Welcome to episode 15 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 this episode, I conclude my very special interview with one of the great talents in the world of voice acting, Jack Angel. What I really love about talking with Jack is hearing his mindset and his philosophy about voice acting. It’s wonderfully inspirational and completely unconventional.

Jack also shares with me his advice for aspiring voice actors. I can honestly say that I never get tired of listening to Jack speak. His insights apply not only to voice acting, but to life in general. I think you’ll find it incredibly useful to listen to his interview over and over again. You’ll hear something new in it every time you do. I certainly do!

If you have any questions, please post your question as a comment to this blog post. Chances are, someone else has a similar question. By posting your question here on the blog, I get to communicate with all of you at once.

Thanks for listening!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #15 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 14 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 this episode, I continue my very special interview with one of the great talents in the world of voice acting, Jack Angel.

As we heard in the last episode, Jack’s journey towards the world of voice over has been very unconventional! He started out wanting to be a cartoonist. When that didn’t pan out, he joined the army where he discovered his love of performing. After returning from the Korean war, he became a radio DJ.

In this episode, Jack shares with us how he made the transition from radio DJ to voice actor in cartoons. It was a sort of homecoming for him. He had always wanted to work on animation, but he thought his contribution would be as an illustrator. Little did he know that he would be giving voice to some of the best loved characters in cartoons!

Jack was actually fired from his job in radio, but that didn’t deter him! After being let go from the radio station, Jack redoubled his efforts and broke in to the world of voice acting for cartoons. What’s even more impressive is the mindset that he developed when facing the challenges that arise when pursuing a voice over career. The attitude he has towards voice acting is one of the most insightful and uplifting I’ve ever heard. I hope you enjoy it!

If you have any questions, please post your question as a comment to this blog post. Chances are, someone else has a similar question. By posting your question here on the blog, I get to communicate with all of you at once.

Thanks for listening!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #14 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 13 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

The holidays are approaching fast! As an end of the year treat, I thought I’d share with you a very special interview I did with one of the great talents in the world of voice acting, Jack Angel.

Jack started his voice acting career back in the 1970’s working on some of the most iconic animated shows of all time. Including

• Superfriends where he played Hawkman, Super Samurai and The Flash
• Voltron where he played the evil King Zarkon
• G.I. Joe where he voiced Wet Suit
• The Original Transformers where he played Ramjet, Astrotrain, Smokescreen and Omega Supreme.

While most voice actors developed their skills by going to acting school and working in the theater, Jack has an incredibly unique and unconventional path into the world of voice acting, from cartooning, to joining the army to becoming a DJ. I think you’ll find his journey incredibly inspiring and enlightening! I hope you enjoy it!

If you have any questions, please post your question as a comment to this blog post. Chances are, someone else has a similar question. By posting your question here on the blog, I get to communicate with all of you at once.

Thanks for listening!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #13 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 12 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 this episode, I continue my explanation of microphone basics. Specifically, I talk about the directionality or “pickup pattern” of a microphone.

As little as 5 or 10 years ago, no voice actor needed to understand any of the details of how or why a microphone worked. However, in order to be competitive in today’s market, every voice actor is expected to have their own home recording studio. That means that you need to be able to produce professional sounding tracks yourself. It’s vital, therefore, to understand some of the basic attributes of microphones and how they function so that you can sound as good as possible.

The directionality or pickup pattern of a microphone refers to how that mic treats sounds coming at it from different directions. Does the microphone capture all sounds equally from all directions, or does it prefer sound from one direction and reject sound from other directions? All microphones break down into two types:

1. Omnidirectional Microphones
2. Unidirectional Microphones

There are many different types of unidirectional mics, but the most common used in voice over uses a cardioid polar pattern. It’s named that because it favors sound from the front, but rejects sound from the rear. This creates a polar pattern graph that looks “pinched off”, almost like an upside-down heart. Another common pattern is the “shotgun” pattern that’s used for recording actors at a distance on TV and movie shoots.

Here are some pictures of the three polar patterns I mention in the podcast:

Omnidirectional Polar Pattern

Cardioid Polar Pattern

Shotgun Polar Pattern

All unidirectional mics, including the cardioid and shotgun patterns, also exhibit a behavior where the closer a vocalist gets to the microphone, the more bass or low frequency sound is recorded. This bass buildup is called Proximity Effect and can be used to create different effects when recording. I discuss all these topics at great length in the podcast. I hope you enjoy it!

If you have any questions, please post your question as a comment to this blog post. Chances are, someone else has a similar question. By posting your question here on the blog, I get to communicate with all of you at once.

Thanks for listening!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #12 Here (MP3)

One of the new business models that the internet has made possible is what is known as the “Pay to Play” voice over casting website. Traditionally, a voice actor would pursue representation with an agent who would submit that actor for projects. If the actor was cast, the agent would take a 10% commission of the actor’s salary as compensation. Agents are not paid ahead of time, they only make money when the actor makes money.

Pay to Play sites work differently. You pay the website a fee to get access to auditions. They give you space on their site to create a profile where you can post your demo and contact information. Then, you get access to auditions from producers who post their projects on the website. I have yet to try any Pay to Play sites so I don’t know what it’s like working with them first hand. My agent keeps me pretty busy so I haven’t explored that avenue yet. I’ve heard from other voice actors who have tried these sites that they can sometimes be a bit of a meat market with hundreds if not thousand of voice actors all competing for the same projects. However, this blog post caught my eye.

It’s a promotional blog post from Voice123, one of the larger Pay to Play sites. The post is called, Voice Overs Never Cease to Amaze Me. The post is designed to promote the ease of hiring their talent to those producers who are interested in using their service.

However, the most interesting part of the post to me is not the video of the final project with voice over, but rather the fact that they posted all the auditions for the project on a separate page for everyone to listen to. Rarely do you get the chance to hear other actor’s auditions for a part. In fact, it’s considered very bad form to allow other actors to hear their competition’s auditions. Since this blog post is aimed at the producer, however, Voices123 thought it would be good to showcase the type of talent that would audition for a project posted on their site.

So take advantage of an opportunity that almost never happens in voice over, listen to the auditions of your competition. Imagine if you were the producer, which talent would you chose? Do you agree with their choice? Why do you think the producer chose the actor he did? How could you audition differently to stick out from your competition? It’s a wonderful window into the voice casting process.