My new studio doesn't have a booth, because I don't record VO that often anymore in these remote times. Acoustically the control room is pretty good and I have a two part series that needs to be narrated. Are there people out there that record in the control room? Experiences?

That is how my "voice over room" is setup. It is in my mastering control room. Works GREAT. No noise, great acoustics and direct visual contact with the talent. Never did it with COVID-19 protocols so...not sure how it would work now. Best of luck!

Yes that's my preference. Record the vo in the room with us.

I prefer it over a booth any day.
I recorded a couple big name VO guys in the 90s who refused a booth.
Worked out great.

+1 for better communication, better air for all, greater distance to walls. Monitoring and playback need to be sorted (plus no zooming in the timeline, making notes/markers/pencils) of course.

I use my Control Room for recording v/o every day. There are some things you need to take care of: Sometimes in a CR a little bit of noise from an amp fan or a hard drive is acceptable. For us, of course, it is not. I built a dedicated machine room, which required some "boosting" of the USB signal because of the long cable run. If your CR has a live end and a dead end you'll want to find the right spot - one where you also have light to see the copy. But yeah, it works great if you watch the details. All the best.

i do this everyday. i used to have a place with a booth and the sound wasn't great. this new control room sounds way better so the acoustics for vo are better too. but like mentioned before there are more considerations to deal with - making everyone wear headphones while tracking, having a silent and dead room, staying still and not making noise while recording, and these days with corona you might want some gobos or some separation between you and the talent.

I agree that having the talent in the same room with me and the client makes for a much better recording experience and moves the session along much faster. Many of the people I record are not pro voice actors, so the whole "hearing themselves on headphones", plus maintaining correct mic distance plus being isolated in a booth deal is strange and intimidating for them, and their performance suffers. Even pro voice actors hate small booths, who wouldn't? There is sometimes a situation where clients may want to comment to each other about the performance out of earshot of the talent, I don't like that sort of "behind the back" commentary so I'm happy to have a situation where it isn't possible (they can text each other if they want). I dislike the sound of small booths, and would rather live with (and clean up) a little BG noise and reduce the effect of the room on the mic than have a dead, clean sound that sounds like it was recorded in a box.

Wow, toy guys work with well educated producers!
All the typing into their laptops and ringing phones makes this a no go in our world.

What's a "toy guy"?

Think he meant "You guys"

I SO AGREE!!!
I have show hosts that record in NY, and you can hear they are so intimidated being in a 4X4 foot box. With a 416 in the tetrahedron.
Ask the engineer to record in the control room, they think Im some newbie.

100%.

This guy is an A-lister (Simpsons, Apple Computer Corporation), and he does exactly that. He built a room within a room, and he does his voiceovers straight from the desk in his home studio. He went so far as to make the walls out of glass, so he can see out and still be sound isolated.

https://joecipriano.com/

I have a nice, medium sized booth, and a bigger separate room with a window for VO. I still do a lot of sessions in the control room. If the crowd of people are the right mix, it's super fun. If we all get along, it's more fun to be in the same room. If we all don't know each other or don't get along, then separate rooms seem to be better for the nerves. My control room is a bit noisier because of my isobox fan, but the acoustics are the best.

Can't have a thread like this one without a retelling of THE ERNIE STORY.

Same with Chuck Reily, his excuse was he got an earful of headphone feedback,
and swore never to use a booth.
Actually it gave him and excuse to pull out the cigs and scotch while reading from the producers table.

And on one occasion, an enormous Dirty-Harry-size hand cannon. I told him that either the gun went or I did, he just sat there, I got up and went home.

Interesting thread. I've done vocals in the control room but never VO's. Somehow that didn't seem fitting but this thread has given me a few ideas...

Out of curiosity, is there anyone in Europe using a 416 for VO work? I've always wondered about that. It is mostly Neumann around here.

Joe is a great VO artist. I've never recorded him, he does that perfectly fine on his own (and there is an ocean and a continent between us), but I've mixed his voice into hundreds of promo's. He always delivers!

Alistair

With Brian Cummings, and the producers wanted the talkback off,
I would leave his mic up loud, as he was doing his Disney/cartoon character voices to kill time.
Really irritated producers.

I think he was on literally the first VO session I recorded in LA. I introduced myself to the producer and asked who the talent was, and he said, "the late Brian Cummings." Interesting that they'd book a dead guy, I thought. About ten minutes later the client-side phone rang, and the producer picked it up. "Hey, it's Brian... I'm in the Cahuenga Pass..."

Now my Ernie Anderson story..
You have to have some background about Ernie.
He was the Voice of ABC, you know "The Love Boat" promos
etc. for the 70's, the 80's and to the mid 90's.

It was 1989 and he came in to do VO on a show I was mixing at the time..
"America's Funniest Home Videos" .
He walked in with his usual attitude and I sent him into the booth
and he refused saying he does all his VO at ABC in the room and
he will do that here, in the room. Well I sent up a Mic stand on the desk
holding a 416 . He liked what he heard after talking with the producers and left.
I called around town to other Mixers who recorded him and found out he liked:
The Crossword Puzzle, a sharp #2 Pencil and a cup of coffee.
The next time he walked in I was set up on the desk next to me with all the above and he completely changed his attitude to me and was as nice as could be. You gotta get to know your clients and keep them happy. It was a great lesson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Anderson

Wow, I'm glad things are a'changing and not being an asshole nowadays actually is considered part of your professionality.
Anyone behaving towards my team like you and Brent were describing that guy won't work here a second time. Period. No matter what 'celebrity' status he has.

Ernie want being an "asshole" to Marti, his attitude was based on fear.
As all VO people and actors have fear you will make them look/sound
bad.
Once you've showed "your" talent, as Marti proved, they are your best friends.

I had the same with William Shatner, the first time I recorded him,
he freaked out, also had an attitude, as I was the assistant in the past.
Once he heard I didn't screw it up, it was like nothing ever changed.
He wanted scalding hot water and a cough drop!!!!

I'll agree it works great if you have a good room.

Some moveable gobos with broadband absorption help if the room is a little live.

Some talent prefer no headphones at all, so just me and the producer wear cans and playback on the monitors after a good take for all to hear. Somebody mentioned typing into laptops and ringing phones. Well if you're all in the room together it can engage the producer(s) more so they stay quiet and don't play Solitaire. Also you don't have to play the bad guy turning talkback off in any awkward situations...