Use your ears, not your eyes, to listen.

As an audio engineer who runs at least one remote voiceover (VO) session per week, this fundamental lesson I learned back in school is driven home constantly. You see, with remote VO sessions, I don't decide the signal chain prior to it being recorded in my DAW (digital audio workstation.) Nor do I even see the talent, I only verbally communicate with them.

The VO talent generally has their go-to mic > preamp > compressor combo that they use all the time. This means, I can't use my eyes to decide how the mic is placed, or the settings of the gear/plugins. I have to use my ears to determine if the signal will be good enough for it's final destination. Is it distorting? Is it too loud? Is the talent too close to the mic? So many variables between their voice and my DAW. Don't even get me started with the virtual routing options!

At first, such was my insecurity with my critical listening skills, that I once recorded a whole VO session with the talent accidentally using their laptop mic input, even though I knew it clearly sounded like he was in a shoebox! Today, I'm grateful for the weekly challenge, because it has made me more confident in trusting my ears and in making quicker recording and mixing decisions.