Huzzah!
My ISDN line is now live.
So, this Female British Voiceover Artist can go global!

Well, it’s taken a little while, but my new ISDN line is now live. And I’m working from my brand new and fully upgraded studio. It’s important to stay up to date and competitive as a female British voiceover artist. There’s a lot of us out there and having the ISDN line, upgraded studio and brand new kit all helps keep me at the top!

So, get out your address book (old school!) or CRM (new school!) and jot down this number:

+44 (0)1494 776858

Click me to find other ways to Get In Touch here

Yeah, but Claire, what is ISDN?

ISDN means Integrated Services Digital Network. It’s basically a high quality telephone line that integrates speech and data on the same lines. It allows the digital transmission of voice and data over ordinary telephone copper wires, resulting in potentially better voice quality than an analog phone can provide. Voiceover artists and producers love it because it’s stable, high-quality and allows the VO to work from their own studio and the producer (wherever they are in the world) to receive the vocal performance and record it directly into their Digital Audio Workstation.

Ummm, but I thought it was dead technology?

Well, you aint wrong there! It is dying out. In fact BT has announced it’s switching ISDN off by 2020. I had to buy a second-hand codec as new ones aren’t really available. Plus there are VoIP services like ipDTL and Source Connect Now which allow you to connect in a similar way to ISDN but through your broadband connection.

But here’s the thing. I still want an ISDN line. Why? Well, there are a number of reasons:

• Neither ipDTL nor Source Connect Now give you a dedicated ISDN connection number (they do in the US, but not in the UK). Busy audio producers want to be able to log and store your connection details and call you easily. Having to generate a new number EVERY time with ipDTL or ask them to use a Chrome browser and change all  their settings to get SCN to work is a pain in the proverbial. Why build barriers? I want my clients to know that working with me is smooth and effortless – it is by the way!
• Many audio producers will still ONLY work with ISDN and not the VoIP alternatives.
• It’s not clear if the lines will be switched off in 2020 or 2025. But that’s still somewhere between 2-7 years of potential work. Why not grab it!
• I’ve done the maths, and it makes financial sense. The installation, buying the codec and cables and the monthly line subscription doesn’t come to that much compared to the potential income from ISDN sessions. You’ve gotta be in it to win it!

So, I’m really excited to get going.

Here’s a couple of pictures of the new office and studio. And yeah, I’m a geek so I chose my brand colours for the acoustic treatment. What can I say? I’m a details kind of gal!

The Studio:

• Broadcast Quality home studio
• Private, fully sound insulated studio with acoustic treatment

The Kit:

• Rode NT1A Mic with Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB interface
• CCS Musicam Prima LT Codec
• Soundcraft EPM6 mixer with a PDM-300 desk mic for in-booth communications
• Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro (80 OHM) headphones

The Connection:

• ISDN: 01494 776858 X 2
• Source Connect Now and ipDTL (ISDN Bridge facilities)
• Skype, Google hangouts, mobile phone or good old-fashioned landline!

The Finished Product:

• I use Reaper for audio production
• Recording formats including MP3, WAV and AIFF
• Super fast FTP file sharing services