Onwards and Upgrades

Yesterday, I made a significant investment in upgrading my studio. I decided it was time for a Christmas present for myself – in recognition of a successful year – and time to do the one thing that, on a psychological level, would make me feel like I was “doing it for real”.

I bought a Neumann microphone.

If you don’t have any interest in microphones then that probably won’t mean much, but if you do then it will probably provoke some reaction – possibly an “ooh”, or an “ahh”, even. Pretty much every studio I visit for voiceover work has the same microphone: the Neumann U 87. In the UK, possibly more so than in the US, the Neumann range are often perceived as the mics to use when you want the best (and have the budget to match your aspirations), and the U 87 is the top of the Neumann pile for voiceover work. Unfortunately it also retails at between £1500 and £1800 (plus another £230 or so for a shockmount). Nonetheless I wrestled with buying one for weeks, before deciding that the time wasn’t right: a mixture of predictions of a recession, economic downturn, and the plain, hard truth that I actually don’t have that sort of cash knocking around at the moment.

Instead, I went for the TLM 103. If you believe the marketing, it has most of the U 87 sound, but at about half the price (I paid £799 for mine, including a shockmount). In fact, regardless of how accurate this statement is, I’ve found it quite difficult to tell the U 87 Ai and the TLM 103 apart when listening to A/B comparisons on spoken voice (like here), and the differences I do hear – mostly a slight lift in the top end, providing a touch more clarity, but without it getting nasty – I like. The TLM 103 borrows a lot in the design of its capsule from the U 87, and can be seen – very approximately – as a sort of “sawn-off U 87″, but without the -10dB pad switch or the high pass filter. Mine’s finished in matt black, by the way…

Neumann have been making microphones for eighty years, and they must be doing something right for them to maintain their reputation. When the BBC replaced all of its microphones in the newsreading and main on-air studios at Bush House a year or so ago, they bought Neumann BCM 104s (at a cool £800 a throw). I was told this week that the BBC has started replacing presenter mics in Local Radio with Neumann TLM 103s like the one I’ve just purchased, and in the past, wherever I’ve worked as a television announcer, the mic has been a Neumann of some description. Even Hitler used one… (though his was badged “Telefunken”).

This is an interesting thing, as the Neumanns may not technically be the “best” mics out there. It’s often said that they’re not the most accurate, or “transparent” microphones, and that they add a character of their own to the sound. But the truth is, that “character” often flatters the spoken voice in a way that producers and voiceover artists appreciate. There’s also something comforting, as a performer, when you walk into somewhere you’ve never worked before and see a familiar microphone. This is, of course, more psychological than anything else: the way the preamp and processing are set up by the engineer will have a huge bearing on how the voice sounds on the track, but psychology is psychology – and shouldn’t be underestimated. The truth is that when I walk into a booth and see the familiar, cigar-shaped body of the U 87, I – like many of my peers – breathe an internal sigh of relief. The U 87 creates an even playing field, too, for voiceover artists working remotely and patching into studios where the engineer has no control over the equipment the artist is using. They probably breathe a sigh of relief too when you can say “It’s a Neumann” – it takes one more thing out of the equation.

In the last few years I’ve noticed more and more voiceovers listing either the U 87 or the TLM 103 on their spec sheets, and I’m happy to join them. My Audio Technica AT 4040 has served me very well as my “starter mic”, and at £230 or so it’s a lot of mic for the money, putting some much more expensive mics to shame. But doing that same A/B test yesterday with my new TLM 103 brought to mind words like “glassy”, “papery” and “harsh” for the 4040, whereas the Neumann oozed “warm” and “smooth” on the same script – not that warm or smooth are always right for the material, of course. But in my case, I’ve sometimes had people say that my recordings have been prone to sibilance, and I’ve had to admit they were right. With the new mic acquitting itself admirably on “The successful Syrian soccer side scored a stunning sixty-seven”, I’m very pleased to report that that won’t be a problem in the future.

Mike is a happy boy.

