Florida VO Requesting Feedback

Nikki Saco · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 465

I'd appreciate your thoughts on the attached demo, my primary demo. All comments are welcome. Really. I'm young enough to learn and old enough to take it.

http://nikkisaco.voice123.com/

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Freddie Molina · Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006, 17:08 (GMT) Post subject:

Hello Nikki.

Listened to your demo and was immediately captured by your voice, love the quality, good timing on the sections and great delivery.

Very talented I’ll say. 2 daumen hoch

Nikki Saco · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 465

Freddie, you made my night. liebe

Paxton Greene · **Voice Talent** Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Posts: 91

Hey Nikki,

Good voice. Good demo. My only comment would be to take out the heart vo you did. It doesn't sound very natural, and you have such a wonderful demo that it takes away from it. Just my two cents.

Pax

Scott Pollak · Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006, 02:15 (GMT) Post subject:

I think:

1) Your voice is wonderful. A soothing, unique and beautifully emotive and believable voice that few can match, and...

2) Your demo is nearly perfect. I say nearly because I agree that the heart spot is so weak compared to everything else. On anyone else's demo that spot might be their strongest cut, but not on yours where everything else is so good.

One other suggestion... Towards the front end the clips are SO short I honestly think you need to stretch 'em just a tad. Consider having perhaps 3 LESS spots on your demo, with the ones on there being about the length of the "romance and dessert fork" clip.

I can't imagine you having any trouble getting all the work you want!
(unless the client is looking for a black male rap or something. And I wouldn't be surprised if you could pull THAT off too!)

You're a pro!

Colin Day · Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006, 10:12 (GMT) Post subject:

Hi Nikki

Some feedback from across the pond:

I agree with all the other posts about your voice quality and the emotional depth you bring to the work.

But

As a demo, I think that it lacks variety in production techniques. The cuts sound like many were recorded on the same day, same booth, same mic. The music is rather samey and the voice vs music balance is predictable.

The problem with that is; it sounds like a custom made demo as opposed to collection of completed work. To my ears, that's a giveaway.

Nothing personal - it's a hobby horse of mine!

Col

Nikki Saco · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 465

Thank you all for your responses. Colin, I agree the clips have too much of the same production sound. A couple filters and effects may help vary that a bit. That's easy enough to accomplish. Pax, yes, the thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) clip needs to go. Since posting this for feedback, I've created a separate medical narration demo and the TAA clip is more appropriately featured there.

Scott, thank you very much for your comments - all of them. It's easy to love doing VO work, but to be told you're actually good at it just rocks! I had earlier mixes that included fewer and longer clips but was concerned they were too long and didn't show enough variety, even though I'm tending to focus on a soft sell niche. But I think I can work up something new.

Thank you all again. I'll do a new mix taking all your great suggestions into account, test market the remix and see how it goes. I really appreciate your time.

Colin Day · Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006, 14:45 (GMT) Post subject:

Nikki

If you're remixing, try and vary your music choices some more (assuming that's something you have control on)

You might even degrade one or two of the cuts to make them sound like different sources (I know, this might be against your natural inclination). Or try converting to mp3 and back again on the odd cut or two.

Col

Nikki Saco · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 465

Colin, I can do that. I have a royalty-free music library and also a Nova mic that varies production sound considerably without raising my cringe factor. Thanks again.

Colin Day · Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006, 15:51 (GMT) Post subject:

Nikki

That's maybe the problem. Try and source your music from different libraries if you can.

Col

Trey Dixon · **Voice Talent** Joined: 01 May 2004 Posts: 12

Nikki, I love your voice and presentation. I flipped over to your demos page and your childrens narration is priceless.

Louis Tristan · **Voice Talent** Joined: 07 Jul 2005 Posts: 266

I like your Science narration voice...

Nikki Saco · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 465

Thanks Trey and Louis for your kind comments and for taking the time to visit my member page for more demos. It's cool to see so much generosity on this forum.

Robert Jadah · **Voice Talent** Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 2627

Nikki:
Having just a few short hours (80 to 90, that is) between recording obligations, I have dedicated a large portion of the last one to hear All Thinks Nikki.
This I happily did out of some guilt for never having individually addressed the kind answers to my posting of lo, these weeks ago, of which you were one. New to this wonderful forum, I simply did not know how.
Anyway, Nikki, your stuff is so sweetly engaging. You're an infinite candy bar. I also think the background piano tinkles are especially suitable to your voice. It enhances the elegance of your tone and delivery.
But since fluff don't put cookies in the jar, I should also grumble that all those little overlaps of your clips are off-putting. I would also campaign to have you step up your pace about 6.73%.
Just a tad. A gentle nudge.
And thanks again for your interest and kindness to your fellow voicers.
To answer your query, I'd love sometime to chat about the wild and wooly world of film acting. The topic hasn't come up here yet. I don't want to barge in with it.
I have, and plan to continue, silly commentary in my blog at my home web site.
Voice On, Nikki.
Robert Jadah

Nikki Saco · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 465

Robert, I agree I need to up the tempo. As I've gone back to these demos, I've noticed they felt draggy. No problem fixing that. The crossfades are a personal preference and seem less jarring to me, but I can probably drop that from the segues or at least avoid doing it over dialog and just cross on a music bar. I'll have to let that marinate a bit.

Thank you for your insights.