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Battling mouth noise

Career Advice, General, People, Tools

Mouth noises are a major problem for some voiceover talents, a minor problem for others; but everyone deals with the problem some of the time. The subject came up during an exchange with my friend Brian Haymond today. Brian, by the way, is a very talented voiceover guy as you can hear from his demos which are on his home page. (By the way, Brian blogs here and here.)

Brian and I were discussing audiobooks and he made the following comment:

I just know how many times I have to re-record something because mouth noise or something has gotten into the recording. I’m probably much pickier on that stuff than most…I try to provide crystal clear audio even though virtually all of the time there will be a music bed. But when it comes to audio book…my goodness, I bet the audio has to be pristine as well?

Brian,

Yes, the audio has to be really clean because while there are musical bridges and such, the majority of the time it’s just you in your listener’s headphones or car audio or iPod or whatever.

There are ways to minimize mouth noise, stuff that I learned at the audiobook class with Pat Fraley this summer. I take breaks when I need to. Keep a bottle of filtered water (cool but not ice cold) near and have at it. My wife sits in and listens while I record, so if I flub a word or miss something she can tell me. I just do a quick pick-up and keep going. I don’t make a huge number of mistakes so an hour of recording takes maybe an hour and 15 to an hour and 20 minutes to complete.

Then, I make a pass through the audio to clean up the pick-ups and any obvious problems. Save it into segments about 20 minutes long each and upload the uncompressed audio to my web server. The publisher downloads the files, lets me know when he’s got them all. They take care of all of final mastering and production.

Wow!!! Yea, I use an apple (really is a life saver on mouth noise), I always have room temp water (I drink about 80 ounces a day). That’s a great idea to have your wife sit in!!! Love it!
Brian

Brian,

It’s so helpful to have someone there to catch what you miss and saves a ton of punch-in and/or audio replacement time afterward.

I used to use the apple thing, but Pat Fraley gave us this little misting bottle with filtered water in it at the audiobook seminar I attended in LA. A couple of squirts as you start a session and mouth-noise-be-gone. Amazing. That, having my wife sit in with me and keeping your mouth open between sentences are the three tips that have made the biggest difference since I got back from California in July.

Now those are some cool tips…I will log that into my “keeper” file…thanks!! Question: Misting is better than just taking a drink?

Brian,

The way Pat and Hillary explained is that…mouth noises are created by the little bits of saliva in the corners of our mouths. Drinking water doesn’t really deal with that. The misting does because it applies a small amount of water directly to the area creating the noise.

Be well,
Bob

I’m sure you can find these little plastic misting bottles at a dollar store or pretty much any place that sells cosmetics and the like. If you find this suggestion helpful, leave a comment and let me know.

Interview 3, DB Cooper

Interviews

This post is the third in the series of interviews I’m conducting with people I think you need to meet, people who have valuable and important advice and comments about voiceover work.

We’re talking this time with DB Cooper because she is one of the people not only working as a voiceover talent, but also making a significant contribution to the voiceover world. More about that toward the end of our interview. DB is a very talented lady. (You can listen to her demos here to see what I mean.)

My first question for DB: Did the idea of “being one of those voices” you heard on TV or at the movies start when you were small? Or did that develop later in life?
DB: I don’t think I thought about “being one of those voices”. I just always was a performer of sorts and always, always wanted to do something with cartoons—I was in Kindergarten when I started telling people I wanted to be a cartoonist when I grew up. Not PC for the early ’60s believe me! But my parents were cool– Jazz cool–and they were right behind whatever I wanted to do.

My second question for DB: As an adult, actually doing some of what you’d previously dreamed about, what do you get the most delight from?

DB: Working as a peer with people who were once my heroes.

Third question: What has been the biggest surprise to you about working in the voiceover field? That is, given that everyone has expectations about how things will be, what is the most different from your expectations?

DB: That no matter how high you get in this business, incompetence and inefficiency still rule the day. I work for CBS Radio in Boston, and the hardest thing I have to contend with is the same kind of overwritten commercial copy as I did at the small radio stations of my youth.

Fourth question: Is there anything that you’ve had to struggle to get rid of, overcome or otherwise learn to work around in the way you speak? (Regional accent? Stutter? Anything like that?)

