A recent trend in commercial production finds more producers taking advantage of a unique service: a mobile recording studio. Recording the voice over, or even vocals, on location during production saves the time and cost of having to book another day in a sound studio, especially convenient for spots featuring celebrity talent whose time is at a premium. A studio quality recording booth parked in base camp or next to the shooting location makes it easy to record the voice overs during a meal break or lighting setup.
Mobile Studio USA has been providing location recording services to an increasing number of agencies and commercial producers such as MJZ for “Jim Beam” with Willem Dafoe; Energy BBDO for “Oxfam” with Aziz Ansari; Hayden Five for “State Farm” with Alfonso Ribiero; Margarita Mix for “Toyota” with Idris Elba; DDB Chicago for Capitol One with Chef Gordon Ramsay.
When talent can’t come to the studio, bring the studio to the talent. Such was the case for a Starburst spot featuring vocals with Michael Bolton. DDB Chicago producer Matt Green arranged to have MSUSA park its mobile recording studio at Delfino Studios in Los Angeles where production company Rattling Stick was shooting the live action. Green also requested a vintage AKG C12 cardiod mic with Neve preamp to accommodate Bolton. “We got the quality of a professional sound studio with the convenience of recording on location,” said Green. “We were on a tight schedule and the mobile recording studio allowed us to record the vocals right on site. It saved us an extra day of production and the cost of typical sound studio.”
For a national brand soft drink commercial featuring celebrity athletes, the New York agency brought Mobile Studio USA to the LA Sports Arena. The mobile recording studio enabled the composer to record and edit the vocals on site, saving the production from having to send the celebrities to a sound studio. “Rather than finding a separate studio, we could record the celebrities right here on set,” said composer PT Walkley. “With pro audio gear and pro engineers here in the trailer, we could make changes on the fly. It was a real life saver.”
“While the majority of our clients come from the episodic television side,” said Amir Soleimani, president of Mobile Studio USA, “we’re finding more and more commercial producers like the convenience of getting the voice over during production. Our mobile studio helps producers solve the issue of scheduling celebrity talent who have limited availability.”
According to Soleimani, the detachable trailer weighs 5 tons due to all the soundproofing. “Our goal was to achieve the same level of sound isolation you would get from a traditional studio, plus equip the trailer with the same professional digital recording tools,” said Soleimani. The control room is equipped with ProTools and a Digi003 controller console. The vocal booth features a Sennheiser 415 mic and a video monitor playback for ADR. “We also honor client requests for a specific mic depending on their needs,” added Soleimani.
About Mobile Studio USA
Voice Over There, Inc. is the manufacturer of the premier Mobile Studio USA mobile recording studio and ADR stage. The MSUSA trailer is designed to provide studio quality sound on location for feature films and television series for the recording of ADR, vocals, voice over, DVD commentary, foreign language dubbing and live event coverage. See www.mobilestudiousa.com for additional information.
