My friend Lauren had her first Source Connect session last week. She had been meaning to set up Source Connect for a long time and just hadn’t had time. We were talking the morning of and she was saying how worried she was that the neighbor’s dog was going to bark or what if the connection messed up.
Since COVID19 has fast-tracked a lot of people’s home studio set-ups, I thought I’d offer some tips that have helped me prepare for those Home Studio sessions and ease the stress.
1| THERE’S GRACE – Clients, engineers, etc know that they didn’t book a professional recording studio. They booked a HOME STUDIO, with someone that didn’t go to school to be an engineer. So if your neighbor’s dog goes a little crazy or your source connect connection has to be reset midway, that’s understandable. That leads to the next tip…
2| CONTROL THE CONTROLLABLE – Can you silence your neighbors dog? Nope. Can you use an ethernet cable instead of relying on wifi? Yep. Test your Source Connect with Source Elements the day before. Think through potential backups if something goes wrong. Can you do a phone patch? Have a plan B and maybe even plan C. The most important thing is that the project gets recorded, so if you can always make that work…you’re good.
3| BE PREPARED – I start preparing an hour before (if I have the margin). Refill my water, go to the bathroom, look over my script, check my connections, etc. The more prepared you, the more relaxed you’ll be in the session, which means you’ll bring your best performance.
If you want an engineer to walk you through different options or troubleshoot anything, you can always schedule a virtual consult with Dan Fishman. Schedule a 1/2 hour or 1 hour Zoom call with him here: https://www.mikestoudt.com/staging.atlantavoiceoverstudio.com/blog/private-coaching/
If you just need to test your Source Connect connection and can’t get through to Source Elements…just email our engineer Rochelle at: rochelle@mikestoudt.com and she’ll test it with you for free…part of our COVID19 support.
You got this!!
-Mike and Heidi