Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop tech talk number 65 Tech talk number 65. It's just piling up We'd love to have your questions you can throw them in the chat room in Facebook you can throw them in the chat room in YouTube you can also email them to us if you have a question that something comes up to you in the middle of the week and You can write to us at the guys at VOBS.TV But we love your questions, but we got lots to talk about tonight. Where do you find all this stuff? It's just piles up along with all my sources. Yes. Yes, you do I don't want to reveal all my sources and people won't watch my segment. Good point We got jerseys tech update. We're gonna talk about acoustics and we're gonna answer your questions all tonight On voiceover body shop tech talk coming up. Oh, no From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Whitton the engineer to the VO stars of Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional VO studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master professional voice talent with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world making the complex simple Debunking the myths of what it takes to create great sounding audio Answering your questions showing you the latest and greatest in VO tech and having a dandy time doing it Welcome to voiceover body shop Tech talk Voiceover body shop tech talk is brought to you by voiceover essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites comm where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes comm become a hero to your clients with award-winning voice over training J. Michael Collins demos when quality matters and voiceover extra your daily resource for VO success And now live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Well, hi there, I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whitton and this is voiceover body shop or VO B as tech talk tech talk tech talk Yes, we're here to talk about tech is It really tech them. I mean the stuff that you talk about is really techy, but you know having a home voiceover studio or Personal professional voiceover studio. Yeah, first then I had to change my website name and stuff But I shorten it to purse personal professional studio. Yeah, okay that works So many of you are podcasters now. Yeah, everybody's you mean yes. Yeah. Well, you know what it is Everybody can do a podcast doesn't mean everybody should that's right. That's right Anyway, but we can help you no matter what no matter what our job is to make sure that you sound Like you not like you in a bathroom or like you in a stadium in a stadium Or in the hall of mirrors and in Versailles or something like that And we'll talk about acoustics a little bit later on in the show, but Our job is to make sure that you sound That actually I guess the best way to describe it is that you don't have to worry about your sound And the only thing you have to worry about is being a good voice actor, right the performance, right?  That's what George and I do We get you set up. So that's all you got to do is hit record and you learn how to do editing and some of the other stuff But if you do it right up front, it saves you a lot of time and effort on the back end Yeah, would you rather be better at voice acting or editing? I Mean what is it? What's the part of your career? You're really focusing on right? You know, we want to make sure that all that stuff falls out of the way so you can focus on being an actual job Absolutely, and if you would like to work with mr Who can teach you how to do this or maintain your studio and get you up and running? Where would they go? Well, you head over to George the dot tech my name. It's my address Stole that from Robin safe and walnut in Philadelphia the diamond commercial back in but anyway That's where you find me and you can hire me on demand actually I've also got a team of others that can be made available if I'm not available Including this guy Yeah, you might actually work with Dan, too So that's all available for George the dot tech you can do on-demand support or you can do Offline support where you send me audio and I send back notes or settings or Presets or what have you but Dan also does a lot of similar things and his home on the web and that's Homevoiceoverstudio.com Check that out It's time to update the website a little bit but if you're just starting if you've got all your equipment if you're about to do your demo and you've got to do it Remotely and you want to make sure that you're sounding your best. That's happening a lot now. Absolutely. So come to me I will make sure that it's sounding good. I can teach you from you know from soup to nuts Whatever that means how to get it done properly from the beginning of the meal to the end I guess they used to eat nuts after the meal. Was that a thing? That might have been the only thing they had to eat anyway But go on over to Homevoiceoverstudio.com if you scroll to the very bottom of the page you will come across my specimen collection cup and That is a drop box click on that follow the instructions issue me some raw audio and Let me hear what it sounds like in your raw natural state voice-wise and I will give you a very thorough analysis of what's going on in your studio what you need to improve or if we need to have a much more Intent you know long conversation On on what you're doing Intensive yeah, sometimes I like to hear how people are processing their audio so I can go no Right. Yeah, that's not how you do that. Yeah. Anyway, so Check us out. I mean you're here. You listen to us every week anyway Well, we're doing this, but if you'd like to work with us personally We are more than happy to do that. So go on over to our websites and get in contact with Alrighty, what is up in George's tech toy update this week? Tech toy, you know, we end up with a lot of toys to talk about Well, I just came back from a few days of camping. I was van-lifing it in my Subaru Forester Which it's not not highly recommended. I can't even sit up in the back That's quite very big in but I needed a way to make sure that I was I knew I was gonna be you know, not What do you call it when you're camping? Primitive camping primitive. There was no power at the campsites So I needed a way to make sure I was always topped up And I didn't want to start my car and charge the battery All right, I needed a power station and I think we talked a little bit about this a couple of weeks ago Because we're talking about what to do with power outages and brownouts and this time of year right now We're actually having our Santa Ana wins But I think it's probably the biggest thing that knocks out power in LA is knocking down trees Well, we didn't have those thunderstorms last week.  That was excited Anyway, so I started doing a little research and I stumbled on one that was head and shoulders apparently above many and That is this guy right here. This is the eco flow river. Wow This is the base model they make some much much larger ones if you want to run like more of a house for a while But this is something that has a lot of uses now So clearly it's designed the idea behind this is something that's for portable use like right now I'm running my charging my phone It's not plugged in but I could be if I had a if you were and then I've got my MacBook Air actually charging directly off the front of it. You don't need a power adapter You can plug in there's a hundred watt output. So that's a lot of power that'll charge MacBook Pros anything right off USB-C. I don't know any other units out there that can do that. That's pretty awesome The reason why you say you're probably thinking well, I've got my little charger. Why don't I just use that? And the thing is anytime you have a transformer even a small one like this that you waste some Electricity some of it is lost in heat and whatever When you're charging the device right off of this port, it's more efficient. So the battery lasts longer So that's pretty awesome Then you've got 12 old outputs for different lights if you happen to have the right plugs It's got the standard 12 volt cigarette lighter plug It has a light which may seem silly But actually I found it really helpful when I was in my car And if you do need to use this in your home that light could be the only one that's handy So that's really cool that it's there it has More on this end. This is the wall. You didn't show me that this is the charging input side So this is where you plug in 110 your household And this is where you plug in your car 12 volt or a solar panel So charge from either one and what makes this different for most is this can charge from completely dead To totally full in an hour and a half off of your power plug at home Wow, it's really fast. Most of them are like eight hours So let's say you are traveling and you really need to have this ready You could go have dinner somewhere plug this in and when you come back, it's pretty much ready to go So that's pretty cool. And then this side is the 110 side Which it has three outlets to plug stuff into most of them done There's also buttons to turn on each section. So this this button here turns on just the inverter The inverter is what allows you to get a hundred and ten volts out of 12 or 48 or whatever the voltage of this battery And that's another very special thing about this unit. The inverter is very powerful It can put out 600 watts continuously, which would be enough to power anybody's recording studio Unless you have like a scooter 24 inch reel-to-reel, but you can do all that or it can