Mobile Recording Made Easy

Recently I’ve been investigating potential options for continuing my ability to record voiceovers when I’m not at home. Many VO’s carry some sort of rig around Apogee MiC In Portable Boothwith them whether they’re on a semi-working holiday or just not at home for a period of time. Often that consists of pretty much the entire rig they’d use at home, in a big bag so they can set it up in hotel rooms etc when needed!

I’ve done the same whilst down in Cornwall, taken my entire rig with me for when I’m on holiday, so I still have the ability to record should any urgent jobs come up. But that’s tiresome, and it’s not a rig that I would really want to keep dismantling every time I go away.

So I started doing some research about what smaller rigs are available. And I was very surprised, and delighted (!) to find that Apogee, a well respected brand within professional audio equipment, had come up with the ‘MiC’. Comprising a small studio quality microphone, with mini tripod, that connects directly to either your iPad or Laptop using the dock connector or USB.

To be honest, I was skeptical as to whether something so small would be any good at all; however I was wrong. I bought one on a bit of a whim, and I’ve now tried it, and I’m very impressed with the results! The ability to record, edit, and export/send to client all from within an app on the iPad was staggeringly good to me. I’m using an app called TwistedWave (not affiliated with Apogee), which is a simple but very effective waveform editor. It cost a few quid, but for the features it has for editing and exporting your final VO, it’s certainly worth it.

I’m still in the stages of tweaking settings, mic positioning etc within the portable booth in order for me to optimise the sound quality. The current test is a little ‘bassy’ but that will improve with time before full deployment!

Anyway, have a listen to the test I made today:

PLAY

So when I’ve got it all right and how I want it, this will certainly beat de-rigging the home studio setup and taking it wherever I go! This way all I need to have with me is the cool bag and foam, which will pack down flat, my iPad and Apogee MiC, and I’m good to go!

So, fellow voiceovers, give it a whirl if you can. Do some tests, see what you think. I’m certainly very impressed so far for such a small setup, and it’ll certainly make my life easier next time I’m not at home and need to record!

Twisted Wave Screenshot

P.S – This is NOT a sponsored blog post paid for by Apogee – just a straight-up independent test I thought I’d post for the benefit of other VO’s who may be thinking about buying this setup. I have no affiliation with Apogee whatsoever. Just my own thoughts posted here!

One thought on “Mobile Recording Made Easy

  1. There are other things I still need to consider as well – like trying to source a mini-pop shield, as currently I don’t have a really small portable one. It sadly doesn’t come with one, but it would be useful.

    The sound recorded into it so far has been very good and pretty much pop-free, but long term, obviously, it is something I need to find. If anyone knows any suppliers then let me know!

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