Remote voiceover recording
While not much beats the reassuring sound of the Tom Dick and Debbie recording booth, in March this year we decided to shutter the studio temporarily and, like much of the country, we've been busy adapting to an entirely remote way of working.
We're a flexible bunch here at TDD and with most of the team already set up to work from anywhere, the #WFH transition has been pretty seamless. But though remote recording and client monitoring are services we've offered for a long time, running sessions with multiple voice actors from home presented some new challenges!
Among the many benefits of recording in an acoustically-treated studio is the consistency of sound that the controlled environment guarantees. And, when minor adjustments to the microphone position or even the posture of an actor can make a big difference to the overall sound, having an experienced engineer on hand is important. Maintaining this consistency and quality was a huge consideration, especially when our actors have different home setups and equipment, but we were determined to make it work.
Bethany producing an ELT song session from Guy's remote edit suite Ayles working from her home office
her home studio
From the comfort of our own homes, we pooled the creative thinking, technical know-how and problem-solving skills of the whole TDD team. We designed a robust production workflow that delivers the same recording experience and high-quality TDD sound that our clients have come to expect, but with an entirely remote setup.
It takes quite a bit of extra work at all stages of production. Our producers, engineers and editors have been very busy behind the scenes helping our actors get their home studios up to spec, carrying out additional sound checking before and during sessions, and undertaking extended editing work, all to keep our audio sounding great.
Click here to listen to a sample from a recent multi-voice ELT remote recording session.
After working this way for a few months, it's very much become our new normal, but that doesn't mean we're not looking forward to welcoming everyone back to the studio soon!