#schemmel

You know your gear, did you get into gear because of your career path or was it a passion of yours before hand?

"I've always been interested in sound, and how recordings are made and how they sound great or not, but it wasn't until I was an ADR director for NYAV Post that I really got into gear.  At first they gave me an engineer to work with, but I insisted on learning and running the board and Pro Tools myself during my sessions, as I was keen on expanding my skill set, plus it's fun to play with all those knobs..."

Tell us about some of the projects you have been involved in. What is your favourite project to date?

"Well of course, the Dragonball series has a special place for me in my heart, but there are other projects that were more "fun" for a number of reasons.  Kappa Mikey comes to mind, which was a parody about anime.  Recording both the audiobooks "Shit My Dad Says" and "I Suck At Girls" was a total blast to work on because those books are hilarious.  But most recently getting to play Batman/Bruce Wayne in the iPad game Batman The Dark Knight Rises by Gameloft was really really thrilling.  I consider it a major career highlight.  I'm currently working Yugioh Zexal and I am about to finish the Buu saga for DBZ Kai."

You voice 'Goku', the main protagonist in the massively popular anime 'Dragonball Z'. How did that come about? How do you cope with all that shouting?!

"That was an open casting call.  We were required to mimic the original Canadian English cast, and I was good at mimicry, but I was really surprised to get the lead role.  At the time, I felt my auditions for the other characters were stronger LOL.  As far as the shouting is concerned, having been a pro hornist was a huge plus because doing that kind of screaming is all about breath support.  Plus copious amounts of water.  But those sessions were still gruelling.  But again, breath work and breath control learned from over 20 years of brass playing made it all possible."

Is it hard to create a 'voice' for a character, what influences you to create your characters?

"It can be hard.  But sometimes it's instant.  Everything and everyone I meet and listen to influences how I create a voice.  But most voices are created in the moment at the audition, usually as I'm bouncing ideas and voices off the director, and the more data I have the better.  From physiology to age, gender, history, species etc.  A drawing of the character also helps.  There are so many voices and variations in my head that oftentimes it's overwhelming when a director doesn't know what they want.  They'll say "I need an old man voice" or "I need a monster voice" and about 1000 different voices come to mind.  So the more specific a director is the better.  Unless they don't care.  Which is also cool to because then I can do what I want and well that's always easy. ;)"

What is your current signal path when recording your voice over work?

"My current signal path is usually 99 percent one of the time the following:  One of three different pres I have (I pick depending on what the client wants or what sound I'm going for) which are an Audient MiCO, a Blue Robbie, and a Focusrite ISA one.  But no matter which pre I use they always go into the MiCO for A to D conversion or to take advantage of some of the other features such as the high pass filters, which my Robbie does not have or HMX, which I find that when I use it with other pres, I can make my mic sound like it's more of a tube mic or I can add 2nd and 3rd order harmonic distortion to that which is already present due to the transformers in the ISA one.  But if I want total clean, which is often the case, I use the MiCO pres.  The Dragonball Z Kai theme song "Dragon Soul" which is on DVD was recorded using the MiCO pre and my Blue Kiwi mic.  Which , is my primary mic for voice over and vocals. For those that are curious, all of DBZ and DBZ Kai was recorded on Neumann TLM 103's.  So my signal path is as follows: Kiwi mic, into one of the aforementioned pres, into spdif into Eleven Rack.  I use Genelec 8030a monitors."

What are your favorite pieces of gear?

"Well there are some plugins I really love first off, I use Waves SSL and API plugs quite extensively, and I love the Sony Oxford plugs.  I also use the Focusrite Forte Suite.  As far as hardware goes, I of course love my own gear, but of pieces I don't own, I like the Neumann M149 Mic, and the Focusrite Liquid channel.  I also really want some Audient black gear as well.  But in all honesty, my favorite piece of gear and what I would call my desert island pre is my MiCO.  There are so many uses for it and people might be shocked to hear me say that when there are thousand dollar plus pres from legendary makers such as Neve out there to compete with it.  But I've done tons of A/B testing of the MiCO not only against my other two pres, but also against audio I've brought back from other sessions where we are using a pre that costs 2 or three times as much and the differences, at least on my voice are just that- different, but no better or worse.  Which is astounding because with the MiCO you get TWO channels for a price that's 1/3 or half as much as one channel of a boutique or "legendary" pre.  I always like to ask myself when comparing gear if it sounds the price difference better.  Like, "here is a pre that cost a thousand dollars more than this other pre, does it sound a thousand dollars better?"  In fact, one time I brought home so VO I had done on the aforementioned 5 thousand dollar Neumann M149.  And by using my Kiwi (which costs 2k) at home, and adding some HMX to the signal along with a little warmth from my Sonnox Oxford Dynamics comp, I was able to make my recording at home nearly identical to what we had recorded in studio, for 3k less.  Now don't get me wrong, there are bad pres, and bad mics out there, but I have discovered that once you get to the level or "Pro" gear, the differences are small and, oftentimes a matter of flavour and not quality.  Which again, is why it makes sense to have a piece of gear like the MiCO in house, especially if you are a VO person who can't afford crazy expensive pres and converters.  You get a sweet clean pre (two actually) and solid a to d conversion at a crazy low price.  I and I guarantee that no client is going to call you back after you've sent in some audio using a MiCO and as you to use a "nicer" or "better" pre.  I know they won't be able to tell the difference!  They're more likely to ask you to treat your room better, which as we all know can make a world of difference!"

What do you like about the Audient MiCO?

"I like it because it's so flexible and clean sounding and easy to use.  Plus the pres have this even sort of "soft and fluffy" but light and clean quality that is really nice on VO, because things can start to get harsh quick once you start compressing for broadcast, and I like to add about a quarter to 50 percent HMX to my recordings, as it smooths out s's and t's and adds some low end warmth that is really nice.  It's got its own sound.  Here is a list of ways I use the MiCO in my studio every day.

1.  I use the A to D on every recording, period.

2.  I use the line inputs to run other pres through it, either clean or to add HMX to the signal.  This can again, make my Robbie sound more "tubey" or my Kiwi sound closer to a tube mic when I need it.  Or I run my Focusrite pre into it to add tube like harmonics to the transformer harmonics.  Or sometimes clean.

3.  The MiCO EXCELS at recording acoustic guitars in stereo.  Especially with the Vari-phase feature.

4.  I use the MiCO for its filters on pres that do not have filters.

5.  I use the MiCO pres, when I want a totally clean sound, or a sound that is just slightly dirtied up with HMX.

6.  I use the two channels of the MiCO to record a compressed and uncompressed signal, by sending a line out to a compressor, and back into channel 2.  VERY convenient.

7.  Sometimes when using my Focusrite pre, i run out of headroom quickly, or I start hitting the transformer too hard.  So I use less gain than I actually need on the Focusrite and add additional clean gain from the MiCO going in, so I have more headroom, not hitting the transformer too hard, but still getting a transformer sound.  

8.  I LOVE using the line out of the MiCO into my mixer for no latency monitoring when tracking.    

See why it's my desert island pre?  You get clean, plus warmth if you want it, 2 channels, variphase and filter plus pristine A to D for a crazy low price!  I can't recommend it enough to anyone, especially someone who's getting into VO and needs a good solid clean pre they can trust at a crazy low price."

What are your plans for the future?

"I'm currently planning a move to LA to pursue more animation voice acting, and get married.  And I'm probably gonna get more gear at some point but that's going to have to wait until post nuptials....:)"

Thanks Sean!

Thanks for reading.

Andy @ Audient