The Sound Booth Part 3 - GONE but comin' back all new and different

Its gone. Dismantled. Destroyed. 

But not forgotten and not all for nothing.

Since my last post regarding this topic last fall, some things have changed. The house was put on the market and sold and we moved to a slightly more rural location.Necessary action had to be taken to faciltate the sale of the house. And that was the dismantling of my little VO booth that cost me under $200 to build. It seems people don't get what the booth was for and the vast majority don't care to have one in the house. I was left to record back at my desk with my little box lined with foam that sat over my microphone. It was not ideal but when a client comes a callin', but I don't ever like saying no. 

BUT.......

Change is good.

My new location provides me with a space that is essentially all MINE. It is located in the basement and its a space that can be closed off and away from the rest of the house and family. An 11 X 21 room that can house lotsa furniture and be made comfortable to work in and best of all, the road traffic and neighborhood noise are next to nothing which is one less thing to worry about. All thats left is just the noise from the family, dog and random appliances. They can be switched off. The appliances, I mean. The dog is a pretty good sleeper and the family usually understands that Dad makes money from when he records, so they accomodate me well.

For the time being, what I am starting with is 4 drywalled walls, a bare concrete floor, a huge sectional couch in the corner to lounge on and the usual office furniture to round out  the space. Not exactly a blank slate for a room but a pretty darn good space to make into a nice voice recording/editing area. My challenge is getting rid of the dreaded echos that live in the room. The large sectional couch and other soft surfaces in the room have helped somewhat but still more needs to be done to deaden the space enough that I don't sound like I am recording in a corn silo or storm drain. 

Of course, all of this is to be done on the "not expensive" side. I won't use the word "cheap". I strongly dislike that word. It implies that work was half-assed with no regard for what you are trying to accomplish and junk was used to get it done. I still want some quality and value to what I am attempting to do. And I won't use "on a budget". Arrgh. Everyone is on a budget. Its how deep your wallet is. Get to the bottom, yup, that was yer budget. Mine, for the record, is pretty shallow.

So with all that said, its time to start getting it done. Now that I have a nice, new smartphone with a nice onboard camera, I'll try to share some photos and show you the progress as I go along. 

As always, I am open to any and all feedback you might have from what you read and see. And yes, I am still a voice for hire to record your project. 

Take care and hope your having a great start to Summer 2012.

R



 



 

Out of the Blue

 

So there I was, sitting in from of my PC, tunes blaring as usual as I scanned the news, Twitter feed and various other internet distractions before I started my work day. Suddenly, the phone rings. I check the caller ID and its nothng I recognize. My first thought is that its a telemarketer. Down goes the music and I answer the phone. For the first time EVER, I receive a call from someone looking for a VoiceOver job to be done. Within the week, I was in to the client's studio recording for a YouTube video voiceover.

What made this even more suprising at first is that he didn't get my name from what I thought was a better known of higher visibility VO website. He found me from doing a net search for a VO talent from my area. He THEN found my name and made the effort to contact me. 

So here is what I have gleened from this experience:

• Yes, name recognition is important. But if your like me in a smaller market, maybe its best to put more emphasis on where you are located and give it the same weight as your name as your "brand"
• Put it into practice now!
• See the first bullet. Repeat if necessary

I'm just about to do those very things mentioned above. I'll let you know as soon anything pans out from it.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Rick

 

 

 

 

 

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End of the Monthly sign up for the Pay to Play site

Well, the month of subscription has gone by and and it has been interesting to say the least. On two occasions so far, I received private invites to audition for jobs, meaning the field of contenders was much smaller than the usual general posting that they have. One was a "not this time but loved your voice and may have you in mind for something else later." The other was loved your voice but HIS client says he wants a "Canadian sound" (WTF). OK, client's the boss. In short, here is what I gleaned from my experience thus far:

• When the job is posted, rest assured that there will be 20 submissions to the posting within the first 30 minutes. There must be people that just sit there and hit Refresh on the screen and race to the mic to record OR there is just that many people at one time looking to get one in out of the 100K this site boast as membership.
• Some Voice searchers will acknowledge they reviewed your file. Mostly though, they don't. Its kind of discouraging but you can't get through to everyone all the time. Its a process, and persistance is what makes it rain.
• My competition in my mind has nothing better to do but audition, better equipment, sounds better than me, etc., etc. Don't let yourself go there. You paid to use X amount of time to audition. Make the best of it and most of all, don't make this channel of access the beall and end all. 
• Keep track of the dollar amounts you proposed for the jobs you audtiioned for. This helps you stay focussed on the potential that you have in front of you for earnings.

I didn't get any jobs yet but I did get some nibbles. That is somewhat encouraging. People pay me for work outside of this pay for play site - not as often as I want - but they do. So, there is work out there that I can do and do well for someone.

 

Have a great week and chin up, summer is almost here!

 

Rick

 

 

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Paying to Play

So once again, I am going to delve into the world of a Pay to Play website and audition for just some of the plethora of jobs posted on the site. This time I hope I'll be healthy through the whole month I plan to be registered - because the last time in '09, I got the flu (may have been Swine Flu) and I lost half of my registration to it.

Signing up for a pay to play site really lets it sink in how competitive Voice Overs can be. Within minutes of a job being posted, there are already several auditons posted for it. By the time you are done posting your own audition, there could be dozens, sometimes just a few shy of a hundred. It kind of leads you to conclude that there are some people who sit and just hit refresh to get the most recent job posting and get hammering on it OR there is just that many people monitoring the service that answer at virtually the same time, on different jobs. These jobs usually require a custom demo which is time consuming itself versus just pushing through a canned demo to the prospective client. 

Now, at first I was looking at all the work I "could" be doing, then realized that I couldn't sit there all day scanning the listings. So, I've decided to pick my battles, do what I can and not regret what I can't. 

I did receive a Private Invitation to audition for a project. Not sure exactly how that came about but I did the audition and submitted an offer.  The official deadline is tomorrow so we'll see if anything comes out of that. Apparently, I was one of 6 invited. 

As the old saying goes, ya can't win if you don't play. So, I'm playing - paying to do so - but playing nonetheless. I'll keep you posted.

 

Happy Easter Weekend,

 

Rick