we can
30:23
get away with it here and it sounds
30:27
great it’s not super dead there’s a
30:30
little bit of liveliness in here the
30:32
wall behind where Scott is sitting is
30:33
actually completely open is flat so you
30:37
had a little bit of bounce off of it but
30:39
it’s it’s it’s okay it’s just a little
30:41
lively just enough and I actually like
30:47
when I first was coming into this room
30:50
after you did it
30:51
I was skeptical yes was really gonna
30:54
work yeah but I love the sound I
30:57
absolutely love the sound and I am
31:00
shocked that we were able to get rid of
31:03
all these panels how many panels did we
31:05
get rid of I mean well there were like
31:07
at least 10 different sizes and shapes
31:10
of panels yes and so we we literally
31:13
have two panels right in front of me
31:15
just for the bounce and then the ceiling
31:17
takes care of the rest of it and as
31:20
I know it’s similar to what you did at
31:22
Howard’s place which was even them yeah
31:25
there’s a lot of glass well there’s a
31:26
lot of glass here I mean just to my left
31:28
is a is about a three by three glass
31:30
window glass window who ever heard of
31:33
such a thing and right behind me is the
31:36
door to the booth is a glass it’s got a
31:39
huge glass pane in it most the door is
31:41
glass so there’s a lot of glass in here
31:43
and yet the ceiling because it’s so
31:46
super dead and damped it hit them it
31:49
does the trick so the studio is like a
31:51
mishmash of old new so it’s got the old
31:54
Mike it’s got the Avalon preamp the olds
31:57
at 490 202 I have my hand on it
32:00
physically right now it feels like where
32:03
you’d put your coffee to keep it warm
32:05
it’s a profit like a 110 degrees it’s
32:08
toasty yeah but it has a big vent
32:10
there’s a big space above it to keep you
32:12
know so it can vent
32:13
uh-huh and then there’s the Avalon 737
32:15
there’s a DAT recorder in the rack which
32:17
just completely just our kyv old stuff
32:21
well well the truth of that is I used to
32:25
write and produce jingles in Los Angeles
32:28
okay and so I have a lot of my stuff on
32:30
that and so I didn’t really want to get
32:33
rid of it because I have you know yeah a
32:35
few hundred dots that you know I can
32:37
listen to to transfer to digital at some
32:39
point I have a dad and a d88 at my
32:42
parents in their basement collecting
32:43
dust for the same reason this is very
32:45
uncool but I’ll confess that I have I
32:48
got rid of my rack-mounted dat and all I
32:50
kept was a portable Sony debt machine
32:53
like a DAT walkman because I that man or
32:56
that Walkman is just like you guys I
32:58
have probably 300 dots from my radio
33:01
days with movie drops and grabs of songs
33:04
and acoustic recordings and all that
33:06
some out in the day you just die in to
33:09
play one of those dice and then you
33:11
can’t find a debt recorder yeah either
33:13
that or at white work I kind of figured
33:15
out so yeah robots and all that’s there
33:17
George actually for me too
33:21
it got me a cassette deck well you had
33:25
one I had one but it stopped Bors kind
33:27
of failure and so he got me one and I
33:31
probably have a sauce
33:33
cassettes you know really yeah because
33:36
in the early days a voiceover but what
33:38
was awesome was I was able to find
33:41
literally the very first commercial I
33:44
ever did and I was able to find my first
33:47
demos and all of that stuff and put them
33:49
onto my digital on computer and so
33:54
slowly but surely it’s still hard but I
33:56
have gotten rid of a lot of those
33:57
cassettes just going through and again I
34:00
probably have a thousand LPS and so I
34:04
have the Georges set that up you’ve got
34:06
all that it’s got all the playback
34:07
devices you would want the rest of the
34:09
gear we talked about all the different
34:10
cool play backs we have we have all
34:13
kinds of playback devices the things
34:15
that are new in this room besides the
34:17
acoustics are like Scott said he has a
34:19
control surface I mean he has a monitor
34:21
a keyboard and mouse in here which is
34:24
actually not really a small feat because
34:25
the control room or his office where his
34:28
main computers computer is is not right
34:32
outside the window it’s actually kind of
34:33
like wrapped around on the other side of
34:35
the wall so we had to interconnect all
34:37
that stuff it’s a logistical challenge
34:38
because we have a lot of gear in and
34:40
outside of the studio and all had to be
34:42