PS – If you’re interested in hearing about the development of Hitler’s “Bottle” mic, read this article at NPR.org. Halfway down the page there’s a link to an excellent interview with Klaus Heyne of German Masterworks, which may have you rethink some of your preconceptions about new being better!

So this is Christmas

Well, almost. Two days to go, and things in Voiceover World are very quiet, as one might expect. I had an enquiry yesterday about some work for the new year, but that aside not much has happened, except a quick look at my bank account reveals that most of my clients have been good boys and girls and cleared their invoices ahead of the holidays. There’s one notable exception, but tough love can start in January (and it will…)

As it’s been quiet, I’ve been trawling the internet looking for deals on kit. I’m in the market for upgrading my microphone in the next few weeks, and I have to say I’m unsure of the best course of action. The other day I heard worrying reports from a fellow Voice, writing in a private forum, that prices are likely to rise in the coming year due to the poor exchange rate between the Pound and virtually every other currency. He cited Focusrite and Digidesign as two companies who expect to be increasing their prices by 25%-30% from January.

On the other hand, a friend of mine whose opinions I generally put some faith in believes that the slow economy (even though we’re not yet officially in a recession here in the UK) might mean good deals in the new year, when sales of kit are traditionally slow. Her viewpoint is that, regardless of the threats, the vendors will have no option but to discount.

What’s a boy to do? My track record with this sort of thing tells me that whichever decision I make will be the wrong one, and I’ll lose cash whatever I do, so perhaps I should just stop worrying.

Thanks for reading my embryonic blog over the last few months. I seem to be managing to write at least semi-regularly, and I’m enjoying it! So, with that, a Merry Christmas to all our readers, and I hope to see you in 2009. Have a good one!

Local Radio in the UK in 2008

A friend who is a commercial radio presenter has just sent me this amusing clip. It’s from a BBC Radio 4 programme called “Listen Against” (the title being a play on the BBC’s “Listen Again” service for radio, and the whole of which should still be available on the BBC’s iPlayer service here – if you’re quick!)

Some background, if you’re outside the UK or don’t follow the commercial sector particularly… When ILR (Independent Local Radio) started in this country, in 1973, all kinds of rules were in place about local programming, studio quality, and so on. As time has gone on, “Independent Radio” has succumbed to market pressures, changes in regulation and “Commercial Radio” seems somehow more fitting. Stations have bought each other out and there are now only a couple of big groups left, which own everything.

Serendipity

serendipity |ˈsɛr(ə)nˈdɪpɪti|
noun
the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way 
: a fortunate stroke of serendipity | a series of small serendipities.

So there I was, this time yesterday, blogging about how the bottom had dropped out of my week. By two o’clock I’d resigned myself to an afternoon on the sofa under a TV blanket, watching an old black-and-white movie on Channel 4, and was trying to convince myself how blessed I was to have the kind of job where I get time at home to do such things. In search of some Me Time, I threw caution to the wind, switched my phone to “silent”, and snuggled up in front of the fire with a packet of digestives. Bliss…

Imagine my surprise then, when, at five o’clock I checked my phone and found another eLearning job had come in, from the exact same place that cancelled earlier in the week, and that it would be a bigger job than the one I lost. Way-hey!

Then, at ten past six, just as I was disappearing into the Underground to go and meet Jules and to have some dinner in town with a friend who’s leaving London (Mexican – the food, not the friend) an email dropped onto my iPhone from a fellow VO who’s been talking with me about some possible work recording audiobook summaries for a business college. They liked my demo and the first job for me is ready to record.

So far, so good, but they say things always come in threes, don’t they? I didn’t find the third thing until this morning, but it actually happened last night too.

I shouldn’t say too much, because it’s a big and ongoing project and there are others who need to be told first. But it’s been on the back-burner since the spring, and I’ve been checking in with the production company at intervals to make sure we’re still on each other’s radar. When it was quiet yesterday morning I dropped them a line. I got a reply to say they were hoping to get the thing up-and-running this week, but that (given the experience to date) they couldn’t be sure. Then last night I got an email to say it looks like the green light has finally been lit, and work should begin shortly.

