VAM 114 | The Computer Skills and Audio Knowledge You Need to Be a Voice Actor, Part 1

Welcome to episode 114 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

In the next few episodes I want to discuss the technical skills you need in order to succeed as a voice actor. It wasn’t so long ago that voice actors did not need to concern themselves with the technical aspects of recording and manipulating audio. Up until the late 20th Century, most professional recording equipment was far too expensive for individuals to own. The majority of voice actors didn’t have their own home studios, nor were they expected to have the expertise to run sophisticated recording equipment, so most of that was handled by studio engineers. In the 21st Century, that’s all changed. With the advent of the internet, digital audio, and more inexpensive home recording equipment, every voice actor is now expected to be able to record themselves at home on a professional level and to be able to manipulate and distribute audio files online to casting directors and clients.

This means that if you want to be professionally competitive as a voice actor, you need to master some technical skills in two important areas: Computers and Audio Recording. I’m going to spend this episode outlining what you must know about Computers in order to thrive in the world of voice over. In the next episode, I’m going to discuss the ins and outs of Audio Recording and what mistakes to avoid when trying to record professional level audio.

I realize that some of you may be nervous about learning technical skills. You may find computers and professional recording equipment confusing or intimidating. Fortunately, it has never been easier to learn how to use this technology to help advance your career. In addition to this podcast, there are classes online, instructional videos on YouTube and entire online communities of people working to learn the same skills you are striving to master. So don’t despair! Instead, I encourage you to imagine the satisfaction you will get from mastering these technical skills and the confidence you’ll gain from knowing you can handle all the technical aspects necessary to further your voice acting career. Such knowledge is cumulative: once you learn the basics, it’ll get easier for you to understand any new developments in the worlds of computers and audio recording. So I hope you’re as excited to learn these skills as I am to share them with you!

As always, you can check out the Toolbox section of this website for my recording software and hardware recommendations.

I also reference some Macintosh utility software in the episode.
For bootable backups, I recommend SuperDuper.
For maintaining a health disk directory, I recommend Disk Warrior.

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #114 Here (MP3)

VAMFR 009 | Marketing and Self-Promotion for Voice Actors, Part 1

Welcome to episode 9 of the Voice Acting Mastery: Field Report podcast!

In this episode our correspondent, DanWill McCann, shares with us the first part of his special report on how to market and promote yourself as a voice actor!

Chances are that if you’re listening to this podcast, voice acting is as much a passion for you as it is for DanWill. His goal, as I’m sure yours is too, is to turn that passion into a satisfying and lucrative career. So far, DanWill has learned that it’s important to approach voice acting like one would approach building any business. If you want your business to grow, you need to learn how to market and promote your product. In voice acting, the product you have to offer is you! Once DanWill understood that, he quickly realized how important marketing was going to be. It became one of his top subjects to focus on, behind improving his acting abilities and mastering microphone technique.

To research this topic more thoroughly, DanWill decided to head out to WonderCon, a convention presented by the same company that produces the famous San Diego Comic-Con. WonderCon takes place every year in March, so armed with his trusty recorder, he ventured forth to learn how professional voice actors approach marketing and self-promotion.

Every major pop culture convention has an area where you can get autographs from guests of the event. The Autograph area is usually populated with talented visual artists, on-camera celebrities, and some amazing voice actors. These performers are there to autograph items, sell merchandise, and interact with fans. If they have time and are approached politely, they’re often willing to talk shop about the industry. This year, WonderCon had several famous voice actors attending the event, and many of them were kind enough to take a moment to talk with DanWill about how they approach Marketing and Self-Promotion. These performers were well established in the industry and each of them had recognizable and beloved characters on their resume. They were grateful that their work was appreciated and were happy to share their experience and insight to help aspiring voice actors just like you and DanWill learn to market themselves better.

DanWill collected tips and advice from 5 actors. He spoke with Lex Lang, known for voices on Lego Star Wars, Skylanders, and Rurouni Kenshin, which happens to be one of DanWill’s personal favorites. DanWill also spoke with Lex’s wife, Sandy Fox, who has voiced characters for Disney and Universal, including the iconic Betty Boop whom she has been performing since 1991. DanWill sat down with Dino Andrade, who voiced the Gnome Death Knight in World of Warcraft and the Scarecrow in Batman: Arkham Asylum. He also chatted with Rikki Simons, who gave voice to the ever popular Gir from Invader Zim. DanWill even had a great talk with David Sobolov, whose voice you may recognize as Drax from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy animated series and as Grodd from the popular TV Series, The Flash. It was very kind of these 5 accomplished voice actors to take the time to share their experience and knowledge with us, and we at Voice Acting Mastery can’t thank them enough. DanWill personally found some gems of advice from each of them and he thinks you will too. With their help, DanWill hopes to shed some light on some of the different methods of approaching marketing and self promotion as well as explore the various tools at our disposal. There’s so much to cover, so let’s dive in!

The VAM Field Report will be released on the 1st Wednesday of every month so stay on the look out for it!

Download VAM Field Report Episode #9 Here (MP3)