In this week's episode of The Pro Audio Suite, we've got something right out of left field! Our guest, Matt Cowlrick, an Aussie voice actor living in Canada, has done something pretty remarkable—transforming his Tesla into a rolling recording studio. Yes, you heard that right! Tune in as Matt reveals how he converted his Tesla into an innovative mobile recording space, complete with a built-in mic stand.

Hear about the nuts and bolts of mobile recording setups, from the gear choices to the unique challenges of recording in a car. Matt shares his experience using the Mic Port Pro 2 and a Sennheiser 416, all rigged up to record straight onto his iPhone with Twisted Wave. We dive deep into the acoustic challenges of a car's interior, particularly a Tesla's glass-heavy design, and Matt's creative solutions involving pillows and moving blankets to achieve the best sound.

For those who can't wait to see it in action, Matt has also shared a video tour of his Tesla studio on our website. Check out this link to watch the magic happen: Matt's Tesla Studio Tour

Join us as we explore how necessity drives innovation and how you can apply some of these tricks to your own mobile recording endeavors.

A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth...

https://tribooth.com/

And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear..

https://austrian.audio/

Hunter S Thompson


Y'all ready to be history? Get started. Welcome. Hi.

Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone.

To the pro audio suite. These guys are professional, they're motivated. (0:09) Thanks to Tribooth, the best vocal booths for home or on the road voice recording.

And Austrian Audio, making passion heard. Introducing Robert Marshall from Source Elements and someone audio post Chicago. (0:22) Darren Robert Robertson from Voodoo Radio Imaging.

Sitnik to the VO stars. George the Tech Whittem from LA. And me, Andrew Pinkers, voiceover talent and home studio guy.

(0:37) And welcome to another pro audio suite. Thanks to Tribooth, the golden handcuffs can be removed. And Austrian Audio, making passion heard. (0:44) Today, we have a special guest. Matt Calrich is joining us because Matt and I've been having a little conversation about setting up a rig in your car, which was something I played around with a few weeks ago now. (0:56) But Matt, you've done your thing as well.

What have you done? (0:59) Well, I changed it up from what I've done in the past, which quickly is using the Apollo Solo and a laptop and usually the 416. (1:11) Now for being at home in Canada and not actually, you know, traveling on holiday, I just wanted to have something easy to get going at any given moment, just pull over on the side of the road. (1:25) And so I use the Mic Port Pro 2, still the 416, and recording on the iPhone.

So just really nimble and mobile. (1:36) Are you using Twisted Wave on your mobile? Yes. Yes, until further notice.

(1:43) Yours is very similar to mine because that was my experiment with the iPhone 15 because it's got the USB-C and using the Twisted Wave app. It's fantastic. (1:53) And you can actually use their kind of Twisted Wave Dropbox as well off the iPhone, which is really, really handy.

(2:00) But the only difference between you and I, I think, is that you use the 416 and I've been playing around with the CC8 from Austrian Audio. (2:07) Well, he uses the 416 and you use the 416 sometimes and now. (2:15) And the other big difference is that you have a Tesla, which has a lot of glass.

(2:21) Has that become an issue for you? (2:23) Yeah, well, I'm still still in the early days of, you know, finding my feet with it. (2:27) I only set up this new rig, so to speak, on the weekend, got all the required parts, which was the idea of being able to have a mount in the car that I can just attach the mic and the... (2:43) How did you feel about drilling into your Tesla or is that glued in there? (2:46) I didn't. It's glued.

And I also just kind of drive my Tesla like a piece of shit. So I don't really care. (2:54) I just drive it like a car, so sticking something on the inside.

(2:58) It's not precious. It is no longer precious. It is now a utility vehicle and it's used for what it was designed for.

(3:06) Yeah. I mean, let's be honest, putting double sided adhesive tape on the inside of my Tesla is probably not the worst thing that I've done to it. (3:13) So you're not going to mount a M49 from that thing.

(3:18) Since it's now technically a recording studio, does that mean your car's a tax deduction? (3:21) You say that like I don't already try to claim as much as I can. (3:29) Yeah, that's a good point, Robert. Yeah, I wonder how much else I can squeeze out.

(3:32) Yeah, exactly. My new recording studio just happens to be on four wheels, that's all. (3:36) Yeah, exactly.

(3:37) Hey, if anyone can play it, George, if you can, I don't know. Now would probably be a good time to have a listen to the audio, Matt Sentis. (3:45) I can do playback over here if I... (3:46) Can you? Okay, yeah, cool.

