In the immortal words of one Dirty Harry, “A man’s [...]]]> So it’s a New Year, and with it comes the dreaded laundry-list of resolutions that bring with it the best of intentions and an uncanny ability to demonstrate to ourselves just how much (or little, as the case may be) follow-through we really do have.

In the immortal words of one Dirty Harry, “A man’s GOT to know his LIMITATIONS.” Which is why I’m particularly pleased with one of my resolutions this year: to truly be more environmentally friendly. It’s true that I’m a big fan of the whole “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” thing, and yet where performing VOs is concerned, it’s been a real challenge to wean myself from the use of printed paper scripts.

Recently, I had to pack up my old kit bag and smile, smile, smile my way into new living quarters. The good news is that there was a studio-ready space for me to move into, and the place even has a wireless printer that I could easily connect to, so with very little time and effort I was back (literally) in business saying words for my beloved clients.

Of course, shortly after I got here, the lovely great wireless printer I was now using developed some kind of infarction, and will no longer feed paper. And the majority of the work I’m doing is too lengthy for a hand-written transcription…so I was feeling a bit stuck.

That’s when I decided to try something new. I was recently the recipient of a hand-me-down Kindle, and though I knew relatively little about the gadget (outside of the fact that I read The Hunger Games on it and LOVED it!) I was aware that I could put .pdf files on it from my PC with very little in the way of fuss.

After some experimentation with things like font size and such, I’ve found this to be a very viable alternative to printing out paper scripts. In fact, I’m thrilled to say that I’ve already saved several hundred sheets of paper in just over a month and a half.

Sure, there are limitations to the format, and I’m sure there are many better tools in the world of “tablet gadgets”, but for me for now this is a wonderful way to get things done while not wasting resources.

So watch out, 2012! With the money I’m saving on paper, toner, and the replacement cost of a printer, I might just have to splurge on a little road trip. FaffCon IV, anyone?

…OK…I’m not going to save that much money on paper, toner, and printer replacement…but it makes me feel better to say it…

As a Voice Actor (or “talent” or “artist” or however you prefer to be known) saying the words is our bread and butter. For those of us who say words for the broadcast realm and have to deliver a message in :15, :30, or :60 seconds (or less than those, if you [...]]]> Let’s face it:

As a Voice Actor (or “talent” or “artist” or however you prefer to be known) saying the words is our bread and butter. For those of us who say words for the broadcast realm and have to deliver a message in :15, :30, or :60 seconds (or less than those, if you have to leave room for local tags and so forth) for our job to be truly effective, we have to rely on the written copy. Here’s an article I tripped across today via Twitter that offers tips to create more effective copy:

10 Secrets to More Magnetic Copy

The masked woman called herself Madame Madcap, and she gathered a gang of cutthroats determined to loot high society of all its riches . . . starting with the notorious womanizer Hamilton Brone. She worked her criminal magic . . . and grew rich as millionaires swooned at her feet. Members of her gang [...]]]>

The masked woman called herself Madame Madcap, and she gathered a gang of cutthroats determined to loot high society of all its riches . . . starting with the notorious womanizer Hamilton Brone. She worked her criminal magic . . . and grew rich as millionaires swooned at her feet. Members of her gang worshipped her. She could do no wrong. And yet a curious pattern began to emerge, and a strange vengeance took shape — not just against the men of high society, but against the men of her own brave band of criminals!

A thrilling crime novel from the classic pulp writer who created Zorro, and soon to be an exciting audiobook narrated for you by Andy Bowyer!

The Masked Woman / Sample

As recording tools go, the CEntrance MicPort Pro can give one very great power when it comes to creating good clean audio.  But the interface, while seemingly simple on the [...]]]> Stan Lee, creator of the Spider-Man comics, wrote one of the greatest, and perhaps truest things of all time:  “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.”

As recording tools go, the CEntrance MicPort Pro can give one very great power when it comes to creating good clean audio.  But the interface, while seemingly simple on the outside, can be a deceptively irksome and titchy little tool.

So what is it?  Well, it’s an XLR to USB interface that allows literally any professional grade mic to be input through your computer’s USB port to capture digital quality sound at a more than reasonable price.

It has been suggested that this unit is “plug and play,” and to a certain degree, that’s true.  However, in reality, there is a bit more to it than that if you really want to take advantage of what this unit has to offer.

Truth to be told, I’m not a “read the manual” kinda guy.  But even I was surprised when the unit arrived and I discovered that there was no manual included.  It came in a box and besides the unit itself, the only other things to come with it were a “velvet carry bag” and a USB cable.  Certainly the carry bag is a nice touch, but it did nothing to help me solve the puzzle of what the unit could do.

