It was pretty interesting….Take a look:

Real quick tip I’m not sure I’ve shared yet…

Today I was auditioning for an internal corporate video that had a lot of industry jargon that I was not familiar with. So, I went to a couple sites that I always use for getting the proper pronunciations. And as usual, it worked great!

These sites actually give you the phonetic spelling of the word, but they also give you audio examples of how to pronounce the word, as well. VERY COOL!…..VERY helpful!

Remember….The last thing you want to do is to mispronounce a word on a clients copy. So first…Ask the client if you find words you’re not familiar with, (don’t be shy…they’ll be glad you asked.)  However….if the client is not available, then these sites are the next best alternative.

Check them out here:

http://forvo.com/languages-pronunciations/en/
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/
http://inogolo.com/pronunciation
http://dictionary.reference.com/
And here’s another I just found recently from the VO-BB bulletin board:
http://www.howjsay.com

So, now there’s absolutely no excuses!     Have fun pronunciating!  (Save you time looking that one up….I know it’s not a word!  haha)

This kind of relates to the last post, but a former student sent me a demo to listen to.

She couldn’t figure out where the faint hum was coming from in her recording. She was asking if I thought it might be the microphone or something else. Wellll…..after listening several times, very closely, I realized what the low hum was….

TRAFFIC! Outside her window….the same window she cracked open to let some of the warm fresh spring air into her studio.

Remember as the weather gets nicer and you open those doors and windows to let a little fresh air in…You have to close them again, tightly before recording. Or you too may find yourself scratching your head, wondering where that “low hum” is coming from on your next recording.

Just a quick tip….Talk soon…

It’s not really hard, but it seems that a lot of people get overwhelmed in the details and not knowing exatly what to do. Soooo….I put this video together to let you break the tasks down into simple to follow elements.

Just go counter clockwise around the chart and complete the tasks. Before long you’ll be listening to your demo and sending it out to agents and producers!  So, take a few minutes (about 25 minutes to be exact, but well worth the investment in time,) and let me know what you think…

Leave a comment or question. Thanks!

Click HERE to get the easy to follow PDF of the chart in the video.

Just got back in the studio and a little rushed….But I wanted to get this up quick!  Let me know what you think.

I’ll let you know the regular schedule I’ll be doing them live. So, if you want to participate…ask questions, etc, you can. Or you can always watch the recorded video of the broadcast. I’ll have the all archived and they’ll cover all the different aspects of Voice Acting. Plus, we may even throw in some craziness and fun to break things up from time to time! 

It’s coming….tick, tock…this week….maybe tomorrow….

I’ll be emailing you regularly (if you’re on the mailing list…if you’re not, you can sign up at the upper right column of this page.) I’ll let you know when I’m going to be on live, so if you have questions or comments you can ask then and get answers right away…even follow up questions.

So sign up for the newsletter, if you haven’t already….you just need to leave your email address in the form on the upper right column of this page, and we’ll be talking soon!

I thought I should post it here as well, since it really could save your
next audition or recording session. I hope it helps you out!

So, I was holding auditions this morning for a commercial
I’m producing and this guy comes running in just as we
were about to end.
 
**He’s all disheveled…says he was running late. (No apology,
just said he was running late.)…. No-No #1 – ALWAYS
Be On Time…(or better yet, a bit early)
 
**As he’s signing in, he’s finishing up a milkshake. (This is
actually 3 separate No-No’s all in one:
- Don’t eat or drink anything real cold before recording
as it will tighten your vocal chords
- Don’t eat or drink anything dairy before recording as
it will create a thick mucous in your mouth and will make
your voice “smack” whenever you open your mouth.
-  Try not to eat RIGHT BEFORE a recording. (This guy’s
burping and hic cupping proved that!)
 
**And the 3rd Big No-No (actually the 5th, in this example) -
This guy was wearing a watch that was real loose on his
wrist, so every time he moved his arm, you could hear the
watch sliding around, so we had to re-record. NEVER
wear loose jewelry or anything else that can make noise
during a recording session.
 
Needless to say…he probably wasted a trip to the studio
for his audition. Although he didn’t sound bad and I
probably could have used him…. I won’t. And I probably
wouldn’t use him again in the future just because of this.
 
I shouldn’t say that…and who knows, maybe I will use him
after some time…but remember that you only get ONE first
impression.

But recently it hit me. Since I’ve really started blogging and coaching so much more…I’ve been heavily emphasizing that this is Voice Over ACTING…Not just a disconnected voice, over some cartoon or visual imagery. It’s ACTING…and in the truest form!

So…That being said…I guess I really have no right to be upset or deny a fellow actor the right to practice his or her craft. We’re all in the same pool…just different areas. And if you really want to look at it as: “The glass is half full”, this is really a great wake up call to a lot of the seasoned voice actors to step it up…go back to get some more training/coaching…expand your offerings, etc.

Whatever the case… Don’t let this deter you from pursuing the dream and becoming the absolute best and most successful Voice Actor you can be! Bring on ALL contenders! Famous actors or not! 

First…let me tell you specifically what it is, if you don’t already know. The Shure X2U is basically an analog to digital converter that allows you to take a professional, higher end microphone that has an XLR output and plug it into your USB port in your computer. Here’s a picture of what it looks like:

You’ll see on the top of the pictured unit is the input for the XLR connector from the microphone or the microphone cable. And on the bottom is the USB output which then leads to the USB input on your computer, via a standard USB cable. (See the close ups)

Now, the picture is a bit small, but the thing that I really loved when I was ordering this was for the adjustments on the side. You can see 3 adjustment wheels on the side. The top one is to set the mic gain…the middle wheel adjust the volume in the headphones that can be plugged into the side…and the bottom adjustment wheel is to adjust the mix in your headphones of the audio coming from the microphone and any accompanying audio coming from the computer. In other words, you can lay down a music bed on one track in your multi track audio editor, and listen to that track as your recording your voice on another track. I LOVE this feature! Because so many times I’m doing a voice over, I’ve had to record it dry with no idea about the mood of the background music or effects. And that really affects how you read. If I’m reading along with the music bed, I can pace myself better to the music…I can get more into character or into the mood of the piece. So, this feature of being able to mix my voice and the audio on the computer in my headphones while I’m recording (and with NO latency problems!) this really was what pushed me over the edge to get this. Because in all reality…I didn’t really need to use one of my XLR microphones directly into the computer…because the Blue Snowball USB microphone is awesome…but I can’t monitor what’s playing on the computer.

Soooo….That being said….My BIG letdown with this product is that there is a noticeable hisss in the background. A hiss that is loud enough and noticeable that you couldn’t use a recording for any professional project. However…I was able to eliminate most of the hiss using effects within my audio editing software (Adobe Audition). There are several “hiss eliminators” within most programs on the market. Once you fine tune your effect to eliminate the hiss, you can set it up as a default setting and easily apply the same effects to future recordings. So, yes…it can work even in a professional setting.

With a cost of about $129 or so, I think it may be wiser to wait for the second generation and beyond of this product. If it came out of the box with a clean sound like the Blue Snowball, I would’ve said $129 was the bargain of the century. But for now, I unfortunately have to suges waiting. You know in the VERY near future Shure is going to come out with the newer version that will address this problem. Shure is known for professional quality and I’m “shure” this will eventually be a must have in every studio!