Control Voice Over Home Studio Echoes With Moving Blankets

Moving blankets provide very inexpensive sound control

Joining a pay to play voice-over website is a quickest and easy way to hop into this most exciting and rewarding careers of voice over. However, with the ease of auditioning from your home comes the challenge of turning a nook in your house into a personal home studio.

Last week we touched on one of the important tools needed to audition from your home, a USB microphone. This week we continue to help you build your perfect home studio by controlling any unwanted noise.

When auditioning for a spot in a pro recording studio the first thing you will notice is that walls are covered in some type of sound deadening material. Many studios use acoustic foam which is shaped into alternating triangular rows. This material not only absorbs the sound waves that come into contact with it, but it also diffuses any sound that bounces off its triangular shapes. This material is extremely effective in sound absorption, but it can be pretty hard on the wallet.  Building an affordable yet effective home studio requires on killing any room echoes dead in their tracks.

Here’s a solution that many home studios are implementing:  inexpensive moving blankets.  This material not only deadens any sounds created by your over the top audition, but is a fraction of the cost of the pricey molded acoustic (37 cents per square foot versus $4.00 per square). While this might not convey the same “vibe” as acoustic foam (you might feel like you are in a “padded room!!), it provides similar sound absorption. This material can also be attached to a “carrel” vocal booth similar to the one I made with acoustic foam.  Don’t skimp!  Get the heaviest, quilted blankets–72 x 80 inches, 6.7 lbs.

When you audition from your home studio you are judged by the quality of your recording.  You want to eliminate computer noise and room ambiance.  These blankets will tame the noisiest room.  With this clarity the auditions you submit, will noticeably stand out from those who submit auditions with echoes and sound anomalies.  So try these blankets in your performance space and strengthen the chances of your auditions making it to the top of the list.

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