FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

The dVoicebox Studio is a service run by professional audio producer  Chris Radley trading as Dmusic Studio.

This list of FAQs should provide answers to most of your questions – but if you need more information – call Chris on 07866 784925 or email

Why should I use dVoicebox for my voice recording project?
The studio specialises in voice over and spoken word projects whilst also recording vocalists, musicians, singer-songwriters, poets and radio presenters. Studio owner  Chris Radley has been in business since 1996 as a sound engineer and audio producer with a commercial radio presentation background. He is also a musician and production music composer who loves recording and giving great attention to detail to produce great, professional sounding audio productions.

NOTE – Except by prior arrangement – no recordings will be released to clients until all recording and production costs incurred have been paid in full (cash or bank transfer – sorry card payments not currently available).
dVoicebox owner Chris Radley engineers and runs all recording, audio production  and Source Connect sessions.

Where is the studio?
52 Radford Road, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV31 1JG.
It’s about 20 mins from Stratford upon Avon or Coventry.
There is some parking available on the wide pavement outside the studio. The mainline railway station is less than 10 mins away on foot.
There is a pub and shops within a few minutes walk.

How much does it cost?
Studio rates – The usual hourly rate is £50 an hour with a minimum 2 hour session.
Source Connect/Clean Feed directed sessions are charged at £80 for the first hour and then £60 per hour for each further hour.
A cancellation fee of £60 will be charged on recording or Source Connect remote sessions cancelled and not rebooked at less than 24 hours notice.

For a longer project – half day rate is £160 (4 hours) or day rate is £300 (8 hours). All sessions with me as engineer.
I am not currently registered for VAT.

Booth Dry Hire – If you are a voiceover artist with your own portable recording equipment you can dry hire the booth at a discounted hourly rate (subject to availability). You don’t get an engineer but you do get a great acoustic space to record in. Mic hire available at extra cost.  Call Chris for rates and details on 07866 784925.

Source Connect studio hire – Remote Source Connect ISDN Style sessions are charged at £80 for the first hour and £60 per hour for each hour thereafter, Sessions can be recorded at the dVoiceBox end and the audio files sent to clients after the session via ftp. There may be a charge for this.

Voiceover fees – voice artists set their own fees on a project by project basis.  We may put you  in touch with a voice artist but you will contract directly with them for their voice services.

What does “ISDN session” mean?
ISDN was a widely used high quality professional studio based landline. It’s now been replaced by internet based services and we use the long established and widely used Source Connect (just updated to Source Connect 4 Standard).

dVoiceBox also uses software based codec  Audio TX Communicator which seamlessly connects with  professional studios enabled with Audio TX over IP.

Can I direct the session on the phone or Zoom, Teams etc?
Yes. We can link up via phone, Teams or other online software like Zoom, Facetime, Clean Feed etc. You can be linked straight into the studio system so that you are able to direct the voice talent – you can hear their performance while they can hear your comments and direction in their headphones while they are in the booth recording.

I’m a voiceover artist – what equipment do you use for voice work?
You’ll find all the details on the kit we use on the Technical Specification page.

I want to record a studio quality interview – is your booth big enough for this?
Yes – our Esmono Booth is 2.2m x 2.5m and is 2.2m high – For interviews there is room for at least 3 people seated around a table.
It is large enough for several actors or singers standing.

I want to learn to be a voiceover – do you offer any training?
We do not currently offer voice over training.

I’m a singer – can I record a demo?
Yes.  If you want to produce a singing demo – perhaps using a backing track that you already have – we can record you.
For the recording itself we use high quality Neumann, Aston, Audio Technica, Shure, sE or Rode mics, our professional Esmono sound booth and industry standard software recording and post production tools. All you need to bring is your vocal talent and we’ll do the rest.
A single CD copy is included in the fee – further copies can be made for an extra charge.

Can my band record a demo in your studio?
The dVoiceBox Studio is quite compact and experience tells us that it is not ideal for tracking sessions for recording whole bands (when everyone plays at together).

The studio works best for song writers, solo artists, duos or other music projects where the instruments are added individually – building up the song or music track with a series of over-dubs. 

Drum tracking
If you need somewhere to record live drums – we’ve got just the space for you. Our Esmono Booth is acoustically neutral so there’s no “room sound” or colouration to the recording leaving you free to add your own effects etc afterwards – plus you can make the most of the analogue warmth of the Ghost’s pre-amps to get a great natural punchy sound to the kit. Some clients like to record the drums and vocals here but work on the rest of the project elsewhere. Ask Chris for more details

Audiobooks
The dVoiceBox recording studio  is compliant with the Audible/ACX tech spec.  However we rarely record audiobooks as it is a very time consuming process and so can be very expensive with fees for the voiceover artist and recording time. It is rarely economically viable for an author – even if they read it themselves –  to record their own book unless they can be sure of really good sales.

There are very exacting technical standards to be met when producing an audio book for commercial release so you will also need to budget for many studio hours for editing, proofing and post-production and mastering work.  I am happy to discuss an audio book project but generally find the figures don’t really stack up for most projects unless there is a publisher meeting the production costs. Give me a call if you want to find out more.

Can I visit the studio before making a booking?
Yes.  Please call or email to arrange an appointment.

See our CLIENTS section for examples of previous work

Call Chris at the studio on 07866 784925 or email for details on availability and rates.