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

These are Great - The 50 Most Essential Pro Tools Key Commands

Shortcut Bible: The 50 Most Essential Pro Tools Key Commands http://www.sonicscoop.com/2016/05/26/big-list-pro-tools-key-commands-shortcut-bible/ … via @SonicScoop

- Audio Repair & Recording Tutorial Resources

This is an unpaid recommendation
Groove3.com  Mike Thornton iZotope RX 5 advanced tutorials for #audio repair are great.
They also have a full range of tutorials including ProTools.
Lynda.com also has really great video tutorials

- Our Favorite USB Podcast Mic Is Aphex Microphone X

There are many really good mics and this is one of them:)
#USBmics #podcast Rob and I have chosen the Aphex Microphone X as our podcast mic. Great USB mic Here's a review. http://www.nethervoice.com/2013/12/11/aphex-microphone-x-review/ …

#voiceovers Great deal on the USB Aphex podcast mic at B&H photo http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/919982-REG/aphex_mic_x_usb.html …

- 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:)

- Working the Mic

Generally  you'll want to be 8 to 10 inches from the mic. But if you're yelling you need to be farther back. If it's a very personal or intimate read, you need to be very close. It's very important that you learn to work the mic so you know what  the right distance is for you when you're doing different kinds of reads. Don't wait until you have a job that reveals you haven't experimented with distance and tones of voice. Knowing how your voice works under different conditions with your mic will put money in your pocket:)

- How To Get Rid of Mouth Clicks/Noise Before or After

This happens to all of us at some point. There are mouth clicks that we notice when we play back our recordings. Sometimes they're are none and sometimes we wonder what the heck is wrong with our mouth. Lets start with minimizing them to start with. Generally the clicks start appearing if our mouth is too dry. When you are speaking, you are loosing over a liter of water an hour because the humidity in the lungs is close to 100%. Keep taking sips of water while you're reading. By the time you feel dry it's too late for that moment because it takes time to re hydrate. The next issue is how to minimize the noise on the spot. Every body chemistry is different so you have to experiment with what works for you. Having said that. Apple juice is an amazing moisturizer for the mouth. Mixing some honey with water works for many. Some people I know swear that some molasses in water is a great cure.
If none of this helps then the post production fix that I love is made by iZotope. It is their RX4. It has a DeClick filter that is just magic. Scroll down to Declick and you'll see how specific it is.
iZotope RX 4: Features | Audio Enhancement & Repair Tool

You can by either the $349. version or the advanced $1199. version.

iZotope RX 4: Complete Audio Enhancement & Repair Toolkit

Om shorter pieces you can of course just do surgery and cut the clicks out, like we've all done but iZotope is magic.

- The Amazing Zoom H6 Portable Recorder

This recorder is not only great for recording each student on an SD card in class, it's fabulous recorder for our video shoots as well. Capable of 6 channel recording and with various accessories from a very good shotgun mic to 2 extra XLR inputs. The new LED color meters on the front and separate gain control dials by each iput makes this one of my favorites.
Here's a review from Sound on Sound audio guy Tom Flint
Zoom H6

- PreSonus AudioBox i Series Recording Hardware/Software- Nice Solution

Here is a nice alternative to the ProTools MBox series. Check it out.
Excellent choices for mobile musicians, sound designers, and podcasters, the USB 2.0 bus-powered AudioBox iOne and iTwo provide high-quality audio I/O for Mac®, PC, and Apple iPad®. These compact, ruggedly built interfaces offer high-performance Class A mic preamplifiers, record 24-bit audio at up to 96 kHz, and include powerful, easy-to-use Studio One® Artist DAW for Mac and Windows and Capture™ Duo recording software for iPad.
PreSonus | AudioBox i Series

- 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

- Is There Room For You in the VoiceOver Industry?

I hear  people saying, "I'd love to do voiceovers, but everyone says it's way to competitive".
If you stop and think about it and ask yourself to make a list of high paying jobs that aren't really competitive, there won't be anything on the list.
Of course everything is highly competitive. If you wanted to be a lawyer, teacher, or open a carpet cleaning business, you would have to deal with the same issues. You would have to network, have great skills and be good with people. The other important thing to remember is everyone does not have to like you. You are looking for a number of people who like your voice and natural style.
You are not looking to be hired by everyone.
Things take time to set up and develop. Most people who are well trained and who feel like they just have to do voiceovers do, over time,  find clients who are happy to pay them for their work.
People who make a living doing voiceovers have been trained and have built up their careers over time because they love doing it, not because they were an instant success. Work hard, be patient, and don't give up:)

- 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