Join Voice Over Expert Debbie Munro as she invites you into a lesson from Voice One's Elaine Clark, author of "There's Money Where Your Mouth Is". Even coaches need to be coached! Listen in on Deb's lesson with Elaine and get some ideas of your own on how to interpret copy and use your body to better convey the text. Commercial and character reads are featured in this podcast.

Download Podcast Episode 90 »

Tags:

Debbie Munro, Elaine Clark, There's Money Where Your Mouth Is, Book, Voice One, Education, Voice Acting, Voice Acting Classes, Voice Acting for Film, Studying, Learning

Links from today's show:

Voice One
Elaine Clark
Debbie Munro
Debbie Munro's Voices.com Website

Your Instructors this week:

Voice Over Expert Debbie Munro

By employing over a dozen years wisdom in voicing and acting, Debbie Munro puts her talents to work to meet the challenging demands of today's fast paced voice market. Tired of not receiving constructive feed back on how to improve her craft, Debbie set out to make a difference for actors by creating, The MIC & ME Workshop Series. Keeping focused on the Global Freelance market, Debbie has combined her extensive Voice Over, Acting and Off Camera training into a series of practical, exciting workshops that will take you to that next step, no matter what your level.

Fueled by experience, talent, and unbridled enthusiasm for doing what she loves to do best - getting behind a microphone and speaking her heart out, Debbie is proud to share her insights, techniques and secrets with you. She works very hard to create courses that shed an honest look into the world of voice acting allowing you to work at your own pace, know if this is the industry for you and how to keep working. Her passion alone will engage you and give you the encouragement you need.

Voice Over Expert Elaine Clark

Elaine Clark began her voice-over career in the early 1980s. She is an award winning actor, director, producer, playwright and the author of the quintessential voice-over book, There's Money Where Your Mouth Is. Her first voice-over job was for Wendy's "guess how many corners to a square hamburger" campaign. Since then Ms. Clark has voiced hundreds of commercials including Clorox, TiVo, Macy's, Chevron, PineSol, PG&E, California Milk Advisory Board, Quaker Chewy Granola Bars, Manwich, Fuller-O'Brien Paint, World Savings, Wheel Works, Amazon.com, Round Table Pizza, Tap Plastics, Party America, and promos for ABC. A few of her narration clients include Microsoft, Genentech, Oracle, WalMart, North Face, Kaiser Permanente, Better Homes Realty, NIC, Providian, Fujitsu, and L'Oreal.

The owner/founder of VOICE ONE in San Francisco, Elaine Clark and her staff of professionals train actors in voice-over, on-camera, acting, and improv. Ms. Clark has numerous directing and casting credits including two anime cartoon series, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Saikano; over 50 video games including Spawn, Aliens, Skies of Arcadia, D2, Mother Goose's Farm, and Dark Wizard; and hundreds of toys. She is featured in the DVD Hello Anime!

Ms. Clark travels the world teaching and directing voice-over, acting, and communication. Recently, she was dubbed the Communication Guru of India.

Did you enjoy Debbie and Elaine's episode? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

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Join voice over expert Debbie Munro in her lecture "Voice Acting Education Matters". The more you invest in your voice over education, the more you work. Deb shares her personal experiences and encourages you to take as many courses as you can to stay current and learn how to mean every word that you say.

Download Podcast Episode 33 »

Tags:

Debbie Munro, Deb Munro, DebsVoice.com, Education, Voice Acting, Voice Acting Classes, Voice Acting for Film, Studying, Learning

Transcript of Voice Acting Education Matters

[Opening Music]

Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voiceover Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voiceover marketplace. Voiceover Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voiceover. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voiceover talent. It's never been easier to learn, perform, and succeed from the privacy of your own home and your own pace. This is truly an education you won't find anywhere else.

This week Voices.com is pleased to present Debbie Munro.

Debbie Munro: Education, now that something I had to learn about the hard in some ways. In the beginning when I started my career, I thought I was a natural and in fact in theater I was. Every single play I audition I got the role, so I just assume I'm a naturally gifted actress and I'm going to get everything I ever apply for and then I grew up and learn that there was other revenue.

My career started in broadcasting and theater, and in broadcasting it was a little different. I took some education to learn who to be a broadcaster but I didn't understand was as trained as a broadcaster you tend to read everything in a sing song fashion, sound something like this, "Today on the next episode of blah-blah-blah, we've got this and this and this" so we're almost thought to read cheesy if you will but they have the same rhythm.

Some on-air personalities are breaking that habit and they're sounding a lot more conversational which is fantastic for all us but there's still those odd few left that, they don't think they need an education. First of all they have a full time job, why would they need anything more. I go so far to say, "In the world of freelance voicing it's worth getting educated for". I was grateful for the education I receive and let me tell you about for a minute. I started of in broadcasting as I said, making a really long story short ended up landing a role in animation. I really thought it was natural gifted actress and I got the lead role in this first animation audition I'd ever done. I haven't even thought about animation at point of myself but definitely watch stood enough.

In the beginning I landed tons of different roles with that animation series, when you work what's so called, Prelay in Canada. When you work a prelay animation in Canada where you voice first and they animate after you, you end up doing a lot more roles because it's cheaper for them to have you to do more roles. My understanding is that in the state, you're mandatory in an animation to do two roles. I think that's a little different in Canada. I was getting role after role after role and it was fantastic for the first six months and this is one year contract. All the sudden six months later I'm getting nothing, no roles and they're starting to bring in people and I'm an actor. Unfortunately, we're very insecure people and if anyone tells you different, I don't know, think about that for a minute.

