Do voice actors really need in ear monitors?

They offer excellent isolation and can sound fantastic, but they can also feel uncomfortable, create an unnatural sense of pressure, and make it harder to hear your own voice unless your direct monitoring is set up properly.

In this episode, George, Robert, Robbo and AP look at when headphone isolation genuinely matters, including WALA sessions, radio interviews, music driven reads, remote recording, pickups and situations where headphone bleed can end up permanently embedded in the recording.

They also consider the complete opposite approach. Rather than blocking everything out, could lightweight open headphones give voice actors a more natural performance while still providing enough cue audio for punch and roll recording?

Robbo shares how headphone bleed unexpectedly saved part of a previous Pro Audio Suite episode. A damaged recording contained a missing line from Robert, but a faint version had leaked into another host's headphones. After gaining it up, processing it and running it through Waves ReGen, Robbo was able to slip the repaired line back into the episode.

The team also discusses reading to music, reading to picture, custom in ear monitors, cheap Koss headphones, modular AIAIAI headphones, and Robert's experimental plan to eliminate Source Connect echo with a ribbon microphone, a loudspeaker and some carefully aimed figure-eight rejection.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Why voice actors consider in ear monitors
• When headphone bleed actually causes problems
• Why WALA sessions require serious isolation
• Radio interviews and remote recording echo
• Recording pickups when music has leaked into the original take
• Reading voiceover scripts with music underneath
• When music improves a performance
• Reading to picture and visual timing cues
• How headphone bleed helped rescue a damaged podcast episode
• Using Waves ReGen to reconstruct missing dialogue
• Robert's figure eight microphone experiment
• Why sealed in ears can make some performers feel uncomfortable
• The importance of direct monitoring with IEMs
• Open headphones for punch and roll recording
• Affordable Koss headphones for voice actors
• Custom moulded in ears
• Modular AIAIAI TMA headphones

What is the cleanest way to connect several microphones, preamps and audio interfaces without constantly crawling behind the rack?

AP starts with what sounds like a simple question about expanding the line-level inputs on his Audient iD44. That sends the team down a glorious rabbit hole involving passive switchers, mic splitters, USB converters, matrix routers, the Heritage Audio Synth Buddy, ESI interfaces, Broadcast Tools, Source-Nexus and the Passport VO.

Eventually, one decidedly old-school solution keeps winning the argument: the humble patchbay.

The team discusses quarter-inch, Bantam and TT patchbays, normalled and half-normalled connections, passive mic splitting, phantom power, transformer isolation, corrosion, loose connectors and why adding another preamp stage may not be the sonic disaster people imagine.

Along the way, George mourns the disappearance of simple line-level audio interfaces, Robert explains how passive splitters survive real concert recording jobs, and Robbo demonstrates his remarkable ability to make a straightforward signal path impressively complicated.

In this episode:

• Switching several microphones and preamps into one interface
• Passive line-level switchers versus audio interfaces
• Why a patchbay may be the simplest solution
• Normalled, half-normalled and open patchbay configurations
• Quarter-inch patchbays versus TT and Bantam systems
• Passive microphone splitting and phantom power
• Transformer isolation and troublesome ground loops
• Keeping the signal path clean without overengineering it

The Pro Audio Suite is hosted by George Whittam, Robert Marshall, Andrew Peters and Darren "Robbo" Robertson.

Thanks to our sponsors:

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Austrian Audio, Making Passion Heard

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The Neumann U87 may be one of the most recognisable microphones in the world, but does that make it the right microphone for voiceover and animation?

This week, the team digs into the reputation, sound and real world value of the U87. Andrew is considering one for Somerset's animation work, which sparks a much bigger discussion about why certain microphones become industry standards and whether producers genuinely require them.

We compare the U87 with alternatives including the Neumann TLM 103, TLM 193, U89, Sennheiser MKH 416, Microtech Gefell models and the Austrian Audio OC818.

The conversation covers:

• Why animation studios sometimes record with both a U87 and a 416
• Whether microphone requirements are about sound or repeatability
• The differences between older U87s and newer U87 Ai models
• Why a great microphone can still sound ordinary in a poor room
• The U87 compared with the Austrian Audio OC818
• Transformer and transformerless microphone designs
• Whether the mic, preamp or converter makes the biggest difference
• Why performance and room acoustics still come first
• Processing, reverb and the engineer's role in the final sound

Is the U87 still the ultimate voiceover microphone, or has its reputation become bigger than the microphone itself?

Thanks to our sponsors:

Austrian Audio
Making Passion Heard.

Find out more about the team and the show at theproaudiosuite.com.

This week on The Pro Audio Suite, the crew dives into the weirdly perfect world of AI fixing AI.

