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Source Connect. I mentioned last month that I had installed Source Connect on my audio workstation. Since then I've written about how the installation went and how easy it was thanks to the expert assistance of George Whittam at El Dorado Recording Services in Los Angeles. If you've been thinking you would like to be able to work with voice talent remotely while having more control over the audio, but you don't want the expense of ISDN, then Source Connect is something you should seriously consider.

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These are the good old days! I don't know first-hand what voice-over was like before the internet revolutionised it, although I do understand it was a lot more difficult than it is today to work with "out of town" clients and for people in small towns to have a flourishing voice-over business. One of last month's jobs, however, made me appreciate it as never before. I was working with two Dutch film-makers who were in Alaska to shoot footage for an art documentary. They directed me in my studio in Massachusetts by Skype phone from a motel room in Anchorage. Two days later they flew back to Amsterdam. I will give you more details on this project as it develops, but for now will just tell you that I read the part of a housewife from East Texas. Researching the appropriate accent was very fun and educational!

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Avian Bloopers. MCM Voices' never-ending quest to get the right bird sounds into the soundtracks of the world Spring is... well, still coming! As I write, the snow is falling in thick flakes outside my New England studio. Despite the weather, the birds are following their usual migration schedule. Last month I wrote of the imminent arrival of the first insectivorous spring migrant, the Eastern Phoebe. Indeed, the phoebes are back! I have not yet seen/heard them, but they have been reported on the Voice of Audubon for Massachusetts. I have heard Spring Peepers though (they are frogs, but I listen to them anyway). In the coming month, the surprisingly loud song of the hardy Northern Waterthrush will be audible even over the rush of the river below my house. This bird, another relatively early spring migrant, is not a thrush at all, but a member of the American warbler family (Parulidae). Its voice would be another great choice for a springtime video sound track. Of course, by the publication of the next newsletter, spring migration pandemonium will have broken loose! For suggestions about springtime sounds for other parts of the U.S. or the world, just ask!

Northern Waterthrush Seiurus noveboracensis

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That's all for this month.

Keep moving forward -

Mary C. McKitrick
Drop me a line!
413-320-1181

© Mary C. McKitrick, 2008. All rights reserved.