Someone one said actor is the most insecure people I know and I fought that to have announced said "Hey, I'm a really confident person. What do you mean I'm insecure? And they said, "It's the only job in the world where you need constant reassurance of how good or bad of a job you do" and that's the true. So, as an insecure actor, I question the casting agents and said, "What am I doing wrong like what I can do to fix this situation?" "Oh, you're doing nothing wrong, nothing at all", that's kind the why I started teaching. I learn through some education what I was doing wrong.

Now, what I had to start from me was to actually realize I needed some education. Again I thought it was a naturally gifted actress and I was going to get everything but the animation meant a great deal telling me in I wanted to do what I ever I could to do it right. The animation that I work for they offered a workshop and I took three of the workshops and they were very successful and I learn quite a lot but I still didn't know I was reading everything in a sing song manner. The very first animation I did was a role for Benjamin Blümchen which is a big series in German or in Germany which has gone now to a European audience. Now, Karla Karumba was my role and she was the roving news reporter, everything is simply sensational, "Hello, this is Karla Karumba reporting live with live breaking news". So, everything was okay to read in a sing song fashion but even when I voice kanga, the kangaroo, ("ay-ah-ay-ah") first kangaroo in the world who oinks like a pig but I voice kanga I two voiced in sing song fashions.

Again, still didn't know this information then I meet a colleague of mine and she convince me to take a film acting course. Now, when I took that film acting course it change my entire world and I didn't even know it because I started getting addicted to workshops or addicted to education if you will and I certainly couldn't afford the courses but let me tell you, if you want something bad enough. You'll find away to make it happen, that's the bottom line. I mean how much do you spend on coffee everyday? How much do you spend on cigarette? God help you.

There's always an option to be able to provide yourself of what you need, it's just a matter of how bad you really want it. Sure there's a lot of really expensive courses out there and we can't afford to take them all but the more I invest the more I am worth and so that in turn gives me higher paychecks. So, I take the film courses and I started taking more film courses and then I start taking some voiceover courses and in Canada there was a lot of option for voiceover courses this is about six years ago. So, I started looking into the US where I meet my mentors and have really grown immensely in my education process from James Alburger and Penny Abshire with voiceacting.com and Bob Bergen who's the voice of Porky Pig and Tweety and there's so many more, Pat Fraley and there's just a numerous amount. Rodney Saulsberry, Joyce Castellanos. There just so many great instructors out there that really help to guide me in the direction I needed to go.

In fact so much so that I absolute taking in courses, so much that I started teaching them. Now, that I'm teaching them I take a course anytime a course comes my way, if I can I mean time restricts me, not such much budget anymore but now time restricts. I don't have time to take all the course that I'd like to take but the more courses I take not only do I advance as a student or a as talent but I also advance as a teacher to be to teach you. It's very important that I stay up to date on what's current not only as a talent but as an instructor. If I'm going to guide you in that direction I better know my stuff and I'd better care what I'm doing.

So, through the film courses I really recommend film courses and no matter you're doing, I don't care if you're doing narration, animation, websites, message on hold, broadcasting. The film courses will teach you who to internalize because voiceover kind work like this, it's a combination of theater where more is more and you have to go big and bold and physicalize everything and then film were less or more. In film visually you don't want to more around to much which for a people like myself is very difficult but you do want to internalize everything, you want to mean very word you say.

The one great thing that I get for feedback in a lot of podcasts and teaching that I do is that I am genuine, that they really believe me that I care about what I do and I'm so grateful to get that feedback because that is my intention. It's not purposeful, I really do care and I really do feel I'm genuine teacher and I do feel genuine about the information I possess and I'm willing to share and try and help everyone along their way. I find ironic when I meet people that's say, "Hi, I've told all myself that I have a great voice, yes and I like to produce a demo. Can we do that?"

Now many, many year ago that would be actually sensible and you could get way with an amateur demo but now a day it doesn't work that way. You have one chance to make a first impression. Demos in audio are very fuzzy because you can't lie an audio, you can't pretend you are something you're not in the sense of pretending that you understand the read when you don't. Let's say, I record your demo for you and I line read you in other words, I give you the reading and you repeat it back to me and I piece all that together. I can make you sound fantastic, so can many of the instructors and sound engineers and producers that put demos together.

The problem is can you produce that actual read when the client brings you in and says, "I really love take two of this read, can you do that for me? And then it takes you 15 million takes to get it. You're not ready for your demo. Let me tell you when you're ready for your demo, when you don't have to ask the question, "I'm I ready to make a demo?' with the rates, if you have to question what your rates are then you will know - sorry let me put that in a different way, you will know what your worth when the more you invest. The more you invest and the more talent you've get because that's what the investments is, is becoming more talented that's when you know what your worth. You get to a point in your like where you just go, "Oh, no sorry I just don't have time to do something like that" and that okay, that's where I'm finally at and I start evaluating myself in a different way.

Okay, let's go back to the education, a film versus theater. Voiceover is that happy medium of the two because you do need to physicalize in voiceover, I constantly, constantly talk with my hands whether in class, whether on the microphone, I'm always talking with my hands and you may not realize it but you probably do it in everyday conversation, the challenge is you probably stand hold, be stiff on the microphone. The more you physicalize, the character and moments that you're trying to get across will follow. So, you're trying to be frustrated physicalize it with your face and everything else.

