Voice Over Experts

How often do you consider the health and maintenance of your voice? As a professional voice artist, you rely on your voice for your livelihood, so doesn't it make sense to take good long term care of what pays the bills? You may also be unwittingly damaging your voice with bad lifestyle habits and by using your voice incorrectly. In this podcast, veteran VO Pro and Coach Tommy Griffiths, creator of the "5-Minute Voice Workout" chats with a renowned Speech and Voice Pathologist about how you should care for your voice, and how you might be unknowingly damaging your vocal cords. Download Podcast Episode 175 »

Do you have a regional American accent? Sharon Feingold, the founder of Babel Consultants, discusses an emerging trend in communications called accent reduction. Accent reduction may also be referred to as accent modification, accent neutralization and so on. In the US, the goal of accent reduction is to adopt the Standard American Accent. This accent is most frequently heard on NPR and other national-level media outlets. Sharon touches on the International Phonetic Alphabet and how it factors into accent reduction for the Standard American Accent, provides real life examples of accent reduction and explains how being able to modify your accent opens more doors of opportunity for voice-over work in different markets. Download Podcast Episode 174 »

How can you stand out amongst other people with your specific style of voice? Kabir Singh invites you to dig a little deeper, to think of your voice as a tool...but what does that really mean? According to Kabir, your voice is directly in between your thoughts in your mind and your heart, which holds your feelings. Your voice truly starts inside of you, connecting your logic and your emotions. Download Podcast Episode 173 »

Agents are people, too! In this episode, Toronto-based talent agent Roger King discusses the relationship between voice artists and their talent agents. The agent/talent relationship is a strange dynamic as the agent works for the talent yet the talent is the one who is interviewed. Looking for representation? Agents are always keeping their eyes and ears open for new talent who present themselves to be authentic. Listen to Roger's podcast to better understand how to approach an agent. Download Podcast Episode 172 »

With so many different factors at play, it's crucial that voice artists focus on what they can control in order to make the most of every single audition opportunity. Voice over artist, Bev Standing is successful because she is selective with the auditions she sends. That said, Bev also believes that the number of auditions you submit directly correlates to how successful you will be. In this episode of Voice Over Experts, Bev shares strategies for how to maximize your opportunities while still taking care to only present yourself for the jobs best suited to your voice, technical skill and studio capabilities. Download Podcast Episode 171 »

How are you using gesture, imitation and sound effects to create believable characters and performances? Sunday Muse shares how being mindful of physical gestures and attributes can affect your read and how it comes across. Borrowing the essence of someone's voice or physical attributes can also serve as a point of reference to build a character upon. Allow your character to build gradually. Sunday finishes her lesson with sound effects that your character makes, whether a sigh, a push or a laugh. These three considerations provide an excellent foundation for developing characters with personality, depth and believability. Download Podcast Episode 170 »

Are you booking as much as you could be? Jerry Buckner encourages you to hone your acting skills, explore your voice and work on a natural delivery that has some feeling in it. Highlights include practical examples from his own voice-over demos and a trio of trending voice-over reads he's been tracking of late. Lastly, you'll hear Jerry's perspective on how to reply to clients when writing your proposal and his thoughts on setting fair rates for a job. Ultimately you are competing with yourself. Learn what you do best and then get better at it. Experiment with your voices and delivery and charge a fair rate. Download Podcast Episode 169 »

Has auditioning from a home studio saved your voice-over career? Voice artist Lisa Brandt shares tips that will help you to send in great submissions when auditioning using online casting sites. From your microphone to client relations, to deciding which auditions to put your voice out there for, make the best impression possible by following Lisa's tested and true tips. Download Podcast Episode 168 »

Have you spent more time in front of the camera than behind the mic? Becky Shrimpton shares her tips, both on an intellectual and practical level, for how you can make the shift from on-camera work to voice-over work. Even if you see voice acting as just a way to supplement your on-camera work, you'll be surprised by just how much experience in this area can inform and improve your performance on set. Download Podcast Episode 167 »

Are your audition MP3s rich and robust? Tom Knight shares that taking a little extra time tweaking your audio before submitting your audition can make a big difference. With so many things out of your control, why not make the audio as good as it can possibly sound? Tom shares 3 quick tips that you can apply during post-production to create a better sound, thereby a better audition. Download Podcast Episode 166 »

Did you know that you can grow your market potential by altering your voice accent? Toby Ricketts, a British-born voice-over talent who moved to New Zealand at age 14, managed to re-wire his brain in two weeks to adopt the Kiwi accent. In this podcast, Toby gives you a formula for how to tackle an accent and demonstrates the differences between accents such as New Zealand, Australian and British. Mastering an accent is vital before you go auditioning for projects requiring it, and according to Toby, the key skill to mastering an accent is listening. Start by listening to this episode of Voice Over Experts! Download Podcast Episode 165 »

Improv is part of a word that represents a skill that oftentimes makes actors uneasy. Whether you're on stage or in front of a microphone, it's all about letting your brain do its thing; letting it play and work for you. Jay Preston discusses improv as it applies to voice-over. He shares how exploring the text, emotions and more helps you to own the copy. Making changes using your voice while preserving the integrity of the script is what great improvisation is all about. Download Podcast Episode 164 »

What can you do to improve your odds of booking work at Voices.com? William Dougan shares 10 tips from his own experience covering a wide array of topics such as recording equipment, profile completion, auditioning and how to treat your clients. Knowing your strengths and auditioning accordingly will help you to give prospective customers your very best in an audition. Hear about all this and more on Voice Over Experts. Download Podcast Episode 163 »

Are you looking for ways to become more valuable to your clients? Jamie Hill shares a number of tips and observations that can help make your offerings as a professional voice talent superior to other service providers. Be attentive, be courteous and be relatable! If you're trying to go from part-time voice acting to a full-time career as a voice over artist, Jamie shares what steps to take and encourages you to go for it. Download Podcast Episode 162 »

What happens when you have way too much "radio" in your sound? You have to get back to the basics! If you came from broadcast, this podcast is for you. Professional voice over talent and veteran radio broadcaster, Mike Vincent, shares his formula for success as a voice artist using the QUINN method. Download Podcast Episode 161 »