How to Sound Like Famous Stars

Welcome to Voice Over Experts, brought to you by Voices.com the number one voice over marketplace. Voice Over Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom, and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voice over. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voice over talent. It’s never been easier to learn, perform and succeed from the privacy of your own home, and at your own pace. This is truly an education you won’t find anywhere else. Now for our special guest.
Rodney: Hello, this is Rodney Saulsberry. Did you know that one of the hottest genres in voice over today is the art of sound-alikes? The ability to sound like famous stars is very popular. Sound-alikes are used in video games, cartoons, toy voices, commercials, movies and television shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live, David Letterman and The Tonight Show. These comedy-themed entertainment shows constantly feature spoofs with sound-alikes for Sam Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Hillary Clinton, Kim Kardashian and whoever is currently hot in the news. Let me go down on record as saying I am not an impressionist. I am a working voice over actor and instructor. I have had the pleasure of working as the voice of Sam Jackson and Morgan Freeman more times than I can count. I want to share with you one of my secrets to sound-alike success. Now, anyone who has ever studied with me knows that I believe that voice over is analogist to music, so I start with being in the right key, or vocal pitch.
It turns out that being in the right key is one of the most important aspects of matching the dialogue of a famous voice. Now here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Let’s listen to this sound bite from the great voice of Morgan Freeman. The lower your voice is the better your sound. If I speak in this key it would be too high. The lower your voice is, the better your sound. If I speak in this key it would be too low. The lower your voice is, the better your sound. If I speak in this key, now I’m in the right key or pitch. Morgan, the lower your voice is, the better your sound. Me, the lower your voice is, the better your sound. Me, the lower your voice is, the better your sound. Now I’m going to try to match is cadence and other vocal characteristics. Morgan, no, but you would certainly get a deeper voice. Me, no, but you would certainly get a deeper voice. Me, no, but you would certainly get a deeper voice. Remember, you don’t have to be dead on perfect.
You don’t have to be an impressionist. You just have to be in the right key. Finding sound-alike work can be a challenge, but there’s one place to start with, in the beginning. It’s called looping or ADR. ADR stands for automated or automatic dialogue replacement. Let’s say a loop coordinator puts out a call for a sound-alike. Let’s say it’s a sound-alike for Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry or Tom Hanks. You would submit your MP3, reading the dialogue from the audition. If you were chosen you would come to the studio and replace Jennifer, Halle or Tom’s voice with your own voice, sounding like Jennifer, Halle or Tom. It’s usually just a few words here and there, but they have to match the rest of the words coming from the actor’s mouth. You have to start by being in the right key. When you get to the stage and stand before the microphone you will hear three beeps in your headphones. On the imaginary fourth beep you will start to sync your voice to the actor on the screen.
You have to have the ability to match the wording and lip movements of the actor whose dialogue you are replacing, to capture the emotional tone of their performance. You can find loop coordinators on the internet or in the voice over resource guide. Sometimes agencies who hire lookalike actors also hire sound-alike actors too. Here are a couple of websites that might be helpful, extrasformovies.com, celebrityimpersonators.com. If you already have representation you should let your agent know that you have the ability to sound like certain famous people. I made it a point to let my agent know that I could sound like this famous person. Mr president, when will Americans begin to feel the effects of your stimulus package? Just as soon as they go to Cook Ford it in beautiful Texas City. Now let me be clear, any American can now get double, double factory rebates, right now, at Cook Ford. My fellow Americans, the time for change is here.
Forget about Wall Street. It’s time to [bell out 0:04:58] Main Street. Now, let me be clear, every American gets employee pricing plus, thanks to the fine people at Milford Chrysler, [Jeep Dock 0:05:07], Suzuki. Be sure to let your agent know if you can do singing sound-alikes too. I did. Wow, I feel good. I knew that I would now. I feel good. I knew that I would now. So good, so good, I got you, ow, yeah, whoa. I made sure that I was in the right key. I hope you enjoyed my podcast presentation. I can teach you more techniques, and consult you about various other aspects of you voice over career if you join me in my consultants club, and let me help you grow your voice over business.
Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this voices.com podcast, visit the Voice Over Experts show notes at podcasts.voices.com/voiceoverexperts. Remember to stay subscribed. If you’re a first time listener, you can subscribe for free to this podcast in the Apple iTunes podcast directory, or by visiting podcasts.voices.com. To start your voice over career online, go to voices.com and register for voice talent membership today.