Education is going to teach how to combine film, theater and broadcasting because we're still in need for yesterday Johnny radio, so you want to have a little bit of knowledge of everything. It's hard to sacrifice your dollar value into something you don't every know about but If you don't try that at least once, how are you ever going to know if that's something you want to pursue. Very long time ago you could it without any education, you could make without the demo even really or an amateur demo at home but that's not the case anymore. I'm going to repeat myself probably a few times here, the more you education the more you are worth. Think about that for a second.

The more I put in to my business the more I should be charging because the more it costs me and the more time I put in someone should pay for that in the end, it's not just me. As actors we're in the position where we have to pay a lot owe, we have to invest so much into our craft more than a lot of other businesses but lets think about that for a second. If I always star a business today, let's say I have an invention I know that - let's just go with around about guest, okay? I know that about $50,000 will initiate my business that will give me a 10 play to go by and maybe start some marketing. So, $50,000 investment is worth it, isn't it? If you feel you have a great idea.

So, with voiceover specifically, if I'm spending $350 a year in a workshop, $800 a year in a workshop, 800,500, $2000 for the demo etcetera, etcetera. We'll, then I can start learning how to charge more so I can start paying that initiation back but I'm investing that kind of money that's my business, the difference is with the student loan, let's compare it to a lawyer or a doctor. You would have, well maybe you wouldn't want to but you would no problem going to a university especially high-end university, paying tens of thousands of dollars to educate yourself to become this lawyer or doctor. Would you want to have a doctor who had now education? Would you want to have a doctor or a brain surgeon cut your head open within knowing exactly what he's doing? No. Voiceover isn't brain surgery but it's still a profession. It's a professional industry and a professional industry means you need to be a professional. The only way to be an expert in anything is to educate. You've got to find how to do it. Quit fighting the system there's nothing to fight. It's great to educate in fact workshop specially are the funniest setting ever. It's a ton of people like your personality in one room acting like kids, I'm sorry but I think that's an excellent time and worth every amount of my dollar.

In fact every the course that I took at once it's so great. Let's say, there's a still a value to my educational system and a value to the style that I had developed, I've taken a little bit from there a little bit there and little bit there and a little from here and I've created my own style making me the only unique me. I teach but I don't tell you to educate because I want you to just take my classes, I would encourage you always to take a numerous amount of classes not just mine. You need a little bit from everyone, I tell you about education because it's important. You need to know what you're doing and know how to do it right and more willing to start that map out for you. You've done the trial and error, we've through at all and we want to help guide you in that right direction.

There is a lot of us out there who really care how you go and what way you go and how you get there and we want to help you every step of the way. Trust in us. We will set you in all the right directions. I know there a fabulous list of instructors on Harlan Hogan site as Stephanie is pointed out with Voices.com. James Alburger at voiceacting.com also has a great list of instructors and coaches but please feel free e-mail me or contact me to ask me about coached in your area. We're more than happy to promote each other, most of are. So, give us a ring, I mean I cover a lot of the Canadian area and I'm working my way in a few other areas speaking in the U.S and things, I of course happy to come to your city but someone need to bring you there.

So, do yourself a favor and take education, find a way to invest in you. The more invest the more you are worth. How much are you willing to invest in your? Are you going to be stubborn and pretend you don't need it? What makes you any better than anyone else? Find a way to find value in education. Keep doing it, don't ever stop taking classes. You don't have to take them every weekend. You don't' have to spend every dime you make but if you made a little profit this year invest it back in, it will all pay off. It will all pay off. You just have to keep at it and as you all know probably by now persistence. We don't get into this industry for money and if you think you're in this industry for money, well that's a hard road follow. It takes years, years of training and investment to get to a good stature of good financial return but in the beginning you'll get, you just have to keep persistent. Keep going at it and don't give up.

I hope you'll entrust in us to guide you in the right direction because we don't have to, we don't need to teach the competition as my teacher fear, I don't fear that because there's a right voice for every single job and voiceover is the most wonderful of all the industries in the art industries as far as I'm concerned. There's a lot of opportunity out there because of sites like Voices.com, we're in a position were there's a lot of work therefore the ego's and the bitterness isn't there as much as it can be when there's a lot less work to fight for.

Don't worry about competition guys. It's the right voice for the job. Worry about educating yourself, finding the right way to get yourself ready to that you can start the demo. Don't with the demo first please. If you talk to any really high-end instructor, they'll tell you all the same things. Okay, that's me for now. Thank you so much for taking time to listen to me. If you have any questions please e-mail me info@debsvoice.com or you can check out my website at anytime, www.debsvoice.com. Thanks Voices.com. Take care.

Julie-Ann Dean: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast visit the voiceover expects show notes at Podcasts.Voices.com/VoiceoverExpects. Remember to stay subscribed.

If you're a first time listener, you can subscribe for free to this podcast in the Apple iTunes Podcast Directory or by visiting Podcasts.Voices.com. To start your voiceover career online go to Voices.com and register for a voice talent membership today.

[Closing Music]

Links from today's show:

Debbie Munro
Debbie Munro's Voices.com Website

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert Debbie Munro

By employing over a dozen years wisdom in voicing and acting, Debbie Munro puts her talents to work to meet the challenging demands of today's fast paced voice market. Tired of not receiving constructive feed back on how to improve her craft, Debbie set out to make a difference for actors by creating, The MIC & ME Workshop Series. Keeping focused on the Global Freelance market, Debbie has combined her extensive Voice Over, Acting and Off Camera training into a series of practical, exciting workshops that will take you to that next step, no matter what your level.