Clearly, it was a bit intuitive.  Plug the cable into the USB input on the back of the unit, plug the other end into the computer, and attach a microphone.  Easy-peasy.  I immediately fired up my audio editing software of choice, Adobe Audition V1.0, and was ready to take over the world with my new toy.

Not.  So.  Fast.

And here’s where a manual, or even a “what you ought to know” card might have come in handy.  Sure, there are many resources online, and many people who have “gone there before me” that I could reach out to, and I did.  And here’s what I learned.  Sometimes, even for the “Computer Savvy,” a step-by-step rundown with explanations can be a good thing.

I emailed a friend and said, “Well…I’ve got it.  But so far I’m not really impressed.  I’ve got some serious hiss, my input levels are unbelievably low, and sometimes the audio that comes out sounds like it’s been run off of an old-school film projector…what am I doing wrong?”  I was told “Oh.  Go download the drivers, and be sure you also have ASIO drivers installed.”

I found the “drivers” on the CEntrance website, downloaded them, and again thought I was in business.  I even found some “free” ASIO drivers, downloaded, and installed those.  Done and done!   Right?

Not. So. Fast

The “drivers” from the CEntrance site gave me a “control panel” program.  After playing around with it, I decided that since I never record at higher than 44,100 Hz anyway, I’d lock the settings in at that sample rate, and since I am not a techno-guy I’d just leave the “latency” settings alone.

Bing, bang, boom.  NOW I was ready to take over the world with my MicPort Pro.

Not. So. Fast.

I was still getting an inordinate amount of hiss, and on occasion, noticed that there was a high-pitched noise cycling through my audio files, thus WRECKING any chance of finding a usable track for narrations.

I revisited the idea of the ASIO drivers, and decided that while I prefer the functionality of Adobe Audition 1.0 over that of 3.0, maybe it was time to bite the bullet and at least do the initial recordings with 3.0.  When I started the program, the “ASIO” drivers control panel popped up, and I took that as a good sign.  I assigned the program to recognize the new device, and all was right with the world…(say it with me…)

Not. So. Fast.

The results were less than exciting.  I was back to the high school movie projector sound.  Worse, it actually sounded like my audio was getting chewed up by a helicopter blade and being spit out the other side.  After a few frustrating minutes (most of which I tried to convince the ASIO drivers to recognize that the MicPort Pro really was my chosen device) I decided to write off Audition 3.0 and stick with my beloved 1.0.

Since then it’s been a bit of a crap shoot…and my frustration levels have grown as a result.  I was doing some reading in a forum and it was suggested that there were ASIO drivers on the CEntrance site.  Excited, I went looking for them.  Again, I found the “Universal Drivers” (Control Panel) program, but no mention of ASIO.

Fleetingly, I tried again to use the free ASIO drivers I found a month or two ago, but to no avail.  Then I decided if they weren’t going to work anyway, I should uninstall them and call it a day.  Once that was done, I went into the “Audio Hardware Setup” menu of Adobe Audition 3.0 to make sure they were gone and saw something interesting:

Everything back to normal.  But the drop-down arrow on the “Audio Driver” made me wonder what else the program had to offer.  So I clicked it.

Well, who knew?  The thing came with it’s own ASIO drivers to begin with.  It would have been nice had that been spelled out in GREAT BIG LETTERS somewhere.  Because if that had been explained, I missed it, not being one to be riveted by “tech specs” and the like.  So, cautiously optimistic, I held my breath and decided to give Audition 3.0 another try after all.

And whaddya know?  Increased input levels, decreased ambient hiss, and (so far) no high-school movie or helicopter-blade thrashing of the audio I record on the thing.  Actually manageable audio with a noise-floor of -72 db before I even say the first word?  YES, PLEASE.

Having the right tool for the job?  Wonderful!  Finally knowing how to make it work the way it was intended after two months of struggling and head-banging frustration?  Priceless.

It is noteworthy that while the Mic Port Pro will work with Adobe Audition 1.0, the ASIO drivers are not recognized (at least not that I can see) so the results can vary–this I know from experience.  So I’ll have to bite the bullet and use 3.0 for recording, and either slog through editing with that program, or will save things in their “raw” form and continue to work in 1.0.  Still, there are worse things.  Like using a fabulous tool to less than its potential with less than stellar results.

In multi-media (eLearning especially,) audio quality is one of those double-edged swords that seems to cause more questions than one may be ready to believe.  “My audio sounds fine before I import it into my [...]]]> There’s an old computer axiom, and that is “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” The same certainly applies to computer generated audio.

