One of One Productions Studio, a 740-square-foot studio in Fort Lee, NJ that’s designed for podcasts, music recording and mixing, and voice-over and narration work, is outfitted with a versatile gear infrastructure that utilizes components from Focusrite.
One of One, owned by partners Fela Davis, Denis Orynbekov and Joy Pratcher, has hosted voice-overs such as NFL wide receiver Victor Cruz for a BMW X7 television spot and podcasts including R2C2 With CC Sabathia and Ryan Ruocco and the Webby Award-nominated Holding Court with Housewives of New York star Eboni K. Williams. The studio has been in its current location for three years, opening in March 2020 just as the pandemic was beginning. In fact, says Davis, that location, separated by the Hudson River from Manhattan, which had been largely shut down during the pandemic, made it even more desirable as a production facility.
A key component for podcast recording at One of One is the Focusrite Vocaster One, a single-input device specifically designed for podcasting and content creation. This acts as an interface for a new project at One of One: Ice-T’s Daily Game, produced by iHeartPodcasts and Audity, featuring the titular rapper/actor/producer offering three- to five-minute-long messages each weekday.
Specifically, One of One is using Vocaster to interact with the show’s offsite producers by routing them a live signal in high-resolution real-time audio so they can hear every nuance and comment on what they’re hearing – in effect, a “monitor mix” separate from the recorded track. For the recorded audio, the studio employs an ISA 428 Mk II mic preamp that helps deliver the character of Ice-T’s voice through his chosen Lewitt LCT 840 tube condenser microphone, used with just a touch of tube compression while recording to Logic software through the Clarett+ 8Pre converters.
“The ISA mic pre is amazing sounding, especially with a tube microphone and a voice like Ice-T’s,” says Orynbekov. “It really lets his personality come through.
“It was very important that the audio quality of everything be as good as the audio quality for Ice-T’s voice,” he continues. “The quality of the Focusrite pre-amps and converters is just incredible. They sound natural, which is why we need hardly any EQ or other processing. Everyone knows how Ice-T sounds, and that’s what you hear! The Focusrite [products] make the tech part of this easy just by doing what they do.”
Davis adds that the same microphone and Focusrite mic-preampss and converters are used for the narration of the animated series Rocket Girl as well as an upcoming episode of Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty. “The Focusrite sound is transparent,” she says. “You always hear back what you’re putting in, without any color.”
Another project for One of One is the new Guesses Make Messes Podcast featuring Frank David Greene, trumpet player with Paul Shaffer and The World’s Most Dangerous Band, in conversation with Davis herself. “Frank and I talk about the things that he did to become a full-time musician and work on many amazing projects, so you know the audio quality has to be excellent, and with Vocaster, it is,” says Davis.
“Vocaster is made for creators. Audio professionals will like the great sound and mic pre’s, and features like phantom power, so you can use the best microphones, and an output for a DSLR camera,” she concludes. “And if you’re new to podcasting and you just want an interface that lets you get up and go, Vocaster is the one.” But, she adds, all of the Focusrite products are in the studio not just for podcasts — they’re used regularly for music production, as well. “Focusrite covers a lot of bases for us, no matter what we’re working on.”
