I remember a colleague once told me, “You wanna book work? Go on vacation”. It seems like every time I travel whether it’s a weekend getaway, family vacation, or conference, I either book work or get a juicy audition. I don’t try to do projects on the road, but sometimes, duty calls.
Sound familiar? So, I’ve learned quite a few things about traveling with my VO gear. It hasn’t always been the best, but it can be effective. Although where you travel is a factor, it is essential to have a mobile plan for your business: and I’m not talking about cell phones.
It took a while to really understand how to get the best sound out of my gear: extraneous noises are the enemy! Getting the noise floor to be -60dB can be difficult. Depending on where you are and what you have, be ready to adapt to your surroundings. Sometimes it’s a perfect environment for recording. Other times, well, it’s like Grand Central Station during rush hour.
So before watching a bunch of YouTube videos, I asked some of my VO pals. I was told to put pillows and cushions around the mic to get the noise floor down. One suggested I watch Booth Junkie. After watching a few of his videos, I thought: I got this! I’ll get some blankets, pillows, clothes and go in the closet. All hotels have closets, right?
The first time I went on the road with audio gear was my first conference. I was in a hotel near an airport, and I had an audition and a voice messaging job. After fiddling around with two pillows on a chair, and then my clothes and sheets in a closet, I ended up using a comforter storage case (already in the hotel closet) and a towel. I draped the comforter over the door, and I was good to go. The airport noise was kinda loud, but I was able to get some quiet time in-between flights.
My next trip, almost a year later, actually took more time than I expected. I had a few auditions and I didn’t like the sound from my makeshift closet studio, so I used a cushioned chair. It had two cushioned arm rests, so I took out the seat cushion and covered my head and the chair with a comforter. The sound was great, but I had to be still, which is hard because we’re always moving while voice acting, right? My shotgun mic helped, but the noise from my head rubbing the comforter was too loud and I had to do a few takes.
Everywhere I go, it’s always something different. Closets without doors. Loud central air systems without a thermostat. I was learning by experimentation and the only concern was sound quality. Who cares what it looks like? It’s always great to find a closet that you can stuff with clothes, sheets, and towels, but sometimes you can’t get a closet. I tried an ironing board with a blanket covering it, but my noise floor wasn’t low enough, so I tried my best to surround it with pillows. Another time I went on a beach trip with my family and they were using the blankets, so I draped some beach and hotel towels all around the closet. Perfect! I was starting to get good at this!!
Getting your sound right is critical as a voice actor, but you can do this effectively in a lot of different ways. If it gets difficult to adapt, call some VO friends and ask what they’ve done: I’ve surprised myself a few times and I’m always finding out something new.
In fact, I was just watching one of my favorite voice actors and he showed his setup on TikTok. After watching it, I am purchasing a pop-up infant sleep pod for my next trip. Will this piece that I add to my travel rig solve ALL my sound challenges? Probably not, but I’ll keep trying.
P.S. If you haven’t yet taken our introductory voice-over class, where we go over everything one needs to know about getting started in the voice-over industry, sign up here!
