How To Get Started In Pro Voice Work

I want to thank a blog reader who asked, "How do I get started in voice work"

This is a common question, and the blog is a great place to respond.
So you want to be a VO talent? Alright then, I'll tell you. You've got it easy. The means to record and the variety of media you can be part of are sweet and simple compared to the old days of 10 years ago. And even easier than the golden age of radio.

So the question is: What makes you think you want to be a voice talent?

Ahh! You want to get paid and you think this is easy work! Well sure you do. Now let me get you hip to what it takes.

There's more than one way to shine this shoe. I started as a radio guy many years ago. Back then, a cat named Art Hannes taught me at the old KiiS Broadcasting Workshop in Hollywood. Art was known in house as, "The Voice Of God". He worked as a booth announcer on the old CBS radio and TV networks in New York. Art was the announcer on the Ed Sullivan Show back in the day. Look up Ed Sullivan and The Beatles sometime so that you might dig how important this cat was in the announcer world.

Now those days are long gone and the, "Voice of God" is best left to the Big Cat himself. But dig baby, there's still some craft you've got to learn if you're going to be a pro who can hold his head up and roar in the same domain as the legends before you. That's not to put you down or make you small. That's just to say you've got to bow to those who are the masters. Not me - dig - I'm still a student like you.

Getting paid is good. But you've got to know that this is an art. And artists compete like atheletes. Who can run fastest, hit farthest and deliver the copy - the WORDS - you dig, the meaning - like, the most REAL. He or she is is the one who gets paid like a .400 hitter.

So dig it. Here is how you train to win like that .400 hitter.

First off. Can you read? No baby, I don't mean, "See Jane. Jane Has the ball." I'm hip that you can read. I mean, can you READ what the WRITER is putting down? Can you phrase it like music? Do you hear melody in the words? Do you get the jazz of Bill Cosby? The passion of Saint John? Can you lift emotion off the page and put it out there to be heard?

Alright that's pretty advanced. Let me start slower and kinder to your ego.

I can't play like Miles Davis. I didn't play the horn and furthermore, I'm not the innovator who found melody where none had been before. That's what I desire. I desire to play my instrument and find the melody unique to every story. So how do I get there?

Think about it. Somebody sometime gave you a challenge to master in your life. Maybe it was math. Maybe it was straightening up, maybe it was saying just the right thing to a lover. Something mattered to you that much. To Miles it was the horn. To you it will be your voice. And you will practice your vocal instrument like Miles practiced his horn. Dig?

So here's how you do it without a coach. And I swear by the power of life itself that this is how you master voice work no matter who you are. I'll give my method to you for free. All that is required of you is that you commit to it. All you've got to do is work out. Just like you work out at a gym. And 3 days a week should do it.

STEP 1. Get a recording device with a real hand held microphone. You need to capture your performance and you have to learn mic technique. Love your mic and it will love you back.

STEP 2. Pick out some words to read. Ad Copy, poetry, classified ads, a speech. Whatever moves you is good to practice.

STEP 3. Record a selection of words you are moved to perform. Do three reads of each text. Spend about 30 minutes recording it in.

STEP 4. Put your recording away. DO NOT LISTEN TO IT AFTER YOUR SESSION. I know that's going to be hard for your little heart to stand. You want to play back and admire your work. DO NOT DO IT! Tell your ego to stand down and set the recording aside 'till your next session. Now go to step 5.

STEP 5. If you listen to your work directly after your recording, the mind plays tricks. Your ear will hear what you thought you put down. But cruel time is more honest than sweet ear. Once you have forgotten what you meant, you will hear what you did. And the honest difference will teach you as well as any professional coach. The mic don't lie baby, and you've got no court of appeal.

STEP 6. Use time to become your best teacher. Listen. No, I mean LISTEN to your work. Wait between workouts and then listen to what you did. Re-read work you think you can improve and discard work that does not serve you. Save work that pleases you because it is TRUE to your intention. That becomes your demo.

STEP 7. Never stop practicing. This isn't a job. This is you mastering your hearts desire.

That's all. When you have your practice down you'll know you ARE a voice talent and nobody will ever be able to tell you different.

Now you might want me to say more about getting the big gig, or making the killer demo or finding the right agent. That's all BS from people who want to cash in on your hunger. I'm not selling you, I'm telling you. There is no shortcut for learning to play your instrument. When you master that you won't need me or anybody else.

Now get to work.

Media Deconstruction

Today I took down the studio desk I built with my father's tools the year after he died of Alzheimers. Friday I gave away the old couch that held so many client meetings and creative daydreams.

I pulled out the pro audio gear that I had acquired over 12 years. I pulled the dozens of custom built wires that my friend Scotty Johnson hand soldered for me one weekend. Scotty is a Santa Barabra radio veteran from the legendary KIST. He served in Viet Nam and worked for Armed Forces Radio in Saigon. He is currently depressed about the state of radio, but still is in the business as a radio voice in Tuscon, AZ.

