In a recent episode of a popular show, veteran anime voice actors Hiroki Yasumoto and Yusuke Shirai delved into a crucial aspect of the voice acting industry that often goes unnoticed – “mic work”. This refers to the movement in front of the microphone, or mic positioning/techniques.
During the broadcast, the two voice actors shared insights into the importance of proper microphone techniques, especially in group recording settings. According to them, this topic was of utmost significance due to the recent trend of remote recording.
Due to advent of COVID-19, anime studios were forced to adjust and essentially change how dubbings were carried out. This allowed a lot of voice actors to record alone comfortably, without having to face the risk of group recordings. However, as the industry practices normalized once again, Yasumoto and Shirai felt that it was essential to reteach ‘mic work’.
According to Yasumoto, mic work was once considered to be common knowledge in the industry. However, new voice artists, who are coming into the anime industry, are unable to perform this technique when recording with multiple people.
“Even things like adjusting the microphone, it’s better if the younger actors who are naturally closer to the microphone handle it. Because they’re used to working with just one microphone, everyone ends up sitting in the middle, and the person who speaks the most ends up at the edge. It’s a minor thing, but it would be good to properly teach them about these aspects, don’t you think,” Yasumoto said.
Shirai also agreed with this point and added that there were quite a few people who claimed to be doing mic work for the first time during recordings.
Yasumoto further points out that it is not just newcomers who face this issue. In fact, even some veterans who should have been accustomed to mic work had seemingly forgotten about it due to remote recordings.
“Maybe it wasn’t all bad to record comfortably by myself, but interactions definitely make it better,” he added.
Shirai too piped in saying that it was definitely more enjoyable to be with everyone.
Hiroki Yasumoto is a Japanese voice actor and narrator who is affiliated to Sigma Seven. He is known for voicing Sado in Bleach & Bleach: TYBW anime. Some of his other notable roles include Kon Shiu in Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, Apis in Ranking of Kings, King in One Punch Man and Elfman Strauss in Fairy Tail.
Yusuke Shirai is a Japanese voice actor affiliated with Early Wing. Shirai is known for voicing Yamato Nikaido in Idolish 7 and Shumei Sasaki in Sasaki and Miyano.
Source: Abema