Fueled by experience, talent, and unbridled enthusiasm for doing what she loves to do best - getting behind a microphone and speaking her heart out, Debbie is proud to share her insights, techniques and secrets with you. She works very hard to create courses that shed an honest look into the world of voice acting allowing you to work at your own pace, know if this is the industry for you and how to keep working. Her passion alone will engage you and give you the encouragement you need.

Enjoyed Debbie's episode? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

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Join voice over expert Debbie Munro as she consults you on how to build a cost-effective home recording studio. Short on space? No problem! Learn how you can convert home offices, even a nook and cranny of a bedroom closet, into a professional-grade home recording studio.

Download Podcast Episode 21 »

Tags:

Debbie Munro, Deb Munro, DebsVoice.com, Recording Studio, Home Recording, Audio Recording, Home Recording Studio, How To Build a Home Studio, MP3

Transcript of How To Build a Cost-Effective Home Recording Studio

[Opening Music]

Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voiceover Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voiceover marketplace. Voiceover Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voiceover. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voiceover talent. It's never been easier to learn, perform, and succeed from the privacy of your own home and your own pace. This is truly an education you won't find anywhere else.

This week Voices.com is pleased to present Debbie Munro.

Debbie Munro: So you're short on space and need a studio. I know the feeling. I've actually moved away from my custom-made studio and had to rent for a short time so now I have the ins on how to make a studio set-up for yourself in small confined spaces.

I do understand now that there's a lot to it when you're trying to build a studio in a small space and I think I've come up with some solutions that are very cost-effective. I'm going to give you the ins and outs on a lot of home studio building but at the same time, I want to gear you towards the most economical way for you. You decide what works for you.

Ideally, there's a wonderful, wonderful, portable studio there called the Voice Box. I believe through Harlan Hogan but I'm not - don't call me on that now. The Voice Box is actually a portable compact studio that folds up to its own carrying case. Ideally, I would love to have this. I would love to take on the road with me when I'm voicing instead of suing the hotel curtains and everything else that I have to use. The cost isn't exactly cheap but definitely well worth it. I think it's over $1295 US so there's a bit of an expense there but if you have the money, that's what I do ideally first.

It folds up. You can use it wherever you want to go. In that way, you have a portable studio at all times. Now, that I have moved to a rental situation, I've had to deal with a lot of noise issues. Not just noisy outside but there's also - if you're in an apartment setting or a condo setting, you have to consider that you have to listen for the sounds around you. For example, the neighbors flushing the toilet or running their washer and dryer, even the refrigerator running or the microwave running can cause interference or noise that is unwanted in your studio.

You can't avoid that but what you can do is try to make a way to barrier your mics so it's not picking up that sound. The beauty about the mics that we use in voiceover is that it's cardioid, meaning it's heart-shaped and in the back of the microphone, it doesn't pick up sound. Does that mean it doesn't take up anything? Well, not really but a good preamp will help your sound be even more clear.

The one thing about these mics however is they do pick up everything. They can hear you burping. They can hear gas bubbles. They can hear whatever is going on. There are times when I'm in my studio in this newer rental location that I'm in where I can hear cars going by. It's amazing but even though I'm hearing it in my ears, it seems that the producers are not hearing it in my takes so I'm pretty lucky that way but I've got a really good preamp and a really good digiboard. So that is kind of helping me out a lot.

Right now, I'm in a closet, believe it or not. It's not the most ideal location because I'm used to a very nice studio but I'm in a rental and I'm not able to build so I've taken a really nice-sized closet and I've added quilting fabric and or moving blankets like furney blankets which are acoustically correct and I surrounded he entire closet with pins and so I've done no damage to anything. However, I'm able to voice the sound that you're hearing right now in the comfort of my studio.

Now, being in a closet isn't the most ideal situation but you know what? It pays the bills and I've been doing it for a fair bit of time now so now moving into a new home will help me where I can renovate my studio my way. But even when I'm looking for places to live, I have to accommodate that house to make sure I can accommodate a studio.

Now I know first-hand about accommodating recording needs. I began by purchasing big PVC pipes. There was a great article written in James Alburger's e-studio book about connecting PVC pipes, those black pipes that you can get at home depot preferably the bigger ones so that you got some support.

Then I bought some industrial type Velcro. I had sewn one side of the Velcro to the quilts or to the furney blankets and the other side pasted on to the post. I made a perfectly rectangular box that I was able to stand in that was a nice amount of room. I had room in my apartment to be able to accommodate this as well. I Velcroed all the pieces together including the roof and the sides and I was able to voice comfortable inside my PVC studio.

So that's a great advantage point for you. You'll need the PVC piping. You want to make it quite large depending on your height but you might want to consider someone else may one day be in your studio voicing as well. We're now producers or mini-producers and so accommodating for future voicing is a good idea because you may have a male or female coming in to voice a spot with you and maybe you can accommodate because it was built too short. So keep these things in mind as you're building your studio.

Now inside the PVC studio, I made a little bit of a Velcro door so that I'm able to get in and out quite freely. It worked very well. I purchased elbows and had to cut a specific hole inside the elbow because it didn't come with enough holes to connect my pipes together to make my box. Now this is a tall box. Mine in particular was seven feet by three and a half feet, I believe in width. So it's quite large so you need to have the space like I say to accommodate it.

Now it was challenging at first trying to get the studio to stay still and to get the quilting fabric on it, et cetera et cetera but when it's worth it, it's worth it and I find it worth it, no question.

