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The Ultimate Portable Voice Booth?

10/10/2016

For years I’ve been researching ways to take voice over on the road so that when I travel I can accommodate clients who might need a rush job, an audition, a pickup. Voice artists tell stories of turning their hotel rooms into sound booths with bedding strewn over upturned couches and their bodies, microphones and scripts crunched up beneath.

Then there are the “Porta-Booths” – I’ve tried a couple. No offence to their inventors, but I haven’t found them that easy to work with. When your head is stuck in a small box, how practical/comfortable is it to also read your copy?

That’s why I’m such a fan of my latest investment – the beautifully designed Kaotica Eyeball – a voice booth for your mic! I ordered mine online https://www.kaoticaeyeball.com from the States and it arrived here in New Zealand just two days later.

It comes with its own detachable pop filter and accommodates most mics. I’ve recorded tests with it and I’m impressed. Sure, if there’s a helicopter flying over it’s not going to give you perfect sound isolation, but it definitely removes room echo and boomy-ness. Plus, there’s just something so adorable about it. You wanna pet it, display it proudly on your blog, offer it a dish of milk…

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Red Flags and Sean Connery

10/10/2016

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You know how some voice jobs just flow from start to finish? You connect with the director, you’re on the same wavelength, the reads get better and better – love soup? This wasn’t one of them.

I was asked to voice a bank commercial. I sent through a custom demo and it was approved by most of the team. (This was one of those setups with a committee of decision makers.)

Someone in the client team wasn’t convinced I was “the one” and requested a directed audition. The colleague hiring me told me there had been 100+ emails back and forth already about the project. This might have been a red flag, but I shrugged it off and agreed to the Skype audition.

The person directing the session was Simon. We got on Skype and Simon was giggly and effusive. “Look, I’m not a voice actor…” he began, then proceeded to give me a line reading. It wasn’t good. Another red flag moment.

Simon told me the client wanted a storytelling tone (the script wasn’t a story by any stretch of the imagination.) He also told me the client wanted it conversational. We gave it a go. Simon wasn’t happy. Next, he became obsessed with the idea of inflection. He wanted more of it. Inflect up on one line, down on the next, for variety. I politely suggested it might be best to let the inflection follow the meaning of the sentences, but Simon needed his inflections the way he needed them, so I went with it.

Then Simon’s boss joined the conversation. He wanted natural, conversational – inflection flew out the window. I could do that. But he also wanted me to sound like Sean Connery. (Red flag #3.) Ten takes later the session ended with Simon still unhappy on the inflection front and his boss no doubt deeply disappointed I wasn’t Sean Connery. Later that day I heard they’d decided to go with a male voice instead – someone with a “sharp, clear voice” like Sean Connery…

An acting teacher of mine used to say, “Rejection is protection.”

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Getting In the Vocal Zone...

10/7/2016

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I recently accepted the challenge to step into the role of Goneril in a production of King Lear. The actress playing the part was rushed to hospital with a gall bladder emergency and there were two weeks of shows left.

After one quick rehearsal I found myself, script in hand, in front of the audience doing what Goneril does best – shouting at her father and husband and wailing over her dying lover.

As a voice artist I’m used to “projecting” my voice approximately 6 inches to my microphone. Now, here I was in a theatre with dodgy acoustics and hard-of hearing audience members. The director, as well as several cast members warned me, “You really have to project in this theatre.” With seven shows ahead I wondered how I would survive recording my voice projects during the day and “projecting forcefully” at night.

Luckily, my friend Mike (playing the king) recommended his favourite throat lozenges to me. He told me he had started to feel a gland swell up like a hedgehog in his throat one night and was afraid he’d lose his voice. Sucking on Vocalzone had restored his throat and voice in a matter of hours.

I got myself some and I have to say these things are amazing! Not sure if it’s the licorice, the myrrh or the peppermint/menthol/vegetable carbon, but these little black pastilles have a magical effect on over-worked vocal chords. Plus the packaging includes writing in braille in case your voice and eyes are both feeling strained!

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The Ultimate Portable Voice Booth?

Red Flags and Sean Connery

Getting In the Vocal Zone...

Susannah's Blog

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The Ultimate Portable Voice Booth?

Red Flags and Sean Connery

Getting In the Vocal Zone﻿...

Susannah's Blog

Categories

Archives

Getting In the Vocal Zone...