Here is a sneak peek of my new VO studio …. and it’s less than a mile from my front door. My Dad has been busy renovating this space over the last few weeks and it is really coming together now. Lockdown has worked in my favour as Dad is normally kept very busy running his Jewellery shop and silversmithing business on Tain High Street but for all these months he has had lots of free time. He really doesn’t do ‘relaxing’ so he has been working in the studio most days.
We have looked at a few soundproofing options for the new studio and the wall under construction that you see in the pictures has been build specifically for sound proofing purposes. Sound proof materials have been placed behind the walls, and the floor will also be treated. This building is so old and the walls are incredibly thick…. this is definitely working to our advantage. We are also looking at options to sound proof the large window, this won’t be done for a number of months. When I’m all settled in we will look at this again.
This building has so much history and was a barbers shop for over 45 years. Frankie Martin was very well known around here through a variety of generations as he was working in his Barbers shop from 1973. Frankie was in his late 90’s when he passed away and he had continued working all that time. As you will see from the video below, the décor hadn’t changed much over the years and it even had a 2012 calendar still on the wall. We took this little video to mark a bit of history.
For now I am continuing to work from my home studio where I have recently upgraded to Source Connect Standard. While the kids are young I’ve decided to keep both the home studio and the main studio and I’ll review the situation in a years’ time. It will be good to have a back up, especially if I get snowed in or the kids are off school! I am so excited about the thought of not working from home anymore and having a dedicated space to go to. I hope that this helps to give me a better work / life balance. Those that have home voiceover studios that are not in a dedicated room will know the issues you face with others in the house contributing to the noise level. My two kids are great at going out to play or sitting quiet while I record but it’s not fair to expect them to do that long term. I have ordered my Vocal Booth and the team at Kube have been fantastic at answering all my questions and helping me to view the products virtually as I wasn’t able to travel to their showroom. It is the first time they have shipped a vocal booth to the Scottish Highlands, there aren’t many Scottish Voice Over artists this far up the map.
I’m so excited to share these pics with you and I’ll update more as the building progresses!
