We hope this finds you safe and well in this very challenging time for everyone.

The current situation with increased restrictions has forced us to once again postpone our next Introduction to Voice over workshop, and inspired us to come up with a new format for the workshop that will hopefully allow us to run it in October.

It can be difficult to imagine what things will be like 6 weeks from now so we’ve developed a new way of running a group workshop that is better suited to the ever-changing conditions, while still remaining true to what we believe any voice over workshop should deliver.

It’s likely that even when restrictions do ease, social distancing may be in place for some time. For us to do that, it will mean we can’t pack 10 people into a studio at one time.
Our solution is to break up the workshop into a mix of online and in-studio sessions.

Here’s what the new format looks like for the October Introduction to Voice Over Workshop group.
Online Session Via Zoom (all 10 participants) – September 12 (11am to 1pm)
In-Studio session 1 (5 participants) – October 17 (11am-4pm)
In-Studio session 2 (remaining 5 participants) October 18 (11am- 4pm)
Online 1 on 1 Session (30min Via Zoom or Skype) – At a time that suits each person following the studio session.

Naturally our ability to have even a group of 5 people gathered in a studio is still subject to whatever restrictions are in place, however we feel this is much more likely to happen.

If you’ve already signed up for the cancelled September session or October then you’ll see a separate email around this. If you’d like to know more feel free to email or call any time.

Stay safe – Wear a mask!

If you’re on this website, chances are that you’re either considering or have recently started out in the world of Voice Overs. There are a lot of questions to be answered as you begin, however we feel that the “Business” end of it isn’t anywhere near the top of the list. I’ll explain why in a moment.

Last year we spotted a Voice Over Workshop (Not in Melbourne) which promised to show participants how they could “Build a sustainable voice over business from home”. We had some discussion around this and decided it was a lot like putting the cart before the horse.

Now to be honest, not everyone shares this opinion, as I’ve also seen a few people being quite critical of Voice Over courses / workshops / Coaches who don’t teach the business side of Voice Over. So why don’t we?

You can’t start a business until you know your craft
Learn the skills involved in Voice Over, practise and improve. You can pretty much apply this to most types of work but for example if you wanted to get into Plumbing, there’s also quite a journey of learning and experience you need to gain before you undertake any business activity.

Your goal may not be business driven
There are different reasons for wanting to learn about voice overs and not all of them are about wanting to learn a skill and make money from it. For example we had one person attend our voice over workshop because they often cast voice over artsts and wanted to get a better understandng of what’s involved for the artist. We’ve also had a few people who attened a workshop or a coaching session as it would help with their current job but weren’t looking to take it up as a side gig.
There are also those who just want to do it for fun. Look on YouTube for fan overdubs of Anime – Many of the people are just having fun, nothing serious. Nothing wrong with that.

There are better places to learn about running a business
If / when you want to get really serious about running your own business, that’s also a skill set that can be learned.
Head over to Open.edu.au and you’ll find plenty of short courses in business or look at Opencolleges.edu.au and get a nationally recognised qualification – Certificate IV in New Small Business. LinkedIn Learning is also a great tool for bite sized chunks of knowlege.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Victorian Government has plenty of business resources at https://www.business.vic.gov.au/.

Somebody else can take care of the business side of things
Myself and Cecelia are fortunate enough to have a Voice Over agent. They take care of recommending us to clients, marketing, taking bookings and collecting payments. There are plenty of amazing Voice Over actors out there who have no idea about the ‘business’ of voice over…and that’s ok becuase it’s not their job. Getting on the books of a great agent isn’t easy and for all the reasons above, it may not be your goal.

If you’re ready to focus on learning Voice Over skills and starting out by having some fun, book into an upcoming workshop or 1 on 1 coaching session.

It’s almost time to get back into the studio for our next Introdution to Voice Over Workshop.
We have started taking bookings for our next Introduction to Voice Over weekend workshop on August 8 & 9 and with limited nubmers have just 5 more places available.

If you’d like to know more about the workshop or have any ther questions about what we do, feel free to reach out any time via the contact form, the phone number at the top right of the screen or give the live chat box a go!

