VAM 110 | Interview with Stephanie Sheh, Part 2
Welcome to episode 110 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Welcome to the second part of my interview with the talented and amazingly driven voice actress, Stephanie Sheh! You may be familiar with her work from shows like the Legend of Korra, Naruto and Sailor Moon. Stephanie is not only a talented voice actress, but she also has experience as a producer, director and even as a recording engineer! I’m thrilled and grateful to have someone with her breadth of knowledge on the podcast to talk with us about what it takes to be successful in the industry!
In our last episode, Stephanie discussed how she broke into voice acting and what emotional hurdles she had to overcome to pursue a voice acting career. In the second part of our conversation, Stephanie shares with us what inspired her to pursue acting in the first place. It was her burning desire to perform that kept her motivated to study the craft of acting, even in the face of disapproval and uncertainty. While Stephanie’s parents encouraged her to pursue acting as a hobby so that she could enrich herself on a personal level, they were very skeptical that acting could ever be a reliable career choice for her. They were understandably worried about their daughter’s future and wanted to make sure that she could provide for herself.
Stephanie realized that if she was truly going to make it as a performer, she would have to be resourceful and self-motivated. She pursued every avenue she could to develop her skills, and you can feel her tenacity when she speaks of what it takes to succeed as a professional actor. I think you’ll find her insights invaluable.
Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #110 Here (MP3)
Excellent episode. I remember constantly going to the bookstore to look for voice acting books and bugging my professors in college for more information. Being a look before you leap kinda guy, I did a lot of research. I do regret telling my professors why I wanted to be a better actor. He asked me, “What does an anime dog sound like?” The same as any other dog, I guess. Voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
I’ve taken acting classes in junior high, high school, and college, but I won’t going around telling people I’m “formally trained as an actor.”
My problem now is that I’m always tired. Working two jobs and taking care of my niece, whenever I have free time I just want to sleep or watch cartoons. I don’t have any money so I can’t move or get more classes or a professional demo made. It’s very discouraging.
Thanks to you and Stephanie for your time and wisdom.
Glad you’re enjoying the interview. I’m sorry for your challenging circumstances. Hopefully things will improve for you in the future. I certainly wish you the best.
I completely feel the part when Stephanie said she found humans interesting. Humans are fascinating to me. One of the main reasons I started acting as well. I love to find the logical reasons why a person would ultimately feel that way and say that particular sentence.
The Slo-mo Saving Private Ryan game sounds awesome! I hope I play it with her and a couple others one day.
Awesome interview~! Can’t wait for the last part!
Yup! Slow moving Saving Private Ryan sounds pretty awesome! Glad you’re finding Stephanie’s insights helpful!
Hi Crispin,
Sorry for hijacking this comments section, but I figured this would get more exposure here. I’ve just read your latest newsletter and seen the updated toolbox section. Thank you for the update!
I just have two comments:
– I know the PG42 USB has been discontinued in the US, so you’ve removed it, but for your European audience you might want to put it back there, as it’s still sold over here. At least in France and Germany it is. See here for instance: http://www.thomann.de/gb/shure_pg42_usb.htm
– I was wondering if you had any opinions and recommendations for preamps. I used to think interfaces and preamps were the same thing, especially since they look similar and the toolbox doesn’t mention the latter at all (apparently you don’t use one yourself), but I’ve since learned that preamps, while optional, are another way to improve sound. It would be great if you added a note about them in the toolbox, and/or if you talked about them in a future podcast episode. In fact, I’d love a new episode on the more technical aspects of VA!
Other than that, very nice update! I can attest to the AT2020 USB+ being a decent starter microphone, though the lack of gain control is a shame. Back in the day I chose it over the Blue Yeti because every comparison video I saw on YouTube made the Blue Yeti sound like it picked up more room noise than the AT2020. Which, for a beginner’s untreated room, can be a big problem.
Hi there Bertrand. Glad you like the Toolbox update.