Now when I moved into this particular apartment, my first site of renting as a voice artist, I was very luck that it had a big laundry room without any washer or dryer and at that time, I didn't have a washer and dryer so I was able to put my studio inside that closet if you will.

Now, whatever it takes. I mean I'll do whatever I can. I even take a portable studio camping with me. I'll have to send a picture about that one day but me inside my little Saturn sport coupe with my daughter's camping blanket over top, yes I know. What am I thinking? Well, for me, I don't want to turn down a job. My family might hate that but here I am camping, enjoying the weekend. It took me 30 minutes to voice something, send it off and I'm done but of course I had to travel to go send it because there was no internet at the camp site but I was able to sit in my little sports Saturn coupe and a little flashlight, camping blanket, my laptop on the dash, my script in hand, microphone and voicing away. You can make a studio wherever you are. You can make this work. So I don't want to hear the excuses of, "I have no space," because we've got some really great solutions for you.

Now I didn't last very long in that apartment because it just wasn't a great location and I found another place that was really good and roomy but with only two rooms in it and I have a daughter so she has sacrificed pretty much her bedroom for my office and my studio. Imagine a 12-year-old girl with no closet so we've accommodated in other areas and I'm just really lucky she's been very accommodating to me and that she's a voicer herself so she understands.

The lucky thing for me is Brandy loves to be with me so due to the nature of my original move, we've only had one nice bed so her and I share it therefore losing the closet space was a pain but livable especially when the little room pays the bills so yes, two high-fashioned girls with only one closet and a makeshift closet that is now a studio. Tough times, tight quarters but again, it's all worth it for the outcome. Okay, so the studio worked really well for me but for my coaching and directing, not as much. I certainly didn't want to put people in a closet. I have but I certainly didn't want to. However I'm able to take the studio out when it's not a demo recording or something like that and do it in my main living area. So that's fine too.

I don't know if you know this but you can even accommodate an extremely large space and make is acoustically correct. The sound takes longer to travel when it's a large space so as long as the floor is quite carpeted or you're not hearing a lot of echoes or a lot of background noise, you could get away with just a few of what's called baffle walls or baffling. The layman's terms of that would be a piece of plywood, let's say or a drywall with some foam over top, some nice acoustic foam and that allows the sound to absorb in it. It also allows you to stop your straight edges in your corners where the sound travels and bounces back.

The ideal thing as James Alburger says is do the clap test. When you clap, are you hearing an echo? If you're hearing an echo, the acoustics aren't good. The idea is you want to voice it and when your voice leaves your mouth, you want it to absorb into the material against the wall so that it doesn't reflect back. Therefore dry wall and paint and metal and things like that are no good because it just bounces right back so if you have a really large space, why not try putting some quilting fabric or some acoustic blankets or moving blankets along the walls and see if that is good enough for sound absorption for you and you may not need a private studio.

But there are things you need to consider. Is your computer making noise? All computers make noise. A lot of major high-end studios will put a casing around the computer system so that you can't hear the fan. In other words, they're soundproofing the computer so that you can be in the same room recording as the computer is. You're going to have to decide that for yourself. Some are louder than others and in fact, the more advanced we get, the louder these fans seem to get because the more fanning it needs.

Now you want to be careful because if you close off the fan, you're computer isn't going to air out and that could cause it to overheat so you obviously don't want something like that. Now keep in mind the key to your studio isn't necessarily soundproofing. It's making it acoustically correct. As I said, that clap test will be a really good key for you to figure out if it's actually acoustically correct or not.

You can learn so much about building studios through two fabulous books that I would personally recommend. If you go to www.Voiceacting.com/products/Munro, look for the e-book to home studios through James Alburger and Penny Abshire. This is an excellent book and it's very economical. It will give you so much of the information that you need as far as acoustics and situations and situations on how to build them and options to studio set-ups and as an addition to this book, The Actor's Guide to Home Recording which is written by the amazing voice talent Harlan Hogan and his amazing engineer Jeffrey Fisher. This book is just jam-packed with not only information around your studio but also about how to record sound so it's a really step by step from beginning to end so the two combined, you're set and you'll know what to do.

But I've got some of my own ideas that I would like to share, something I just discovered. I am a scrapbookaholic so I love scrapbooking and I recently purchased a scrapbook tote box from Costco. Now, it's going to hold all my scrapbook supplies and it's a square box which kind of looks like a crate and it's actually got a pull handle on it like a suitcase and wheels so I can actually take it and transport it around. Now it's fairly nice size, not so much I could actually step into the box but I'm thinking I've got the best voice box. Now, I haven't tested it out yet but I'm positive that this is going to work.

So what I would like to do is take that tote box and instead of putting all the packaging in it that goes in for the pouches and things like that will hold my scrapbook supplies and organize it. I'm not using those at all. I'm going to buy some acoustic - proper acoustic foam because if I'm dealing with that little of a space, the expensive acoustic foam is very much worth it. I'm going to line the entire box other than the opening of course with the acoustic foam. I'm going to put my microphone on a table top mic stand instead of the professional stands that have the arm on it that you can extend which is what I use in my studio but you can use a desktop mic stand.

Most microphones come with a Shock mount as well as another piece that will allow you to hook up to a desktop type of mic stand so in this case, I grab my desktop mic stand. I put it in the far back of the box as far as I can go, the opening facing me. Now I put that up to a table high enough for me to stand up in. I prefer to stand when I voice. Perhaps you don't mind sitting, then have it at a sitting position. That's just fine. Even at your studio desk, I think this could work and you have to be careful again with that computer noise so make sure you're not hearing anything else but I think that this box is going to barricade it quite well.

