Please critique & some pointers, thanks all.

Frank Falzon

I'm trying to get into VO's. I have a Mac G5 and Garage Band, but need a microphone.
USB seems to be best option. Has anybody had experience with this mic?

Also need advice for a home studio on a budget. I made a quick demo with a cheap mic.
Can a professional VO artist listen to my VO and give me a critique and some pointers?

Thanks all.
Frank

Here is the link to my demo
http://frankfalzon.voice123.com/

Scott Pollak · Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006, 22:30 (GMT) Post subject:

Hey Frank, welcome to the wild and wacky world of trying to make a living with your voice.

Where to begin?..... hmmm.... well for a newbie, your demo isn't bad. That being said, it's not yet good enough to put out there to compete against others on the block. Let's start with the negatives so we can end up on a positive:
- The length is good.
- Your iPod NANO spot is far and away your strongest one on the demo. Don't even try for hardsell. First of all, it's not your strength, and secondly, almost no one WANTS hardsell anymore. So I'd lose the CSI spot completely, as well as the Nov. 1st spot with all the echo.
I honestly believe with a LOT of practice and some professional training you can do okay with casual, conversational, real voiceovers.

But again... you're not there yet.
You need training. The reads were, for the most part, just flat. Nothing at all to make them stand out, no emotion (the emotion you tried to put into the CSI spot and the one with the echo were forced and unreal). You need to be trained how to take a script and breathe LIFE into it.

Next, equipment-wise... man oh man could I hear HUM coming thru that demo! Yikes. Personally, here's what I use:
- Electrovoice RE-20 mike... you can get 'em for $300-$500. A lot of folks use Shure, too, and they're terrific.
- Behringer mixer/pre-amp. About $80
And other than my computer's sound card and Cool Edit Pro, that's all I use and it works great.

Seriously look into some local training. Get some help putting a professional demo together AFTER you've had some training. Check with Julie Williams on this site (who will most likely critique your post anyway... she's good about doing that). She's a professional instructor and really knows what she's doing.

Then practice and learn and practice some more. Plug away tirelessly and relentlessly. It's a very hard profession to break into and difficult to make a lot of money at unless you're one of the few very talented, but you CAN make some money at it and have fun doing it.

Best of luck to ya!

Scott Pollak · Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006, 22:31 (GMT) Post subject:

I apologize... I meant to start out with negative comments and end up on the good stuff and I screwed up. Sorry 'bout dat!

Frank Falzon · Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006, 05:26 (GMT) Post subject:

Thanks Scott. You make some great points.
I spared no expense recording this demo. A $30 Logitech mic.
I'll be buying a microphone soon. Do you know anything about the Snowball mic from Blue? I have a Mac so USB would be easy.

Any suggestions on where I can get VO copy for demo use?

Thanks again for taking the time to listen to my demo.
I really appreciate the feedback.

-Frank

Scott Pollak · Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006, 13:01 (GMT) Post subject:

Hey Frank, you're more than welcome.... no I'm not familiar with the Snowball mic. I'm on PC so I've got a typical setup running a standard mic thru a mixer. The only two professional mics I've worked with are the RE-20 and the Shure SM-7 and they're both phenomenal.

As far as scripts, I know you can purchase a helpful package from TOS that is fairly inexpensive, about $20, that not only includes 50 scripts (some are okay, most are lame, though), but more important, it also includes the industry pricing guide so you'll know what to charge.

One of the easiest things to do is just listen to really GOOD radio and tv spots and more or less copy what they're saying and script out your own. You only need maybe a half dozen for a really good demo.

Best of luck to you, Frank!

Freddie Molina · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006, 08:39 (GMT) Post subject:

Hello Scott,