Just announced today, August 16, an extension of Melbourne’s current lockdown complete with even Tougher COVID restrictions including a curfew of between 9pm and 5am until at least September 2.
If you’re currently booked in for a workshop on August 21, 22 or 28 OR are waiting to attend a 1 on 1 in-studio coaching session these will need to be postponed until restrictions have eased.
I will be reaching out to everyone with current bookings and understand that for many people this may be quite frustrating as we’ve already moved workshops that were set to run in June and July.
If you have any questions or concerns please do feel free to reach out via email any time or give us a call.
Finally I would like to encourage everyone to do their part in getting Melbourne out of lockdown and keeping us there.
Due to recent lockdowns here in Melbourne we’ve had to move a few of our workshops around in recent months, but with restrictions easing we’re heading back to the studio in August.
Circuit breakers, lockdowns, mask wearing and other health restrictions. We hope you’ve managed to navigate the last few months safe and well!
The good news is that with easing of restrictions again and the ongoing Vaccine rollout, we are back running both our group workshops and 1 on 1 Voice Over coaching and Demo creation sessions.
Having cancelled our June workshops our August workshops are now fully booked, however we have now opened up bookings for the Introduction to Voice Over workshops running on October 16 and October 23.
If you simply can’t wait until then to get started on your voice over journey you can book in for a 2-hour 1 on 1 coaching session. These are held on a day and time that suits you and are suitable for beginners or those with experience looking to ‘level up’.
Also for those who feel they are ready to take their voice to the world, Demo Creation Sessions are on again. We’ll chose the scripts that best suit your talents and work through them during a 2 hour recording session, then produce them up in to a full demo of up to 2.5 minutes.
If you’d like to discuss any of these options further feel free to get in touch for a chat via phone or email.
Once a luxury, the Home Studio has quickly become a ‘must have’ tool for any Voice Over artist. We saw this in 2020 with many professional recording studios unable to host clients or artists due to Covid-19 restrictions and many scrambled to create a space and buy equipment so they wouldn’t miss out on work.
The problem I find with this is that for anyone just starting out in voice over, the quality benchmark may not be so obvious, that is until someone rejects a recording.
Now it should be noted that I’m talking about quality from a technical point of view, which is completely different to your ability to do the voice over. Specifically we’re talking about things like the properties of Microphone you use, recording levels, room reflection and ambient or unwanted noise. You could have an amazing voice and deliver a great read, but if you can’t capture it in a way that meets professional standards you’re going to have issues when pitching for jobs or recordings being rejected.
This is why we’ve created the Home Studio Score Card. This service is designed to help you improve your home studio setup by giving you a score across 4 key areas based on a raw recording you provide from your studio. Along with a score out of 5 in each area, we include comments and suggestions so you can work on improving your recorded sound.
Aimee Smith is returning to Melbourne and will be running a 90minute session to demonstrate how to use Twitter to find leads for video game character voice auditions.
In 2019 and early 2020 we had the pleasure of hosting multiple sold-out workshops with Aimee aimed at those wanting to get into video game character voice work but didn’t know where to start…and how she’s coming back!
This time Aimee will be running a presentation to help you navigate Twitter to uncover leads for video game character auditions.
So who exactly is Aimee? Aimee Smith is a Sydney-based, Australian Voice Actor best known for her roles as Milla in Freedom Planet, Alysia in Battlerite, Ktara in Siegecraft Commander and Olivia in Heroes Arena (but her list of roles extends far beyond what we’ve written here).
The upcoming May 21 session will be run at a venue in South Melbourne from 6pm and consists of a 1-hour presentation followed by 30minutes of Q&A.
We hope to see you there! If you’d like to attend you can BOOK HERE.
If you’re new to voice over, at some stage you’re going to need to be able to record yourself to practise, audition or perhaps for your first job.
One key piece of equipment you’ll need is a Microphone, but you don’t need to spend a lot on this (at least not when you’re just getting started). The truth is that you can spend as much money as you have in your bank account on a really great Microphone, yes I’m talking thousands of dollars, but we certainly don’t suggest you do that as you’re just starting out and still learning about voice over.
