I do one thing for a living...Voice work...Commercials, narrations, live event announcing, etc. In my home studio I mainly use a 416 > 737 > Pro Tools. Sometimes I switch out the 416 with a Telefunken AK47 - depends on what I'm voicing...I keep them both on the booms at the copy stand at the ready...this week it's been a lot of warm and fuzzy so I've been on the AK47 all week. At our downtown studio I use a TLM49 > 737 > Pro tools. I like all 3 mics for VO and have zero complaints on the 737. I've also got a U87 on hand but don't use it much anymore for voice work. If I were to make a switch I'd probably go with a VoxBox and a Ref mic but my rigs work just fine and I've got more important stuff to spend a few grand on.
this is the sound of the 416 > 737. click on the Trailer Sample....
An investment that paid for itself the first time I used it in session.
I cannot stress enough the importance of investing some decent dollars into the mic and mic pre if you're going to jump into voice work and expect to be competative at it. The internet is filled with wannabe voice "talents" who built a makeshift studio in a spare bedroom, ran to Guitar Center and bought a $300 dollar mic and $499.95 mic pre, then built a web page and offered up their tracks for a hundred bucks a whack. If you consider that a nat'l TV VO will net you enough in 13 weeks to buy a hundred cheap mics it might give a better perception of what the potential is for a quality voice working on quality equipment. I can assure you, and fellow GSz contributors who record and mix in pro rooms will agree, if you get booked for a session at a pro level recording studio you'll be working on pro level equipment. So the question is: why would anyone wanting to do this voice thing consider compromising their talent by using cheap, low end tools? In the business of voice acting, the voice is also a tool. It's important to match the technical tools to the quality of the vocal tool. So ends Voiceover 101.
VO 102 will cover the challenges of marketing your voice.