run up to I think it's like 15 or 1800 watts for short bursts of time. So believe it or not, you could actually run a hairdryer on this for short little It's it's pretty insane. Yeah, it's bringing something along to dry your hair. Yeah, a little extreme. Okay, but here's the bonus But there's more but wait I wanted to make sure so I checked this out and I found out this can also act as a online UPS unit And what that means is you could leave this plugged in underneath your desk at home Into the wall battery bag and plug all of your gear like a UPS into this and this is always this is always running your equipment through the inverter So it's always stabilizing the power It's always perfect clean power no matter what and then that's keeping charged off of your wall outlet What is something like this run? It's not super cheap It was about 300 maybe a little bit more. I got it on a deal at an REI garage sale deal They these are the things you can get an REI but online I was just really impressed with the feature set and it works beautifully. So that's something that if you want to have Piece that you can leave at home under your desk always always ready to go be able to record no matter What's going on this thing does does the trick? It's impressive Moving in a different direction and you know Mac and you know Mike Mac and I When all you can Mac is that oh, what's that commercial came in when all you can pizza about is yeah when all you can sushi about When we can think about is Mac Then I love Mac, but Windows 11 did just come out last week now the news of that was a little overshadowed by the Facebook bombshell That came out on 60 minutes and then that's the one-two punch was which was the outage of Facebook and Instagram and what's all Here's something crazy. Did you know that this outage was so Pervasive that they had to break through the doors of the building to get in to actually access the equipment because even the key cards The access right building the 25 kilohertz proximity cards those those were even not work They had to use axes to get into their own building to reboot the servers or whatever I mean, imagine these these you know these young millennial kids who run your Facebook OMG Conspiracy theory that Leo Laporte did on Twitter, which was I thought it was Mark having a little tantrum thing fine You don't like Facebook.  Thankfully But I couldn't get a hold of her on what's that I was like, what's up? So I found out and it was the internet. So This news got overshadowed by far, but Windows 11 is out Windows hasn't had a new version in a really long time since Windows 10 and it's sort of a Kind of what I'm understanding a little bit of a dumbing down I might even call it dare. I say a little bit Mac Entosh E version of Windows. It's got a not as much setting ability and flexibility It's got a cleaner interface and it resembles a little bit more like the Mac OS The dock is in the center on the bottom. It's kind of fascinating. Anyway, how similar it is now Should you run out and install it? No Of course not It just came out give them some time. They are going to be in invariably be some bugs But not only that it's different enough that you might miss a few features that maybe you're accustomed to having That may not be there right now in Windows 11 So be aware of that But if you want to play around with it and you're a bit of a computer geek Well, if your computer geek you already aren't playing with it. Let's be fair. Let's face it So keep that in mind It's may not be ready for you in the voiceover world now a couple weeks ago I teased talking about the personas revelator IO 24 I have to say I did make use of it that whole week doing a lunder live appearance of podcast interview Several different productions and it performs beautifully it performed fell fall asleep So, you know, I've been been hard on personas because I never liked the audio box I thought it was noisy and I've had issues with various personas stuff over the years some mixers Well, you know, this is a new piece of gear Obviously a whole new set of firmware and a lot of new things going on and so far It seems to be working beautifully. So if you want to give it a try, they're only about $200 I mean give one a shot. I know how to configure it now I know how to set up the mixer the channel strip that it has on board Yes, it has a channel strip and it really does work. So I thought you guys should know it I've been having a good experience so far. Okay. Um, I've also noticed that a lot of premium gear makers Let's lump universal audio into that one because their stuff their audio interfaces started at $500 and went up, right? They're kind of going down market and they are wanting to be competitive now with the scarlets of the world to focus right stuff So now they're doing that and they have the volt line and So universal audio volt is their basic gear that doesn't require a complex console You don't have to understand how to do a lot of virtual sound drivers and simple USB. Yeah I believe it's a native USB class compliant. You just plug it in and go and So it starts out with the volt one at the very basic level and goes up to the volt 176 which is Taking the idea that they they're their legacy equipment like the 610 Mike preamp and the 1176 compressor Putting the essences of them into the interface and just having literally a single button to turn them on and turn them off So I'm seeing that more and more like the SSL has the 4k button, right? The focus right scarlet has the air button now again. Will you say it? We'll say it again. We'll say it again If it sounds good, don't turn it on like if if you have a good mic and good speech diction and everything sounds great It's not gonna help you But if you're trying to achieve something specific or do live casts or podcast Those little bits of sweetening might be helpful, but it's something that's built in another company also going down market I've noticed is Arturia. You've probably not heard of them unless you've been really geeking out about this stuff There's stuff for starting around 600 now. They're under now. They're at the under 200 Dollar mark for an interface. So this is a trend. I see and I'm sure this has been motivated by the pandemic I'm sure so many people are recording at home and need something far more simple to use Absolutely, I don't think it's about quality. Hopefully the quality is where it was But the simplicity, you know, no consoles to screw around with one button one knob does one thing But you have to know what it is that knob does Yeah, I mean, I assume people know that the first input knob on the left is the mic gain a lot of people don't know that And it's it's it's gain on there. Oh, what does that mean? You got to start somewhere. Absolutely Let's talk acoustics. Let's talk acoustics because Let's face it I think it's you know, there's a lot of things that people who are starting out don't understand and Perhaps they don't understand it because they don't know what it is. They're listening for it's hard to conceptualize. Maybe absolutely and The thing is is I you know, you and I get a lot of audio from people and they're like, how does it sound? It sounds like you're in an untreated room It sounds like you're using the wrong microphone to record the one in your laptop Yeah, or yes, or perhaps like this. It sounds like this. Why does it sound like that because you're talking into the back And alongside Boy, how many times do I get that? See if that's not a reason to start with a shotgun If you don't know which end of this mic, it's all good kind of help That's gonna help So I talk to people about acoustics because to me You know, we always talk about how what what are the my three keys to good audio?  And it's like, well, let's slap back is something you will get in a smaller booth Because it doesn't take long for sound to bounce back to the microphone So you if it's if it's you know, and we can measure it We we used to do a thing we we do a clap and then we would measure the nanoseconds between the clap And when it would dissipate In a bigger room, it sounds like a reverb It kind of goes in a small box. It just has this weird phasy nasal hollow tunnel sound right exactly So one of the things that we like to do is make sure that people's rooms sound right if your room sounds right That solves so many problems You know one you've got to have a quiet room and most people Don't know that they don't have a quiet room because They don't their brain has out processed all the noises from their house and their apartment and stuff like that And we hear it. We see it. I mean we look at it on a spectrum of what there's, you know There's a lot of rumble below 80 hertz with a lot of rumble at 125 hertz You know, what's going on is your effort the furnace on, you know, are you running a ceiling fan?  