tied together and the thing that ties
34:44
them together is a single optical cable
34:47
it’s a toast link cable actually it’s a
34:51
it’s a Thunderbolt cable that
34:54
interconnects via fiber optic because
34:57
you can’t run photo funderbolt more than
34:59
10 feet so it’s about a 15 16 foot run
35:03
and it’s an optical cable it’s like a
35:04
$200 cable but it’s what allows us to
35:07
connect the iMac which is 10 feet away
35:10
by line-of-sight and into the studio and
35:13
then everything else connects over that
35:14
through a hub and then the the center or
35:18
the center of the studio now really the
35:20
main thing that is the brain of the
35:22
student is now all your good old
35:24
universal audio Apollo and there’s an
35:27
Apollo twin that’s serving as the ad
35:30
converter and the playback and some
35:32
processing now Scott just uses his 416
35:35
with his Avalon just like he always has
35:37
and that goes into the Apollo as a line
35:39
in but then the Vanguard V 13 which is
35:42
the mic I’m talking on right now it goes
35:44
right into the Apollo and now we’re
35:45
using
35:46
the Apollo’s processing on this mic or
35:49
right now using the 610 B preamp and the
35:53
precision channel strip for compression
35:56
and then we’re using an la-2a for a
35:59
limiter to kind of fatten it up sounds
36:02
pretty good doesn’t it
36:03
that’s am very good in date and I lungs
36:05
clear the that’s who I – can I just say
36:09
yeah le – is just an amazing piece of
36:11
gear but we still have a Mackie 14:02
36:16
mixer in here that is still part of the
36:19
system because it’s nice to have a
36:21
physical box that you can grab knobs and
36:24
slide sliders and it’s the traffic cop
36:27
for all the audio you know it sends
36:29
audio to and from the Zephyr it sends
36:31
audio to the studio monitors to the
36:33
headphone amplifier and it does all of
36:36
the routing from one thing to the next
36:38
and for me the hardest part frankly was
36:41
creating all the mixes so there’s a
36:43
speaker mix there’s a headphone mix and
36:45
then the headphone mix feeds the studio
36:47
control room monitors outside for people
36:50
that want to listen in and then you know
36:53
all that has to be done so that they
36:55
don’t interfere with each other also so
36:57
it’s not hard to use so Scott can easily
36:59
use everything and then they’d be able
37:01
to switch between the two mics which is
37:03
done with the Apollo it’s done with a
37:05
mouse but it works pretty seamlessly it
37:09
wasn’t perfect even until today we did
37:13
this three or four months ago
37:14
and we still had Scott had a couple of
37:16
wish list items so I was able to come in
37:18
and reap a a couple things reroute a few
37:21
things and and and now it now everything
37:24
works the way I had intended if you
37:25
don’t have to jump through any hoops to
37:27
make anything work it’s a very much set
37:30
it and forget it studio now which I’m
37:32
really proud of I think it I think it
37:34
came out really nice and that’s the
37:36
thing that I love about George even
37:38
though throughout the years I’ve learned
37:39
you know a bit I’ve learned what I’ve
37:42
needed to know he really has made this
37:46
studio so that I can walk in in the
37:48
morning and flip one button and the
37:51
whole thing works I have pictures of
37:53
every thing because a couple of times my
37:55
house cleaners have decided to test
37:58
my Avalon or my my Mackie mixer and
38:03
number one time ABC goes um your studio
38:07
doesn’t sound right oh my god oh no and
38:10
I look at my Avalon and everything was
38:12
you know completely all over the place
38:13
changed but yeah George had taken
38:17
pictures and sent them to me so I can
38:19
always I have them on my computer so I
38:21
can always just look and go oh yeah this
38:23
this is wrong some of the most
38:24
disgusting places I’ve ever been our
38:26
studios where they will not allow
38:28
anybody to clean yeah right they don’t
38:32
either I have to confess that I have a
38:35
well I have five kids but my second
38:39
youngest is nearly two and usually I’ve
38:42
got a lock on the studio do and usually
38:44
I lock it when I’m not in here but I
38:45
just walked out for a coffee the other
38:48
day and ended up chatting to the wife
38:49
for 15 minutes only to walk back in to
38:52
find red marker pen all over my Mac
38:55
keyboard lovely so yeah that was that
39:00
was nice so Apple haven’t scored another
39:02
99 Australian dollars for me to go up
39:04
and buy a new keyboard so that’s not as
