Dispatch Challenge Voice Over

[hummingbird]

So I was very interested to see this listing...VOCALIST NEEDED (male or female) by an Independent Publisher/Production Company who has secured a Major Broadcast media client and is now needing to quickly add to their team of voice over talent and session vocalists for a preliminary radio "blitz", along with ongoing talent for future sessions. They are looking for someone who has a home studio setup and can record a clean, professional sounding audio file on quick demand. Please submit 2-3 samples of your work. It's recommended that you submit a variety of vocal approaches, to show the scope of your abilities. Rate of pay will be according to standard scale. Please submit 2-3 segments (not longer than 3 min.), include a bio that indicates the type of home studio gear you work with and any previous Ad/Film/TV/Vox session work you have done. Deadline 4pm Sep 11/08 NOTE - if the links don't work, just go to my Taxi page and look for "Voice Reel", "O Canada" and "Gravity" http://www.taxi.com/vikkiflawithI put together this Voice Reel today:http://www.taximusic.com/song.php?song_ ... am=trueand included two songs:O Canada (a capella)http://www.taximusic.com/song.php?song_ ... rueGravity (vocals over bedtrack (co-write with Chuck))http://www.taximusic.com/song.php?song_ ... am=trueand included a bio, which is the main one on my taxi page:http://www.taxi.com/vikkiflawithfeedback welcome....

[deantaylor]

Hi Vikki,I tried to listen. Link came up as a ........mp3.m3u file. Small, only 78 bytes. Hit 'open' .. media player came up, but then ... nothing. Happens more and more to me with taxi song links. Don't know why.Dean

[billg]

Hi Vikki, I only listened to your VO reel. Your voice could be great for a lot of things BUT I'm going to assume that Taxi is going to get a lot of stuff from pros who produce VOs so you need to beef up the production aspect. A good "bed" track or vo souldn't have a lot of dynamic range so the first thing to do is to throw a compressor on the voice, take out as much of the range as you can without causing it to distort or pump. Then you want to use a stereo sidechain compressor (Tracktion has one of these that's pretty good). What you want to do is called "ducking", it might be easier to google & get some tips but basically the music bed will "duck" under the vo & then "duck" over it where there is silence in the vo. You can do this manually also just by riding the gain on the music. Most of the time there should be a bit of music before the vo comes in and after it has ended. The music will start UP and then duck under the vo & come up again at the end. If you do this and then compress the entire stereo track again with a stereo compressor & then bring the gain up so your as close as you can get to 0db you'l have a track with a lot more energy. All of this takes a bit of messing around with but you'll get a feel for when it sounds right. I hope this is helpful and not confusing-

[aimusic]

Yeah ducking is what happens on the radio when the announcer talks over the track - ducking is also really good to use in dance music, get that bass guitar to move outta the way for the kick drum!!!I also heard some hiss in the tracks? and a little ringing? might be my ears.

[maceman]

Sept 12, 2008, 1:59am, deantaylor wrote:Hi Vikki,I tried to listen. Link came up as a ........mp3.m3u file. Small, only 78 bytes. Hit 'open' .. media player came up, but then ... nothing. Happens more and more to me with taxi song links. Don't know why.DeanThat is me as well.. What's up with that? I can't hear anyone's taxi links and it is frustrating!!!

[teashea]

You do have a compelling voice.Tom

[jay10music]

DITTO.....JAY

[suzdoyle]

Hi Vicki;Thanks for posting your VO demo and your songs. I think your sparkly personality shines through the Voiceover, although I think it could be more effective if there is a continuity between the 3 different parts of it (e.g. an ironic "story line" that happens when you switch from one to another). Accenting it with intro/ outro/ segue music with underscoring beneath the voice would also be effective.Here's a link to the web site of a friend of mine who does national voiceover work. She spent months putting together her new demos, and I think is a good example of how to present onerself:http://www.kitziestern.comRe: the songs. I LOVED Oh Canada -- the a capella version was powerful and moving, and really showed off your voice. The last two notes felt less flowy than the rest, somehow -- there was an awkward pause or something. Other than that, GORGEOUS!Nice work!SuzP.S. I enjoyed reading your bio, too. I play with a musical theatre improv troupe on occasion, and LOVE live songwriting on the spot!!

[hummingbird]

Thank you all very much for your feedback and helpful comments on how to improve this. I just got the return back for all 3 tracks. However, I note this listing has also been included in the regular listings so I can rework and resubmit if I like.