Ok, time to geek out a litte with some technical talk. I’ll start out with a reminder that the whole technical side of recording voices overs, that is conversations about what Microphone to buy, how to treat a room for recording and certainly how you’ll go about recording shouldn’t be the start of your voice over journey…but it’s going to be important when you’re ready.

Something that’s been very handy over the past few months of lockdown has been my home studio. I’m fortunate enough to have a dedicated space – in fact a whole standalone room, separate from the main house ,when I can record voice overs and connect in live with studios and clients.

For me it’s been a journey of constant improvement, from painting over bright orange walls to treating those walls with acoutic tiles, adding in other soft furnishings and then the actual recording equipment.

Just a few years ago when i needed to record something in my own studio I had a portable Zoom H4N recorder which i could quickly plug my microphone into for recording. I’d then have to take the Zoom recorder back to my office in the main house, take out the SD card and intert it into my PC to access the recording for editing / sending.

Moving on from the Zoom recorder I bought a USB audio interface which resided in the studio and connected this to my Laptop when i needed to record, using Adobe Audition. The laptop was a Microsoft Surface Pro. It’s compact, light, powerful and quiet so it did the job very well.

More recently as I was using the studio even more for voice over recording I thought it would be great if I could just walk into the studio and everything would be there ready for me to record. No plugging things in and taking equipment in or out…just ready to record when i am.

This is where the tiny Intel NUC PC comes in.

Intel NUC PCs have been around for a while now but they’re not something you’ll generally find sitting in the computer section at Harvey Norman. In a nutshell the NUC PC is a palm sized computer with the power of a full size desktop AND they run very quiet.

How small? 4 inches x 4 inches (that’s about 10.1cm x 10.1cm) so it also takes up a very small space. Actually you can mount the NUC PC on the back of a computer monitor to effectively create an “all in one” PC.

I set up a new NUC mini PC in the studio a few weeks ago and it’s been a game changer for me. Walk in, turn the NUC on and I’m ready to start recording in less than a minute. I save the files directly to my OneDrive cloud storage and then either share this link immediately or access the recording for further production work in my editing space back in the house. Take a look.

So that’s how I’m currently setup for recording in my home studio.

If you’re interested in having a similar setup, the good news is that I have a 2nd NUC Mini PC that I’ve just built which is ready to go..and it’s for sale.

Here’s what’s included:

Intel NUC with 10th Generation Core i3 Processor
8GB RAM
480GB SSD Hard Drive
Windows 10 Home
Ocenaudio software for recording

Cost: $750 inc GST and delivery.

What you need already have or buy:

A Monitor (Can be supplied for approx $150)
Keyboard and Mouse (Can be supplied for approx $50)
USB Audio Interface (Happy to recommend)
Microphone, headphones etc (Happy to recommend)

If you’re interested or would like to know more, drop a line by phone or use the contact form.

This week the Voice Over Coaches decided to catch up for a chat. Afterall, well haven’t been in the same room for a few months so a bit of a catchup conversation was in order.

Listen in as we talk about what Cecelia has been doing with Skype coaching and how 1 on 1 studio sessions have been going with Andy. We also discuss the ultimate question “Is my voice good enough?”

Listen below and enjoy!

Over the past couple of Months we’ve had the opportunity to create voice over demos for a few people after they’ve completed some 1 on 1 coaching or attended a workshop.

In the last blog post we talked about ‘when is the right time’ to get a demo done, but not so much about what’s involved and what the outcome is, so here we go!

For starters it’s helpful if you have either done some coaching or a workshop with us as we’ll be familiar with your voice and your abilities, however if you’ve done coaching or have some experience and have copies of recordings that’s also useful. We use this information to find the right scripts for you to record. Specifically we’ll find scripts that are best suited to your style of voice keeing in mind current casting trends.

All up you can expect to record around 10 scripts with a mix of Radio/TV and corporate narration covering different styles and energy levels so you don’t end up with a bunch of recordings that all sound the same.

Each of those recordings is then produced (editing, adding music/fx, mixing) so you have completed standalone samples and then we take moments from each to create a compilation that starts with you introducing it.

What does that sound like? Here are 3 recent examples of VO demos we’ve done.

Melanie

Ayden

Charlee

The whole process takes about half a day, however the actual recording process with you is 2 hours – the rest is in post production to create the finished demo.

