upload quality/tech support

Bob North · **Voice Talent** Joined: 19 Jan 2004 Posts: 1

'Noticed the posting regarding upload quality and it piqued my curiosity as to the efficacy of the whole upload process with regard to the "new and improved quality" in place. Two things come to mind: one is that with many discussions about "watermarks" for your demos, why not revert to the lesser quality ( which by the way seemed to be much faster and more reliable) and kill two birds with one stone; the other has to do with those times when there are problems with either upload quality or, just plain uploading. I am sure that there are many talent out there who, once they get rolling on doing a bunch of auditions, find that the site just seems to stall for some reason or other. Either there are navigation speed issues from page to page, or as I mentioned upload issues with varying degrees of frustration. My point is, we need 24/7 live tech support, not an outgoing message stating that someone will call us back. The problem is happening in "the here and now". Being on the internet pretty much commits you to being available 24/7, as a lot of us are trying to be time efficient at various times of the day and night. Don't get me wrong about V123, as I have had good results through the site, but we all know that we are usually judged by that "last experience". Just some thoughts.

Freddie Molina · Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006, 15:13 (GMT) Post subject:

Dear Bob,
We really appreciate your comments. We are aware that all the uploading and playback tools on the Voice123 site are being fine tuned, soon the quality will be upgraded to 96kbps to meet the market requirements and a better uploading speed will be available. All of these changes will give you the option to upload at 32, 64 or 96 kbps, allowing clients and talents to upload and play at different resolutions.

We totally understand your concern regarding the Watermarks issue, unfortunately the technology is moving quite fast and we need to keep up with the industry and market requirements, to protect the recordings is something we need to do due to the environment we work on, so watermarks are strongly recommended.

Regarding your suggestion about the service hours on Voice123, we’ll gladly forward this on to the appropriate department. They have been really good at expanding the hours in the past and we do not doubt that in the future we can expect a 24/7 type of service.

Erik Sheppard · **Voice Talent** Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1317

If a client is going to be able to download a 96 kbps mp3 file while going through the auditions, what is to stop them from just taking it? Obviously a talent would create a better sounding final product than just their audition but I would guess that some clients would settle and feel that they got a free voice-over. I always make sure to watermark or omit parts of the script that would be crucial to the client, or even just uncheck the "allow client to download" box but I wonder if everyone else does. In the mad rush to respond to a lead before 80 other talents do, it is time consuming to start multitrack editing to put in a watermark track. Plus, if the client does not understand why it is needed in the first place they might be turned off, especially if not every talent is doing it. Perhaps in the future this can be done automatically? Or maybe the simplest solution is to not allow clients to download auditions? I understand that this is a convenience for them but I wonder how many jobs have been given away for free because of the audition process.

Freddie Molina · Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006, 16:25 (GMT) Post subject:

Dear Erick,
It is understandable to worry about this, we understand that this situation can be a bit tricky; what I could personally recommend is to keep a watermark track that you can easily add to any recording, it only takes a few seconds and (probably the most important) never record a full script for an audition, just a paragraph or a few lines should be enough.

The upgrade on the quality is related to offering a more professional exposure to talents, industry standards and a lot of changes that we’ll soon see on Voice123. Remember the clients will only be able to playback or download at the same quality that was used by the talent to upload and you’ll be able to use different resolutions depending on the demo requirements.

Alex Torrenegra · Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006, 11:38 (GMT) Post subject:

Thank you Eric! Thank you Freddie.

We will investigate at the Voice123 Product Development Team if and how we could automatically add watermarks to all auditions uploaded. That way you won't have to worry about them. Thanks again for the idea!

Michael G Stanton · **Voice Talent** Joined: 08 Sep 2005 Posts: 30

Hey guys...
Great site. Thank you.
I've gotta be honest. I've been in radio/VO's for over 15 years and I don't know what a watermark on audio is....and how to do it.
Yep, I'm feeling stupid.
Your help is appreciated.
MichaelG

Freddie Molina · Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006, 13:30 (GMT) Post subject: Re: Watermark

Richard Wilkinson · **Voice Talent** Joined: 14 Aug 2006 Posts: 6

Watermarks are very siimple. I use Pro Tools and have recorded a 60 or 70 hz tone about one second long. The low frequency make it less annoying but makes the recording useless except for and audition. You only need one. I Place it on a mono track in my Voice123 file and simply turn the track on when I mix down. If you need more than one, duplicate it and place them where you want. I place 3 in a :60 audition. Adjust the track volume to where it does not cover the voice.
P.S. Never had a problem with an upload. Somebody is doing something wrong somewhere.