39:06
bad as me taking a Sharpie permanent pen
39:08
and trying to draw a side pinstripe on
39:11
my dad’s 1969 Saab Sonett ah lovely
39:16
sports car which was fibreglass bodied
39:19
not painted so you can’t paint over that
39:23
how old were you I would say – oh no
39:25
it’s AIT’s of two or three probably
39:27
around the same age oh well I have a I
39:31
have a new year-old granddaughter and
39:34
she’s walking around the house and stuff
39:37
and you can believe that I keep the
39:40
studio door closed and locked oh she
39:45
wants to get into everything so yeah
39:47
those are the real the real issues right
39:50
but it’s interesting you talking about
39:52
bare walls and since we’re on the
39:54
subject of kids anyway I’ve done the
39:56
same thing in here because my walls are
39:58
well but obviously there is some
40:00
acoustic treatment but into into
40:03
interweaved with that is you know
40:05
paintings of me and Sophie playing on
40:08
the swings at the park and all the other
40:11
stuff yeah I think if you
40:12
have a home studio let’s be honest
40:14
that’s part of the reason you do it you
40:16
want to be around your family spend more
40:18
time with them and I think you need to
40:19
reflect that in the environment that
40:21
you’re working in absolutely because
40:23
those are the important things
40:24
absolutely and that’s that’s the way I
40:27
feel to you so you know I have all these
40:30
things around that remind me of you know
40:34
why I’m doing this I have pictures of my
40:36
family and and it really was thanks to
40:40
George for really figuring out this
40:43
whole ceiling sound cloud that was able
40:47
to accomplish that because I was just
40:49
stunned at the sound it really really
40:53
works and I don’t know why everyone
40:55
doesn’t do this but you know I have a
40:59
friend that lives down the street named
41:00
Chris fries and he is a he’s probably
41:02
one of the top top commercial voices in
41:05
the country and and I told him that you
41:08
did the SoundCloud and he was so mad he
41:12
goes I didn’t know you could do that
41:14
because he had just spent all this money
41:16
on custom fabrics for his his wall
41:20
treatments and he was like irritated no
41:25
no he didn’t know he don’t have a cloud
41:28
in his boots but we have like panels
41:30
that are kind of splayed along the
41:32
ceiling you know yeah but well maybe
41:36
that’ll be in three or five years well
41:37
yeah when he gets tired and he wants to
41:39
do another remodel another job for you
41:41
George that’s right so before we wrap
41:43
this up Scott what’s the one piece of
41:45
advice you would give to anybody getting
41:47
into the industry I hate to say this
41:49
because it sounds so cynical but
41:51
sometimes I say to people if you can
41:56
live without doing this you’re probably
41:59
not built for it mm-hmm because it is
42:03
one of the most frustrating pursuits
42:07
that I know of because it is you know
42:11
it’s just a tough competitive industry
42:14
so be prepared that when people call me
42:18
and say that they want to be a voice
42:21
actor I know that they’re going to get
42:23
to LA and they’re gonna find people
42:26
that really want to be voice actors so
42:28
you have to be prepared for that so but
42:32
if you are passionate and this is
42:33
something that you absolutely want to do
42:36
and I’ve helped a number of people
42:38
who’ve achieved some great success in
42:40
this I I wouldn’t call myself a coach
42:44
but if somebody comes to me and they
42:46
really have a have a passion somebody
42:49
just came to me recently and said that
42:52
from the time they were a little girl
42:54
they used to play with tape recorders
42:57
and do voices and all of that stuff ran
43:00
yes I’m so rare for a girl to say that
43:02
but you know what another one came to me
43:05
a few years ago and same thing and I
43:09
said okay and I really gave her a hand
43:12
and told her you know who did study with
43:15
and all those kinds of things and now
43:17
she has she’s doing many cartoon shows
43:22
she’s it’s not been named yet but she’s
43:25
the voice of a very new iconic character
43:28
that’s been around for years but she’s
43:30
the new voice and and so I think there
43:34
is a difference between somebody that
43:36
says hey I hear that’s a great way to
43:38
make some money or people have told me I
43:40
have a great voice or what another
43:42
income stream yeah it’s just it’s just
43:45
not gonna happen
43:46
it’s just you know it’s one of those
43:48
