Buy The Best Equipment You Can

There is a wide range of audio recording equipment available. Some of it is very cheap and sounds like it. You don't have to spend the rent money to set up a quality home studio though. There is no need to buy the most expensive components when you're starting out, but it is important to keep upgrading everything.

Areas that can be addressed from the start : The quality of XLR cables. Do not grab those $5 cables from the bin, spend the extra money on Mogami or other quality cables. Next get a good preamp like MPA II or other units. The next piece is a power conditioner such as Furman.
These are simple pieces that will make a big difference in the quality of audio you're recording. You have a very wide range of microphones that you can choose from depending on individual taste and budget. Remember to play withy the equipment constantly so you learn the intimate details of how your set up responds. it's never just about editing out flubs, become a master of your set up:)

- Sound Repair iZotope Video Tutorials From Groove3

I get most of my tutorials from Groove3.com There are many place to get good instruction including Lynda.com, but I'm very fond of the Groove3 products. Mike Thornton has great ones on using RX5 advanced that I refer to often. Recently Added Tutorial Videos

- ProTools 11 and How To Escape iTunes Insanity For Your Production Music

Ok, I've wrestled with all the variations of iTunes and watched it's inability to import folders. I've watched it scatter collections of production music for no reason throughout the library and had to track it down. I've seen how Add To Library is it's own form of nonsense and tried all the recommended settings so it would behave.
Then this morning I realized that all I have to do is copy my BACKGROUND MUSIC folder to my Audio Thunderbolt Hard drive and arrange everything the way I want.
When importing a music file to go with our voiceovers we just search in the BACKGROUND MUSIC folder in the audio drive and skip iTunes all together. Yes, it's very obvious and I wish I'd of thought of it sooner:)

- How to Transfer Waves Filters to your new Computer for ProTools

You have an A computer and a B computer. To move your Waves licenses from A to B computer, login to your Waves account on the A computer and move them to the cloud. The log out from the A computer and Login into the Waves account using your B computer. The licenses will be waiting for you in the cloud.
Here's the Waves link to their instructions for moving the licenses from one computer to another.

Move Licenses | Waves

- Voiceovers for YouTube Videos Tips & Tricks

We had a large crowd at the Vidsummit 2014 conference on video marketing and video advertising. I was surprised and happy that everyone wanted to know how to get better audio, so here are a few of those pointers. Buy a better mic! A $30 mic isn't going to sound as good as a $150-$200 mic. There are many great USB mice in that range. Stay 8" to 10" from the mic. Most people are too far away and it makes it sound hollow. If you done have acoustical egg crate foam, buy some and stick it up where you record. Make sure the mice is sitting on foam or at least a towel, not a hard surface. Buy a noise reduction filter from WAVES NS1 is amazing. Warm up your voice before you record so the voice is open and naturally warm sounding:)

- Better Cables Will Actually Give You Better Audio

Sure the sound comes through no matter what you've paid for your XLR cables, but paying more will deliver much better audio. When you think of all the time we spend trying to generate good reads and well done narratives/voiceovers, it's amazing. Honor your good work by making sure you have good audio cables.

- Recording and Mastering Your Voice before Mixing With Music

People ask me about the process I use when recording commercials or narratives for projects. First of all, there are many many approaches that work really well that have different slants to them, different preferences. Having said that, once I've edited out any flubs or things I'm not going to use, I use the Waves audio filter Renaissance VOX and apply a little of that to give the voice a little more saturation and "presence". Next I'll use Waves Limiter Mono to raise the gain. I never use the Normalize filter because it is too generalized. We'll be talking more about this in the free Saturday Seminar/Workshop September 6th from 10am to 11:30am at our AzzurraMedia Ranch in Santa Clarita, CA

- Great Desktop Monitor Station Presonus V2

Ok, so you have 2 or three sets of speakers, or you have one set of speakers and two computers.
This monitor station gives you many ways to route the audio without the old patch bay setup.
Just be aware that if you have a MacPro. the stereo mini jack output is 4+db and not10+db. the default setting for the unit. You have to change that option or you can't hear the audio.
Here's how: With the unit off Hold down the Cue Source button ST 1 while it powers on and you'll be all set,
http://www.presonus.com/products/Monitor-Station-V2

- My favorite Studio Speakers KRK VXT Series

Speakers are a really subjective sport. There are many points of view. Mine is the KRK speaker VXT series is great. They are very affordable, used in plenty of the top studios and very clear in the middle which is great for voiceover work. A number of the more expensive speakers are too dark in the middle which can make it harder to mix voiceovers properly.
Here is the link to a review and a video demo from Sweetwater.com

KRK VXT 8 | Sweetwater.com

- How to Record at home when you have no space or budget for a VO Booth

I get a lot of questions from VO artists about how to record at home when there is no space for a recording booth and no budget for setting up even a small portable unit. The solution that works surprisingly well is hiding in your clothes closet. Part your clothes in the middle and stick a small bar stool in there.  Cover it with a very heavy blanket then set your mic on it with a table mic stand and pop screen. Your clothing will deaden most of the ambient room noise and you can use the Waves Filter NS1 to take out the rest of the "room noise". The newest and best noise reduction in my opinion is now made by Izotope RX4. Pick what's best for you:)

- Voiceover Booth , or Noise Reduction Filter

There are many points of view about this. If money is no object and you have the space, by all means buy a recording booth.A good one will cost between $4000 to $7000. Today however there are some amazing noise reduction filters. Sound Soap has been purchased from the now out of business Bias-Peak ($149) Izotrope has some truly amazing filters that cost more ($ 350 to about $800)
and of course Waves filters has all kinds of noise reduction filters, but my favorite is Waves NS 1 Noise Suppression Filter.
When you are recording, you will leave about 3 seconds of room noise space before you speak. These filters can then memorize the room noise and strip only that from your recordings leaving amazingly clean voiceover recordings without doing bad things to the sound of your voice.
Check ou these links to see if they interest you.
We make no money or commissions for any recommendations we make:)

Automatic Noise Suppression Plugin – NS1 | Waves

iZotope RX 3 | OVERVIEW

SoundSoap 3 Noise Reduction