My goal is to post at least twice a week here, with material that will be on interest to freelance creatives in general, and people in the voice-over business in particular.  I’ve been silent the past few weeks though, because I have been moving forward at high speed and haven’t quite caught up enough to blog! In the past few weeks I have assembled a brand-new PC to replace my old one which had a motherboard short, so now I have entered the world of Windows 7.  Also, I found a great deal on my own personal “Holy Grail” mic, a Gefell M930 (it sounds much like a Neumann TLM-103, only better!).  I am thrilled with how it sounds in my studio.

But perhaps the biggest development in my business happened today.  I finally took the plunge into the world of an obsolete technology that simply won’t go away – ISDN.  For the past decade I’ve considered investing in it, but rejected the idea for fear that in another year I’ve have nothing left but an expensive doorstop.  (For those of you who don’t know what ISDN is – it’s basically a super-powered landline that can be used in remote recording, so I can record myself in my booth at home, while someone in another part of the world can listen in as clearly as if I were actually there).  It is expensive to buy the codec box ($3-4K new, though I got a great  deal on a used one), and the line charges will be around $100/month.

I’ve been expecting VOIP technology to replace ISDN, but it hasn’t quite happened yet for technical reasons (such as latency problems) and also failure of any alternative to reach “critical mass.”  I’ve been assured by those in the VO biz that I respect that ISDN will still be around for a good while.  So now, I’ll be better able to market myself to talent agencies, ad agencies, and production companies across the globe.  I’m quite excited!

Since ISDN is if such limited use, it can be very difficult dealing with the phone companies.  I’ve heard some horror stories about voice talent getting ISDN set up.  Thankfully, there is a knight in shining white armor by the name of Dave Immer of Digifon who will be my consultant.  He’s the “best in the biz” when it comes to ISDN.  Also, I have audio guru George Whittam of El Dorado Consulting on my side to make sure I plug all the right cables into all the proper inserts.  I can’t imagine doing this myself.