things that it’s like I tell people in
43:50
the States that it’s it’s like you just
43:53
told me you want to be on a major league
43:54
football team you know you know on an
43:58
NFL team you know you have to play Pop
44:02
Warner football that you know with the
44:04
kids junior football and then you got to
44:06
play high school football you got to do
44:07
all this stuff and go through the stuff
44:09
before and then it’s only a few that
44:11
actually make it to the top you know
44:14
that make it to an actual income and so
44:17
but if you are a person that loves this
44:21
and thinks of it as an art form you can
44:24
do this this is something that you can
44:27
do if you’re committed you can learn you
44:29
can so many good coaches so many
44:32
opportunities and so but what I normally
44:36
find is that somebody does a
44:39
demo tape and their family says oh it
44:41
sounds great and then they get rejected
44:42
and that’s the end of their voice-over
44:44
career you know or they get one
44:48
commercial and you know they have to
44:50
wait two years for another one yeah hold
44:51
on one-hit wonder but this is something
44:54
if I I did a TED talk recently at Yale
44:59
and I told my story and I talked about
45:02
my grandpa’s tape recorder which is
45:04
sitting right here next to me in my
45:06
studio and from the time I was a little
45:09
kid I the first thing I would say is I
45:11
would go to him and say can I borrow
45:13
your tape recorder I’d go in the back
45:14
room and pretend it was a studio and
45:17
record voices and and so that’s a
45:20
different than what most people who want
45:23
to enter voiceover like that was in
45:26
bread and me somehow somehow I loved the
45:28
recorded voice I loved the art form so
45:32
anyway I don’t think you everybody has
45:34
to be like that exactly but I do think
45:37
that there has to be an different
45:40
understanding that this is not just a
45:43
way to make money in that almost the
45:46
voice is is just one of the elements of
45:50
becoming a successful voice actor you
45:52
have to one of the key things is
45:54
learning how to take direction or give
45:57
yourself different direction or not
45:59
become married to a certain sound or
46:02
read you know and so there’s you know I
46:06
could go on about that for a long time
46:08
but I’d want to be respectful of your
46:10
time but I’ve also from what you’ve just
46:12
said I’ve also got one more question if
46:14
you’ve got a second sure you mentioned
46:17
that at the end of every year the first
46:19
thing on your list of next year’s to-do
46:21
list is to get better as a voice-over
46:23
artist for someone who’s been doing it
46:26
for 30 40 odd years what does that look
46:29
like for you how do you make sure that
46:30
you live up to that promise to yourself
46:32
every year I will tell you that you know
46:37
another great voice actor named Brian
46:40
Cummings who’s not as active now but he
46:43
told me hey Scott you know as you grow
46:45
because I was in my 20s when I started
46:47
and now I’m approaching 60 now
46:51
and he said the good news is you’re
46:54
gonna have so much life experience and
46:56
your voice timbre is gonna drop and
46:59
change you’ll actually end up with more
47:02
range and he said it’s an instrument you
47:07
know my mentor said God gave you a
47:09
Stradivarius but you have to learn how
47:11
to play it and I think like any great
47:14
musician if you’re really wanting to get
47:17
better you’ll figure out ways to get
47:20
better I will listen to people who will
47:24
give me maybe a piece of direction I’ll
47:27
give you an example I was doing this
47:29
thing called what was it called I can’t
47:33
even remember the name of the movie
47:34
clover something the Cloverfield Oh
47:38
Cloverfield something Cloverfield V yeah
47:40
the monster movie yeah it was like a
47:43
monster movie anyway the director said
47:45
to me I want no voice I said well you
47:49
came to the right place you know you
47:53
hired a voice actor to have no voice she
47:55
goes no I almost want nothing you know
47:59
like just like right here in this place
48:02
where there’s hardly any inflection and
48:06
any volume and I thought she was crazy
48:10
and then I heard it in the theater and I
48:13
thought this is brilliant and then I
48:16
started doing that on other movies and
48:18
then people started requesting it and it
48:21
it became an art form because my mentor
48:25
DAWs Butler told me you can touch a word
48:28
with the same weight as the dust on a
48:32
moth swings
48:33
