George The Tech’s Performer Friendly Podcast

EWABS Episode 177 February 09, 2015 with Thom Pinto

Promo, commercial and narration voice Thomas Pinto shares his wisdom on this edition. Dan is in Santa Monica with George this time around.

EWABS Episode 175 January 26, 2015 with Mary Lynn Wissner

Influential and helpful voiceover casting director Mary Lynn Wissner Voices joins us this week from voicecasting.comGerald Griffith, founder of VOAtlanta tells us what's to come for VOAtlanta 2015 coming March 12th. George has hits from the 2015 NAMM show, too!

EWABS Episode 174 January 19, 2015 with VO Pals Pablo and Al

Pablo and Al the Voiceover Pals in the Garage bring some levity to the show and share their pearls of wisdom. Dan's Tip of the Week on Personal Studio Troubleshooting, questions, news, laughs, info, it's all here.

EWABS Episode 173 January 12, 2015 with Roger Leopardi

Roger gives and gives on this information packed (aren't they all) episode. George's open letter to engineers' message about adopting IP audio codecs, News, Dan and George answer questions, and Mugman!

EWABS Episode 172 January 5, 2015 with Jeff Howell

World Wide Wadio producer Jeff Howell is our esteemed first guest of 2015. George asks the chat room what they plan to do to boost their VO careers in 2015 and shares some thoughts of his own. George and Dan answer viewer questions, and Dan's Tip of the Week is about "Personal Studios".

EWABS Episode 171 December 29, 2014 The Best of 2014

You submitted your favorites and here they are, plus some of ours, too. Happy New Year, see you in 2015, same time, same place!

EWABS Episode 170 December 15, 2014 with Jay Britton

Jay graciously sacrifices sleep to be with us LIVE for almost an hour of stories of his journey to success and questions from our audience. Dan has a Tip of the Week on using Studio Monitors over Headphones, George disputes it... News, audience tech QnA, and more goodies!

EWABS Episode 169 December 8, 2014 All About World Voices Organization

If you want to know anything about WoVO, this episode covers it as a selection of the executive board joins us for this information packed episode. Chris Mezzolesta, Dave Courvoisier, Elizabeth Holmes, & Dustin Ebaugh are here with an open discussion and QnA with our chat room. George shares a Whittam's World on using Skype and other methods as a phone patch.

EWABS Episode 168 December 1, 2014 with Jodi Gottlieb!

Golden nuggets of information abound with Jodi Gottlieb! She worked at CBS! Jodi talks about what she looks for when hiring talent. She recently did a workshop with Jeff Howell (World Wide Wadio) re how to interpret your scripts. She's worked with many of the top talent in promo, including Townsend Coleman and the late, great Don LaFontaine, and shares some wonderful stories about them. As a demo producer her perspective on the subject is invaluable!Dan has a great Tip of the Week titled "It's not the microphone", about getting the gear "out of your way" and understanding what's really important as a VO actor working from a personal studio.We also take viewer questions and share the latest industry news.

EWABS Episode 167 November 24, 2014 with Harlan Hogan, HH, H2!