Yeah, they hear everything and the better the mic the more it hears So why people are like, I've got to have the best mic Well, do you have the best room to use that mic? Yeah, whereas I like to say if you get a Ferrari You really have to have a good garage for it. Uh, it's It's not the equipment It's how you use it and one of the most important things to use is a proper acoustical environment And that usually requires a set of method ears Somebody who is a third party an objective set of ears somebody who is not used to being in your house Or in your apartment or in your booth and we'll go I can hear this I can hear that I have a I had a lot of clients this week who were referred to me by somebody Because that person perceived problems that the other person Did not and this is stuff like on their website that you know in their demos It's like well, it sounds this it sounds tinny. It sounds that send it to me. Yes. Okay. Here's why And you know people are always like well if I just if I throw enough foam on the wall That'll soundproof it No foam is not soundproofing. It stuff is as transparent as tissue paper Uh sound goes right through it, but it won't bounce back. Yeah, it reduces the reflection Another thing I've been noticed just thinking about conceptually We you know the term computational photography. Have you heard these buzzword? Okay, you pick out your iPhone you hit the picture button and the picture looks usually pretty good, right? Right, it's exposed correctly. Right the color is pretty accurate, right, et cetera You know that even notice how we still don't have a microphone equivalent of that That we can really rely on for professional use right like in the world of audio We are still working like professional photographers have Forever, which is gotta have proper lighting Gotta know how to use the camera gotta know how to focus it Gotta know what um iso to use et cetera that the gain, right? All those things are still part and parcel to having a professional Studio you still there's no microphone equivalent to an iphone camera, you know We don't it's that may come later. Well, there's the effigy hype has that sort of they're getting there's more and more Or whatever you want to call it in the microphone But still we are using gear that's based on 80 to 90 year old technology And you still have to have all good room and acoustics is where that's gonna happen It's got to be done, right, right so Send in your audio so we can hear it so we can say that either sounds great or It's it's a little too reflective or it's too dead. We get rooms that are way too dead. It happens Yeah, and uh, they end up sounding sometimes muddy Yeah, or they'll be really dead in like the mid-range, but not at the low end So they're kind of woofy and boomy You know, so you got to control the whole sound spectrum Not just the middle or the top right and it depends on the size of the room you're in right, you know You know, I I was able to give somebody some room dividers this week. She's got a very small apartment Like what kind of like the for privacy screens. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, which are great because You can throw a couple of moving blankets on that Yeah, them on and you talk to that not to the back wall Right and out to the room. So the microphone is facing the quiet part the quiet part of the room Yeah, away from there's a really good tip right there kids So, uh, you know and that and that will give you the The non reflections, you know think but you've got to have a quiet room And that usually takes a third party to determine whether it's quiet or not And if it's not what what is it that's being heard so we can deal with it so you can turn it off It's my neighbor's air conditioner. That's what rocks are for Anyway You might need to explain more about the rocks later. Yeah, no There was a one guy called me. He says, you know, what do I do about all the birds outside my window? That's what shotguns are for Not I am not advocating violence against birds. No, no, but it was a great joke I thought it was one of the wittiest things I said all week Anyway, we got lots of questions to deal with and we will get to those questions right after these important messages Don't go away This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voice of our body show As voice actors, we need to hear the clear transparent and honest sound of our voices harlan hogan signature series voice optimized headphones 2.0 Provide both that accurate transparent sound with enhanced mid-range audio less bass and the creature comforts voice workers deserve Clearly different from traditional studio headphones. The upper mids and highs are clear as about No muffling or cross bleeding between frequencies like a pair of studio monitors The low is there, but at the same level as the rest of the spectrum They're comfortable like no other phones. I've worn that's because harlan used actual leather for the pads It's like putting on a pair of leather gloves for your ears They're also very light for their size as harlan made them from aluminum instead of plastic The headband is flexible like a watch band and the plug comes out for walking away Get the only headphones designed for vio harlan hogan signature series voice optimized headphones 2.0 for just $149 With free shipping from voiceover essentials dot com Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat. Were you? This is virgin radio Well, okay, we're not that innocent. There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working Dickies because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values a leader for california and a voice for america It's smart. It's a phone. It's a smart phone, but it's so much more It's a the files are ready. Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice? Check out this song It's the end of the road for red This is your miracle when hope is lost the i8 from bmw Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish? Hey, it's j michael collins. Bet you think i'm gonna try and sell you a demo now, uh I think they speak for themselves, but I will give you my email. It's j michael at jmc voiceover dot com Now if they will stop waxing this mustache for a minute, we'll get back to the show It's you. Is this my turn? It's your turn about source elements and source source connect We could do a commercial together then we could because we have one camera. Um source elements This is an amazing company. I mean, of course it's not they've been supporting us Which is one reason But uh, they've been producing tools to remotely collaborate long before the pandemic To allow studios to record voice actors around the world and basically make it feel to the production and sometimes more importantly really to the client like actually everybody's in the same place at the same time And one thing that they do that is unique is they record or buffer Your audio the talent audio on the talent computer, but completely behind the scenes It's called the q manager Now what blows my mind is so many productions haven't made use of this. I'm hearing of it being used more now It's been around for years But the thing that's amazing is it will replace dropouts in the audio For the production Yeah in pro tools. So, um, it's it's a really cool thing not only that But it can also replace the audio. Let's say at the end of the at the end of the session The producer's like I want the full quality audio not that aac stuff, which still sounds fine. Trust me Now that's fine That what the q manager will do is then send over the Wave copy of the audio they completely uncompressed it's been copied and send that in the background almost like ftp remember ftp We still use ftp. They just call it a dropbox. Yeah dropbox any of these file we transfer It's doing it all behind the scenes. It's like magic And it's really cool and it's just part of the service. It's built in So if you want to give it a try head over and get a 15 day trial at source dash elements dot com I really recommend you start a subscription so you can get the full experience of their their support That's really where you're going to feel how how great this company is to work with They will help you with the whole process of getting a troubleshooted tuned and get you up to running up up to speed Well, let's get to those questions. We got a lot waiting for so be right right back in a second Yeah, hi, this is carlo zellers rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop And we're back. We are and we're sorry. We're not you were We're flying without an audio cue tonight. So we're still learning. Um, we got questions We've done our mailbag first one and the audience questions Are very own Jeff holman. He's a smart guy. He's doing the question so he can throw it in the top He says regarding the personas revelator io 24 that used in the vanguard review Yeah, that's right. I did a review for the vanguard v4 mic I I mentioned that but you can go find and you did it on the roll a bit revelator That's right. I used it on the revelator. So if you want to see that go to george the tech youtube Did you figure out why it was higher in one channel when you turned off?  