(3:47) Okay, here's me recording in the car on a 416, the Mic Port Pro 2. (3:57) There's a windsock on the mic and there's a pretty significant humming sound, which I'm sure you can hear. (4:08) That's the car. I don't know how to turn it off.

It's an electric car, so that's something to work with. (4:16) But the setup is nice and it's convenient, so now I just have to work on... (4:24) And so here's the treated one. (4:26) But the setup is nice and it's convenient, so now I just have to work on fixing things, like the car sound and the whirring.

(4:40) But I like the concept. I just have to try to get it sounding as good as possible. (4:47) So I'm guessing you were pretty close to the mic there.

(4:50) Yeah, pretty close. And then what I added later was a pillow in one take and then I brought in a moving blanket on the other. (5:06) But I was pretty close to try and offset the carriness.

(5:11) Were you putting the pillow behind you someplace? (5:14) The pillow was wedged. It was two pillows actually, because they were small pillows. (5:18) Wedged in the front screen.

And then the moving blanket I had just draped over me like a villain. (5:31) It was not comfortable, but more for like a testing perspective to see what had changed. (5:37) Do you have one without all that extra stuff? (5:39) That was the first one.

They're remarkably similar. (5:44) You know what makes me laugh though is if this takes off, if this becomes a trend, you'll be able to go to the local mall and realise who's a voice-over artist and who's not because the car of the voice-over artist is going to have blankets and pillows (5:56) and cut those one on the back seat. (5:58) Although they're just living in their car, which is an understatement.

(6:00) Yeah, exactly. (6:02) And a really weird iPhone mount for a stick. (6:05) Yes.

(6:07) It's going to look entirely nefarious. (6:10) I love the gooseneck attached to the ceiling. (6:13) Finding adhesive that would mount that strongly enough to hold the weight of the mic and the mic port and the gooseneck itself.

(6:20) It's a decent amount of weight. (6:23) Do you put the mic port right on the mic port? Do you use a little adapter like we got for like Andrew got? (6:31) Oh no, I just assumed that Andrew's was directly plugged in. (6:36) No, I think the 416 and the 41.6 and the OC8, they're all too thick at the base to fit into the newer mic port.

(6:44) The 41.6 fits and the NTG5 fits. (6:50) And only the OC8. (6:52) The CC8 does not.

(6:53) Sorry, CC8. What a stroke of work. (6:56) And I also have the Rode NTG5, which Andrew and I were talking about when I was in Australia.

(7:02) And so I'd be interested to try that in the same situation. (7:06) I used the NTG5 in the back of my car, the first test I did before the CC8 got here. (7:12) And yeah, it sounded great.

(7:13) You probably get the same result as the 41.6, I would suggest. (7:17) There's a bit more bottom end to it. That's the only thing.

(7:20) I also found the NTG5, it seemed more sensitive than the 416. (7:29) I don't know. (7:30) Oh yeah.

(7:31) It has a much higher output. (7:33) No, because I was in Mexico hanging out with Dustin Eboar. (7:39) And we had my tri-boot there and kind of our gear combined.

(7:43) And we tried both the 41.6 and the NTG5 with exactly the same gear, just switching the mic. (7:53) And it was quite different. (7:55) Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(7:56) That's a huge amount of output on the NTG5. (7:59) Right. (7:59) My NTG5 is at the mailbox waiting to be picked up because they replaced it.

(8:04) Oh wow, that's cool. (8:06) I'm the only one left with one that didn't blow up, I think. (8:09) Mine blew up? (8:10) Yeah, mine didn't blow up.

(8:14) No. (8:15) Don't use it. It won't blow up.

(8:18) I had a sphere mic blow up in Australia. (8:22) Yeah, I took it all the way to Australia thinking how great it was going to be having that mic with me. (8:28) And then I got there and was absolutely perplexed for a while why it wasn't working.

(8:32) And it turned out to be a busted capsule. (8:34) And this was a brand new sphere. (8:35) You know the problem with that, mate.

(8:36) It was actually a northern hemisphere and you're in the southern hemisphere. (8:41) That was the problem. (8:42) Oh my God.

(8:44) You are, I will. (8:47) David Kay traveled with the sphere to Japan, you know. (8:50) And I just thought it was risky because it is a much more fragile mic than any small diaphragm, you know, shotgun or pencil mic, you know.