Many of us are learning about the voice box and different ways to do this so there's a lot of different options but this is just my economical idea. You say you're short on space. That means you need something that you can take off and on and put away. Well, this is perfect. I'm hoping in fact that I can use it as a portable studio, throw all my equipment in it when I'm done and actually travel with it so I'm going to get some inventors to try and invent me a little more to go with it so I can close it off, seal it up and put if off on a plane if I need to.

Now, what you would do is get something tall enough that you can put that box into so that you can stand right in front of the box and voice right into the microphone. Now, it's not going to pick up anything behind the microphone because there's nothing there to pick up. It's the box. You don't want to have the microphone at the edge of the box. You want to have it as far back as you can. I think this will work so give it a try and let me know.

If you need some more information about that, just give me holler or e-mail or something and I'll try and elaborate a little more. As well, read my tip of the month which is in my newsletter at www.Debsvoice.com and please fire me off an e-mail and we'll get you subscribed to that and have a read through all that I've written for the tip of the month because it coincides with what I'm talking about right now.

Now this box was only $24.99. That's Canadian dollars so I'm not sure what it will be for you but that's a pretty cheap studio. Now, I add my acoustic foam, maybe another $30 or $40 and I've got my studio set up. I may in fact put a hole inside the box so that I can wire my XLR plugs through the box therefore not having to go outside of it buy use your own discretion. So this will work for a desk. This will work for a table. You can do whatever you want with that. There are many options out there regarding this voice box idea that people are elaborating on now and so, there's different levels to do this and different expenses.

Personally for me, I'd love to buy that most expensive one and one day, I really will. However, if you're in a tighter budget, I'd rather see you invest in education and make your studio work for you as cheap and cost-efficient as you can so that you can put your money better spend elsewhere.

Now another idea might be to add a door to the opening so where you're going to voice into the opening of the box. Remember those old-fashioned cameras in the olden days when you saw photographers taking a picture and they put a blanket around their head above the camera, why not put another blanket or an acoustic fabric of some sort around the outsides so that you can open it, put it around you. Ideally, I'd love to see you wire something above the box so that the blanket isn't actually touching your head because if you're supporting the blanket with your head, the chances are you're going to be restricted in your movement and we want you to move around while you're voicing because it just gives much better sound.

Now, there is another solution that is also economical which is building your own voice box with maybe some really thin plywood and either some really good acoustic foam which again, I'd invest in at a good acoustic foam or the acoustic blankets or some really good thick quilting fabric. This box in particular would be as big as an average medium-sized kitchen table almost so it's quite large. In fact, what I'd like to see you do is buy an old table from a garage sale or something, cut an arc into it where you can kind of step into it, make the box be built around the table so that you actually have to step inside the box to voice into the microphone then maybe you can have an arm coming down from the roof of the box that allows your microphone to hang upside down the way we usually do with condenser microphones.

So there's lots of different options here and that's a work in progress and it sells so there's many ideas that we can add to that. I hope you know what I mean. You're going to take a table of some sort, cut a little bit of an arc way into it, place the box over top, maybe make it so it has hinges on it so you can fold it up and put it away when you don't need it. We all have a kitchen table. We might not be able to move the kitchen table, we might not be able to cut an arc way into it either but we do have a kitchen table which means we do have space for a studio so you can figure this out. Just use your imagination and try to MacGyver whatever space you are dealt with and don't let that be a reason to not voice.

So this bigger voice box will work very similar to the little voice box. You want to line everything it up, leave the opening and you want to try to step into the box to voice. That's the key really so that you are right beside your microphone and nothing is going to be picked up when you're inside a box like that. I even had another student in Saskatchewan build a box around the microphone. Now you have to be careful. This box has to be not too close to the microphone but close enough that you're barricading the sounds around it. Just make sure not the front of it.

So you can test that kind of thing out but as well, whatever is coming into the mic is what's it's picking out so it's really you that almost needs to be barricaded, not really the microphone as much but you may find that helps you as well. You have to be pretty ingenuitive to be able to do that because in order to make a box actually maintain itself on your microphone or on your microphone stand, yes, you have to be a pretty good handyman for that.

If you get really creative, you can make this and use it to haul your equipments, use it to voice in, doing whatever you can to utilize the fact that you can voice anywhere in the world. I've proven it. I was always camping. Okay, there's so many more options in this but this will be proof that no matter how small your space, as long as you're willing to compromise some of your space, you can record professional sound. There's so much more I could go on with but I don't want to take up much more of your time.

If you have any questions or want to talk to about your space and how we can make that work, feel free to e-mail me at info@debsvoice.com or go to my website, www.Debsvoice.com and we will help you out as much as we can. Thanks so much for listening. Keep voicing. Get that studio going, no more excuses and get educating so we can make you some money.

Until next time everyone, take care.

Julie-Ann Dean: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast, visit the Voiceover Experts show notes at Podcasts.Voices.com/VoiceoverExperts. Remember to stay subscribed.

If you're a first time listener, you can subscribe for free to this podcast in the Apple iTunes Podcast Directory or by visiting Podcasts.Voices.com. To start your voiceover career online, go to Voices.com and register for a voice talent membership today.

