Audio post production facility Forever Audio made good use of Cleanfeed’s Emmy-Award winning remote recording software to capture the voices of actors who were playing parts in The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe, an animated five-chapter children’s television series for Cartoon Network.
The series, which launched on Cartoon Network this year and is also available to stream on HBO Max, consists of forty 11-minute episodes, all recorded by the Forever Audio team. Cleanfeed was used throughout to record actors located in different parts of the UK. When the project began it wasn’t possible to have them record in Forever Audio’s 12 state-of-the-art studios in the heart of London because the country was in the midst of the COVID pandemic, and all studio sessions were cancelled. Even after lockdown was lifted, Cleanfeed remained an integral part of the recording process across all 40 episodes.
“We were very early adopters of the software and initially used it as a back-up tool because it is so simple to use and gives us the sound quality we need.” Says Forever Audio’s senior engineer Alistair Bolt. “Over time it has become increasingly important because it gives us a lot of flexibility. We no longer have to bring people into the studio to record them – they can be anywhere in the world. All they need to take part in one of our sessions is a computer to access the Cleanfeed link we send them, a decent microphone, an audio interface and, ideally, an acoustic environment that isn’t too ‘live’ or noisy.”
On the Ivandoe project, Forever Audio ensured all the recordings went smoothly by liaising with the actors in advance and making sure they had the correct equipment set up at home. Forever Audio then sent out a Cleanfeed link that allowed the actors to join the recording session remotely.
“Our clients were also able to join in via Cleanfeed, so they could hear exactly what was going on during each session,” Alistair adds. “We needed to record in broadcast quality, which is why Cleanfeed was so important. We knew it sounded great and that was one of our main reasons for choosing it. Unlike other remote recording software, we were also able to record each voice in isolation to an individual track.”
Cleanfeed’s effectiveness as a remote recording tool has now been so convincingly proved that it is in daily use throughout Forever Audio’s studios where the focus is on delivering world-class audio services to the film, television and advertising industries. Its clients cover many notable brands, including household names such as PepsiCo, Spotify, Audible and Paddy Power Betfair. Recording crystal clear voiceovers and ADR (Additional Dialogue Replacement) makes up a big part of Forever Audio’s business. All of its larger studios can be used for this purpose, in particular Studio 7 – a Dolby Atmos certified cinema suite that accommodates up to 10 people for open room and crowd ADR sessions.
“Because Cleanfeed prioritises audio, it doesn’t stretch the fidelity of the sound, and it offers very low latency, which makes recording remotely feel like a real conversation,” Alistair adds. “The audio we capture is so clear that it’s the next best thing to having the artist sitting in our voiceover booth.”
Since it first started using the software in 2015, Forever Audio has recorded numerous voiceover artists and actors on Cleanfeed – too many to name, Alistair says.
“It’s foolproof – that’s why we like it,” he adds. “There are always new features we’d like to see added but as it stands it’s already a really useful tool and we wouldn’t be without it.”
