Sorry, I don't have a Studio in Chicago, but I have an alternative suggestion. There are many studios in Chicago that do commercial voice over work and do sessions between different location studios, for the exact same kind of situation you are in. These studios have what is known as a "3D-2" (ie ISDN) connection. You can have the talent from Chicago in one studio with a 3D-2 setup and record in another studio in your area with the same capabilities and record the voice talent in realtime. This technology uses three ISDN line connections with a special 3D-2 multiplexer box, where each studio has it's one phone numbers for each line. One studio will call the other studio's lines and a 2-way digital connection is made.

Things to check on and ask if you go this route:

1. What is your "originating fee"? Whoever originates the call will usually charge a higher rate for being charged for the line usage.

2. How many line connection does your 3D-2 have? The more lines there are the higher the bandwidth capabilities, therefore the better quality your audio will be. In other words if they only have 2 ISDN line capabilities the quality will not be as good as a 3 line system. Both sides must have 3 lines, but you can connect a 3 line system to a 2 line system.

3. Is there an additional charge for using the 3D-2 connection on top of the normal studio rate?

4. For recording VO a three line mono connection is best quality....2 is good though. If you need to record Stereo....lik music transfers, then you will need to request a Stereo connection rate, which involves 6 ISDN lines on each side and a stereo capable 3D-2 box.

There are many studios throughout the U.S. and throughout the world with this capability. I use to work at one, where my boss was the Voice over announcer for The Discovery Channel in Portugal and we would do weekly 3D-2 sessions where the Producers would be in Portugal and the voice over talent was in Detroit and they would record his voice, later edit and then it got broadcasted on TV for the Discovery Channel trailers in Portugal. So it's a 2 way connection where you can communicate as well as record.

If you search around for ISDN providers that provide this service, they usually carry an entire directory of all the studios who provide 3D-2 service, so can easily find one in your area and whatever city you are trying to tie in with.

It's not cheap, but you didn't mention a budget...but definately do some shopping around and ask the questions I mentioned above.

Another option is called a "phone patch". This is a similar thing but done through a phone line. Here the quality is bad, like talking to someone on a telephone, but what you usually do is have a two way connection, where you can listen to the record and give production guidance and the other studio records the audio. When you're finished with all the raw takes, the other studio can either overnight you a DAT or CDR of the takes or upload the files to a server for you to download. This is usually a much cheaper option.