If you feel you’re ready to jump into the voice over booth and create your first voice over demo like Melanie, Ayden and Charlee, feel free to get in touch.

A question we get asked quite a bit is “When should I create my first Voice Over demo”?

Now, you’ll find if you ask different people in the industry or other voice over coaches this question you’re likley to get a bunch of different answers.

If you have some experience doing some voice over work (pair or unpaid) or have undertaken some coaching then that’s a great start, as you’ll perhaps have an undersanding of the industry and the skills you’ll need to master.

Now part of the Voice Over journey is getting more experience…more time in front of the Microphone, so it’s going to be helpful if you can put your voice out there to be heard by others. A Voice Over demo (or voice reel as some call it) is the perfect tool for the job.

So when should you do this?

The Simple answer: Whenever you feel you are ready for others to hear your voice.

Remember, your voice over demo a refletion of your current abilities, so it’s ok if you sould like a beginner as it’s part of your journey. If someone hires you for a voice over job as a result of hearing your demo, you just need to be confident that you can perform to the same standard.
As you get more experience and improve you’ll want to update your demo with new material…and the cycle continues as long as you want to keep at it!

If you have questions about voice over demos or want one made, feel free to reach out anytime.

On Thursday night we held our first online session, inviting people to come along and ask any questions that have about what we do or just Voice Over in general.

We also spent some time talking about what’s been happening in the world of Voice Over during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plus previos attendees of the Introduction to Voice Over Workshop also dropped in to share their experiences.

You can view the full conversation in the video below – enjoy!

It’s so great to see many of the current COVID-19 restrictions beginning to ease, and white it’s important that we continue to follow government regulations that are designed to help avoid the spread of the virus we can now look forward to getting back to ‘normal’.

For us that means looking towards August and September where we will be holding our very popular Introduction to Voice Over weekend workshops. We have 8 places available for August and 9 available for September – See the booking page for further details.

That’s still a couple of months away, so what can you do right now?

Virtual Coaching – 1 on 1 Skype sessions (1hour) with Cecelia have been very popular over the past couple of months, and are a great way to get started.

1 on 1 in-studio coaching – Andy is running 2-hour voice over coaching sessions that focus on recording from his private studio in outer SE Melbourne. Additionaly if you want to get a Voice Over Demo made this can also happen right now.

For more info on these 1 on 1 sessions, click HERE.

Finally, perhaps you have a few questions around Voice Over that you’d like answered before you undertake any coaching or workshops. Here’s your chance to spend some time with the voice over coaches (virtually) to get some answers.

At 8pm on Thursday June 4 we’ll be holding a Voice Over FAQ online session via Google Meet where you’ll have the opportunity to ask anyhing you like about Voice Overs.

You’ll need to register to take part. Simply use the Contact Form and we’ll send you an invite. Places are limited to just 25 active participants, plus we’ll have a live stream for those who just want to sit back and watch.

Hope to see you there!

We hope you are staying safe and well during the Cononavirus pandemic and want to give you an update on how this is impacting our activities.

Firstly, the Introduction to Voice Over Workshop for the weekend of May 2 & 3 has now been cancelled in the interest of health and safety during this time.

The great news is that not only are we planning for future group workshops but we also still have some options for anyone wanting to take part in voice over coaching.

Over the past month we’ve been doing even more Skype 1 on 1 Coaching sessions – which will continue at the reduced price of $66 until the end of May.

Additionally you can still participate in a 1 on 1 Coaching session in studio (2 hours) with Andy where social distancing measures can be observed.

What about the group workshops?

We’re happy to announce that we are looking forward to the light at the end of the tunnel so are announcing two new workshop dates for August and September when we hope to see restrictions lifted and the ability to provide a safe and healthy envronment.

Bookings are now open for Workshops on the weekends of August 8 & 9 and September 12 &13 2020. As part of opening up bookings this far in advance we can also offer the option of paying the cost of attending the workshop with montly installments – feel free to get in touch if you’d like to take up this option.

Webinar – Coming soon!

Finally we’ll be running a free webinar in the next couple of weeks as an info session about the voice over industry in general and the workshops and coaching services we offer, plus we’ll have a few special guests. If you are subscribed to website updates, watch you email inbox for more information or follow us on Facebook.