As I pulled the gear and the wire from the desk I built, I realized how things have changed. So much of the gear in the racks hadn't been a part of any current production for years. The DAT machine, the CD Player, the outboard audio compressor, the turntable and the patch bay are no longer needed in today's digital production suite.

Our most valuable outboard tools are the Telos Zephyr Xstream - for ISDN, our fine microphones and preamps and the sound cards that do the analog to digital conversion for voice recording. The sound effects and music tracks now live on external hard drive. Those will remain configured in service for Production Room clients in Santa Barbara and Canada. Everything else is already being done via internet and in software applications that can live on a desktop MAC, a PC or a laptop.

Steve Gordon is now our outboard source for Protools editing and mixing, and we maintain an outstanding voice booth and record-in service on site at our current address. The easy online transfer and delivery of digital files will save our clients money by giving them options to deal with each facet of production in ways that work best for them.

I just wanted to pause tonight to thank those who helped build the old studio. My father, who taught me to use his tools to build with care and craftsmanship. My father in law who helped wire AC to the desk. Scotty and fellow KIST veteran Doug Allen who supported me with their time, know how and materials. Ray, who lent me his first audio mixer. Hugh, who built my first studio computer in 1995, Brian Godlis, who saved me from evil virus attacks and Bob Lentini - who created SAW - the PC based digital audio software that got me started in computer based multi track recording and production.

Thank you too to all the clients past and present who have brought their business to me since 1995.

We're not done with the work. I'm auditioning this week to voice the narration on an important documentary film project. I'm creating radio commercials for one of my oldest clients. I'm happy to continue as the voice of the Chumash Casino and I'm helping with the creative and marketing work on a new website for a professional firm. And as I mentioned before, I'll be writing the scripts for a series of new online video productions.

I'm learning the new medium and how it works to gather an audience. In many ways I'm back in the job I loved as a broadcast program director and promotions manager. And Annie, my generous and affectionate Australian shepherd, will still be present to greet you with her blue-eyed and tail-less wriggle of welcome at 1629 State St.

The Production Room has changed but it's still committed to, "Craftsmanship, Service and Satisfaction".

I'll keep you posted from here.

But How Do You Make Money?

I'm just as interested as anybody. How do you make money on the internet?

I've spent a lot of time making money for other people. Now I'm creating online content. And everyone wants to know, "How do you make money?". I don't know. How do you write a hit record? How do you create, "I Love Lucy"?

My answer is this. If you create something people want to see - you'll make money.
It's that simple. The internet is no exception. In fact, it's already proving the rule.

It's The Future

The Mercury Space Program taught me to count backwards.

The solemn countdown from T Minus 10 to Liftoff taught me that subtraction would launch us toward the future.

This week the future announced its arrival in the headlines I read in the Los Angeles Times and all over the web.

TV Networks in trouble. A cable company announcing a drop in basic subscribers, content being produced exclusively for on-line viewing, Hollywood Studios scrambling for traction, a music survey announcing that Bruce Springsteen had scored a number one release on the charts - by selling just 77,000 copies of his new album - a position that used to command numbers in the millions. And finally, most remarkably, there was NBC Universal and News Corp (FOX) announcing that they were pulling all of their online content from other channels on the web and forming their own video channel called "Hulu". The new channel (when it's available) will offer free video content.

It's the future. The one we were promised back when we were introduced to computers. The one I wrote about last week.

And once again, we will reach the future through subtraction.

No more magnetic tape. No more digital tape, no more Floppies or Zip drives or CD's and no more need for a hundred thousand dollars of outboard recording and transmission gear. Just a bit of software and a laptop. In the larger world, subtraction is a huge problem for TV, Cable, Print News and entertainment companies. But just for a while. Living in the future takes time.

We sent men out of Earth's orbit into deep space with less memory and processing power than I carry with me wherever I go on earth. If they could do it, so can I. The Production Room has been hired by Red Rocket Productions in Santa Barbara to work on a bold new venture. We'll be producing webmedia full time and I'll be one of the chief writers and creative talents for the launch. I'll be subtracting my office space and will be referring audio post production work to my friend and associate, Steve Gordon.

I hope you'll wish us well.

When I learned my arithmetic I always felt more comfortable with addition. NASA taught me that a launch into the unknown requires subtraction.

PS - The global companies are now "Fututre Proofing" (Thanks Robert Tucker) their businesses. It's writing on the wall for main street business to read.

California Fire Map

Here's a link I picked up from a post on Doc Searls Blog.

This fire map will give you a scale visual of the fires

California Fire - IncieWeb.org

Everbody Say AMEN!

California has IncieWeb working tonight in real time with current fire data and summary info online.

This is as close to real time live data as you can get tonight with a wild fire moving out of control.

Check it out!

California Fire Info

10.22.07 8:47 PM

This is for my fellow Golden Staters who are all over the world tonight and wondering what's going on in this fire emergency. If you've found my blog page I want to help.

Here is a link to the California State Home Page.

TONIGHT: The site server is not working in real time but it contains regional fire info., and will eventually have links to emergency and disaster relief info.