Serendipity? Universal Law of Attraction? I don’t know, and I don’t very much care, to be honest, but it’s made me feel a whole lot better. And I now feel vindicated for having that second mojito with dinner.

Feast and Famine

It’s a funny old business, this voice over malarky. One minute you’re up to your Adam’s Apple in jobs; the next it’s all looking a bit barren. At least that’s been my experience of late.

In October and November I was rushed off my feet. I had one week in November where I had six days out of seven working for the BBC, a full morning’s recording at Sky on the other day and a whole host of other jobs – training recordings, continuity writing and recording, and so on – that I somehow managed to “shoehorn in” around it all. I’m not saying for one moment that I’d want to work like that every week, but it did feel rather good to be in demand. And the upshot was that in November I billed more than I’ve ever billed before – like, twice as much… 

Now, I’m the first to accept that any business like this is going to have its ups-and-downs, its quiet periods and so on. December is often a quiet month in business generally: no one wants to get too excited about new projects and the whole focus is on getting enough done to take two weeks off over the holidays. Nonetheless, this week I’m feeling a bit down-in-the-dumps, having had £700 worth of work disappear in a puff of smoke. Not one job, but three, have vanished into thin air at the last minute. Puff! Just like that.

The first, and the most lucrative of the three, is an instalment of an ongoing training project. Someone, somewhere far, far away, unbeknown to me and to the person who manages my side of things, decided that this particular training module either didn’t need to happen, or didn’t need to happen right now. £400 – Puff! Still, at least it’s an ongoing project, so there’ll hopefully be more in the new year.

The second job I was quite excited about. Though not that lucrative (£175 all in), it was to be for a major brand doing some web promos, and may have been a good way in to more work. The lady I spoke to, who contacted me out of the blue a few weeks back, seemed very keen and asked me to pencil it in for some time this week. A couple of my messages to confirm it in the last few days have gone unanswered, so my best guess is that at this point it’s either not happening or they’ve changed their minds about using me as their voice. Still, it would have been nice to have been told. Puff!

The final job was part two of a job that we did part one of last week. It’s for an out-of-town client. They don’t pay London prices, but the £130 would have been useful – especially in light of the other cancellations – and they’ve been good to me as I’ve been building up my voiceover client base this year. The client decided that they’d got all they needed last week, so Tuesday’s session was scrubbed from the diary. Puff again!

I’m philosophical (well, it beats bursting into tears) so I know that this is – hopefully – just a “blip”. I know that you can’t judge anything by how the weeks before Christmas go, either. But it does raise a few interesting points for those of us that freelance. There’s a temptation, if you earn really well for a short period, to spend as though that’s the way you earn all the time. Until you’ve been earning at that level for a good few months, and can see clear reasons for it to continue, it’s probably wise to exercise caution in spending. Put money aside. Strike a sensible balance saving and buying the stuff you need and were putting off buying before – like professional memberships, subscriptions, new equipment and the like. A few people who freelance have told me that they’re never happy unless they’ve got three months’ salary in the bank in case of emergency. My jaw drops at this point as I’ve never had anywhere near that amount of “ready cash” on tap. It’s something I aspire to, though.

Another point is this, and it’s just my personal view: don’t be too quick to ditch clients who don’t pay full whack, but who’ve been loyal. It would have been very easy for me to shun the out-of-town client I mentioned above, but I may be grateful for them in a slow period if they come up with work. It’s great to aim high all the time and go for the big money, but at the end of the day it’s about paying the bills before taking any holidays. If you deal in selling “widgets” then you’re disadvantaged compared to those of us whose only commodity is our time. Time costs nothing, and unless there’s a mob beating a path to your door, it’s wise to be at least open to offers in the short term when it’s quiet. Keep your principles close at hand though, for when things begin to pick up again, and don’t automatically sell yourself short. After all, nobody else needs to know you’re quiet, and it’s hard to beat the price up once you’ve gone in with your initial pitch…