VOICE OVER RESOURCES

Five Voice-Over Books You Need to Read

Got eyes, a few bucks, and a way to read e-books? Good! Educate yourself!

1. There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is by Elaine A Clarke

The Bible according to Elaine. This book is one I come back to every year or so because it’s just that damn good. It’s your trusty all-in-one handbook on the world of voiceover. It’s great coming back to see what information I’ve actually digested and what behaviors I’ve developed as a result. How to breathe, how to interpret copy, how to identify and fix everything wrong about your delivery and how you use a mic; the differences between stage and studio acting; breakdowns of every type and style of VO and how to do them. If you’re just getting into VO, or need a guiding light once in a while, get this book immediately. I cannot recommend it enough.

2. How to Build a Six-Figure Voice Over Business by BIll DeWees

Bill is a fantastic wellspring of information. Look him up on YouTube and you’ll see a treasure trove of tidbits that lead to real breakthroughs. He’s a very down-to-earth teacher with a lot of great stuff to impart. His book helped me build a daily routine of finding work in unlikely places. He also has a starkly different mindset when it comes to voiceover rates and work in general. I appreciate his grittier, survive at all costs approach, which helps to put the obsession with rates and fairness into perspective.

3. Sound Advice: Voiceover From an Audio Engineer’s Perspective by Dan Friedman

A man after my own heart. I love me some gear, and so does Dan. This book’s all about the gear you’ll use to bring your voice to the masses. If you don’t know your condensers from your dynamic mics, or have any clue about compression/limiting, EQ, or other technical aspects of the job, YOU NEED TO LEARN. There is no way you’re getting away with not having at least some technical know-how anymore, and this is a great resource that keeps the focus squarely on the needs and wants of the voice actor.

4. VO: Tales and Techniques of a Voice-Over Actor by Harlan Hogan

This book is enjoyable to re-read largely due to its narrative emphasis. Every other chapter is an anecdote about an average (or not-so-average) day on the job, with an interstitial chapter hammering home the points. It’s a unique perspective told in an entertaining way. It’s even got a wealth of old and new school marketing techniques, some of which I’ve still been too chicken to implement (sending your clients a humorous daily calendar takes the cake).

5. Making Money in Your PJs by Paul Strikwerda

Mr. Strikwerda doesn’t mince words. I like his work, as he’s very realistic about VO as a business, and he doesn’t mind being gruff about it. If you dislike Bill DeWees’ survival at any price point model of soaking up work, consider the steadfast resolution of Paul Strikwerda’s ironclad rate sheet. He is one of the most vocal proponents of the dignity of the job – a fair rate for good work. It’s simple, elegant, and he cuts a lot of the bullshit to the quick. Definitely a must-have in any solopreneur’s collection.

There are a ton of other great resources out there. Get ye down the rabbit hole!

Rex

Tips on Where to Find Work, 2018 Edition

VOICE OVER ADVICE, VOICE OVER MARKETING, VOICE OVER RESOURCES

Boy howdy did the voiceover landscape change since I got started! Voicebank was swallowed whole by Voices.com, curated audio became all the rage, more and more (and more and more) P2P sites cropped up, and it seems like everyone and their brother wants to get in on the action. I recently started cutting proto demos with a couple of friends getting into the field, when the question on my mind all day every day popped up: “Where do you find work?”

It’s a complicated question, and frankly there are more qualified people out there you should be asking. But since you’re here, I’ll give you a few quick tips on things I did to establish myself. In fact, I shall give you three of them.

Internet Presence is Key

To get in the game, you need a website. And I don’t mean a profile on Voices.com masquerading as your “website”. Get a Squarespace account and build a real site. Then maybe get a professional to build you a real real site, once you know you’re in this to win it. Along with that, find every P2P that will let you have a free profile and make one. Google VO casting sites and have a ball. You’ll learn a lot about what’s expected of you across a broad spectrum of places, which range from….I’m not gonna lie to you, most casting sites out there look kinda crummy. Some don’t; I actually really like a couple systems out there, but they’re pretty few and far between. Not to say they’re not effective; I mean, the jury’s gonna be out on that regardless. But! Every site helps to grow your name, your demos’ presence, and your overall online searchability. So get your name there everywhere you can stick it.

