Stephanie Ciccarelli is a Co-Founder of Voices. Classically trained in voice as well as a respected mentor and industry speaker, Stephanie graduated with a Bachelor of Musical Arts from the Don Wright Faculty of Music at the University of Western Ontario. For over 25 years, Stephanie has used her voice to communicate what is most important to her through the spoken and written word. Possessing a great love for imparting knowledge and empowering others, Stephanie has been a contributor to The Huffington Post, Backstage magazine, Stage 32 and the Voices.com blog. Stephanie is found on the PROFIT Magazine W100 list three times (2013, 2015 and 2016), a ranking of Canada's top female entrepreneurs, and is the author of Voice Acting for Dummies®.
Thank you for this podcast. I believe this segment that Debbie has done will assist me in making quality decisions on how I set-up for recording product for my business. She really made the space issue a non-issue.
Kisha
Useful information. I am a new person entering this field and this piece helped me decide where to make an easy to set up voice studio. Deb had the quick fix solution for those with deep pockets cash wise to realistic methods “for the rest of us” with talent and passion. The two resource books mentioned saved me long hours trying to decide where to start my research. Thanks.
Please can you tell me who does the actual voice-over intros on your podcasts? She has an English voice… is it Posy Brewer?
I am looking to produce a business CD that may need a UK voice-over artist, and her voice is ideal for the task!
Hi James,
Thank you for commenting and asking about the Voice Over Experts podcast host.
Julie-Ann Dean is the podcast intro / outro voice.
Thanks again 🙂
Stephanie
This article has certainly made me feel a lot less weird about covering the room with blankets! Fortunately we’re not having a really cold winter here, so no-one in my house has had to suffer!
thanks
I like that you provide a transcript of the audio. Can you tell me how you’re doing that? Manually transcribing it? Using a program to convert audio to text and then cleaning it up? I’m also a podcaster and I’ve been asked this question a lot but have no solution.
Hi Tom,
The podcasts are transcribed manually by a person. It is generally more accurate to have a set of human ears listening in for cadence in speech, proper spelling of names, etc.
I hope that answered your question and helped 🙂
Best wishes,
Stephanie Ciccarelli
Co-founder of Voices.com
Thanks for the info on your transcription method. Do you know of any software that converts speech to text? I think Adobe Soundbooth or Audition has that feature, but as you say, it’s probably not that accurate.
Enjoyed the read..I was asked by Steve.G.Jone (Hypnotherapist) to consider voice over work as I had a ‘story’ voice.
Will keep popping over to keep up to date.
Thanks again,
Sarah
Every single video,transcrip,podcast that I receive from Voices.com is a real encouragement for those who try to set up a “home home sweet-home-studio”. As a former child actor,voice-over talent and senior contructed Voice-over actor of TRT(Turkish Radio Television), I thank everyone like Debbie and Stephanie…I am learning to “construct” my studio;almost there with all my “voices”.
Thanks; it is helpful,encouraging and passion sharing….
Peace.
Tips for building a cost-effective home studio:
Computer, EM-U 0404, Studio Projects C1 Mic, $100 in foam, Adobe Audition, Mic Stand, a couple of cable… Cost: Less than $2000.
Tips for building a cost-effective home studio:
Either build or empty a closet, cover with acoustic foam, Acer Atom, Samson G-track mic, mic stand& Audacity- probably under $1000
I watched craigslist and freecycle till I found someone giving away lumber, sheet rock and carpet. As far as equipment musiciansfriend.com carries great deals on mics, Goodwill sells computers cheap now and audacity for software. Total price under $300. Now of course you could probably get a laptop with a usb mic and build a small wrap around with the stand up poster board foam and some carpet glued to it to save even more money. P.S. My current studio is more than just freebies and cheap equipment but we all had to start somewhere. First radio station I ever worked for had lime green shag carpet on walls in studio.
I built my own version of Harlan Hogan’s PortaBooth using a cardboard box and Auralex foam, placed my EV Cardinal and mic stand in it, ran the cables out to a Firewire Solo connected to a laptop running Audacity, and stuck the whole thing in the corner of a walk-in closet. Badda-bing, badda-boom, instant recording studio. About $500, not incl the laptop which I already owned and use for other things.
Save yourself a lot of hassle, simply purchase a COLES LIP MIC this is a ribbon mic, I use mine for V/O, motor racing and air show commentary, the mic has both a lip and breath guard. Used for putting V/O’s on news inserts in very unfriendly circumstances. Will kill all background noise and I do mean loud intrusive background noise!
You will also need an ISDN line and a Glensound Dual codec mixer.
VoIP /digital is not realistic for live events as it drops out … be warned ISDN is not on the way out …….
I recently purchased sound blankets with grommets from vocalboothtogo and draped them around my room. I just got a newsletter telling me they are now selling a hanging booth that uses a tracking system on the ceiling and under $100!! Going to try this.
Wow! This is something really useful for me. I didn’t know that it would be so easy to build a home recording studio. Now, I am gonna search for the PVC piping and mic too. The mic you mentioned seems to be effective. Let’s see how will it work for me. Well, thanks for the information Stephanie.