Jeff You really really pay attention to details Did you figure out why there was a little bit higher level in the left channel when I turned off the processing? No, I did not actually I had I've been using it so much and I have the processing on I just I haven't troubleshooted it yet, but jeff that is on my I need to do that Obviously, I will open a ticket with personas Maybe it's a firmware thing I I have to think it is Would you recommend it for vio actors who don't stream or podcast but may live close to fan eyes airport? Anybody you know jeff? Yeah, because you can set a high pass filter precisely you can get exactly the frequency you want and it's just dialed in permanently So I think that's really really helpful if you let's say have like a Neighbors air conditioner or pool pump that's humming at 120 Hertz You can make a very cleverly set ecu To try to scoop that out. So yeah, I would recommend it for that. I think so um And he says it seems like an inexpensive Inexpensive version of an Apollo or a roadcaster. Yes, totally true. I think it fulfills Pretty much everything an actor could possibly need Without the external without the extra cost and the extra complexity And features that the roadcaster and the Apollo have it's It's like those two made it made a new product Without the extraneous stuff and boiled it down to what you need and I I'm really I'm really impressed I think I've said enough about that cool Grace newton asks I am finally ready to take the leap from pc to max Hey Thank you. Thank you very much This check is in the mail. Yes George George you recommended a laptop to me a few weeks back But you've mentioned they were we are all still working out some there. They're still working out some kinks with the m1 chip What's the latest on the mac laptop? There it is right there. Uh, I do use my macbook air M1 with a cute little cover very nicely. Um, this is really my girlfriend's computer I need to find another one soon because I have co-opted it. Um I am a massive fan of it. This computer has been nearly flawlessly the flawless The only idiosyncrasy of it is if I sleep it for a while And then open it up after maybe a day or two. It's a little bit like That's the rubber size and it's real slow and weird and and then it's and then it's like, okay Must have tubes in it or something. It's really weird. I don't know why it doesn't it happens Sometimes I'll just quit chrome and safari start them again. That's the only funky thing about it Otherwise it has been a great great experience now outside the m1 mac mini Dan has as well and yeah, we've had some issues But most of those issues were software related not, you know things not being supported quite yet I had an issue with the usb hub Which I pulled out of my system and now everything's great. So It's it's growing pains of new technology, but we are now at a full year Since those were launched and um, they're very mature now. They're releasing the next generation any day probably the next couple of weeks And so I don't think there's any reason to hesitate at this point all the Software manufacturers hardware gear hardware stuff that we would all probably use mostly is supported As always if you're really worried talk to one of us have a little session We'll review everything you're using with hardware software and make sure that you're not going to have any Frustration going to the new system, but uh, yeah Fanless it doesn't make any It's quiet. Listen. How does it do that? It doesn't make any sound. There's no fan in here Yeah, no, I like I like the m1 that I you know the mac mini because It's always I don't think I've turned it off. I mean no drama. Yeah, it's no drama It it's quiet. It works, but like any mac you plug it in and it works You know pcs are just you know, are they getting better? I think there'll always be pcs I mean microsoft just came out with some new computers that are compelling They have a the surface book studio where the screen can like pivot outward And like be like an easel, you know, it's very clever. It'll it'll fold flat and turn into a top You know has some party tricks But that's not what you get a laptop for No, I guess if you're doing a lot of presentations or something maybe that's why I don't know anyway We are kind of biased of course, um, but we've had a very good that's very good experience. Yeah, we like our Macs. Um Also, yes Linda Joyce minor. Yes question off of youtube. We're glad you guys are watching on youtube Um, I know it's not the mic that makes the voice, but I have been told how many times we've heard that phrase. I have been told I need a mic for a female voice Seriously help every time I see the I heard from or I was told that or I overheard somebody Nobody ever has any more detail like who was this? How are they qualified to give you this information? What are they exactly talking? So all I can imagine is that they think that the mic that you have maybe picks up too much of something They don't like to hear maybe it's sibilants That's probably that's probably the you know, it's almost sexist to say it but women tend to have a little bit more sibilants than men or They do have the sibilants. They both have sibilants, but it might be in a higher frequency Yeah, you know So maybe that's what they're hearing and they're saying you need a mic that has less of that But they're doing a lousy job of explaining this advice Yeah, I think that's and that's the key to when you crowdsource your home studio Is that people are people are happy to give their advice?  I've used this the best way Every voice is different every room is different And there isn't an engineer out there that can tell what microphone you know And there's also not a lot of coaches or agents That also know what they're talking about when it comes to giving the correct device They know what they've been told works well Or they know what their top selling voice talent in their roster might be using And it doesn't mean anything about what you're doing. But why is it that that's good and how do you it's not the stuff It's how you use it you can take a great mic and it'll make you sound like crap if you Sound like crap, you know if you're in you know the hall of mirrors at Versailles Take that advice with a grain of salt and bring that advice to one of us to to really dig into it and find out what What's really going on? Absolutely Jay Horace will actually get that one. Sure Uh Hey, hey, great to see everyone healthy and well. Thank you. We are doing very well tech talk number 65 um Recently I ordered the biodynamic dt 770s or 770 770 80 ohm headphones Um, and that's what I happen to use at home. That's my daily drivers After a few days, I sent them back as I like the harlin hogan cans much better. Well, that's good Um, I find them lighter a night and day difference to my ears Have you found this to be true when using the two or should I have given the tg 770 froze more time to burn in? um I don't think the dg 70s need a bunch of burn in time. By the way, what is burn in time? That means that's time that you have your it's the iPad doing that um, that's the time that the Device needs to like earphones. They say sometimes need this. They need to be exercised for a while They have loud blast to let them yeah, they need to flap around for a while until they become loosened and Um, I don't know if that's true But I've I've known plenty of people that got the 770s and thought they were too something too bassy or Too dark not as bright Whatever it is they're not for everybody and I don't think they're really great for voice actors They're great for producers and listening for monitoring and mixing But when you wear those while your voice acting, I think they're too They're just I don't know what it is they They're too muffled sounding, you know, so I can see why you might like those. I'm wearing them right now Actually, I'm reminding myself what these sound like and the signature of these is very nice. They're not overly bright No, they're comfortable. It's a flat response. Yeah, they're pretty flat I mean everybody tries to do what they call flat They're all a little bit different But these to me have a nice pleasing Tonal characteristics to me. They're similar to the audio technique of headphones That I also love and I've been using forever. Mine are laying around here somewhere But I they they are really quite nice. So yeah, you have to use those headphones. Whatever they're going to be Um, sometimes for a while to really know if you'll like them or not But when you put them on and you like them immediately, I guess Harlan did something right Yeah, well, I he put a lot of research into them. I mean those are and these are not the first generation either No, no, this is after a total revision and revamp. Yeah, I mean, we're running the spot today for for his headphones and they're they're They're really good. I mean when I need headphones, that's what I wear when I'm doing a remote session. That's what I wear Generally, I I listen on studio monitors when I'm editing. Yeah, but if You know, I need to you know when we're doing You know, we're doing this show sometimes I've got to do that I've got to listen on on headphones. Those are the ones I'm trying to do that more at home I don't have a listening environment per se for monitoring But I do have some really great studio monitors and I'm listening to them more and more and getting more into that All right, so Trisha Andrea. How you doing? Uh question.  Well, if it's a master bedroom one guy the the guy gets I'm guessing it's an older house. That's yeah. It is. Um Do you recommend I make one of those closets furthest from the window a whisper type room?  Uh-huh So how big is the room should I be in a bedroom or a full-size room or should I shove myself into a closet question? Right I would I would always err on the bigger room because you have a little bit more control Uh, you can reduce the acoustical size of a room by putting up a room divider That's right. If you can't make a small room sound like a much bigger room, right, uh, so yeah As long as you treat it right And don't talk out into you know into where it's going to reflect back a lot Uh, a bigger room is I know you prefer a bigger room. I totally What's the so so obviously why don't we always do why are we using closets? Anyway, people go into closets because it's the only way they can get away from noise Yeah, they do that is yeah another barricade to noise That is to me literally the only reason to go into a closet and record voiceover There's no other acoustical reason to ever want to be in a small box.  