Studio DISASTER [+ new equipment update] (Patreon)

Hello sweet people!

As you've probably noticed I haven't uploaded a full roleplay audio for a little while now and I'm here to tell you why.

Over my spring break I managed to get quite a few scripts/concepts all ready to be recorded and expected to get this done in the last week of my break. No gaps in uploads and some audios ready to go for the next couple of weeks? I was so happy with the work I'd managed to do and really thought I'd done myself a favour. Then my neighbours began moving out and since our houses are joined it became very noisy. Bumps, bangs and voices in the day to arguments at night (up to 2am! I tried to stay up longer to try recording but I'm a baby who needs lots of sleep.) All of these noises were captured and I ended up throwing away 3 audios. It really sucked and knocked my creative spark for a little bit. Where I live now is incredibly noisy compared to my old place and it seems to be getting more difficult to record.

So what could I do? I decided to try out recording in a studio. I've never done something like that before and I thought, or I guess hoped, that this would be my sanctuary where I could record as much a I wanted without problems. For various reasons that wasn't the case.

Last week I called a studio recommended to me and I explained quite clearly what I do and what I'd need the space to be like (acoustics dampened, sound proof etc.) It seemed fine to the lady I spoke to. Fast forward to last night. She was lovely when I got there, I had to sign some papers and pay for a membership which was fine. She said I could only have this one particular room because of Covid-19 regulations & that she wouldn't be able to show me any other rooms until June when they open up properly again. I got in there and immediately I could tell this was not the room for me. She put me in a practise room with a drum set (thank you snare drum for vibrating to the sound of my voice), speakers and amps. I tried to create a makeshift booth from mic stands and my coat but it just didn't work. I don't think I'll ever show you but I just flat out starting crying out of frustration whilst trying to record. I thought well if a studio doesn't work for me then what will?

I packed all my things up and told the lady I was going to leave it for today. I'd been teaching all day, being in a new place made me anxious as it was and I honestly just wanted to go home. I think the problem was that this lady is really proud of the studio (it really is impressive and I kept telling her so) but no matter what I said she just took offense to the fact I couldn't use the room. She was also annoyed that I'd brought my own mic stands/mics because she feels like they should have everything I need... I just wanted a quiet room to record guys. :')

She showed me a couple of rooms, despite what she said earlier, and one was absolutely perfect: a recording room with total acoustic dampening. Again, she said I couldn't use it until June which is okay, but then she said "why didn't you tell me sooner? I could have done something". This lady has literally told me I can only use the room she picked out for me. By the end of it I felt like I was just this big problem and someone who was causing a fuss over nothing. I am naturally a quiet, shy person and I really didn't want to cause a problem, and I promise I wasn't! I was very polite and honest. I guess that's just the way she is though: 65 year old rock lady who is very to the point. So I left the studio, had a cry in the car and came back home. At least I tried that option.

My cousin is a musician and he's really good at what he does, so I decided to ask him for help last night. I haven't told many members of my family that I create audios but he was super supportive and actually helped me so much. I talked about maybe creating a better sound booth but he reckoned it could be down to the microphones. He let me borrow a cardinal condenser microphone with a range of 5 ft (compared to my AT2020s that seem to pick up everything in a 20 ft radius) and the difference is insane. I did a side by side test with both mics and this new one put mine to shameeee. It's wonderful and I think it's going to solve a lot of my background noise problems. That means I don't need to be careful about what time I record, which means more opportunities to put audios out which means a very happy Peaches.

So.. I bought 2 new mics last night, the same one I tested, and they should come today! I'm beyond excited to try them out together and see what happens. I want to say that there's no way I could have just bought brand new microphones, especially so close to the end of the month, if not for the support you guys give to me. You've allowed me to hopefully fix a problem that's stressed me out since the dawn of my audio journey and I can't thank you enough. Thank you for helping me, which in turn will make better audios for you. The best win-win. ^-^

I just want to apologise to anyone I haven't responded to here on Patreon or elsewhere, it's been a whirlwind few days but I'll be getting back on track from now. Thank you for putting up with me hehe.

Wishing you a wonderful rest of the week - halfway to the weekend for those Mon-Fri workers, we can do this!

Take care & really, thank you so much for everything, 

Peaches

** EDIT ** - so I recorded a tsundere test at the weekend that made my beta tester say 'woah, you're going to need a disclaimer on that because it's so mean', so I wasn't going to post it buttttt I can be swayed. Let me know if you want to hear me hug you out of necessity and call you annoying. I am a meanie in this one but in my defence I was just playing around, it's not a full audio. 👀