Voice Over Help

[John Saunders]

A friend of mine wants to get in to doing voice overs so he came over and I recorded some quick stuff for him. I wanted to see if any one had any pointers or suggestions for him (and me).

The tracks were recorded in my living room (I know it's not a good environment) with an AT 3050 mic through a sound devices box and into my laptop. I Eqed, compressed, gated, and put the music bed in it all in soundtrack pro.

The MP3 files are at http://www.cgllc.com/jamesvo/

Try to be nice it's his first time and we didn't spend a ton of time getting the tracking/pacing down perfect.

Also If anyone needs a VO for cheap or free let me know he would do anything for experience / portfolio

[jimhare]

Not bad at all for his first attempt. My main comment, other than practice practice practice, is it sounds like he's holding back a bit.

He definitely has the voice, it's just a matter of listening and learning. Inflection, pitch, pace, breathing, these can all be learned so since he has the voice, he just needs to learn how to use it as an instrument, the same way a fine musician would.

[Chris Pickle]

He has an odd accent. Something in his nose on certain sounds. I can't quit place it. Something in between his nose & his upper throat. Like his adonis are getting in the way. He needs to soften his delivery and make it a bit more conversational. I know that sounds like weird advice for someone wanting to do VO, but it needs to run together just a bit more. We think we hear great enunciation in VOs, but in fact it's not as much as we think if we analyze it.

As you know, VO work is extremely competitive, especially now that geography is less of an issue. I have a friend who has done major international brands, and he still often struggles with all the competition. It's also a notoriously closed group of people.

Good start though.

[John Saunders]

Thanks for all of the input. I will pass the tips along. Any help he can get is great. I think it he really practices he can deal with the issues brought up.

On a side note does anybody have any tips or places to learn about the tech/recording side which is what I am more into. I come from live sound background and the compressors and gates seem to respond way differently than analog ones. I am also wondering if I need to invest in a good preamp.

Again thanks for all the advice this forum is great and I learn so much from the professionals on here.