In multi-media (eLearning especially,) audio quality is one of those double-edged swords that seems to cause more questions than one may be ready to believe.  “My audio sounds fine before I import it into my course, but when everything is put together it sounds really bad!  What happened?”

What happened is probably very simple:  an audio file started out as an .mp3 file which was then recompressed into a smaller file by virtue of the software design program, and thus (to speak in the vernacular of Ogg the Caveman) “Audio Bad!”

You may wonder why this happens.  After all, .mp3 files–for the most part–sound fine to begin with.  And to the human ear, this is true.  But computers see (and hear) things quite a bit differently.   In a nutshell, the reason .mp3 files are so small is because of the way they’re compressed and encoded.  Essentially, the encoding process removes the parts of the sound file that are largely indiscernible to the human ear, the reason being “If you can’t hear it anyway, why does it need to be there?”

If you take an audio file that’s already been “dumbed down” and “dumb it down” again, it has a tendency to sound exponentially worse with each “generation.”  Imagine recording an LP record on to cassette, then copying that cassette five or so times, each subsequent copy being put on lower quality tape.  You’ll probably end up with muddy and “hissy” audio that’s no fun to listen to.  The same thing happens with file compression.

So to maximize the quality of the output of your audio quality, try starting at the top:  uncompressed .wav files (or .aiff files) might be the answer you’re looking for.  Sure, those files will end up being compressed as well, but they might sound a bit better when all is said and done.  In this case, more is probably more.

When selecting a voice talent, be sure to either ask for copies of their existing demos or request a sample reading of the script you need recorded. Most (reasonable) talent will [...]]]> I’ve been doing eLearning narration for going on six years now. From the perspective of the Voice Talent, here are some things to consider:

When selecting a voice talent, be sure to either ask for copies of their existing demos or request a sample reading of the script you need recorded. Most (reasonable) talent will happily record a segment for you free of charge. Once you decide on a voice for your project, and have established communication with the talent, set a reasonable deadline for content delivery. I typically offer 24-hour turn around on most (emphasis on MOST) scripts, but others may require between 24 and 72 hours for script turn around. Rule of thumb: the more narration you need, the long it will take the talent to record it.

Which brings me to the next and a probably very important item: EDITING. If your finished audio times out to 22 minutes, you can rest assured that at least five times that amount of time went into the initial recording and editing…probably more. Editing is a time consuming and exacting process (at least, it should be.) When all is said and done (literally) you should never be able to notice an audio edit. Sentences should flow smoothly, breath sounds (if present–I typically remove all of mine from an eLearning module) should fit naturally and not be clipped, etc.

Another aspect that goes hand in hand with editing is the question of “fixes” and “retakes.” Generally speaking, a good talent will deliver audio that you can simply drag-and-drop into whatever project you have. Most are savvy enough to deliver the audio in the file-format you specify to make your job even easier. However, ideas evolve sometimes, and scripts can change–whether in the initial design phase, or months down the road when general updates need to be done. Another thing to consider when working with professional voice talent is how much needs to be paid for “little fixes,” versus how much needs to be paid for an entire session. Some VO talent will charge a “session fee” regardless of how large or small the fix is. Others will cut you some slack and do a sentence or two here and there as a courtesy. Establish the parameters for this kind of thing up front so there are no surprises and “hurt feelings” down the road.

In the spirit of retakes/edits, it is also noteworthy that if you have a slide with 53 seconds of audio, and you’re changing out the word “is” for the word “are,” most of the time that won’t require a talent to redo the entire slide. Generally, I’ll re-record the affected sentence and insert it into the existing audio. It makes for less intrusive and more seamless fixes. As has been pointed out, voices can “evolve” throughout the day, and it isn’t always possible for a talent sound exactly the same (although, in my experience, the ‘change of voice’ isn’t radical enough to be distractingly noticeable.) The more of the original content that can be kept, the better. Easier to not notice a five-second sentence here and there than entire chunks of “new narration.”

Also worth noting, the subject of pronunciations.  Often eLearning courses feature jargon and terminology that is common only to folks within a given industry.  Phonetic spellings can go an awfully long way to preventing retakes.  If your script is heavy on the $75 words, encourage your voice talent to ask questions or pick up the phone and call to get clarification.

A final thought:  There have been discussions about having field experts narrate eLearning versus professional voice talent. It all depends on what you want and who your audience is, but bear in mind that even if a voice talent hasn’t the slightest clue what they’re talking about, they’ve had years of experience and in some cases training to be able to *sound* like they do. And depending on who you choose, your audio can sound like a million bucks without costing it.  Honestly, a professional and capable voice talent can, at the end of your day, make your life much, much easier.