DB: I have a cumbersome “s” that shows up every once in a while. Otherwise, my smart-alec attitude was the thing that needed the most wrangling. Thank goodness I’ve got that under control.

Fifth question: Do you prefer to be in the spotlight? Or somewhere in the background?

DB: Honestly–it depends on the production. I’ve been a stage director and producer as well as an actor, so I enjoy all facets of putting up a creative project. I enjoy excelling to my utmost no matter what I’m working on: teaching, voiceacting, web design, whatever.

Sixth question: How do you define success in your approach to voiceover?

DB: Success comes from yes answers to:

are you working?
are you making enough money to SAVE some money?
are you happy?

The Trifecta = success.

Seventh question: How do you handle rejection?

DB: What rejection?

Eighth question: For someone living in New York or LA, auditioning in person at an agent’s or casting director’s office is still very common. Your thoughts about auditions? Are auditions a big part of your efforts to find work?

DB: Oh heck yeah. I get auditions from disparate sources all the time. I knock myself out to be the best person for the part, send ’em to the requester and forget about ’em. The most interesting audition will make me say “If they don’t cast me, they’re crazy!” before I send it and forget about it.

Ninth question: What has worked for you in finding voiceover work? Are there anything approaches that you won’t try again?

DB: Pleasant persistence has a way of working. My job at CBS took 5 years to get. I just expected to have it, so I kept reminding the PD I was an asset. Honestly–the best thing I have learned is that it pays to be a nice guy.

As for stuff I wouldn’t try again–I can’t tell you. If I ever did something so dunderheaded that I’d never do it again in the search for work, I was probably so traumatized that it’s been wiped out of my memory.

You know, when people ask me how to “get into voice over” I tell them “I can tell you what I did, but it won’t do you any good.” Many of the avenues I took to get to where I am don’t exist any more–the small radio stations with a full air staff, for instance.

Tenth question: Can you give us a bit of history about the VO-BB.COM? I’ve read almost the entire archives of the site so I know there was a BB of some kind of which you had previously been a part. To the degree you’re comfortable, please talk about what happened?

DB: There was a message board I found out about from a colleague back in the 90’s called The Voiceover CyberStation at VoiceArtist.com. Some very lively conversation and bright correspondents. Had a mostly absent master of the keys, but he did ask for help with a makeover of the site in late 2003, and I offered my hand. He and I had a good deal of correspondence, but the revamping plans died on the vine a couple of times. Then the domain expired and the board went down in late 2004. Nobody could get ahold of the Webmaster, and so many people wrote to me asking what was going on, that I made up this board, VO-BB.COM. I wrote back to folks saying we could give this new venue a try, tell your friends, etc and wow–look what has happened. I honestly don’t have a clue under the sun how people find us, but they do, so it’s growing.

My thanks to DB Cooper for taking time out of her very hectic schedule to answer these questions.

And here’s my answer to that last question from DB. I first found a link to the VO-BB.COM while I was browsing through Connie Terwilliger’s site. At the time I was searching for articles to which I could link from this blog, and Connie has a number of useful suggestions and ideas. When I saw a link to something called the VO-BB.COM, my eyes lit up and I’ve been a regular pest there every since.

I’m happy to answer questions

Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover

Of course, sometimes in takes a while to get an answer. Just ask my friend Glenn. He waited over 6 months before I finally took the time to give him a thoughtful response. But, Noel, who wrote to me a few days ago, prompted some thoughts about Voice123.com (which is what he was asking about specifically) and about Internet casting sites in general.

I’ve asked his permission to use his emails for this blog post. Here’s his first.

Hello Bob;

I am a fellow VO at Voice123.com. I am writing to you because your testimonials at V123 led me to view your very impressive profile. – Awesome dude! Although I have made a living at industrial sales for most of my life, I truely want to break in to the VO business. I won’t bore you with details but I do feel the need to ask someone with your credentials and experience in the business for some advice. So, in a nutshell; I have an AKG Perception200 mike and a pc laptop with a free audio recording program called Audacity- no, I cannot hear myself as I record, so I playback quite a bit. I’ve taken some short course workshops in VO and came out of it with a professional studio demo CD. Since I joined V123 last February, I have submitted over 200 demos. Although I came close on a small handfull, I still haven’t gotten even one gig. What am I doing wrong? Is my voice that bad? Should I add music and effects over a dry read demo? Is V123 the wrong place for me? Anything you can tell me would be much appreciated and well taken. I pray that someone of your caliber can tell me something that I just don’t know.

