After years of encouragement from others, but little available time, I have recently started up as a voiceover artist.  My mentor told me that VOAs work mostly with mp3s nowadays and that no-one uses ISDN much for this kind of work anymore.

Currently I am recording auditions digitally - 96kHz 16 bit wavs and converting to mp3 for emailing from my PC.  So far, so good.

So to my first job offer - guess what - it was a request for ISDN transmission!  I can't now do this job without hiring outside studio time, so am now planning for the future. 

I know nothing about using the ISDN system.  I have just read the beginners section on this site and now know far more, but what I need is some really really really basic stuff.  I know I will look like a complete idiot, but hey - I just want to learn, and quick!

I have found a second hand excellent condition MUSICAM PRIMA LT Codec and thought I might invest in it as I build up my equipment stock.  Should I, or is this an obsolete model?

So here are my idiot questions . . . please bear in mind that as I don't yet own a unit, I don't have an instruction book to give me any answers (even when I do, it will be written in a "we assume that you already have some technical knowledge" fashion!  )

1)  I'm assuming that an ISDN line allows for real time recording at the receiver's end (as I speak, they record).  Is that correct?

2)  Can they communicate with me while I am reading the script (much as would happen in a recording studio).  If so, how does this work?  Do I hear them through headphones while they hear what I say through the mic?

3)  How does one actually connect up one of these units?  Does it just plug into any old live telephone line socket, or does one need some special dedicated telephone line with special features?  This affects the issue of portability as well.

4)  How do you then connect to the receiving studio - by dialling a phone number from the unit?

5)  The final question I'm only asking so that I can avoid irritating experienced sound engineers / studio technicians at the other end.  How do these guys (you guys?) react to someone who says "Hey here I am with my blah blah blah ISDN codec.  How should I connect with you?  Err I can't seem to make it work"

I hope you can see past the humour in these questions and that someone sympathetic can send me guidelines, info, book titles, web addresses, anything!  'ISDN Codecs for Dummies' would be a good next title for the Dummies Series.

Anyone in the NW England offer technical coaching?

Over and out!