Student Tips « The Voice Over Coach

Some of my favorite voices and voice over talent – Issue #1

Often times I’m asked by my students, which voices are out there that I like. It’s a hard question for me to answer because there are so many I like – and most of them for very different reasons. I don’t like telling people to go out and copy someone’s style but when it comes to finding good role models in voice over this is probably a good place to start.

So it is here that I will periodically try to nail down some of those voices – and what is I most like about them. None of these should be viewed as personal endorsements as to the character of the talents or how they work they just happen to be examples of what I like to hear of when I think of voice talent and who I would hire or recommend for projects. (other than myself of course!)
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Audio Proficiency: You better be ready to fly little donkey…

Yeah, yeah.. I know.. Flying donkeys.. Sure, that’s something you see everyday… I just wanted to get your attention so that you would sit up straight in class. Audio proficiency is what’s at hand here and the use of the phrase “ready to fly” means ready to move your can in the event you have to. As usual, I would like to share some of my real world voice over experience in hopes that it may help someone survive a potentially embarrassing situation – or best of all – avoid one all together. You never know when a client will call just as you’ve hopped into the car to take the little lady shoe shopping, asking for something you might not be able to deliver.
Continue reading Audio Proficiency: You better be ready to fly little donkey…

Acoustic Treatments for Voice Over Production Environments

One of the hardest things for new voice talent to overcome when they have little to no experience with sound isolation, acoustics or audio recording, is how to get the audio they do record up to standards that would be acceptable for professional production. Many times beginners will pout and cry about how they never get hired or booked for a gig without looking at one of the core reasons, outside of professional training, why they don’t. That reason is how the product they so desperately want to sell sounds.
If you took the greatest voice talent in the world and forced him to record his stuff in a bathroom, no one would ever hire him. Why would you? His audio would stink.

Acoustic Treatment for Voice Over Schematic

Though daily, many people wander out into the VO world with audio that sounds like it was recorded in their bathroom – and they wonder why it is they have so much trouble.
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Sample or Sampling Rate – The rate at which the audio is sampled by the recording device.

Some of you are going to have to excuse my methods of explaining some things in this article because it was meant to help newbies understand some of the basic principals of digital audio recording and effects processing. In an effort to foster this understanding I have used references and terms or words that don’t directly apply to digital audio in general and there are some areas where I declined to fully embellish all of the details. This article wasn’t meant for audiophiles or scientists, so if you are one, please look beyond some of my gorilla tactics when it comes to explaining some of this stuff.
Continue reading Sample or Sampling Rate – The rate at which the audio is sampled by the recording device.

Its time to get that big fat head off your shoulders – Looking inward by Michael Minetree.

The other day, talking to one of my students about how he had the right attitude for success, reminded me of just how far I have come from my not so humble beginnings in this business. When I first started, my ego wasn’t in check, I thought I was much better than I actually was, my head was wedged “Way up there” and I was off on a mission to destroy my career before it even started.

Continue reading Its time to get that big fat head off your shoulders – Looking inward by Michael Minetree.

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Some of my favorite voices and voice over talent – Issue #1

Audio Proficiency: You better be ready to fly little donkey…

Acoustic Treatments for Voice Over Production Environments

Sample or Sampling Rate – The rate at which the audio is sampled by the recording device.

Its time to get that big fat head off your shoulders – Looking inward by Michael Minetree.

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