Yeah walk every time something pretty decent size Sounds much better. Absolutely. Can you imagine if you were to get a Well studio bricks, for example, that was like four by six feet Now imagine taking taking two walls of the booth and hanging clothing on it You know like clothing racks now imagine the remaining space Inside where you're standing That's a walk-in closet. It sounds incredible. Yeah, but you would just never do that in the real world. It would be it'd be ridiculous Well, I've I've done it plenty of times with people, you know Have you had people did you have you had them hang clothes in their whisper rooms? No, have you done that? Okay, that's that's the next well. No, I mean, yeah, sometimes they do I mean they might you have a nice big down jacket or something like that You can have that's true.  Oh, yeah, is it full of clothes? Yeah, great. I just saved you $6,000 Or more or more. Yeah, depending on on what you get Uh Rob writer All right, he says I've watched you both for some time. Yes, you have he is a fan. Thank you, Rob.  I'm assuming you're thinking about what you're seeing right now. Let's do on the show. Yeah, this is my microphone. That's in my boat Yeah, uh, I you know I use different mics for different things, but when I'm doing something specifically for a client I'm either I'm either at my desk. I'm getting real lazy, but the acoustics in here are so good We have this room dialed. Yeah, this Dan can sit out here Or in his ISO booth. He's got the best of both worlds right with this. Yeah, so, you know my desk I've got a custom-made large diaphragm mic in my booth. I've got the 416 on sometimes I drag the 416 out here Uh, like when we do voiceover body shop and I want George to sound his best and not talking like he's on the radio on his When I'm at home my mic's like right here. Yeah, mobile. Yeah, I mean if I wasn't radio I'd still be doing that but voiceover is different. We don't talk half an inch from somebody's eardrum Uh, anyway, uh, so I like the large diaphragm condensers for the reasons that They're very sensitive. They pick up, you know, the subtleties of my voice and I've got a room that I can use one Yeah, plus when we do the show We like to show both mics and we like to show our sponsors mic too. So there's a couple things going on there And and do we sound different on these? You can hear us both clearly Yeah, mic technique is a little harder for dan because it we don't want it in the camera like too much in the In the frame, you know So that's you know, and I think I might you might notice I'm always a little bit tweaking my mic placement Because we want to face each other, but we don't want our mics to pick each other up at the same time And so it's a challenge using two condenser mics right next to each other, but that's why we do it We like a challenge. Yeah Last question maybe uh from Dave rosa, which Digital audio workstation. Do you prefer? Well, i'm an adobe audition guy That's we had a great that's your primary one. Yeah, we had a great webinar last week. I teach people how to use adobe audition Uh, it to me. It's the only software that's really designed for voiceover Uh along with twisted wave, which is of course a lot less complex and easy to use Uh twisted wave is like simple adobe audition Maybe he could say that. Yeah, what doesn't yeah, it doesn't have the bells and whistles that audition has The thing about a digital audio workstation is it's not they don't sound Inherently different when you record raw it's going to pick up the same sounds from your studio as anywhere as anything else It's what you can do to manipulate it afterwards that makes software You know different from each other, you know pro tools is for you know for making 80 tracks of the of a you know a rap album Or doing music tracks or or tracks for a movie or something like that where you've got to do a lot of mixing As voice actors, we're giving people single track mono properly modulated files And that's it. So what do you need all this other stuff for? Well, I gotta sound great Well, we don't talk to people through processing You know processing, you know and george will will it'll show you all this and do stacks for you That are just minor little corrections to the room perhaps um You know a lot of people are relying on You know noise reduction stuff the noise reduction stuff is getting better But it was never designed for voiceover And if you don't use it right, you'll see why it's not good for voiceover. You can overcook it so bad And then it sounds way worse. Yeah So, uh, I I prefer I prefer the uh adobe audition. I do use twisted wave, but You know, but I you know, we teach people audacity because it's free Um, everybody uses audacity, you know, but you could step up to something like adobe audition Once you understand the concept behind it as a you know a general single track and multitrack recording Software and the fact that it is so easy to use. It's like using photoshop for audio I definitely There's two you can either get a demo of it and try it for 30 days for free Or you can take a class and watch a webinar I have I've got the beginner one and a more advanced one on our on george the tech website And and then get a primer on like what you're what you're getting into right before you make a leap from audacity Because the thing that most people move from Is audacity, right? You know, that's most people are going to probably start with audacity Unless they're one of my clients and they're on a mac then they're going to be starting on twisted wave So it just depends now. He said his other part was asking about the holland hogan mic We talked a little about a little bit. Yeah with the vo1a. I it's what is there to say? Well, how do I sound on it?  No, I sound like me Which is the idea the idea of a home voiceover studio is not to sound great It's to sound like you I'm going to swing this cool I'm getting a little double like I can hear you on this so Okay, so now you're hearing me, you know the way you're supposed to approach this mic in the way way it sounds It's been designed by harlin to sound a certain way, but I have found it works great on anyone's voice Fine on women's voices. I've never heard it be sibilant Uh, if you use it properly get the right height And your copy's down here and you're talking, you know depending on the size of the room either, you know Now I've got it down to mahalo fist or partial mahalo or thumbs up Yeah, yeah, yeah, and and and you have to find the sweet spot on the mic for your particular voice And I mean what's great about this room is you really can be a decent distance away I mean you can you can be a foot away because we have a high ceiling room With really great acoustics right and the better your acoustics and the higher the ceiling the more Wiggle room you have on you can be a lot farther It's so awesome not having to be a fists away Which is what I make a lot of people do when they're in their little closets, you know what I mean So there's so much more flexibility Yeah, it's a as soon as I pull this mic away and I get to hear you without without that. Yeah It's like oh, yeah. Yeah, it's a it's a great little mic It is and so and and the fact is it's a great mic at a great price point Yeah, so you can get you can get a good super professional sound Which is just you If you're I have a good professional sound yourself This thing will capture you as you exist, which is the way Harlan designed it.  Anyway, all righty. Well, uh, thanks for all the questions We love it. This is why we do what we do and why we keep showing up every week You know, otherwise life would be pretty dull Uh, so say, you know, and you can still send in your questions if you write to us at the guys at vbs.tv And if you got a question send it in we will use it on our show. So anyway So that's uh tech talk, but uh, we still got a little bit to cover in just a minute So don't go away. We'll be right back after these important messages Hi, this is bill farmer and you are watching voiceover body shop. It's great Getting into vio is quite an accomplishment and accomplishing anything in the world of performance can be really tough Getting great information is tough getting the right advice and mentoring is tough Simply getting ahead is tough and the best way to get ahead is to simply get started Let's make it simple to get started in voiceover. The best way is with vio heroes free online course Getting started in voiceover You'll learn everything you need to know to create a successful satisfying and profitable voiceover career The link is really simple. Here it is vio heroes dot com forward slash Start again, that's vio heroes dot com forward slash start Get ahead in voiceover simply by Getting started go to vio heroes dot com forward slash start As voice actors we need to hear the clear transparent and honest sound of our voices Harlan Hogan signature series voice optimized headphones 2.0 provide both that accurate transparent sound with enhanced mid-range audio Less bass and the creature comforts voice workers deserve Clearly different from traditional studio headphones. The upper mids and highs are clear as about no muffling or cross bleeding between frequencies Like a pair of studio monitors. The low is there, but at the same level as the rest of the spectrum They're comfortable like no other phones. I've worn that's because harlan used actual leather for the pads It's like putting on a pair of leather gloves for your ears They're also very light for their size as harlan made them from aluminum instead of plastic The headband is flexible like a watch band and the plug comes out for walking away Get the only headphones designed for vio harlan hogan signature series voice optimized headphones 2.0 for just $149 with free shipping from voiceover essentials dot com Before time began there was v obs dot tv watch or else Well, we're back This is just too much fun, you know, it's our it's our bimonthly poker game Yeah, you know without the beer and the cigars, I suppose something that neither of us would probably be you We've had a little bit too much drinking on the show in the past sometimes Yeah, that's never mainly had to do with certain guests His names will not be mentioned right now. That's true Next week on this show we have another fabulous interview with another fabulous voiceover personality I got a couple of people in mind and they're We i'm waiting for them to get it's the busy season. It is it's people are pretty busy right now You know the the christmas commercials are being done now and the the commiss the christmas commercials are being aired right now That's true. The tech industry is telling everybody to go christmas shopping now. Yeah. Oh my gosh Who are our donors this week? Oh, yes, shall we tag team the names again? Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure.  I was doing my best like, uh, award show announcer name Did I nail it?  You're starting to pick it up 10 years you've been doing just imitating i'm not i'm not doing it People should watch episodes one and five of ewabs and to see how you've improved not to mention gotten a lot smaller Uh, no Thank you. I appreciate it. No problem Again, if you need help with your home studio and you want to work with george, you go to george d.tech and to work with dan you go to homevoiceoverstudio.com looking forward to your call Anyway, uh, thanks to our sponsors harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements viewheroes.com voice actor websites.com and jmz Demo Thanks for jeff holman getting those questions in and being sharp as attack jeff While pursuing his amazing acting career. Can't wait to see the stuff easy. I know he's gonna have to show it to us Uh, and uh, sumer lino for doing it remotely Hi sue And uh, and and lee pennies simply for being lee pennie. I don't know. I know we come visitors for crying out loud Anyway, that's gonna do it for us this week You know getting your audio right If you don't really know what you don't know It's time to talk to somebody who actually does and that would be us two It's time to take charge of your voice acting. Oh very good Anyway, the thing is if we hear it and it sounds good, it is good. I'm dan lennon I'm george wittem, and this is voiceover body shot or vio b s See you next week


Welcome to Will Mega TV. I'm your host, Will Mega. Okay, okay, okay. All right, all right, all right. Today on Will Mega TV, we're going to discuss Deion Sanders and his decision to leave one university and head to the next. Yes, Deion Sanders has decided to leave HBCU Jackson State and he's headed for Colorado. Colorado University and he's making some noise, but not everyone is on the same page and or in agreement with Deion Sanders. Let me first say that as a graduate of a historically black college and university, that's what HBCU means for those who may not know. I'm a graduate of Lincoln University, formerly Ashman Institute, founded in 1854 in Pennsylvania. Shout out to LU, you know, and shout out to my fellow Lions out there.  Because our perspective is just a little different. It's different because in order to look through the lens of those who are graduates, alumni of Jackson State, students of Jackson State, faculty and staff of Jackson State, the members of SWAC, that's the Southwestern Athletic Conference and the HBC community at large, we have a different perspective than those who may have not attended college or those who have gone to predominantly white institutions. And so that's the angle from which I'm giving my commentary today. Deion Sanders, let's give some backdrop as to who he is and why I believe he actually made the right decision to move on to Colorado. Today's coach in colleges and universities are under different circumstances than colleges and university coaches five years ago, 10 years ago, 15, 20, 30, 40 years ago. Today's coach is not going to be like the late and great Grambling Universities Eddie Robinson who hitched himself to the university and became the heart and soul in the face and voice in spirit of the university. Shout out to his son who's currently the head coach at Grambling University Eddie Junior, Eddie Robinson Junior, the one who told Deion that you're not SWAC. It was a different time then. It was a different era then. The rules were different in colleges and universities at the time and the political backdrop was different during Eddie Robinson's time. So I know there's a lot of black people saying, oh man, I can't believe Deion sold them out. He left after three years. How could he do that? He should have at least stayed five or maybe six or he should have stayed committed to the HBCU community. How could he leave? So I think it's important that we start with how did he get there and why? This is one of the things that most people have not even considered. One, Deion already said, I don't need the money. I'm not doing this for the money. He said quote unquote, I don't chase a bag. The bag chases me. And as braggadocious as Deion Sanders has been, none of us could ever say that he has not backed up his braggadocious Muhammad Ali words. We can't say that about Neon. Deion. What we can say is when he talked that talk, he has walked that walk. He is a very unique individual athlete who by the way has always shared with us that he moves on God's time. That he moved there on God's time in his decisions in his athletic career as a professional athlete, as a collegiate athlete, and now as a coach that he's been moving on God's time. Let's just take a look at Deion Sanders. Deion Sanders, I gotta go to the fact sheet. I like, listen, the fact sheet. Let's just go to the fact sheet. Here's my fact sheet. Made a few notes here. The fact sheet, because I don't want to miss this. Deion Sanders, two Super Bowls, a world series. As I said, two Super Bowls in a world series. Yes, for those of you who don't know, Deion Sanders was a professional athlete at the same time in two sports in the National Football League and Major League Baseball. That's unheard of the only other person we've seen do such a thing. And there's only been one other with Bo Jackson, but not to the level of Deion Sanders. Unfortunately, because Bo got hurt, but I think they were pretty much on the same level. Two Super Bowls, a world series. College Football Hall of Fame. NFL Hall of Fame. College Football Championships, two. He's led his team to a 27-5 record since he was at Jackson State. He was able to recruit some of the best at football players out of high school. He's had the gift of both gap and the ability to relate with young black men and players. To guide them right and see that they would get an education. But folks, forget that before coming to coach on a collegiate level, Deion was coaching his kids in high school. And Deion had two of his sons play for him at Jackson State. Yes, he was coaching his sons. One of which was a blue college chipper quarterback. One of which all the top schools wanted. One of which, his son Shador, I think his name is Shador, is still playing. And I'm sure he's going to jump into the portal and transfer to Colorado. And so that's one of the main differences now.  But now that you can, many of the players that Deion recruited would be available. I'm sure he made those contractual agreements that he would have say on who he was recruiting. And that's largely why they came after him because of his strong ability to recruit.  He was being a father figure. Both of his sons went to the school, went to Jackson State with him. Oh, he should be a father figure to all those young black men there. As if he's not going to be a father figure to people when Colorado were on the team. 70% across the board, 70% across the board, 70% across the board in college football are black players. And let me say this to you. Yes, it's the responsibility for a coach to be a stand-up guy. It's the responsibility for a coach to mentor his players. It's the number one responsibility of a coach to see that your players are student athletes. That they're doing the best that they can in the classroom and the best that they can in what they were brought there for with their scholarships as athletes. To be the best student athletes that they can be. But I don't want to hear this father figure nonsense from the peanut gallery anymore. You know who needs to be father figures? Fathers. Why in the black community, we always need someone from the outside to come be a father to our children. The person who needs to be the father figure is the person who figured out how to father and give birth to the child.   Excuse my language. I don't normally use profanity on my show. But I'm calling BS and here's why. The system didn't pull down your pants to reproduce. The system didn't pull off your drawers to appear the father figure. What I would prefer to hear is this. That black men who father children have a responsibility to be fathers to their children from the time that the woman conceives until your job is done.  