[Closing Music]

Links from today's show:

Debbie Munro
Debbie Munro's Voices.com Website
Recording Studio Equipment
Listen to Voice Over Experts on YouTube

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert Debbie Munro

By employing over a dozen years wisdom in voicing and acting, Debbie Munro puts her talents to work to meet the challenging demands of today's fast paced voice market. Tired of not receiving constructive feed back on how to improve her craft, Debbie set out to make a difference for actors by creating, The MIC & ME Workshop Series. Keeping focused on the Global Freelance market, Debbie has combined her extensive Voice Over, Acting and Off Camera training into a series of practical, exciting workshops that will take you to that next step, no matter what your level.

Fueled by experience, talent, and unbridled enthusiasm for doing what she loves to do best - getting behind a microphone and speaking her heart out, Debbie is proud to share her insights, techniques and secrets with you. She works very hard to create courses that shed an honest look into the world of voice acting allowing you to work at your own pace, know if this is the industry for you and how to keep working. Her passion alone will engage you and give you the encouragement you need.

About Chanti Productions

Debbie owns and operates her own studio and production company "Chanti Productions". Debbie has formed several informative and intense workshops to help you excel in the industry of voice.

With over 12 years combined experience, 7 years training in acting and broadcasting and 5 years in animation, Debbie Munro is able to offer a unique perspective into the Voice-Over industry. Debbie is passion plus! She loves what she does and can't wait to share the invaluable information that has been taught to her. Debbie is quickly becoming one of the top voice over instructors in Canada.

By employing over a dozen years wisdom in voicing and acting, Debbie puts her talents to work to meet the challenging demands of today's fast paced voice market. From soft to hard, corporate to down-home comfortable and everything in between, Debbie spices up your production with flawless vocal acrobatics, unforgettable characters, and her specialty... a sultry read that will positively twist your knickers. Debbie Munro does it all.

Working internationally as a full-time voice performer, Debbie is based in the Edmonton area. Some of her credits include the voice of "Mai" in the cartoon DragonBall © (YTV), Signature voice of roving reporter, "Karla Karumba" in the international animation series Benjamin Blumchen ©, Video games for companies like Bioware, broadcast voice for several stations including WBTV 38, KLOS, A-Channel, Shaw, Global and many more. Clients such as the U.S. Coast Guard, Canada Post, Michelin, Subway, Florida Hospitals, Alberta Dairy, Booster Juice and many more. Debbie puts her talents to work to meet the challenging demands of today's fast paced voice market.

Enjoyed Debbie's episode? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

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Join Voice Over Expert Debbie Munro as she explores "Tips and Tricks for Auditioning". Debbie encourages you to use each audition as an opportunity and to have fun while you practice.

Download Podcast Episode 04 »

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Debbie Munro, Deb Munro, DebsVoice.com, Auditions, Tips and Tricks, MP3s, Voices.com.

Links from today's show:

Debbie Munro
Debbie Munro's Voices.com Website
Voice over auditions
Listen to Voice Over Experts on YouTube
Debbie Munro : Tips and Tricks for Auditioning

Transcript of Tips and Tricks for Auditioning

[music intro]

[announcement]

Julie-Ann Dean: [music] Welcome to "Voice Over Experts" brought to you by voices.com, the number one voice over marketplace. Voice Over Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voice over.

Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voice over talent. It has never been easier to learn, perform and succeed in the privacy of your own home and at your own pace. This is truly an education you won't find anywhere else. This week voices.com is pleased to present Debbie Munro.

Debbie Munro: Auditioning. That's a word you need to get used to if you are a voice talent. You better get used to the word because you are going to audition more than you are ever going to work so you need to learn to get good at it. That means there are a few tips and tricks that you can learn to help you get through that stage.

Before we get to the tips and tricks I really want to talk to you about what joining sites like voices.com can do for you when you are auditioning everyday like that. Where else can you get this many auditions every single day and have the opportunity to practice all these different scripts all the time.

You've got narration, message on hold, commercials, talking toys, animations even. There's a lot of opportunity here for you to experiment. So even if you are not getting the jobs, I know it's very discouraging. You need the jobs to pay back all the money that you have invested into this so far.

Hopefully that is something you've really worked hard to do is to invest well in your craft because I'm telling you those of us who are at the professional stages right now, we have worked hard to get where we are.

We've educated ourselves and this is just a perfect opportunity for the most minimal amount of dollars to be able to have your own website, to be able to audition all day long, respond and actually get an opportunity to get some work out of it.

I'm hearing a lot of complaints that you have been auditioning everyday and you are not getting anything. Well there are a couple of things to think of in this case. First of all, competition is getting tougher. That's the bottom line. The more we train, the more the competition will be out there.

But there's still over a million commercials aired everyday. There is always room for more personality voices.

When I first started, it took me six months to land my first job and I was so excited when I did. I wasn't discouraged by all the auditions. In fact, I thought they were excellent for me to practice with and to get better at, and then I finally landed my job which paid for more than my membership and probably into the next year too.

So I was so thrilled when I got that. The harder I worked at my auditions, the more work that came to me. Now I am in a position where I get a lot of auditions that I audition for but I certainly don't get them all.

And you have to remember when you are competing on sites like this you have no idea who you are competing against. You could be competing against professionals that have been doing this for twenty-five years and you can be competing against people who have done it for two days. So you just never know.

Don't let the numbers discourage you of how many people are auditioning and don't keep track of your auditions. Once you performed them, let them go. Don't depend on them. There are great steps to positive thinking, and I do want you to think positively but just know that there are more auditions ahead. Put that one out of your mind. Go onto the next.

Some quick tips and tricks for voice over artists and their auditions. Let's talk first about going to actual studios to audition. Number 1, fears, nerves. The best thing you can do in an audition is walk in with confidence and walk out with confidence.