Tonights Guest is none other than Harlan Hogan!
Show Log
Episode 167, November 24, 2014
Guest: Harlan Hogan
George on equipment upgrades
0:01:59 Here they are! Dan missed the big Buffalo snow dump.
0:03:17 Thanks to sponsors: Harlan Hogan, Edge Studio, VoiceZam, VoiceOverXtra,
HomeStudioMaster, VO Studio Tech.
0:03:45 EWABS NEWS
0:04:00 WoVO’s new website is launched! Go to http://www.worldvo.org/
0:05:00 Yosemite OS for Mac is still not quite ready. George says hold off!
0:06:15 Studio Suit is temporarily out of production. Dan may resume after he moves to
California.
0:06:52 CBS is replacing ISDN with SourceConnect in 2015.
0:07:49 SourceConnectNow is still in beta. Coming soon SourceConnectNow 3.9.
0:08:23 EWABS NEWS
0:08:41 Questions.
0:09:00 Q: A person who works in Guatemala and wants to know about a VO kit that includes
Adobe Audition. A: George doesn’t know the mic.
0:11:32 Q: about adding plugins that don’t have .stack extensions. A: They just show up in
the flat list. George shows a screenshot. If they don’t show up, try reinstalling the plugin (like
iZotope).
0:13:37 Q: What’s with the Avalon pre-channel strips? A: Adding enhancements defeats the
purpose of sounding like you. You can actually make your recording noisier. Tubes can
degrade over time. Leave it to the engineers and audio geeks. Tube equipment will add
distortion that you can’t undo.
0:18:55 Write to ewabshop@gmail.com with your questions. Or call, 818-47EWABS.
0:19:34 Break. Home Studio Master.
0:20:43 Bumper on Thanksgiving.
0:21:16 They’re back.
0:22:27 George’s Whittam’s World on upgrading equipment (episode 23). https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Keu2tkQbA Does equipment degrade?
0:28:23 Back the show and discussion about equipment upgrades.
0:29:10 George asks Dan what’s the oldest thing in his studio.
0:30:00 George talks about interface lifespans.
0:31:23 Break. VO Studio Tech.
0:32:34 They’re back
0:33:10 And now, Harlan Hogan. http://voiceoveressentials.com/
0:33:40 Dan introduces Harlan’s second edition of VO Tales and Techniques of Voice. The
second edition is at http://alturl.com/gbmtw
0:35:04 Harlan tells what’s in the book. The second edition takes into account home studios
and other changes in the business, amounting to about 60 percent of the book being new.
0:37:37 Dan asks how this book is different from how-to books. This one is tales “from in the
day.” It makes a great book for people outside the business.
0:40:45 How things have changed since the 70s.
0:41:40 Harlan tells about “trades” used instead of salary.
0:42:30 Dan asks if there’s an audiobook version of the book. Not yet. It’s a long story.
0:45:35 What the publishing business knows…
0:46:05 There’s a contest. He has five autographed copies to the first 5 who can answer
the question, what did Harlan do to get his agent call him regularly? Send entries to
ewabshop@gmail.com with the subject line, “H2 Contest.” Entries must be received by
November 28. The winners to be picked at random.
0:47:50 Dan asks how Harlan got into his “retail empire,” and how he balances that with other
work. He tells the story. Several things led to an article on building the Porta Booth.
0:50:33 People wanted to know where to buy it! His IT suggested he make it and sell it. Before
he knew it, he had a store. He made 1500 of the original Porta Booth. Then he ran into the
idea of the “minimum order quantity.”
0:53:29 VoiceOver Essentials is all about voice-over.
0:54:52 Bumper … then …
0:55:20 They’re back talking about the book cover.
0:55:55 There’s a Black Friday sale! Use this code: BLKFRIVO, at midnight Thursday through
Sunday.
0:58:07 Questions. Q: Make sure Harlan talks about the famous diner where the owner named
a frittata for Harlan and a crepe for his wife.
0:59:48 Q What kind of discipline does it take to write a book, how do you do that as a busy VO
talent. A: Harlan talks about a time expert in Canada. This guy recommends no to-do lists. He
says pick a time and days. Set aside the time and do it. Schedule it.
1:01:45 Never finish a chapter during a writing time. Save it for the next day; this avoid writer’s
block.
1:04:14 Q: What about the Mixer Face, the new interface? George wants to know about the
limiter. A: Harlan tells the story, and gives a tip for fixing a phone session. He describes the
device.
1:08:10 George talks about limiters.
1:08:37 Harlan talks about the nice thing about a small company—they can move quickly. In
this case, adding the limiter after the product was announced. It’s now expected in February.
What will be out will be fully ready.
1:10:00 Q: What steps do you take to get work quickly? A: Harlan answers. You have to be
your own marketer.
1:10:54 Harlan talks about how voice actors may not see what they do as a business.
1:11:56 Q: What’s your bike? A: Harlan rides a BMW-R-1200RT.
1:12:40 Harlan asks Dan and George to guess how many miles he drove on his bike in 24
hours. They guess. The answer is 1350 miles on a round trip from Chicago to Sioux Falls, S.D.
This put him in the “Iron Butt Society.”
1:14:10 Q: If someone has the VO1-A, and wants to “mod” it, what would you do? Dan
explains the hobby of messing with mics.
1:15:00 Harlan talks about the art of making microphones and what little changes can do to the
sound. George talks about switches and how confusing they can be.
1:16:39 Harlan how slight changes can add hum or other artifacts.
1:17:25 Q: Where does Chicago fit in with studios? A: Harlan talks about the scene.
1:19:37 George asks Harlan if he recorded at “Another Country,” a studio in Chicago, the place
where SourceConnect started.
1:20:56 Harlan talks about missing audio engineers and learning from them.
1:21:30 Harlan tells about voice talent not knowing how to work side-address microphones—
because we don’t have the studio and engineers to learn from anymore.
1:22:30 He talks about talking with audio engineers.
1:22:59 Q: When will you have a signature series shotgun mic? A: Probably never. He
explains. Those “minimum order” quantities interfere.
1:24:31 Break. VoiceZam.
1:26:08 They’re back. Next week’s guest: Jodi Gottlieb, a promo writer and director. She’ll be
talking about performance.
1:27:02 Thanks to donors and sustaining members.
1:27:20 Thanks to NarratorHelper.com.
1:27:42 Movember reviewed. See bitly.com/movos-movember
1:28:45 Nita Whitaker (Don LaFontaine’s widow) has her first Christmas CD out at
nitawhitaker.com
1:29:10 Show logs: access at the EWABS website. Push the Show Log button.
1:29:48 Coming up: the annual/best of show from the past year, on December 29. Send the
time and date of the show. George will put a form online.
1:30:35 Next shows: not sure yet, but Christmas week no show!
1:32:09 How to get to podcasts: Stitcher, iTunes, and click on the podcast at the EWABS.com
website.
1:32:30 Follow us on Facebook, and other places. Thanks to wives, sponsors, and staff.
1:34:57 End of show.