Best Regards,
Noel

Noel,

Hello. Thank you for your kind words. I’d be happy to provide you with a bit of advice, but you should probably remember that it’s only worth what you’re paying for it.
First, after reading your email I found your Voice123.com listing and listened to your demos. Good work. Clearly you have talent. Now you have to examine yourself and determine how serious you are about this business. Because that’s what it is, a business.

You’ve worked in sales, so you know that you’re not going to close every call, especially not every cold call. Now, imagine that at about the same time you made one of those cold calls, 150 other sales people (with varying levels of experience and ability) are also making a cold call on that client. How likely are you to make the sale under those circumstances? Especially because the client’s final decision isn’t always going to be based on price, but often on his or her perception of which sales person can deliver the goods. This, I think, is a pretty fair analogy for your situation with Voice123.com. It’s not that you’ve done something wrong or that your voice is bad. It’s that you don’t match up exactly with what the client is looking for.

Second, the only way to grow and improve is to practice, study, and practice some more. You should read aloud every day. If you have young children, read to them. If you don’t, just read aloud to yourself: web sites, newspapers, books, whatever. And when you’re reading aloud, practice communicating more than just the words. Practice communicating the story or idea contained by those words. (For example, read this email aloud to yourself.)

Third, you have decent equipment. As time and work permits, make some strategic additions to your tool kit. I highly recommend you join the VO-BB.COM community. And then spend time reading through the archives. Since I joined in July, I’ve made it through about 30 percent of their archives, reading every post. I’ve already gained tremendously by doing so. You’ll get ideas of gear you might want to put on your shopping list someday, things to avoid and lots of different opinions. And many valuable insights into how to grow your talent and experience. (You’ll find some of my reactions to a few in the posts on this blog, too.)

Fourth, keep studying. As you can tell from my profile, I study every year. My first professional voiceover was recorded in 1974, and I’ve been working steadily in voiceovers since 1983. But, I know there’s much more for me to learn. I don’t ever want to allow myself to get complacent. Is Voice123.com right for you? I can’t answer that question for you. But, it might help you to know that I’ve done over 800 auditions there in the last 2 years. I’ve booked less than a 100 of those jobs. But, I look at my Voice123.com membership fee as advertising money. And I only respond to the auditions from which I want to get cast. Which means that I’ve NOT responded to over a 1000 auditions in the same 2 years. So, my testimonial for Voice123.com is more true today that when I wrote and sent it to them over a year ago.

Keep in mind there are other sites where you can put your demo. Some of them are more cost effective than Voice123.com. For example, voiceoverdirectory.com has a category for New Talent in their database. I’m not a member there, so I can’t speak to how good a site they are, but you can check. Also, Voices.com offers a level at only $100. As does CommercialVoices.com, I believe.

I hope these comments are helpful to you. Please feel free to write again, if there’s anything else I can answer or help with.

Be well,
Bob Souer

Noel resonded to those comments:

Hello Bob,

Thank you for your timely reply – The mark of a true professional!

And, thank you for taking the time to check out my demos. Compliments most appreciated. You have confirmed my initial impression – that V123 is a Monster.com of the VO world and I may not be a fit to every job description. I cannot imagine how someone that is not accustomed to rejection can stay alive in this industry. All the same, I must admit to a bit of recent discouragement and dissappointment myself. I’ve never experienced this degree of rejection – what a beating. V123 however is probably one of the best places to cut my ‘eye teeth’ in this business. I do read aloud daily (I’ve got a little one for bedtime stories – at my old age) and I do practice voice drills daily as well.

I will check out the websites, blogs and archives that you have referred me to, join and post my demo. I will keep reading and learning. I want to know every detail that all the successfull VOs do and then do it myself. Your advice has helped me know where to find it.