I learned this best from one of my acting coaches, Tom Logan. He talks about if you hire a painter to paint your house, and he is sitting there painting and he turns around and looks at you and says, [chuckle] "Oops. Can I start over?" How are you feeling about that paint job?

Well that's what we do as performers. We get into that audition room and start apologizing. We start asking to do it over. We make mistakes and instead of just acknowledging them in character and continuing on, we point them out and we draw more attention to them than we need.

You are going to get more nos than you will ever get yeses so get comfortable with them now and quit worrying about how many nos you have. Just keep persevering. If I didn't keep persevering I would never have made it to where I am today.

Another tip for you for the audition room, walk in happy. And when you do your slates, that's when you say your first and last name, please be happy. Show them your personality.

Show them you are excited to be there. That gives you two opportunities to audition two different people. You audition first as yourself then you audition as whatever character is that you are auditioning for.

Now let's talk about auditions at home. What kind of things should you and shouldn't you do. Well first and foremost, try not to do the entire copy if it's an audition, so that way you are protecting your work. They can't steal it.

The other option, of course, is watermark where you hear something like "Debbie Munro, Debbie Munro, Debbie Munro" in the background and then they can't use your work that way either. With sites like voices.com they screen their clients quite carefully. The risks are so minimal. So don't worry about them.

Another thing that I do with the at home auditions is I will give them two or three different reads of their script. I won't do the entire thing obviously for time sake but I will give them three varieties.

Maybe I will give a bit of the full script first and then two different reads on the next clips. It just allows them more opportunity to hear a little more from you but you want to be careful not give them too much either.

If you don't know how to pronounce something when you are auditioning and you can't ask the client, number one and the first and best thing to do is go to www.m-w.com which is Merrium Webster's website, and it will voice back the pronunciation to you in a Midwestern American accent which is what you want to cater to anyway.

If you are in a position you can't ask, just go ahead and do your best and let them know in your cover letter you didn't know how to pronounce their name and you would ask if you had the job, just so that they are aware that you are a professional.

The more you show professionalism in your auditions, the more chances you have of landing the job. How do you learn professionalism? Educate. Get yourself into some classes and find out the dos and don'ts of auditions.

Most importantly do yourself a favor. Have some fun. Don't look at auditions as just work. Look at them as your opportunity to play, just to let go. So get in there and have some fun. Quit getting discouraged. Just keep trying. If I didn't keep trying, I wouldn't be where I am now.

If you want to know more from me, go to my website www.debsvoice.com or email me info@debsvoice.com. Thanks voices.com. Take care.

[music]

Julie-Ann: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this voices.com podcast, visit the Voice Over Experts show notes at podcasts.voices.com/voiceoverexperts. Remember to stay subscribed.

If you are a first time listener, you can subscribe for free to this podcast from the apple iTunes podcast directory or by visiting podcasts.voices.com. To start your voice over career online, go to voices.com and register for a voice talent membership today.

[Closing Music]

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert Debbie Munro

By employing over a dozen years wisdom in voicing and acting, Debbie Munro puts her talents to work to meet the challenging demands of today's fast paced voice market. Tired of not receiving constructive feed back on how to improve her craft, Debbie set out to make a difference for actors by creating, The MIC & ME Workshop Series. Keeping focused on the Global Freelance market, Debbie has combined her extensive Voice Over, Acting and Off Camera training into a series of practical, exciting workshops that will take you to that next step, no matter what your level.

Fueled by experience, talent, and unbridled enthusiasm for doing what she loves to do best - getting behind a microphone and speaking her heart out, Debbie is proud to share her insights, techniques and secrets with you. She works very hard to create courses that shed an honest look into the world of voice acting allowing you to work at your own pace, know if this is the industry for you and how to keep working. Her passion alone will engage you and give you the encouragement you need. Learn more at DebsVoice.com

By employing over a dozen years wisdom in voicing and acting, Debbie puts her talents to work to meet the challenging demands of today's fast paced voice market. Tired of not hearing truthful critiques in various workshops, Debbie ventured to begin teaching the wonderful world of voice. Not only will she impress with unmatched quality and a lightning quick turnaround, she can offer a multitude of reads ranging from the refreshingly direct to the keenly sublime. From soft to hard, corporate to down-home comfortable and everything in between, Debbie spices up your production with flawless vocal acrobatics, unforgettable characters, and her specialty... a sultry read that will positively twist your knickers. Debbie Munro does it all.

With over 12 years combined experience, 7 years training in acting and broadcasting and 5 years in animation, Debbie Munro is able to offer a unique perspective into the Voice-Over industry. Debbie is passion plus! She loves what she does and can't wait to share the invaluable information that has been taught to her. Debbie is quickly becoming one of the top voice over instructors in Canada.

Working internationally as a full-time voice performer, Debbie is based in the Edmonton area. Some of her credits include the voice of "Mai" in the cartoon DragonBall © (YTV), Signature voice of roving reporter, "Karla Karumba" in the international animation series Benjamin Blumchen ©, Video games for companies like Bioware, broadcast voice for several stations including WBTV 38, KLOS, A-Channel, Shaw, Global and many more. Clients such as the U.S. Coast Guard, Canada Post, Michelin, Subway, Florida Hospitals, Alberta Dairy, Booster Juice and many more. Debbie puts her talents to work to meet the challenging demands of today's fast paced voice market.

Debbie owns and operates her own studio and production company "Chanti Productions". Debbie has formed several informative and intense workshops to help you excel in the industry of voice.

Enjoyed Debbie's episode? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

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