Thursday 15 May 2014

Issues with voiceovers using ipDTL


After many test runs with various voiceover artists in the last couple of months, we have finally successfully recorded our first session using ipDTL.

However, our test runs and first proper session have thrown up some issues with delay, the technical set up in the remote studios and our mixer's inability to send clean feed.

Here is a summary of the relevant points from our Studio Engineer James which may affect your recording studio. (We have omitted the issues which only affect our studio set up.)



1.)     Our first problem is that we do not know how sophisticated our voiceover artist’s setup is.  Please insist that they use Google Chrome, check that they are connected to https://www.ipdtl.com/vo/ (not the ‘free’ version of the url) and that they type in the user id and password (insist that they do not copy details it as extra spaces can be added – this confuses the server).  Their routing may be problematic, for example: some voiceover artists will have more than one sound card!
2.)     We have noted that some users can hear us but we can’t hear them.  To ensure that we’re definitely picking up audio through the ipDTL channel, click on the ‘devices’ tab on the ipDTL page and play the test tone – it should come through loud and clear, if we can hear the tone then the problem is at the voiceover artist’s end. 

3.)     The voiceover artist needs to ensure that Google Chrome is set to their default microphone setting on the sound card.  In many instances Chrome has linked itself to non-default soundcard settings.
4.)     If you’re having problems hearing the voiceover artist get them to click on the video camera icon at the right of the url bar next to the star icon, this should provide a dropdown box which allows them to change the microphone settings.
      5.)     We may need to ask the voiceover artist to mute what we send to them.  This way we can monitor on speakers and the client can hear at the same time – we can’t stop the voiceover artist mid paragraph though as they can’t hear us 

     6.) The voiceover artist must use Google Chrome and ideally send us audio at 128kpbs if their internet connection supports that speed 


We also send these handy tips to our voiceovers:

Are we having trouble hearing you? Google Chrome needs to use your default soundcard. Therefore you need to make your microphone’s soundcard the default soundcard. Click on the video camera icon at the right of the url bar next to the star icon, this should provide a dropdown box which allows you to change your microphone settings.

Are you having trouble hearing us? You will need to make sure that the soundcard that enabled you to hear previous clients in your headphones ( on the phone, ISDN or Skype for example) to hear our microphone through ipDTL.

Good luck!  




Thursday 1 May 2014

Voiceover News April 2014


Despite me taking a week's vacation in Spain, we had an extremely busy month - and the team were worked solid.
We gave Voice Training to actress Elaine Coxall from London and child voiceover artist Ben recorded a song for Sky Sports 2.

For the UK Male voice talent, Ed recorded a voiceover for Secure IT and James G recorded a voiceover for BCam



For our International Voices, Roy recorded a German  a TV commercial for the Hobbit for transmission on the Cartoon Network, Colin C recorded another voiceover for SAP, Cameron voiced for Cisco, Robyn recorded a South African voiceover for Jabula Restaurant in Cheshire, Ruben S voiced for the Pokerstars Tournament, Michel recorded a French voiceover for Z-Frame, Mark P recorded a voiceover for Eurocamp and Lisa voiced for Axis Communications.

And finally for our UK Female Voices, Maureen recorded a voiceover for Working Voices, Jacky worked for Parago, Charley voiced for Asda and Suzanne recorded a voiceover for Eurocamp.