I took some time and answered this question. I’ll share that answer with you here:

I’m a member of SaVoa. I proudly display [...]]]> In a forum I lurk infrequently, I happened to trip across a post that begged the question: “Are there members of SaVoa.org on this forum? What’s you experience with this org? ”

I took some time and answered this question. I’ll share that answer with you here:

I’m a member of SaVoa. I proudly display the badge on my website, on my FaceBook site logo, and it’s prominently featured on the reverse-side of my business card.

Am I proud to be a SaVoa member? You bet! Am I actively involved in the forward movement of the organization? Well…probably not as much as I ought to be–to my shame. I’m too busy trying to scrape new business so I can feed my kids to be everywhere at once. But SaVoa, in my estimation, is a very worthwhile organization. Without a second of hesitation I can say that SaVoa is made up of an incredible base of capable, talented, and most of all *giving* individuals. I have gained far more insight and understanding from SaVoa members than from others. Believe me: I’ve done the comparisons.

I’ve read the arguments both for and against SaVoa. There are those that will say “you can’t tell me these people are my PEERS! I’m (insert ego-driven blather here) and that can’t be matched! Who are THESE people to say whether I’m good enough or not?” (Honestly, I read one assessment that suggested that because every member couldn’t POSSIBLY as good as he was that SaVoa was lacking standards…and yet, this talent came down from on high to get himself a membership…but I digress…) And there are those that will say “There need to be a baseline of standards, and for better or for worse, SaVoa has stepped up and tried to establish them.”

For what it’s worth, have you *seen* the roster? Any ONE of the people on it could be on your “blind review panel.” Maybe you’ve heard of them, maybe not. But there are some undeniably GREAT voices, and more importantly, great EARS in that mix. You can be certain that your assessment will be, in any case, HONEST.

If your question is “…but will being in SaVoa give me an edge? In-roads to places I’ve only ever dreamed of…?” The answer is “only if you’re willing to push the envelope just a little bit harder because you know that others in the industry recognize that you have the tools and the talent to be included in a pool of folks that can ‘pay the freight’.” Because face it: if your PEERS agree that you’ve got the goods to deliver, why shouldn’t potential clients? And face it further–and let’s all be honest here–is there a more egocentric or picky group of people than your peers? Probably not, especially in the VO Industry.

Even if the SaVoa name means NOTHING to the client because it’s something they’ve never heard of, the word “ACCREDITED” means quite a bit in this day and age.

Beyond that, let me digress into something a bit more “real world” for you: I have made some INVALUABLE contacts, and dare I say it, FRIENDS through both my pursuit of, and inclusion in, SaVoa. Both of these things, to me, are worth their weight in gold.

In all honesty, am I 100% invested in SaVoa? I can’t honestly answer that one. I consider it a “Feather In My Cap” to be sure. Do I give enough back to the organization? I try to, in spirit, if not in fact. Should I do more? Probably…

Will a membership in SaVoa make you a ton of cash? Well…NO. Not by itself. You’ll have to take that info and use it to your advantage in ways that work for *you*. I believe that’s called “self promotion.”

As for whether or not the process, the benefits, and the shield are worth the time, effort, and sweat you’ll put into it…because–and I don’t care who you are–you will sweat out the results, that’s up to you.

It was for me.

The bottom line question you really need to ask yourself after weighing the investment, the process, and your own capabilities is this: How can being a member of SaVoa hurt me?

I’ll give you a hint: IT CAN’T.

I’ve built many different websites: for myself, for non-profit organizations and for-profit organizations…well, it was a hobby gone wrong in its way…

When I first launched the abVoices [...]]]> I’m going to confess. Since 1995, or what I consider to be “The Dawn of Mass Awareness of The Internet,” I have been a die-hard HTML do-it-your-selfer.

I’ve built many different websites: for myself, for non-profit organizations and for-profit organizations…well, it was a hobby gone wrong in its way…

When I first launched the abVoices website, I opted to use a template from my hosting provider. Of course, at that point, abVoices was a side-venture for me, and the website was more or less a statement of validation: “I am here, I have arrived.”

To geek out for a second, in reality, it was more like “Gee whiz, Wally–LOOK WHAT I DID! I got myself a domain name and EVERYTHING!”

To be fair, the template I used, while not necessarily “perfect,” got the job done. It provided the necessary information…had the required demos…and was a pleasant, if not pretty, sign-post on which to hang my proverbial shingle.