Robert shares a corporate video job about AI adoption that was, rather beautifully, rescued by AI audio cleanup. Robbo jumps in with his own tale of a big corporate shoot where the lapel mics were fitted, but somehow the camera mic was what got recorded. Enter Source Elements ReGen.

The team talks through where tools like ReGen sit in the real world of audio post. Not as a first choice, not as a magic button, but as a serious get out of jail option when the recording is so far gone that traditional noise reduction is not really the answer anymore.

From there, things take a sharp left into AI watermarking, audio disclosure, stealth metadata, digital rights management, and whether AI voices on radio should be clearly labelled. Is the problem AI itself, or is it the lack of honesty around how it is being used?

There is also a brief but important discussion about using AI cleanup for auditions, why bad audio can affect casting decisions before anyone even realises it, and whether Robbo should launch his own service called RoboGen.

In this episode:

• Source Elements ReGen in real post-production jobs
• Fixing badly recorded corporate audio
• Why ReGen is different from normal noise reduction
• AI audio cleanup for voiceover auditions
• Watermarking AI images and audio
• Disclosure around AI voices on radio
• Why honesty may matter more than the tool itself
• The birth of RoboGen, unfortunately

Thanks to our sponsors Austrian Audio, making passion heard.

Got your own audio issues? Just Ask Robbo.

This week on The Pro Audio Suite, George brings out a little show and tell with the SSL One, SSL's compact single mic preamp interface aimed squarely at the same world as the Scarlett Solo and other simple home studio boxes.

The team gets into what actually matters for voice actors and home studio users, including physical gain knobs, direct monitoring, high pass filters, 4K mode, USB-C connections, headphone control, auto gain, clip protection, and why simple interfaces are sometimes the best interfaces.

There is also a little live testing with Twisted Wave, a quick look at Source Elements Recorder on mobile, some PASport VO phone patch chat, and the usual collection of detours involving Jack FM, trap doors, yacht rock, and turntables that apparently survive being moved while playing.

If you are a voice actor, producer, podcaster, or home studio owner trying to choose an audio interface without accidentally buying a puzzle box, this one is worth a watch.

Thanks to our sponsors, Austrian Audio.

Recorded using Source-Connect, edited by Andrew Peters, and mixed by Voodoo Sound.

This week on The Pro Audio Suite, the crew dives into one of the biggest traps in audio production: trusting what you think you're hearing.

Robbo talks about working in an unfamiliar studio and being reminded how much your room, routing, monitoring chain, headphones, templates and habits shape the way you work. The conversation moves into headphone mixing, crossfeed, SPL monitoring, virtual control rooms, Sonarworks, Waves room emulation, EQ Mac, old school graphic EQs, and the fine art of not destroying your mix because your room has a 120Hz attitude problem.

There's also a proper old school tangent involving INXS, cassettes, car checks, Chernobyl, 1980s hi fi EQs, and the horror of someone flattening your carefully rung out live sound graphics.

If you've ever mixed in a strange room, questioned your headphones, or wondered whether your monitors are telling the truth, this one's for you.

Thanks to our sponsors, Austrian Audio.

What actually counts as acceptable audio when you're recording voiceover from home?

That question came up after Robbo spoke with a group of aspiring voice actors in Perth. The advice was simple enough, don't overprocess, don't gate everything, and send clean raw audio when asked. But one student asked the thing every beginner wants to know: how do I know if what I'm recording is actually good enough?

In this episode, Robbo, Robert, George and eventually AP unpack the answer. They talk about why reflections are often a bigger problem than background noise, why "boxy" booth sound is so hard to fix, and why a great recording is usually more about the room than the microphone.

The crew also gets into mic technique, the danger of editing yourself into oblivion, clothing noise, hair rustle, inconsistent recording levels, portable booths, the value of reference recordings, and why sometimes "consistent but flawed" is much easier to work with than audio that keeps changing from take to take.

There's also a detour into rare microphones, a surprise AP entrance, and Robbo discovering that the PASport VO may have just made phone patching easier than expected.

Thanks to our sponsors, Austrian Audio, making passion heard.

Apple has not always been known as the bargain option, but the latest Apple Silicon Macs might be changing that conversation.

In this episode, the team gets into the surprising value of the M4 Mac Mini, why even a base model can be serious overkill for many voice actors, and how smaller machines like the MacBook Air and MacBook "Neo" style systems compare for remote sessions, Source Connect, Pro Tools, and travel rigs.

The conversation also wanders into classic Pro Audio Suite territory, including old Macs that refuse to die, running Linux or Windows on ageing Apple hardware, right to repair, weird manufacturer lockouts, obsolete cables, Shure MV88 bargain hunting, Pro Tools archiving disasters, and why keeping your sessions self contained still matters.

There is also a very important chainsaw story. Obviously.

Thanks to our sponsors, Austrian Audio, making passion heard for supporting the show.