Same goes for making content and posting it. Blogs, videos, podcasts, anything you can create within the purview of your brand, help boost your visibility. Also, social media yadda yadda yadda. You probably don’t need me to tell you how Twitter works. Hell, I don’t even have a Twitter account anymore. Maybe I’m a curmudgeonly old man, but operating pretty much any social media account as a business felt really forced for me. Maybe I’ll get back into it one day.

I suppose this falls more into letting work find you than you finding work, but to that effect, lemme tell ya…getting work to find you is far more preferable.

Anyway.

VO is a Hustle – Hit the Pavement

Beyond the P2P’s and the casting databases are the folks you’ll be working for. And the folks they work for. And sometimes, the folks they work for. There’s a pretty layered infrastructure out there, and a lot of your time will be spent navigating the various production houses, b2b marketing companies, advertising and marketing firms, and all the other various levels you can try to penetrate. Direct-to-client is the best, but a lot of work ends up coming my way via third party studios as well. Google around, poke through the internet, get numbers and email addresses, and suss out the truffles of leads that may or may not be there.

Word of Mouth Will Grow Your Business

The internet is great and all, but your community is the best place to build your business. Find friends, friends of friends, associates of friends of friends, anyone who has a position that may be need voiceover work, and hook up with them. Once your reputation grows and people know you for what you do, you’ll be off to the races.

Hope this helps!

Rex

Reducing Noise In Your Voice Over Recordings

VOICE OVER RESOURCES

There are days when I want to rip my mouth off and flush it down the toilet. Mouth noise is the bane of my existence. Over the long, winding course of my now-several-months-long career, I’ve found a few practices and tricks to reduce or eliminate those annoying pops, clicks, whirrs, and ca-chunk-a-chunks your mouth makes. NOTE: If your mouth is ca-chunk-a-chunking involuntarily, please consult a doctor that specializes in face carburetors.

De-Click Your VO Performances

For the clicks created by spittle on your gums, eat an apple. A green one, preferably. I know you like honeycrisps better, but trust me. The juice from sour apples will burn off the spittle and reduce your saliva production, allowing you to speak high consonants without any troublesome noise. This trick has saved me from a meltdown in-studio once or twice.

When all else fails, edit! Pops look like little spikes on your waveform, appearing before and after sounds (well, the easily editable ones do anyway). Slice them out without taking the empty space around them. Voila! No more spittle grossing out your client.

Voice Over is Breath, Breath is Life

Ah, breathing. You necessary, no-you-no-life little punk. I’ve been playing around with my breathing since I first started voice acting all those days ago. First lesson was to stop breathing through my nose. It’s way sharper, not that much faster, and sounds really obvious and terrible when picked up. Next is to breathe with your diaphragm. Pulling air into your belly will make you avoid sucking in air, which in turn makes you avoid the sound of sucking in air.

To reduce the impact of plosives (p- sounds, hard f’s, any other morpheme, phoneme, or diphthong that sounds like you just blew hot air straight into the mic), experiment with setting your mic off-axis. Most decent wide condenser mics will have a wide cardioid pattern, meaning you can move around a bit and still capture clear sound. Put your mic a little to the side to avoid blowing directly into it. This should also help a bit with breathing.

The Nose Noise You Must Remove

This next sound’s a little difficult to explain. It sounds like you’re kind of clearing your nose, like a short snore or like you’re getting ready to spit. I notice this happens when I accidentally push a little air into my nose, which causes a sound not unlike blowing my nose in the distance. Just concentrate on where your air is supposed to go and keep it even and well-supplied. Don’t swallow your breath, if that makes any sense.

Those are the biggest problematic sounds coming out of my face so far. Now, if you’ve already committed a take to your DAW and just can’t bring yourself to throw it away, pull out your tape and scissors. It’s audio-cleaning time.

Get it Right Before It Goes ITB

Don’t look for plugins to solve these kinds of problems. People profess to need all manner of noise gates, expanders, limiters, compressors, de-essers, etc. etc. I use almost none of these in my chain. You hear noise, prepare to find it and cut it out.

Most spittle appears as a small, sharp little spiky looking waveform, generally just before or after a sentence, or even in the middle of words. Zoom in on the area in which you hear the sound and study the shape of the waveform. After you’ve seen a few, they’ll be very easy to spot. They’re short enough that you can then pull the audio over without hearing any noticeable stops or gaps.

That’s all for now, good luck banishing unwanted bodily noises from your recordings!

Rex

443.692.7260

voice@rexanderson.com

REX ANDERSON