In Ears for Voiceover: Brilliant Isolation or Total Overkill?

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