That all changed in September of 2005 when I suddenly found myself a victim of yet another cliche’ Corporate Radio Layoff, and I was without a “day job.” By an incredible happenstance, it was within a handful of days that I landed what was, at the time, to be one of my most lucrative clients. A sign? Perhaps…

In December of the same year, to put things in Poker terminology, I was afraid to hedge the bet anymore, and nearly folded and opted for another day job. I applied and interviewed for…well, let’s not go to that dark and ugly place. Suffice it to say by the time I hit the interview process I’d had a nice taste of self-employment and learned that I really, really LIKED it, even if the uncertainty of it made my skin crawl nearly off of me. In fact, I liked it a LOT.

Far more than I’d ever have imagined.

So I treated the interview with my new potential employer with a bit of a novel approach: I interviewed the interviewer as much as he was interviewing me. I wanted to know why this company needed *me*, and what they were willing to do to “get” me, as much as he wanted to know how badly I wanted to be there. It made him, I think, terribly uncomfortable. There was a role-reversal dynamic that took him quite by surprise. To be honest, the tension in the room was so thick you couldn’t have cut it with a chain-saw. As the process (I now think of it as something of a travesty) continued, I started to become more and more amused. Watching someone who is used to preaching a company line, who (I think) sincerely believed what he was saying have to face a fair bit of scrutiny in the form of questions like “…but why..?” was…there’s no better word for it…fun!

I left there that day certain of two things:

1. I would not be offered a job.

And this is a company that hires (to this day) 20-30 people a month.

…think about that for a second. 20-30 per month. Are they growing that fast, or are the working conditions so…challenging…that there’s just that much attrition…? I’ll give you three guesses and the first two won’t count.

But I digress…

2. I wouldn’t take a job there even if it were offered.

And thus, I became a full-time freelance voice actor, for better or for worse.

Woah. You’ve made it this far? Amazing. Well, by now the question is being begged, “But Andy…what in the name of all that is Righteous and Holy does *any* of this have to do with the Evolution of a Website?”

I’m getting to that. Bear with me.

After the botched interview (I won’t say which of us–myself or my interviewer–was the ‘botcher,’) I went home, opened up NotePad on my PC and started hard coding my new site. A week or so later, I had a site that I had done by hand, did everything I wanted it to, and I could update without too terribly much hassle.

That was five years ago. Times change, trends change, and technology has grown leaps and bounds. I have been noticing, as should anyone who’s been *remotely* paying attention lately, that more and more sites are moving to the WordPress platform. John Hansen of Core Studios—-a great friend and client, (if I’m not too mistaken)  is launching a new website based on the platform. An impressive one! Another of my clients, Blue Ridge Heating and Air, is using the platform to drive their website. Well…it got me to thinking…

When 2011 happened I decided it was time to take things up a notch in my vocal pursuits. I realized that I need to put some spit and polish on many areas of my little venture. One of those areas was the website…And then I remembered WordPress and figured “why not?” After all, even though I’ve never been a fan of template-generated websites, the truth is you can’t swing a dead cat without running into a WordPress site anymore. The best part is that if you aren’t paying attention, you probably aren’t even aware that you’re looking at one.

In spite of some recent issues involving my email account (file this as “understatement”) with my hosting provider, I remembered that WordPress is offered as a free add-on to my site. Though I tried a blog several year ago, I found it tedious to keep up with, and the SPAM was incredible. But, as I said, technology has grown by leaps and bounds since then.

Bottom line, I’m now a WordPress believer.  If you want a website you can manage simply, if you want a website you can update AT WILL, and would rather live without the hassle and expense of paying someone else to do it for you, WordPress is the way to go.

In fairness, there is a learning curve to consider depending on how picky and ambitious you are, but it will be worth it in the end.

It is for me.

Talk soon–

ab

There’s now a contact form that’s fully functional and ready to roll, so drop me a line!

Oh, and clearly there’s now [...]]]> Welcome to the new and improved abVoices website. I tried to maintain the look and feel of the old version, while taking advantage of the WordPress platform and the incredible flexibility it offers.

There’s now a contact form that’s fully functional and ready to roll, so drop me a line!

Oh, and clearly there’s now a blog section…but I’m betting you knew that because you’re looking at it.

Also, I’ll now be forced to keep my Twitter status regularly updated, as that will always appear at the bottom of the screen (provided it’s working, which I’m noticing it doesn’t always do,) unless I get tired of it and remove the feature.

Keep checking in, as I’m sure in the coming weeks and months I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the wacky goings on in the Voice Over Industry, as well as what happens here in my own dusty little corner of it.

Talk to you soon!

Andy