If you think of anything else, feel free to send it along.

Best Regards and Big Thanks,
Noel Gibilaro

Noel,

Not only are you not a fit to every job description, you’re not a fit to most job descriptions and neither am I (by fit I mean an exact match). Here’s how I look at it:

It’s not a competition for a job against all of the other voiceover people auditioning. The client is selecting the right voice, the right sound, the right interpretive ability to match what they need. Sometimes, I’m the match. Sometimes you are. In those cases, the only thing preventing you or me from getting that respective job is if the client doesn’t know about me, or you. And that’s not the client’s fault. It’s mine, or yours, as the case may be. So, I don’t look at an audition from which I don’t get cast as rejection. I look at it more the way Michaelangelo answered the question of how he knew when he approached a new block of marble from which he hoped to carve a statue. “I just remove everything that’s not the statue.” When I don’t get cast, I’m just removing another bit that’s not part of my paying work.

And there are even times when I’m the match, but I don’t want that job. Maybe the subject is something I’m not comfortable with morally, or politically or for whatever reason. Maybe the budget isn’t enough for me to bother with. Whatever. In that case, the client is going to have to settle for someone else, who maybe isn’t as good of a match as I would have been. But, assuming they hire a professional, they’re going to be happy with what they get.

98 percent of your job is finding the paying sessions that give you the income you need to pay the bills. The other 2 percent you’ll actually be in the studio getting paid for your time. Think I’m exaggerating? Wait and see.

I wish you much success, in whatever manner you describe it. (The fact that you’re already reading and practicing every day tells me you have a better than even shot at getting somewhere.)
A final thought. Spend 1 to 2 weeks lurking and reading before you begin to post anything on VO-BB.COM. I think you’ll be glad you took the time to learn the ropes.

Be well,
Bob

And I hope these thoughts are of value to you, too, dear reader. I have more to say on the subject of Internet casting sites like Voices.com and Voice123.com, but that will have to wait for another day for a complete post. Meanwhile, you can check out this thread at the Voiceover Bulletin Board for some thoughts worth reading. A few of them are from me.

(note: some of the email correspondence has been edited to correct grammatical or factual errors.)

A few excellent ideas

Blogging, Career Advice, General, People

Brian Haymond has been blogging about voiceover here for a few weeks now and has just added a secong blog to his roster focused on podcasts, promos, commercials, imaging, TV, video and narration.

But, it’s his first blog to which I want to call your attention today, because Brian offers some very useful and practical suggestions of things to do in between your times of finding work and actually doing voiceovers. I’m going to implement some of his suggestions immediately (a few I’ve already been doing) and you should probably think about doing the same.

This is what I love to see

General

Over the course of the last few months, I’ve worked several times for a production company in California called Point7West. Every script they’ve sent me has been a sheer pleasure to read. Not just good copy, great copy. Consistently so.

Then today, I get an email from them letting me know their client loved the work I did for them last week for Wheeling Hospital. And letting me know that the agency would like to talk with me directly about possibly doing some radio commercials. Now how cool is that?
So, thank you Point7West!

Source-Connect

General, Tools

A number of years ago ISDN revolutionized the voiceover business, by making it possible to get studio quality audio from one city to another, even from one part of the world to another over digital phone lines. All that was needed were about $5000.00 work of gadgetry on both ends, and the special ISDN digital phone service ($400 to install and $75 a month for the service) installed at each location.

Now, a company called Source Elements is revolutionizing the voiceover business again with a remarkable piece of software called Source-Connect. Initially Source-Connect was only available as a plug-in to ProTools. But now, they’ve released a version that works as a VST plug-in with a much wider range of software. (A list of the officially supported host programs can be found here.)

I’m using ProTools 7.1 M-powered and this morning, after unsuccessfully fussing with Source-Connect for a few days, my friend and fellow voiceover guy Dan Nachtrab helped me over the last couple of hurdles. The magic bullet was that once we had connected with one another, I had to put my system into “record” mode so that I could hear him. Dan could hear me right away, but that’s because he already knew about this step.