Comments
Thank you for this podcast. I believe this segment that Debbie has done will assist me in making quality decisions on how I set-up for recording product for my business. She really made the space issue a non-issue.
Kisha
Very helpful. Thanks!
VERY HELPFUL
Useful information. I am a new person entering this field and this piece helped me decide where to make an easy to set up voice studio. Deb had the quick fix solution for those with deep pockets cash wise to realistic methods “for the rest of us” with talent and passion. The two resource books mentioned saved me long hours trying to decide where to start my research. Thanks.
Please can you tell me who does the actual voice-over intros on your podcasts? She has an English voice… is it Posy Brewer?
I am looking to produce a business CD that may need a UK voice-over artist, and her voice is ideal for the task!
Hi James,
Thank you for commenting and asking about the Voice Over Experts podcast host.
Julie-Ann Dean is the podcast intro / outro voice.
Thanks again 🙂
Stephanie
This article has certainly made me feel a lot less weird about covering the room with blankets! Fortunately we’re not having a really cold winter here, so no-one in my house has had to suffer!
thanks
I like that you provide a transcript of the audio. Can you tell me how you’re doing that? Manually transcribing it? Using a program to convert audio to text and then cleaning it up? I’m also a podcaster and I’ve been asked this question a lot but have no solution.
Hi Tom,
The podcasts are transcribed manually by a person. It is generally more accurate to have a set of human ears listening in for cadence in speech, proper spelling of names, etc.
I hope that answered your question and helped 🙂
Best wishes,
Stephanie Ciccarelli
Co-founder of Voices.com
Thanks for the info on your transcription method. Do you know of any software that converts speech to text? I think Adobe Soundbooth or Audition has that feature, but as you say, it’s probably not that accurate.
Can you plz email me the pictures of the voice box studio.
Very helpful. Thanks for all the tips!
Do you have this in video? Or just a few still photos? I bet I overlooked them. I’ll do a quick search. Thanks for the info.
Enjoyed the read..I was asked by Steve.G.Jone (Hypnotherapist) to consider voice over work as I had a ‘story’ voice.
Will keep popping over to keep up to date.
Thanks again,
Sarah
The Port-A-Booth at Harlanhogan.com is as low as $125 US.
Every single video,transcrip,podcast that I receive from Voices.com is a real encouragement for those who try to set up a “home home sweet-home-studio”. As a former child actor,voice-over talent and senior contructed Voice-over actor of TRT(Turkish Radio Television), I thank everyone like Debbie and Stephanie…I am learning to “construct” my studio;almost there with all my “voices”.
Thanks; it is helpful,encouraging and passion sharing….
Peace.
Tips for building a cost-effective home studio:
Computer, EM-U 0404, Studio Projects C1 Mic, $100 in foam, Adobe Audition, Mic Stand, a couple of cable… Cost: Less than $2000.
Tips for building a cost-effective home studio:
Either build or empty a closet, cover with acoustic foam, Acer Atom, Samson G-track mic, mic stand& Audacity- probably under $1000
I watched craigslist and freecycle till I found someone giving away lumber, sheet rock and carpet. As far as equipment musiciansfriend.com carries great deals on mics, Goodwill sells computers cheap now and audacity for software. Total price under $300. Now of course you could probably get a laptop with a usb mic and build a small wrap around with the stand up poster board foam and some carpet glued to it to save even more money. P.S. My current studio is more than just freebies and cheap equipment but we all had to start somewhere. First radio station I ever worked for had lime green shag carpet on walls in studio.
I built my own version of Harlan Hogan’s PortaBooth using a cardboard box and Auralex foam, placed my EV Cardinal and mic stand in it, ran the cables out to a Firewire Solo connected to a laptop running Audacity, and stuck the whole thing in the corner of a walk-in closet. Badda-bing, badda-boom, instant recording studio. About $500, not incl the laptop which I already owned and use for other things.
Cost effective..Mmm..maybe…but, I have a nice little write up @ VU, that I call Acoustics 101.
Save yourself a lot of hassle, simply purchase a COLES LIP MIC this is a ribbon mic, I use mine for V/O, motor racing and air show commentary, the mic has both a lip and breath guard. Used for putting V/O’s on news inserts in very unfriendly circumstances. Will kill all background noise and I do mean loud intrusive background noise!
You will also need an ISDN line and a Glensound Dual codec mixer.
VoIP /digital is not realistic for live events as it drops out … be warned ISDN is not on the way out …….
I recently purchased sound blankets with grommets from vocalboothtogo and draped them around my room. I just got a newsletter telling me they are now selling a hanging booth that uses a tracking system on the ceiling and under $100!! Going to try this.
Wow! This is something really useful for me. I didn’t know that it would be so easy to build a home recording studio. Now, I am gonna search for the PVC piping and mic too. The mic you mentioned seems to be effective. Let’s see how will it work for me. Well, thanks for the information Stephanie.