Did you hear the 4th annual VO holiday greeting compilation put together by my friend Terry Daniel?
You need to…it’s so fun!
Here’s the SoundCloud link.
https://soundcloud.com/voiceoversbyterrydaniel/the-fourth-annual-voice-talent
This is an exquisite example of production, collaboration, and editing. Terry judiciously included everybody who contributed, which makes the piece 26+ minutes, but who cares?… it’s delightful to listen to.
My reaction? My piece sucked. You’ll notice I did NOT mark my place on the timeline.
In my haste to get SOMETHING to Terry, I neither took the time to conceptualize cleverly, nor execute with excellence…and obviously most everyone else did. I wanted to climb under a rock.
But beyond the quibbling about my lack of creativity, I noticed with probably 80% of the contributions, a sound that struck me. The sound of winners. Is that what you-all are sending out for your auditions? No wonder I’m not booking! How many of those cuts were compressed to the max? What effects are you putting on those sound tracks to make my woofers rattle? I know I don’t have the deepest voice on the planet, but it doesn’t matter…THAT’S the sound of a professional VO, and I fell far short.
There’s a depth, a presence, and a texture from most of the male contributors that makes me green with envy. Time to call George Whittam. Time to call in some consulting favors. I’ve got oodles of expensive equipment… plenty of coaching and adequate pipes, but obviously I’m not using them like I should.
AND… I’m following the wisdom I’ve heard over and over…. “send only plain vanilla sound files to your auditions”. No processing, no effects… just your voice. Hmmph!
To heck with that! If I’ve gotta compete with the likes of what I heard on that Christmas compilation, it’s time to bring out the big guns!
Humbly submitted.
CourVO