Dan and I chatted with one another for several minutes, with me still using the free evaluation version of the program, and it sounded as good as or better than an ISDN session. I mean, if you’re not familiar with how that sounds, it sounded like we were in the same room. Yes, believe it. Highly recommended.

Sound and the web

Blogging, General, People

Elaine Singer, a voiceover talent who specializes in audiobooks and other long form narrations, blogs about her voiceover work here. (You can hear her demos here.)

While reading her blog today, I clicked through to an interesting article she’s written about the question of using audio on your website. You can read the article here. It’s well worth a few minutes of your time.

Just a little housekeeping

Blogging, General

I’ve added a category to my blogroll on the left, “Voiceover blogs.” I wanted to separate out the voiceover blogs that I’ve found from my other blogging friends so if you’re mainly interested in voiceover stuff (and why you would spend much time at this blog if that isn’t true, I have no idea) you can find it more easily.

And by the way, if you’ve stumbled across anyone else involved in voiceover work and who is actively blogging (or even inactively blogging) please leave me a comment and let me know.

The latest podcast is up

Blogging, General

As I’ve noted before, one of the fun things I get to do every quarter is work on the “bridges” podcasts for the Office of Science and Technology at the Embassy of Austria in Washington, DC.

The last few days have been filled with recording the latest round of articles. You’ll find all of the podcasts for “bridges” Vol. 11, as well as previous releases, here. Just keep scrolling for the older material.

Let me know what you think. And my thanks to the wonderful folks at the OST for the opportunity to work with them.

 

An audition adventure (update)

Blogging, General, People

My friend Mary C. McKitrick shares this riviting tale on her blog about traveling into New York City for an audition. Since I don’t have a Blogger account, I can’t leave a comment on her blog, but I’m glad she’s OK. And I hope she gets cast from the audition. That would be very cool.

Update: It turns out that Mary’s account allows comments from people without Blogger accounts, so I’ve left a comment there after all.
(edited to add a link to Mary’s blog, and the update)

Something cool happened today (updated)

Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People

If you’ve read any significant number of my archived posts, you’ve noticed that I think very highly of Pat Fraley as a voiceover coach. In fact, he and Dick Orkin have been the two teachers with the greatest influence on my voiceover work. (Not that I’m worthy to even carry the shoes of either of these guys, but I am deeply grateful for what they’ve taught me.)

So, what was the cool thing? Susan Berkley, by all that I’ve heard a very fine teacher and voiceover talent herself, sent me an email asking if she could use a quote from me about Pat; as part of her promotion of an upcoming Audiobook Master Class with Pat to be held in New York in early November.
Well of course, I said, “Yes!” and thanked her. I also recorded a copy of my comments and sent them to her in case she wants to use the audio on her site as well as the text.

Now, I haven’t studied with Susan, but as I said, she has a very good reputation. And Pat is one of the real masters in not only delivering the goods himself in the studio, but also in teaching others how to develop. If you live on the East Coast and you’ve wanted to study with Pat Fraley, and especially if you’re interested in pursuing audiobook narrations, this is a great opportunity. Click here for the information page about the class.

Oh, the quote?

The Audiobook Master Class presented by Pat Fraley was everything I hoped it would be and more. It was really 3 master classes in one. Having now attended three training events with Pat Fraley, I strongly recommend you jump at your next chance to take one of his classes. The price of the event was worth every penny based what I learned. I’ve just been signed by an audiobook publisher (science fiction, one of my personal favorite genres) and I completed my first project for them last night.

Bob Souer, Voice Over Talent, Charlotte, NC

(edited to fix typos and updated with the link to Susan’s Audiobook class page)

The voiceover advantage

Career Advice, General

My friend Anthony Garcia blogs at A Day in the Life of a Persuasion Architect, along with several other talented folks including Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg.

A couple of days ago in a post on the blog, Anthony made a point about the reality that the best designed web site in the world can’t hold a candle to the full-body experience of a real live brick-and-mortar store. But, there is one advantage to the online world, words. Well written web pages can create atom-splitting mental images.

I’m pointing you to this blog post because I want you to realize that you have the responsiblity to make this idea take life when you read the copy you’ve been cast to read. Your performance can either bring those words to life and it can suck the life right out of them. Are you ready to deliver a life-enchancing performance?