Now that I have a little trickle of paid jobs coming in, I need to be more focused on the space I record in. I learned long ago, as detailed in one of my earliest blog entries, that this was the first and most important thing to do, even before spending on top-notch equipment…
TREAT YOUR SPACE!
Now, I need to make sure I do all I can to ensure my clients get the absolute best out of me, so I’m breaking a little rule of mine. I will not wait for VO earnings to cover my next spend. I am fortunate enough to already be employed in a career that pays me well. I am not the “starving VO artist”, and have the ability to spend…an option some weren’t so lucky to have in their early VO days. I kind of feel like I’m “cheating” a bit here, but I feel an obligation to those who pay me for VO work to ensure they get the best I can offer. As such, it was time for me to build out my studio, and get out of my home office (which I use for my day job).
I have a perfect 5′ x 9′ room in my baseement, just steps from my home office, and directly next to my home gym. I was thinking about making it a mini-wine cellar, but my wife is the only one in the house that drinks, and even she only does so on a social basis. A wine cellar may add value to the home, but right now, this studio will add the function I need. I don’t have a lot of free time due to my day job, and again, I’m not a guy who has a stockpile of even the most basic tools, so I hired a handyman to come in and get things going. I need power outlets run to that room, doors added (as it bumps up next to a mechanical/storage space in my basement), and I need to get the walls treated. I decided to buy and accoustice fabric to line all the walls (the same stuff used in movie theaters to knock down sound/reverb/echoes in their auditoriums) as a base layer. After that layer goes up on all walls and the ceiling, I will then add another layer of treatment, which is accoustic foam, on top of that accoustic fabric. The dual-layered treatment should give me a noise floor that is 2nd to none.
Finally, I’ll add bass traps in the corners to catch all those deep tones that I don’t need bouncing back to my mic. I saved myself a ton of money doing it this way, in lieu of buying a Whisper Room. This room was perfectly crafted in my house to be my very own 5’x9′ Whisper room! No windows, no noise, and it will be treated to ensure the absolute BEST recording environment! The doors have already been added, but here are a few pics to show progress, and I’ll post more when it’s done:
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