While I’m glad that the PG 42 USB is still available in Europe, Shure has actually stopped producing it so I can’t in good conscience still recommend a microphone that once the stock is depleted will no longer be available on the market. I think it would overcomplicate things on my website to have different sections for U.S. and European buyers. But thanks for letting us know that the PG 42 USB is still in stock in the E.U.
Preamps are different from interfaces, but almost all interfaces contain preamps nowadays. For the purposes of a home studio, there’s not much use for a separate preamp as long as you buy a reputable interface. The sound improvement you might gain from having a separate preamp is minimal, especially if you have a good interface. Plus, adding a preamp into your signal chain creates one more gain stage that you have to manage. If you absolutely must buy yourself a preamp, I would recommend the Grace 101 Preamp. It’s a very clean sounding preamp for one channel. I used to use one myself until I realized that it was overcomplicating my signal chain. I haven’t used it now for years.
I haven’t heard any tests that show that the Yeti picks up more room noise than the AT2020USB. Could you share your links to those audio reviews? Both are condensers, the AT2020 is always cardioid and the Yeti can be set to cardioid. If you want a microphone that will reject more of the sound of your room, your best bet is to get a dynamic microphone. But they require much more gain to work properly than a condenser.
Hope that helps.
Hi Crispin!
As always, thank you for your reply.
You’re right about the PG42. I assumed it was still being manufactured in Europe, but I suppose it’s just some leftover stock, and soon enough, it’ll be out of stock, sadly. Thank you for the heads-up.
I didn’t know that interfaces had built-in preamps nowadays. Great news! I guess dedicated preamps are better left to sound engineers in recording studios then.
I found the one comparison video between the Yeti and the 2020 USB (the title just says “2020”, but it’s the USB version) that swayed me towards buying the 2020 USB back then. Here it is: http://bit.ly/1S0IHuu
It’s a good video for people who have ambient noise in their rooms – curse you, computer fan – because it lets you know what that sounds like. If you listen to it, you should notice that the sound of the fans is noticeably louder with the Yeti than the AT2020, even in cardioid mode. Although, with the knowledge that I now have about gain, maybe he’s simply turned the gain up on the Yeti.
I’m looking into solutions to lessen the noise coming from my computer. It’s not too bad, but it’s bad enough that I have to silence/put a noise gate in all of my recordings. I should probably get quieter fans for my computer case and parts. As you said, dynamic mics are great for that, but only once you have a good interface, which I don’t.
Thank you for the advice and explanations. Keep up the great work!
One of the best solutions I’ve found for removing unwanted fan noise is the Izotope RX plug-in. I use it all the time when I’m on the road and my laptop fan kicks in. It tends to work best when the noise is constant so you’ll want to get your computer noise to a steady state before recording so you can pull that noise out using the plug-in. I’ve found it works wonders.
Hope that helps!
Thank you for the recommendation, Crispin. I’m afraid I can’t afford it at the moment, but I’ll keep it in mind for later!
Great episode, Crispin. I especially love learning new improv games. And I definitely understand the importance of the project over the accolades for the performer. It is a great experience to hear folks happy about a project because it was well done, whether or not they know you had anything to do with it. It feels a bit more sincere and unsolicited, as well.
Thank you and Stephanie as well for sharing.
So glad you enjoyed the episode DW!
This quickly became one of my all time favorite Voice Acting Mastery episodes for the simple fact that both Crispin and Stephanie talked about failure. Failure and rejection are an important part of the acting experience but few actors actually talk about how they handle failure. It was uplifting to hear that not only does it happen to the best and that they both were affected by it but they immediately got back on their feet and learned from the experience.
Can’t wait for part 3.
Excellent! I’m so glad you found our comments on failure helpful. Making mistakes is an important part of the learning process. I’m glad you found our stories inspiring. Thanks for listening!
Crispin, I think you said in this interview that some of your university training needed to be un-learned when you started working as a professional. Is that a topic you can talk about in a podcast in the future? I hear about that problem a lot in many industries, so maybe a lot of your listeners could benefit from learning about how to fix that. Thank you for all your hard work and sorry if you already answered this question before.
That’s not a bad topic! I’ll see if I can work that into the queue of topics that I’m working on! Thanks for the suggestion!