The aspects of your job may change, but your job will never be done. You're always going to be paying it forward. You're always going to be setting the example of manhood. But the number one responsibility of fathers are the people who actually father the children. No more excuses. No more excuses. No more the system needs to take care of my child. No more, oh well so and so went to jail.  Stop committing crimes. No more, well the system, if you haven't figured out by now that we live in a racist society where things aren't always going to go in your favor. When you're behind the eight ball, when societal injustices exist, then you need to figure it out because guess what? That's not an excuse.  I don't want to hear. So do away with this responsibility of Deion Sanders to be a father figure. And let me ask you, if that's what you really think, what are you saying about the coaches coming after him? Is that black man incapable of being a positive role model to those players? All the other black coaches in the SWAC and at HBCU's incapable of being positive role models to their players? The whole country in sports love and loved Eddie Robinson for being just that. And again, I don't want to hear, well, Deion, see, you know, he should have stayed because, you know, since he did this, he set me example for the other NFL players wrong. He wasn't the first to do that. See, someone set an example for him. His name was Doug Williams, a graduate of an HBCU who came from under the tullage of Eddie Robinson, got drafted into the NFL for the Buccaneers, went on to play for Washington, won a Super Bowl, the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl.  We're at an HBCU at Grambling. And what did he do in the SWAC? He won the SWAC Championship. So Deion wasn't the first. Deion was one of many to come. Deion leaving is not the only NFL player coaching in the SWAC. Philadelphia's own Eddie George, great running back. You know Eddie George to play for the Titans? Eddie George is the head coach right now for Tennessee State, an HBCU. So Eddie George can still get busy. And guess what? I think this actually sets up the great precedent of creating a network of a Deion Sanders who has shed so much light on HBCU athletics. In this case football, pushing ESPN to make sure they cover games. I hope and pray that he makes sure that he's sure to schedule some games for Colorado to play an HBCU team. Oh it would be. Could you play? Could you see Colorado playing Grambling after that beef Deion had? And it's still also about bringing money. So when you have a big school and they play a smaller school, guess what they do? They agree to cut that gate. That gate is, that's major. So if you have a school like a Jackson State go play against a Penn State where there are 100,000 fans in the seats. Oh that's a nice take. That's a nice take for a Jackson State to be able to come back home. Deion was putting people in the seats not just as a result of his celebrity but as a result of his productivity. The man was winning. I didn't hear you say why getting Jackson State off from the back. But guess what? He was more giving than that. He didn't even want the bag from Jackson State. What they're not talking about is the fact that he was being paid $300,000 a year but every year he gave them back $150,000. Because he said I'm not in it for the money. I want to help the program and shed some light on to HBCUs and their athletics. So he gave back $150,000 a year and he made sure that they got exposure. He locked in that under armor contract. So you start seeing a player styling and profiling and having the best of swag in the swag, right? So you have to look at this Deion Sanders move as more than just something that is selfish to me. Did you consider the fact that he was putting him in his family at risk? Nobody talked about the fact. As soon as he got there while they were playing, people broke into his office stole all his stuff. Just this past week. Just this past week. Do you know a dead body of a, I believe it was a student, was found in a trunk on campus? His children are there too. Those rich boys. Yeah. And not that his children are any better but my point is that he still exposed them to that. What he didn't have to is my point. He's well connected. He didn't have to. So these are some of the things I think we should take into consideration. I also think we should really understand that in today's college athletics where some of the best players can now receive contracts for their likeness in their image, the game is changed when today's college athletes can enter into the portal at any time and transfer. It's not like yesterday year. It's not like back in the day where let's say a black coach like John Thompson from Georgetown University would get a long term contract, invest in his players and make sure that they would graduate. That was part of their plan to John Thompson's and the John Cheneys because players couldn't just up and running transfer. So players stayed longer. It's the coaches stayed longer, but that's not the game today. Folks can go. They're moving and grooving all day long. All day long, players are looking for their best opportunity to highlight their skills. And the same thing is true for the coach. As a matter of fact, Dion mentioned. He says that in the coaching game, he told his players either you're moving on to greater opportunities for their looking to move you out. They're not too many folks who are sticking around in coaching. So it's productivity or bye bye. And so this opportunity, in my opinion, gives Dion now the network of having been able to even look at the entire swag, right? And see opportunities for players to move up because he knows the talent skill, giving these players a greater opportunity. This is what you don't understand. I think some people don't understand. Listen, when it comes to professional athletes, if you have the talent, they're going to find you. You're not hitting anymore. We live in a communication age where folks can at a moment share all your fill. They can show you running at 4-4. So if you can run a 4-4 and lift 3-50, they're going to find you. If you're 6-7, 2-90 with skill and agility, they're going to find you. If you have the ability to see the floor, pat that ball, make threes, you got a shot, they're going to find you. It doesn't make a difference what school you're at. The game is not the same anymore. It's not the same. And so you don't need a Dion Sanders per se to make sure that you were found if you have pro-level talent. Now, will you become a bit more marketable when you get greater exposure? Absolutely. So these are some of the things we have to take into consideration. These are some of the things we need to look at. Dion Sanders is already going on record in support of his assistant head coach. He's already going on record in support of his equipment team, his media team, the documentary team. The things that he put together to record the successes of the program. He's going on record in support of them. He's even went so far to tell his players to please do not jump into that portal. The players who are not those superstar athletes, he said, come Monday, the portal's going to open and people are going to rush. He said, please call me. Sit down with me.  Please don't rush and jump into that portal. What is he saying? He knows. He knows, folks, the linemen that he has, that he has just aren't big enough to play linemen in the NFL. He knows. He knows who's running at 4-4 or 4-3 or 4-5. He knows who has the skill set who can throw that ball. He knows. He's telling them, I've seen them. I've recruited you. I've had the conversations with those of you who have that skill and ability. Stay put. I'm going to leave this with you before I go. Many more are coming. Best believe that other black NFL retired players are coming. And a little birdie told me that Ray Lewis is very likely to take the head coaching job at Morehouse. Thank you for tuning in. Until next time, share the love. Love your brother as you love yourself. Peace. This is Bill Mega TV, where we focus on seeking the truth as we highlight and discuss hip hop, history, religion, revolution, politics, relationships, and reality TV. We provide insightful, uncompromisingly direct and honest programs interviewing quality guests from your favorite urban activists, artists, actors, athletes, cultural figures, to your controversial politicians, and unusual suspects. If it's making sense or provoking thought anywhere on the globe, we investigate and provide insight, education, commentary, and access from unique voices, critical thinkers, and opinion makers you can appreciate.


