Well, "I'm movin' on up"... to a new recording space

 After 14 years of recording voice overs from a good studio location, I was informed the building was being taken over by the owner. It made me a bit sad;and frankly, dreading making a move to a new location. I was very comfortable where I was. As any voice actor will tell you, when recording, silence is golden. Not everyone works from a soundproof booth. So, the challenge is to find an acceptable recording space without unwanted sounds leaking into your recordings. No easy task!. We're all so used to living in a very loud world. We let the noise go in one ear and out the other. But sensitive microphones can pick up everything! And we don't want that. Your neighbor running his weed eater at 8 o'clock in the morning can be problematic. Where I recorded, I was working around the occasional noisy truck coming down the street, or a dog bark or two off in the distance. My Sennheiser 416 microphone does a great job rejecting outside noise. So glad I bought one years ago. It's my workhorse mic. 

I have a fellow voice over friend named Christy who I've known for many years. She lived in LA and recorded mainly audio books from her pro voice over booth. She decided to leave LA and move to Oregon. I remember her telling me how god awful heavy the booth was and what a huge effort it was to break it apart and take it to the new location. That definitely doesn't sound like fun. Time to hire a few, big, burly dudes to help out.

As for my move to a new, suitable recording location, I had a sort of miracle happen. I was able to find a spot right across the street from me! I am beyond grateful. Tears of joy come to mind. I fine tuned my new recording space and away we went. No long moving trips across town here in the very busy traffic of  East Bay San Francisco to relocate my recording equipment. And I actually like my new studio set-up better than what I had.

I have a longtime e Learning client (my #1) who was patient and understood I was going to have to take a break from recording her scripts as the hunt was on for a new studio location. She told me she would rather have her fingernails pulled out in a torture treatment than have to make a move. I think lots of folks hate moving. You're reminded of all the junk you've accumulated that you never use. But once you get settled, you can prop your feet up and take a nice, long rest and be thankful the move is over. I know I am. Cheers!

Funny man Steve Martin on being undeniably good

 I think most folks would agree, comedian Steve Martin has enjoyed phenomenal success in his long career.  So many funny moments on screen. And who could forget his controversial song "King Tut" from the late 70's. He wrote it by the way. Some people weren't laughing and called it racist. (that's for a conversation at another time). He's been known to bring his banjo with him and play at San Francisco's "Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival" in Golden Gate Park. Cool thing is it's a FREE event. A day well spent with the talented musicians. I highly recommend it. But just know it gets very crowded. I went one year. "Sardines" comes to mind. (elbow to elbow).

Steve had this to say about being undeniably good. As you grow in your voice over career, keep this in mind. (or any career for that matter).

From A-Z quotes...

"Be undeniably good. When people ask me how do you make it in show business or whatever, what I always tell them & nobody ever takes note of it 'cause it's not the answer they wanted to hear-what they want to hear is here's how you get an agent, here's how you write a script, here's how you do this-but I always say, “Be so good they can't ignore you.” If somebody's thinking, “How can I be really good?” people are going to come to you. It's much easier doing it that way than going to cocktail parties."

Here's a link to a cool CBS Sunday Morning interview with him from the archives. I didn't know he is such an art fan and collector. At the very end of the interview, he breaks out his banjo.