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Thoughts on the Neumann U87 on voice talent riders?

Jonathan Kuehling · 2017-10-07T02:30:17

When producing VO for video games, or engineering for a dialogue supervisor, how common is it for guys to 'expect' a U87? Not Neumann in general, how many times have you guys been asked to specifically provide a U87? If this is common for anyone out there, is there a certain preamp that pro voice actors or dialogue supervisors tend to be really particular about?

Music and Sound FX Audio

Started by jkuehlin September 11, 2017 02:08 AM

12 comments, last by Promit 6 years, 9 months ago

trjh2k2

432

October 05, 2017 01:49 PM

I dunno about laughing in people's faces, but I've met tons of musicians (who lack any audio engineering knowledge) who are convinced that their way of doing things is the only way to accomplish something (like a 57 right up on the grill of a guitar cab), when there's clearly a ton of different ways to approach recording. I'm not at a level where I deal with anyone who would have enough clout to come with riders, but I do think that specific mic choices are mostly inappropriate to take out of the hands of the engineer. Just my two cents.

jkuehlin

256

Author

October 07, 2017 01:54 AM

On 10/4/2017 at 4:49 PM, Promit said:

Given that, I'm puzzled that people would let the actor dictate sound engineering choices.

But if you're doing this for real, surely the sound engineer owns the chain, not the actor. Do what any real studio does - take some time to run tests with half a dozen different mics and however many preamps, bring the talent in to listen to the recording coming through the monitors*, and figure out what fits with what the actor and dialogue supervisor are trying to accomplish.

* Ideally, don't let people know what mic or preamp they're listening to when comparing. If you can double blind it, even better. You are listening to recordings and tonality, not brand names and model numbers.

That was coming from upstairs in the dialogue department. Not the VO artist. I told them I'd have one for them if they felt it was necessary. If they're really that nit picky about it, I figured worst case scenario, I'd order one from guitar center then return it.

They had said they'd fly the actors out to my location then the director would possibly remote in over Source Connect. I'm not sure how much point there is in dicking around with 5 mics unless the U87 for some reason sounds bad off the cuff. I dunno.

...by the way, I haven't heard back from this group. I didn't chase this contract aggressively...rule of thumb: if you smell B.S., proceed with caution lol...right?