Voice Actors MUST have resources

Alright guys. I decided that I'm going to jump in here and offer some, probably already offered, advice. For those of you that are planning to be a voice actor (myself included, once I audition) for the community you are going to need a few tools that are easy to require and will make you sound much more professional.

1. A Microphone, obviously. I use an MX90 Condenser but essentially anything can be worked with.

2. A Pop Filter. A pop filter is essentially a fabric that you put between your mouth and your microphone. What it does is filter out certain sounds, called 'splosives', that pop into your audio when you hit certain letters (p, s, f). You can buy them fairly cheap from a music store (under $20). Otherwise you can make one yourself. All you need is a small frame, pictured below, and either some panty hose or a sock. What you will do is stretch the fabric tight and attach it to the frame. Easy, right?

3. The final piece of equipment on your road to a great recording is some sort of isolated room/area to record in. You can use either a closet, a bathroom, or even build a small portable one yourself. What you are trying to do with this is decrease the chance of echoes and background noise while clarifying your own voice. I just made my own portable vocal booth in fifteen minutes with a cardboard box, some tape, and a lot of bubble wrap.

However if you want to avoid putting much cash into the booth then use the above image as a reference and build your own. Get a box and put some sort of material on all four walls of the box (egg cartons work, bubble wrap works, even a sheet or blanket will help!). After you do that leave enough room for you to set your mic down inside and boom! You are ready to record.

I know most of you guys probably know all of this but, for the newer voice actors, I think they are great tips. They will make your recordings sound one hundred times better than they did before. I did not include any sound editing software, though I could, because I'm assuming an audio engineer is going to do the mixing and editing on all of the audio.

wow, that's really great advice! 8D Thanks for the tips!

Wow, sounds like you have some experience....I'm heavily anticipating your auditions...(now if I could just afford half of that stuff....)

Ooh... So thats how a filter works... (currently using a sock and hairband)... I feel like such an idiot now...

I do all my recording in my living room (only room with a computer) So I have to stay home alone to do my voice acting, otherwise its a family of five, three animals that make noise, and no one ever shutting up... Since I'm a grad, its getting much more do-able though...

Box and a blanket... *writing down notes* Okay, I know what to work on in the morning~ Thanks for the advice!!!

Not a problem guys =). Those tips will help isolate noise, reduce 'splosives', and even out your recordings and that's really helpful for the project . And Chuck, if you can't afford buying the real equipment I could send you details on how to build it all out of, essentially, trash around the house. Socks, hangars, cardboard boxes, pillows and so on. And thank you so much for all the replies, guys.

That's alright Jason, I think the notes you've given here should be enough (I think I can figure it out) Thanks again. But I feel so under qualified...I've just barely been getting by with my laptop mic (I still don't own a real mic) and audacity noise removal XD...

Awesome advice! Keep up the good work Jason. Make me proud, lulz.

Very nice stuff, jason! I had a pop-filter at one point, but then my brother stole my mic and I had had to get a new one. I haven't made a new pop-filter yet, which has been okay....so far...I really need to get on that...

At the moment my "recording studio" is either my closet, when I'm at home or the corner of my bedroom, in the cave of my bunkbed, surrounded by pillows when I'm at college. I have the art of getting time where no one is around so I can record down to a science. o.O

: D walla thank you~ great advice~ >w>
i had no idea what's a pop filter before. xD when dirk mentioned it before, i thought you cover your mic with socks haha. ^^;

and good to see you active around here jason

Not a problem ^_^ It's nice to see you guys around. It's like a splash of fresh air on an otherwise stale internet .

I am going to buy a new mic as soon I can. But I'm not going buy anything that good. I'm on a tights budget right now so when I buy the new mic it's be about $20 to $30 and a cheap pop filter.

For Grate voice acting lesson and tips go watch MasaVox.

Wow! thanks for the advice!! I never would have thought of doing stuff like that. that also explains why my voice audition was of really crappt quality in a big living room with no filter ^^;

Oh wow, that's really neat stuff! Haha, I was using a headset mic *attempting* to record an audition. It came out all icky, so I sort of rigged up a screen thing with a sock on a roll of duct tape XD Silly, but, hey, it works! Thanks for the tips!

Hey, this seems very interesting AnD helpful! Thanks for the advise!

I have an extremely old looking mic, but it works fine to me, so I usually use it. Your ideas are better then mine. (WAY better I may add, if you've ever heard any of my "wise" advise)

Those are some great tips! thank you!
(wow, I feel like such a noob.............)

Not a problem guys ^_^

Hm...

Confession: I've never done any voice acting before, though I'm considering doing some for the anime. What kind of mic would be good? At the moment, all I really have is this three inch long bendable mic that I use for Skype conversations. ^^; Not exactly high quality, haha.

That's pretty much what I have right now too. You can only go so far with those kind of mics, but if you make a good pop-shield and you have a good sound editing program, you should be fine! ^.^ If you're really looking into buying a better mic, I'm not the one to ask. I know you want to steer clear from handheld or the kind that sits on your ear, but I don't know much beyond that :/

(my accent shall prevent me to voice act in english for all eternity wahaha~ and my laptop mic is not helping=w=)

on a totally unrelated note. dirks, I like ur avatar, HI THERE.

*has gone crazy or something dun mind me**shot*

Aki, I think you're just staying up too late. By the way, what's the time over there? And... accent?

probably, its 3am+ right now and i gotta wake up at 830am tmr for the pixar project my teacher's dragged me into>A>

english's not my mother tongue, well i can type okay, but when it comes to speaking i don't think it sounds as good (as compared to all u native speakers here anw;A;). I speak chinese, ya see~

(gasp) You're Chinese? AWESOME. I'm an ABC, but I still speak Chinese at home with my family. The way you type makes you sound like a native English speaker, though. XD

Now GO TO SLEEP. After you get a chance to send me the files, that is. <.<

haha HI THERE fellow chinese person8DDDD~*shot* nah~ I make mistakes all the time in regards to tenses, grammar, vocabulary etcXDDD

and file sent~, enjoy working~;D

Thanks aki!! 8D I love dug!

你是中文? I never knew that!

I'm chinese too, but have an asian accent when speaking english, and an english accent when speaking chinese, making it difficult for people to understand me.