So what Microphone should you buy?
USB Microphones that can be found at most electronics retailers (JB HiFi or Officeworks) are a great option as they are simple to set up and start using quickly, however they don’t all sound the same and there are plenty that are not really good for much more than as a desktop Microphone for zoom meetings.
Working as a sound engineer for 28 years, I’ve used plenty of different microphones for different purposes, but I’ll never recommend a Microphone (or another other piece of equipment) that I haven’t personally used.
Ok, here’s my recommendation…
The Blue Yeti Nano USB Microphone. The cost is usually around $150, but I see that Officeworks has them for $128 right now.
Yes, you’ll see it has a desktop stand but don’t use it like this. Get a microphone stand and use the included adapter to mount in on the stand so you can use it at standing height. You can also then consider adding a pop-filter.
Finally, it’s important to mention that if you’re looking to make high quality sound recordings from your new Microphone, you also need to consider your recording space. Even a $4000 microphone will sound terrible in a poor recording environment. I’ll talk about setting up a recording space another time but if you have any questions feel free to reach out any time.
Update: Our April Introduction to Voice Over workshops are now fully booked and we are now taking bookings for June.
These Introduction to Voice Over workshops are perfect for anyone who has little or no experience in Voice Over and wants to not just find out what it’s all about, but actually get in a studio and give it a go!
As part of the in-studio workshops on April 17 and 24, you’ll also attend a 2 hour zoom session on April 14* (from 7pm) where we’ll get most of the discussion and theory done to give you more time in front of the Microphone when you attend on one of the Saturday workshops.
There’s not another beginner’s voice over workshop like this in Melbourne.
You’ll learn, you’ll have fun and leave wanting to do more!
*If you can’t make it to the zoom session you’ll have the opportunity to view the streaming video of that session before you come to the in-studio part of the workshop.
What is Improv and how can it help you get better at Voice Over? We quite often recommend that people consider attending some improvisation classes as part of their journey into Voice Over but what’s the benefit?
Voice Over Coach Cecelia recently caught up with Amanda Buckley from Impro Melbourne to dig a little deeper into the world of improvisation. Have a listen below.
In just 4 weeks we’ll be back in the studio with our next Introduction to Voice Over Workshops!
Our Introduction to Voice Over Workshop has been running since 2018 and is unique to any other Voice Over Course / Coaching in Melbourne because;
You’re working with 2 Voice Over Coaches who are also experienced, agency signed, working Voice Over Artists.
We run the workshop in a professional recording studio.
It’s a group workshop, but we keep participant numbers low
You get plenty of time in front of the microphone
it’s fun!
Here’s what the February workshop looked like…
2-Voice Ads are always fun
Getting those hands moving…
Taking a moment to think about the script
Stealing some 1 on 1 time with coach Cecelia
Everything is recorded
Smiling adds so much to a read…
We can’t wait to get back into the studio for the next workshops on April 17 and April 24 (Which also includes a Zoom session on April 14) and places are filling fast!
How fast?
For April 17 we have 2 places available For April 24 we have 3 places available
If you have questions about the workshop or other coaching options feel free to get in touch via the contact form or our Facebook page (or you can give us a call on the number at the top right of the screen).
If you’re interested in finding out more about Voice Over and trying it out for the first time OR already have a taste and want to dig in deeper, we have just set dates for our next workshops.
For beginners, we’ll be holding out next Introduction to Voice Over Workshops on April 17 & April 24 (which includes a Zoom session on April 14). This is ideal for anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to step up to the Microphone in a professional setting and record a voice over for a Radio or TV commercial. Perhaps people have been telling you that you have a voice that’s very easy to listen to or ‘made for radio’ – let’s see what you can do with it!
For those who already have some experience in voice over, have already done one of our workshops or completed another voice over course, we’re excited to launch our “Next Step” workshops on June 12 and June 19. Bring the basics with you as we’ll be tackling more challenging scripts that involve Character Voices, Emotion, Syncing to Video and more!
You can book for both of these workshops now HERE or feel free to get in touch and ask questions.
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