it’s just enough to make all the
48:34
difference and when you’re at a low
48:37
volume and you’re working the mic
48:39
incredibly close just the simplest
48:42
weight on a word can change the subtext
48:46
can change everything and so that was a
48:49
way for me to learn and then every year
48:53
I’m trying new things I’m trying
48:55
different kinds of tones and sounds and
48:59
and I’ll pitch stuff up or pitch it down
49:01
but you know I just
49:04
I just constantly am focused on being
49:07
better and one of the reasons I put that
49:09
on and by the way it’s not first on the
49:11
list losing weight is always first but I
49:16
I think that by putting it on the list
49:20
it makes me aware that I’m not you know
49:22
even though I am a you know known
49:25
quantity in this world voice over here
49:28
in the states it makes me be aware that
49:32
everything has value and that I should
49:36
really take every session and look at
49:40
each script and make sure that it’s the
49:42
best that it can possibly be and you
49:45
know what sometimes they’re happy
49:46
accidents you’ll you’ll be doing a read
49:49
and you’ll go holy smokes that’s new
49:51
that’s something different I haven’t
49:52
done and then you might get off the the
49:55
session or whatever and mess around with
49:57
that a little bit and think oh that’s
49:58
kind of a cool thing like maybe it’s
50:01
just the way you kind of cracked your
50:02
voice or made it sound a little bit more
50:04
conversational was it was it dawn who
50:08
said and I could be totally off basis
50:10
who said this but somebody said like you
50:13
know remember every time you read that
50:15
script for that trailer or whatever
50:17
you’re working on to somebody that is
50:21
the most important project in the world
50:23
yeah and the other thing dawn said that
50:25
I always caught on to was he said every
50:29
movie is the best movie of the year you
50:32
know every movie is the greatest story
50:36
ever told huh even if it’s a crappy you
50:40
know the movie or whatever it has to be
50:43
the best movie of the world because it
50:45
is important that moment in that move
50:48
that best movie yeah ever you’re gonna
50:51
ever see and so you’ll you will add your
50:53
importance and credibility to it no
50:55
matter what
50:56
so well that brings us to the end of
50:58
another pro audio suite thank you Scott
51:01
for a spending time with us and sharing
51:02
your studio and a few stories about
51:05
working in and out of your studio well
51:08
thank you guys it was wonderful and I’ve
51:10
gotta say Scott you do have a lovely
51:12
voice too oh thank you so much
51:15
now get me my movie promo work that was
51:21
the pro audio suite if you have any
51:23
questions or ideas for a show let us
51:26
know via our Facebook the pro audio
51:28
suite podcast
51:33
you
Don’t forget to like our facebook page and if you have a question of your own you’d like us to answer, post it there and we will answer it as best we can.
You’ll also find us on the web at theproaudiosuite.com
The Pro Audio Suite Podcast copyright George Whittam, Andrew Peters, Robert Marshall & Darren Robertson.
Products or companies we discuss are not paid endorsements. They are not sponsored by, nor do we have any professional or affiliate relationship of any kind with any of the companies or products highlighted in the show…. sadly! It’s just stuff we like, think is cool and may be of interest to you our listeners.
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.”
― Hunter S Thompson
The team investigate the different options when it comes to monitoring in a home studio )or any environment for that matter. Why you may or may not need monitoring, and more importantly how much do you need to spend?
In this episode, Robert, Andrew, Robbo and George discuss the Pros and Cons of listing the gear you’re using.
Don’t forget to like our facebook page and if you have a question of your own you’d like us to answer, post it there and we will answer it as best we can.
You’ll also find us on the web at theproaudiosuite.com
The Pro Audio Suite Podcast copyright George Whittam, Andrew Peters, Robert Marshall & Darren Robertson.
Products or companies we discuss are not paid endorsements. They are not sponsored by, nor do we have any professional or affiliate relationship of any kind with any of the companies or products highlighted in the show…. sadly! It’s just stuff we like, think is cool and may be of interest to you our listeners.
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.”
― Hunter S Thompson