Emma Hignett

Female British Voice Over

I’m Emma Hignett

…a female voice over artist, based in North East England.  Would you like to know more about me?  How I work, what influences me and what I’m passionate about?  Well this is where I share some of my musings, ideas, experiences and generally anything that excites me.

Please enjoy my blog posts, and if there’s anything you would like to know more about; me, my career or any aspect of my work, drop me a line and ask the question.  I’ll do my best to respond.

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Every now and then …

Sometimes I get too busy and I don’t take the time to track down the work I’ve voiced.  It can be fun googling clients and their projects and finding the finished project … live… out there … and getting reactions from people.

Am I self-critical?  Yes!  Do I take the chance to sit back and listen properly and learn what I’d do differently next time? Yes!  Do I share the projects for my clients? Yes!

So please have a listen to this one, one I’d consider a little different from the norm of what I voice but one I’m quite chuffed with, and let me know what you think.  And if I can bring a voice to your project, then please get in touch.  I’d love to ‘talk’ to you about it.

Normality? Sort of …

In the last few days a few hints of normality have returned to our lives.

My ‘other business’ is Public Relations – I do the social media, pr and other bits for Durham Markets Company, and all the markets have been well and truly closed since mid March.

Until Saturday.

On Saturday, so many people defied the early downpours to come into the city centre as the Outdoor Market returned for the first time, all social distancing and hand sanitising.  All smiles and positivity.  All enthusiasm to get back to normal … or at least near to there.  Such was the success the Farmers’ Market returns this Thursday!

The other bit of normality was that the 11 year old was back at school today.  All 2 metres apart, staggered arrivals, staggered collections.  But it was a step in the direction we want to be going.

I stopped to chat with two parents I’ve chatted to in the school yard for best part of 7 years.  We stood 2 metres apart and caught up, after 3 months of no school run.  It was good.

How come no-one else has gone anywhere near as grey as me?

Time!

So it turns out, normally I have barely any spare time. I normally am getting done what I need to do, but not getting the stuff I’d like to do accomplished too.

Like creating new demos. Or finding videos of work I’ve voiced in the past and updating my YouTube Channel. updating social media. Or blogging.

I know I should blog more … so here goes.

It’s short and sweet.

It’s just to tell you that yesterday and today I created a new demo of phone system work. I created one yesterday, and decided to edit it again today to add/ take away etc etc.

You can find it in this playlist here – https://soundcloud.com/emmahignett/sets/emma-hignett-voiceover

And you can find my YouTube channel here – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLeIL9jQVZTz9M1Ro01hUnQ

I thought I’d be better at ‘lockdown’

I’m a voiceover, I work from my own home studio 5 days a week! Every day it’s just me and the dog …

So surely I ‘self-isolate’ already. This should be a breeze for me. Shouldn’t it? Very little has changed. I still speak to people down the line from the studio. I still work away on my own during the day at home, away from everyone as my home office is 2 floors above ‘husband’s make-shift office’ and ‘home school’.

But I confess the novelty has now well and truly died!

I just want to sit and chat with a friend without a video screen and delay. I want to clink glasses, drink from the same bottle of wine. I would love to be back in the school playground to pick up at the end of the day. I would love to be driving to and fro between home and the swimming pool daily to work away at the laptop while my little one enjoys his swimming training.

That said, can I be a bit selfish and have the best of both worlds after this? Can I have mealtimes with my husband and son? Can I walk the dog daily with my family? Can my husband and I cook together daily (in harmony … until now we’d been useless at cooking together)? Can I get plenty of time to experiment making breads (and not worry about eating them as lockdown weight increase is par for the course)?

And can I have a bit of time to play with my camera too … I’m trying to get a great back window picture for Facebook’s View from my Window group …

View from my window!

My Good Ol’ Studio!

Why ol’? Because we’ve worked together for many a year – in fact it’s the longest job I’ve ever had … doing voiceovers!

But right now (funny times) I’m getting a lot of questions about the studio and just how it’s works, just how good does it sound.

It’s great – broadcast quality! I link regularly with other studios, with producers both in the UK and overseas, and no one has ever had a problem with it.

But people right now want the detail … so here goes …

Microphone – Neumann TLM 103

Audio interfaces – Audient ID22 links to main studio computer and to ISDN/ Audient ID4 links to the other computer …

The other computer provides access to other studios via; Source Connect, Source Connect Now, Sessionlink Pro, Cleanfeed, Skype, Zoom and telephone (those are the ones used to date but other internet meeting systems will work just as well here).

Both computers are linked to the internet via ethernet cables, we have BT Superfast Fibre 2 FTTC internet, and living rurally we’re not struggling with local internet overload … not at all.

The booth is soundproofed on all sides, and the roof, and I work with a sound reflection filter too.

So … you can get me to record for you on my own, you can listen in and direct, or you can link up and record at your end! However suits you …

Want to see it – try this …