Huge thanks to Marc Guss and his guest tonight on the Marc Guss Voiceover Club giving a home studio intensive, Frank Verderosa! Frank is an audio engineer, sound designer, he does casting, and he offered his honest, expert advice tonight on all things regarding studios, mics, demos, booths, recording — he covered it all! Check out FrankVerderosa.com for events, help, or chat (but give him some time to respond because he’s a busy guy!)
Frank works at Digital Arts in NYC as senior mixer and splits his time between the studio and working from home. He and Marc talked about the rapid changes and adaptations that had to be made when the pandemic started so that business could continue. Frank ended up helping a lot of voice actors (nearly 2,200) set up and fine tune their home studios, which is a service he still offers.
Some home studio advice that Frank shared tonight includes:
- He loves this quote by the Booth Junkie, Mike DelGaudio, “Booth first, then the gear.”
- It’s all about finding the sweet spot on your mic, and finding proper placement is key.
- Regarding mics, shotguns are more forgiving in small spaces, but they have to be properly positioned. He added that shotguns are not great for singing, and that the average booth is also not great for singing. You don’t want to be in a tight space and he advises people to try recording in their bedroom rather than a closet or small booth.
- Don’t overprocess your audio, keep it simple. And he advises not to spend a lot of time worrying about breaths and mouth noise. Frank said that he knows someone who spends hours removing breaths and mouth noise on auditions and he said that no one cares about that, “we’re just listening to your read.”
- Frank has some thoughts on demos, and that is that some voice actors have too many. When he sees someone’s website and they have 20 different demo reels, he says “I don’t know who that’s for.” Maybe if someone is doing direct-to-client work, they like to see that, but overall Frank thinks people spend so much and so often on demos that perhaps aren’t necessary.
- And then he discussed “one of those things that ruffles feathers” and he put it this way: “I feel like there are two voiceover industries: there are all the people like the casting directors, the Marc Gusses of the world, whose job it is to get you work and get you paid; and then there’s this other whole industry of people that take your cash. And I don’t mean it’s malicious, taking your cash, but it’s demo reels, conferences, festivals — all of this stuff that none of the voice actors that I know in the NY area have even heard of, so it’s a weird thing.
- He says that he walks a fine line because he loves doing consults, helping people figure out their booth, teaching the occasional class, producing the occasional demo reel, and he likes doing these things, but it’s not his income and he doesn’t want to be that guy. He’ll turn people down who aren’t ready to record a demo and suggest they instead invest in their booth or in coaching. It’s nice to see Frank looking out for voice actors’ best interests in a world that can sometimes feel exploitative and predatory.
In closing, Marc and Frank shared stories about Gilbert Gottfried, someone who was very special to each of them. Frank recommends the documentary Gilbert, saying that you’ll laugh and cry and see a side of him that you won’t expect. He also recommends the podcast episode with Bob Bergen and Rob Paulsen for those who are interested in animation.
Marc recalled how he set Gilbert up to work with a writer to create a book about his life, but that ultimately it was too much for him and too personal. Frank added that he would have loved to see Gilbert play a criminal mastermind because that would have been so unexpected using his regular speaking voice. Marc and Frank also shared a laugh about how Gilbert’s notorious frugality. Frank said that Gilbert and Richard Kind had a competition on who could steal the most food from the studio, and Marc added that Howard Stern recently talked about Gilbert’s habit for clearing out the green room of drinks when he was a guest. Definitely a treat to listen to these insider stories of a legend.
Thanks so much to Marc and Frank for the great advice and for sharing your anecdotes and memories about Gilbert Gottfried. Thanks also for the audience questions that helped everyone listening learn so much! Check out the Marc Guss Voiceover Club every Wednesday night on Clubhouse at 8:30 pm ET or catch the replay later.