It's Easy To Audition When The Studio Works

Dana and I have been lucky enough to have a voice-over studio for years in our home. It is very helpful making extra money doing commercials and VO projects for industrial films and on hold messages for business owners. It's also helpful when Zach has a voice-over audition because we can record it at home and email the MP3 to his agent.

I should say...It is great when the studio is actually working.

We recently moved from one part of Sherman Oaks to the other and decided to upgrade our studio. While the old setup sounded fine, the studio was rapidly becoming "old school" with more equipment than necessary these days to have a functioning and modern studio. As part of our move, we decided to get rid of as much old equipment as possible while still keeping our mic. It's a sweet Neumann mic that is worth more than all of the old equipment combined.

We took our old gear to Guitar Center to see if we could trade any of it towards new equipment. They ended up taking everything we brought and gave us $250 worth of trade towards new gear. It's funny how I took a backseat full of equipment to trade and ended up walking out with everything I needed in one small box. It's definitely the digital age of audio recording.

We've had two issues with setting up the new studio:

1. Dana went on a business trip to New York and I wanted to wait on her because I trust her ears more than my own when it comes to audio
2. We were both fighting the flu during the moving process and were too wiped out to do anything extra 

No big deal about the studio not being set-up yet. It's not like we need to record audio anytime soon.

Or not.

Zach got a VO audition while our studio was down. The audition came in after hours on a Friday night so I spent most of the weekend trying to get confirmation from his manager that Zach could record the VO at her office on Monday morning. I was doing my best not to drive her staff nuts but I needed an answer because the MP3 was due at noon on Monday and they don't open until 11am.

I finally got the confirmation on Sunday direct from Sundance where his manager was attending the festival. Zach arrived at 11am on Monday and had his part recorded by 11:20am. The MP3 was emailed at 11:50am and there was no need to worry about the studio before Dana got back to Los Angeles. 

You know where this is going...He got another VO audition that came in after hours on Monday night. I emailed the management crew and got him set-up to arrive at 11am (again) because the MP3 was due at noon (again) on Tuesday.

Thankfully, that was the last VO audition of the week. Dana is back from her trip and our main goal this weekend is to get the studio up and going so we have the ability to record auditions again.

It was a bit stressful last weekend trying to make sure he had a place to record his audition since all of the parties I needed to reach were out of town or off work for the weekend. It all worked out in the end and I have a new appreciation for having a home studio.

I should say...I will have a new appreciation for having a home studio once we get it up and running again!

This actor feels good about both of his VO auditions.