One of my favorite quotes is from a man by the name of Otto von Bismarck. And he says, only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about mental health. Sometimes what I like to do is kind of like that quote I said in the beginning is I try to check out what's going on in the YouTube community and see what lessons we can learn from them. Because if you're like me and constantly trying to improve your mental and emotional wellbeing, this is crucial. So make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And in case you missed it, right now we are in a very crazy time and a lot of people are dealing with anxiety. I actually did an interview with a world famous psychologist, Dr. Judson Brewer. And we talked about coping with anxiety during this crazy time. So that'll be linked up in the info card. Make sure you go check it out. All right, so unless you were living under a rock last year, it was one of the craziest things to ever happen in the YouTube community. And it was all the drama revolving around Tati Westbrook, James Charles and Jeffree Star. And to make it very clear, I could absolutely care less. All right, but I'm always trying to look at other situations because something I noticed about myself a very, very long time ago when I first got sober was I was constantly judging other people, right?  You know what I mean? Because that is something that, you know, I did constantly, I was constantly looking at others while neglecting what was going on in my personal life. So that's one of the reasons why I like to look at what I'm seeing and see, huh, how does this relate to me? Because after this huge fallout with Jeffree Star and James Charles and everything like that, it's been close to a year that happened last April, last May. And so we're coming up on it, right? And yeah, I want to talk about power dynamics staying in or going back to not so great relationships because James Charles was trending number one with a video he did with Charlie D'Amelio. I think I'm saying that right. And Jeffree Star ended up retweeting Charlie and saying, you look so gorgeous, James killed it per usual. So again, in case you didn't watch like James Charles full like 45 minute video called Like No More Lies, Jeffree accused James of very, very, very serious accusations, like the type of accusations that could put somebody in prison. And Jeffree said that he had receipts and he was going to put them out there. But then Jeffree Star came back with a video saying he's done with it. He's done with all the drama and everything like that. So almost a year later, we see this and yeah, when I saw this, I wanted to talk about being in relationships where there is this kind of power dynamic, okay? Like have you ever been in a romantic relationship where the other person was treating you terribly, emotionally, verbally, worst case, physically, right? And you stayed in that relationship because they were supporting you financially. Like personally, I cannot tell you how many people I've met, like especially when I was working at the Drug and Alcohol Rehab where they stayed in these awful, toxic, abusive relationships because the other person was financially supporting them. The other person paid all the bills, they paid their car payment or gave them money to go shopping and everything like that. And they stayed in this relationship because they didn't know what to do if they left. Like where would this money come from, right? This person maybe put their job, their career, their education on the back burner because this person was supporting them financially. Now, in relation to the Jeffree Star, James Charles thing, obviously James Charles is a young millionaire and he's supporting himself but last year that whole situation did hit James Charles financially, okay?  They're constantly condescending, they're talking down to you. You know, they yell at you or they berate you or they have you work a ton of hours and you don't get any appreciation, right? But there's this fear of leaving that job because it, again, is paying your bills and there's this kind of financial power dynamic. Like something my beautiful girlfriend, Tristan and I watch all the time. Like and we pay attention to is there's so many different shows, documentaries and everything where you see people doing, being told, being encouraged to do terrible things at their job because they're afraid of losing that job. And something that I try to do for my own wellbeing is I try to check in with my values on a regular basis, right? On a regular basis, I try to check in with my values and say what is the most important thing in my life, right, what are the top three most important things in my life, right? I have people like my beautiful girlfriend, Tristan, my son, my friends and family, my personal wellbeing, the health and wellness of people in my lives and things like that because something I learned a long time ago is that money didn't make me happy, right? Like as many of you know, I'm a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. I've been clean seven and a half years. In my act of addiction, I made more money than I had ever made in my life but I was so miserable still. Like why was I still turning the drugs and alcohol to numb this pain that I constantly had, right? And when I finally came out of that delusion, I was living in, I was like, huh, having all that stuff never truly made me happy. So I think that's something that we all need to check in with, right? When we're sitting in a terrible relationship with a significant other, right? And we think about how they're supporting us financially. Like how much weight are we putting on the financial aspect of our life, right? We all need food and clothes and a roof over our head and everything like that. But when we stay in this mindset of feeling obligated to a person because of the financial end of it, our view gets very skewed, right? We don't think about all the other options. We don't think about other loved ones, people who love and care about us who would be more than happy to support us if it meant we were getting out of a terrible situation, whether it's a relationship or a job, right? So when I look at this situation with James Charles and Jeffree Star, I'm like, it would be a terrible idea for James Charles to get a little bit of support, a little bit of support from Jeffree Star and walk back into that relationship. I'll tell you this, one of the decisions I made in my life years ago, probably like 10 years ago, like years before I actually even got sober, was I was in a situation where I was, it was either pick this woman or this woman, right? There was one woman where I care and loved her a lot more than the other one, but I ended up going down this route because this other woman was supporting me financially. At that time I was unemployed and she was paying for my bills, she was buying me food, she was buying me booze. Think she even bought me some drugs, right? So my entire decision was based off of what she could give me. But that relationship was extremely, extremely toxic. So something I worked on for a very, very, very, very long time was being 100% self-sufficient, right? Knowing that I didn't need anybody to be okay, right? And part of that was on an emotional level. I stayed single for a year and a half so I didn't have to be reliant on somebody else to make me feel good, to make me feel less depressed or less lonely, right? And when I did that, I was able to raise my bar of who I was willing to date, but more importantly, the friends I had in my life, right? Like I used to have a friend who bought me everything. He took me out to dinner and, you know, we were roommates for a little while and he would cover my rent, but the dude sucked to live with, he sucked, right? So when I look at this situation with James Charles and Jeffrey Stardt, it reminds me of like going back to an ex or going back to a job that you absolutely hate if that were to happen, right? And some of it, some of this situation right here is not something that you or I could really relate to, but there's this kind of emotional hostage situation.  Well, in this situation, it's similar, but it's another form of emotional manipulation, even if it's not as blatant, because Jeffrey Stardt does have a history of destroying careers, right? So it's better to be on his good side than on his bad side, right? So for someone like you or me, we need to look at that. Like sometimes, for example, at work, we just gotta play the game. We just gotta play the game, baby, right? Where we just, we do it from a distance and maybe we're cordial to someone because they could affect our livelihood, but there comes a point where we ask ourselves like, am I okay with this? Can I deal with this? Can I tolerate this? Do I wanna come into this situation every single day? For me personally, I've had jobs where that's a yes, I've had jobs where that's a no, but the one thing that breaks my heart more than anything is watching people stay at jobs because it pays them or pays them well, and they refuse to leave it. Like I know currently, currently is a terrible example because the economy is tanking right now, but typically when things are going well, like something I taught my clients, something I tell my friends is there are an endless amount of jobs out there. You do not have to stay stuck here. Now, our brain tells you that that's not true and that we couldn't get another job, but if you are a good hard worker, you will survive. Last thing I'll say, my beautiful girlfriend, Tristan and I, we have a friend right now who recently lost a job, right? And she hustled. She hustled. We're talking like 50 applications a day. Boom! Got a new job and things are starting to look up. She got a new job after this whole outbreak pandemic. So don't let your brain lie to you and say that you have to stay in a situation because that makes us tunnel vision, makes us believe that we have to stay in that situation. Okay? So in a situation like this, be very mindful if there's a power dynamic going on and that person holds some kind of financial state over you and look at the pros and cons and realize what you're valuing in your life. All right? But anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up if you're new. Make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and a huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel over on Patreon, as well as everybody who supports the channel by buying my mental health books at therewiredsoul.com and who buys the Rewired Soul merch. I appreciate you. Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.