Take some time to judge your own work

I recently uploaded a Fauxdition (that’s a fake audition) to Internet Voice Coach.

I joined that site recently and I must say that it has been a great help for a student Voice Actor! Tons of articles and advice and interviews. You can upload a sound clip for them to critique roughly once a month, and they have an audition contest each month.

The contest is sorta fun for a newbie. First you have to try to record something that sounds vaguely professional, then you have to work over the file, clean it up, turn it into an MP3 and then upload it. Good practice all the way around!

Anyway, I recorded a bunch of different takes on the audition script, and then just saved them on my computer and spent the next several days chasing my kids around the house – completely forgetting all about the recording.

Went back yesterday and listened to the clips — and it was GREAT! I came to the clips completely cold, having forgotten most everything about them (Early Alzheimer’s, I know) and it was almost like listening to a total stranger!

I could easily identify things that sounded amateurish (yeah, most of the clip, I know) and also things that I liked. It was a completely different experience from listening to your recording right after you do it.

So why don’t you practice with some scripts and record your efforts and then let them lie around for a few days before you listen to them? I think you will be surprised.

And yes, I know you can’t do that in real life — but we are learning here! Cut yourself some slack!

Interesting article about The Cold Read, and why you need to be able to do it

This is an interesting article and one that makes me think a little bit. Being a student, and in class with a bunch of other students, I think it is interesting how hard it is for a lot of people (me included sometimes) to actually just Read the Script!

Not only is Cold Reading important, just being able to read the thing accurately and correctly aloud is important!

Like my last teacher said, just read aloud for 15 – 20 minutes a day and watch how you progress. It has sure helped me.

Why Cold Reading Skills Are a Must For Voice Actors | Voices.com.

Jeffrey Kafer Voice blog

This is an interesting article from an interesting blog. Jeffrey is a moderator on the Voice Over Bulletin Board too.

Jeffrey Kafer Voice blog.

When Do You Need a Voice Over? « The Lowry Agency Blog

Here is a quick, interesting article about voice overs and when you might use one. When Do You Need a Voice Over? « The Lowry Agency Blog.

Here is a new E-Book for VO

Taji, who runs .The Voice Over Emporium has written a new book for voice actors. You can download it here:
Taji’s Free eBook – The Voiceoverist’s Guide | TVE

Free 3 day trial at Internet Voice Coach

I have already written a little about Internet Voice Coach before, but now Paul Strikwerda has an article about it on his blog (which I have already mentioned as well and it is a great blog too) as well as a link to a three day trial membership.

You can use this to try out the site and see how you like it.

Definitely give it a shot, click here.

Added link to Voices.com Blog

Voices.com Blog is a great source of info.

This is updated almost daily and unlike this blog, the articles are written by many different authors, who are often experts in different aspects of the life and business of Voice Acting.

Great source of info for the student!

Daaaad! How much longer til we get to the Death Star?

Ok, I just had to put this on here,  as you may or may not know, Tom Tom has signed up the voice of Darth Vader for Star Wars Day (Who knew there was such a thing?) on May 4th.  Enjoy — and May the 4Th be with you.

Thanks to Bob Souer over at the Boblog

Online Ad Revenue Jumps in 1st. Quarter

Facebook | Voicebank.net has put up a link on facebook to an article about ad revenue, which jumped in the last quarter almost 15% to 8.8 Billion!

This is really good news for anyone who hopes to make money off the Advertising Industry!

This is also a good time to bring up the fact that many great sites like Voicebank, Voiceactors in the News, Voicetraxsf, Voiceone,  etc. have facebook presences.  You can follow these and receive constant updates on things going on in the voice over world .  Some of them are also quite active on Twitter, so if you really want to stay connected, you should check it out.

You can simply run a search on Voice Actors, Voice Overs, etc. on facebook and bring up a lot of sites.

Social networking sites are great places to meet people, get information, and establish your own presence in the voice over community.  There have been a lot of good articles done on social networking, both for fun AND profit! and we will get a little deeper into that later.

Voice Care and Feeding

This morning I woke up and said good morning to my 8 year old, and I had the proverbial Voice of God! Actually, more like the Voice of God after a hard night of playing poker and smoking ceegars. I have a fairly deep voice normally, but this morning I sound like Froggy off the Little Rascals.

Looks like the pollen must be kicking into high gear as spring may finally be here. Which brings me to a funny realization about this business. That is — it all hinges on a pretty delicate and only vaguely controllable item. Your Voice!