The Thursday, April 6th was my sixth day as a full-time voice actor. It also happened to be my 57th birthday. When I began the day I wouldn’t have guessed that two people would help me identify five rookie voice over mistakes.
My birthday gift from Deb was a set of four 30-minute coaching sessions with voice citing coach Bill DeWees.
Boy, was it time well spent. I felt as if my voice acting career moved ahead by weeks, or perhaps even months.
One thing Bill said I need to work on is the quality of my demo recordings. Kind of a surprise considering how much research and effort I put into the booth, the equipment and my understanding of the DAW software. Just another example of not knowing what I don’t know.
He described them as “thin,” lacking a fullness — especially in the lower end of the sound spectrum. He also asked whether they were recorded in an untreated space. They weren’t. They were recorded in my home booth. It’s apparently my audio engineering skills that make the demos sound as if they were recorded in an empty junior high gym.
I’ll admit to (at least) two rookie mistakes when it comes to recording my first demos. Three mistakes, if one counts simply not knowing what one is doing as a mistake.
My five rookie voice over mistakes:
- I used the wrong settings in my DAW: For better or worse, I’m using GarageBand at the moment.. I used an installed pre-set on my voice that I need to get rid of. I’ll look into it and share what I find in a future post.
- I spoke into the top of my microphone: I’m using an inexpensive Audio-Technica 2020. Embarrassingly, I spoke into the top of the mic rather than the front of it – where the logo appears – when recording my demos. “Side address” is apparently the technical term for properly speaking onto that type of mic.
- I (likely) spoke too close to the microphone. To my ear the recording seemed too “hot.” Bill mentioned hearing a a lot of mouth noise.
- I “over produced” my demos. Ironic given that the voice recording quality was so bad. Or did I somehow know it wasn’t as good as it should be and therefore the beds of music and sound effects covered up poor vocial performance.
- I didn’t seek someone’s help sooner: The time I spent with Bill moved me far ahead of where I would be on my own. And it provided some important “do this, not that” direction. I hold have sought someone’s assistance sooner.
“I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.”
– Warren Buffet
