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Audio treasure trove

Tools

The Project Studio Handbook is a gold mine of valuable information about just about everything you’d ever need to know regarding how to set-up your studio, record and process the audio, and mix it down for delivery. You’ll find links to Internet articles on everything from The Basics, to Compression, Effects, Microphones, Wiring and much more. While a lot of the information linked is targeted to musicians, there’s a lot of valuable and useful information here for us involved in voiceover as well.

My thanks to Charles Minx for the pointer to this site.

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I hope I’ll see you at the Summit

Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People, Tools

Since 1996, Dan O’Day has been presenting a 2 day conference that’s called The International Radio Creative and Production Summit. I’ve attended every year since 1997 and have gained an amazing amount of valuable and useful information every year.

Each year is different. Some years the focus is on station imaging and production, some on writing, some on voiceover work. All 3 categories are represented every year, what changes is the emphasis. This year with Pat Fraley, Terry Berland and Don LaFontaine presenting, I think you can tell, voiceover is going to be in the spotlight. You can still save $100 on registration if you sign up to attend before the end of July. Click here for registration details.

And if you do attend, I hope you’ll make sure to say hello. I’ll be the large guy in the long-sleeved white business shirts and ties. I don’t think you’ll be able to miss me.

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A handy chart for EQing

General, Tools

If your work involves production, editing and mixing at least some of the time, there’s a handy and valuable PDF chart available which shows frequency ranges of various instruments and how to EQ to achieve certain sounds. While the chart is geared toward musicians, anyone doing production involving music and sound effects will be able to draw at least some valuable information from it.

My thanks to Electronic Music Production Tips and Tricks for the original post.

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Working with your voiceover talent

Career Advice, General, Tools

Johnny George, a very talented voiceover guy (his demos are on his home page), has a newsletter he publishes every month. (A subscription link is also on his home page.) As I was reading the issue for May and June 2007, I noticed an excellent article on working with voice talent.
I’m sure I’m not the only voice actor whose work is always better when I have good direction. And the excellent thoughts that Johnny provides you will help you get a better performance from everyone with whom you work. Here are a couple of key examples…

Be as descriptive as you possibly can so you can get that right delivery or you are just wasting your time, the talents time and everyone connected in producing a good audition in the first place.

Whether you want them to be excited or flat, give them a level to shoot for. Some-what excited, excited, real excited, over the top excited. That desired vocal delivery can experience many levels – please give your talent specifics.

If they are to play a role, define that as well. Doctor, theologian, story-teller. guy-next-door, best friend, lawyer, stubborn receptionist, etc.

There are also excellent suggestions for the number of words to use for specific lengths of commercial announcements, dealing with address and telephone numbers and regional pronunciations, among other things. Read the whole thing. Very worth your time.

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The New Voice123.com is coming July 9

General, Tools

According to the official blog of the Voice123.com team, the new Voice123.com v. 2.0 will be unveiled on Monday, July 9, 2007. They also note:

IMPORTANT: Since this is a major system upgrade, please note that Voice123’s website will not be available from Friday, July 6th at 10:00 pm ET until Monday, July 9th at 5:00 am ET. During this upgrade, the site will not be accessible; you will not be able to answer leads or access your profile. Therefore, please plan ahead if you need to use the system around those dates.

You can find more information about the new features here.

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Terrific article on voiceovers from Electronic Musician

General, Tools

Electronic Musician is one of the magazines targeting the Do-It-Yourself musician, a category that is growing by leaps and bounds these days. And they cover other home studio applications from time to time. My thanks to my friend Brian Haymond for pointing me to this excellent article about home studios and voiceover work. You find not only the article, but photos and illustrations. Very good stuff.

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A Learning Opportunity in Boston

General, People, Tools

If you live in or near Boston, and you’d like a solid grounding in the tools you need to do voiceover work, my friend DB Cooper will be teaching a set of classes on Saturdays, starting July 7th at C.P. Casting. Full details are available on the C.P. Casting web site. If you take advantage of this opportunity you’ll be studying with a great lady and a brilliant talent. You won’t regret the experience.

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Taking a positive approach

General, People, Tools

Not only is Rodney Saulsberry a tremendously talented voice actor, he’s a superb marketer. Just check out his latest appearance on YouTube.

Not only is Rodney doing an excellent job in this video of helping you understand why you might want to buy a copy of his book Step Up to the Mic, he’s also making use of the power of the Internet by posting this video on YouTube and then letting his friends know about the video. And now, I’m passing that word along to you, too.

Rodney, seriously, I’m deeply impressed. And I hope you don’t mind, but I’m taking notes all the time.

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Bobbin’s do-it-yourself voiceover booth is finished!

General, People, Tools

Bobbin Beam emailed me this morning to let me know that she and her husband Pete have finished their do-it-yourself voiceover both project. You’ll find the story and photos of their finished work on Bobbin’s blog.

I’m looking forward to the next post in the project with cost details, but in the meantime, everything looks terrific. Good for you, Bobbin. And thanks for letting me know it’s done.

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An Audacity tutorial

General, Tools

For those just getting started, or for that matter anyone doing voiceover work who doesn’t want to spend money needlessly, Audacity is a remarkably powerful audio editor that is programmed under the Open Source model. Which means it’s free. Even better, there are versions that run under Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. So, no matter which major OS you’re using, this editor is available to you.

My friend Bill Mecca created a tutorial about using Audacity, which he has helpfully posted on YouTube.

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Built it yourself voiceover booth update

General, People, Tools

My friend Bobbin Beam and her husband are replacing her small voiceover corner with a built it yourself booth. I’ve been remiss about posting updates here. Bobbin has some photos of the progress in this update post. And a bit about the cumulative costs in her second update post.

This looks like a really cost effective alternative to a pre-fab booth, especially for those who have at least some skill with hammer and saw. I look forward to more updates shortly, Bobbin.

By the way, you’ll find the plans for this do-it-yourself-booth, here.

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