Voicey Awards, Insuring Talents in India, Not Getting the Gig, Condenser Microphones vs. Dynamic Microphones, and Following Your Dream.
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Voicey Awards, India Insures Talents, Marlene Dietrich, Richard Clayderman, Not Getting the Gig, Condenser Microphones, Dynamic Microphones, Following your Dream, Julie Williams, Colin Campbell, Bettye Zoller
Transcript of Vox Talk #11
Male: Episode 11
Stephanie Ciccarelli: Hi there, everybody. This is Stephanie Ciccarelli. I’m your host.
Welcome to VOX Talk. If you’re new to this podcast, VOX Talk is your connection to the voiceover marketplace, industry news, business tips, technology, and of course, your peers. We produce this show twice a week, so be sure to subscribe in iTunes to receive the new episodes as they come in. Now, on with the show.
Male: The Loop, informing you of news and current voiceover events.
Stephanie Ciccarelli: Nominations are now open for the Voicey Awards. The Voicey Awards recognize voice actors and voice talents for their contributions and efforts over the year in the voice over industry. Categories include Best Male Voice, Best Female Voice, Best New Voice, Best Personal Branding, and a Lifetime Achievement Award.
To learn more about how you can nominate a voice talent to win a Voicey, go to the VOX Daily blog or visit VoiceyAwards.com.
In other news, IndiaTimes.com reports that India is working at ways to insure the voices or performing capabilities of Indian artistes. Many around the world have already done so, including opera singer Marlene Dietrich, who insured her voice for $1 million, a wine taster who insured their taste buds for $10 million dollars and a pianist Richard Clayderman whose fingers are worth quite a sum. Later this month, the concept of artistic insurance to associations of musicians, dancers, and film and theatre artistes will be introduced.
To learn more, visit Indiatimes.com
That’s the news for this episode. If you have something you’d like to announce, just shoot me an e-mail at [email protected].
Male: The Biz, helping you grow your voiceover business.
Stephanie Ciccarelli: This week in The Biz, Julie Williams hits on a touchy subject – not getting the gig.
Julie Williams: So you didn’t get the job and you did so well on that audition. You know, I used to land about 80% of the jobs I auditioned for but now the industry is changing. With the internet and services like Voices.com around, we have so much exposure and so much more competition that I know I auditioned for so many more jobs than ever before. The percentages of what I land are not as high as they used to be. The numbers, of course are much higher but nobody wins every audition and you can’t take it personally if you don’t land the job.
First of all, it’s not true that the best person gets the job. It’s true that the person who the client thinks is right for the job gets the job and that could be due to any number of factors. Right could mean he’s more readily available. It could have to do with how important a particular job is to the client. Maybe you’re worth a lot and you bid what you’re worth but the job itself is a low budget thing for the client and they don’t want to pay for a talent like you. A lesser talent is sufficient for this not as important job. Maybe the client legitimately can’t afford you. Maybe they really liked you but the sound they envisioned was a raspier sound or a smoother sound or higher or lower.
It could be that they never even heard your audition because they got so many submissions that they didn’t have time to listen to all of them. They found what they liked so they stopped listening. Maybe you and three others were all great and all bid within the ballpark and they flipped a coin. You just never know why you didn’t get a job so you can’t take it personally. It doesn’t necessarily say anything about you.
Recently, I cast a job where a guy who didn’t get it heard one who did get it and had a little bit of sour grapes there. He said, “I guess they were wanting that deep announcery sound.” And the truth is they weren’t wanting a deep announcer sound. The talent that landed the job did have a deep voice but he was also far more conversational with the copy than anyone else including the one that was having sour grapes about not getting the job.
Stephanie Ciccarelli: As always, some great advice from Julie Williams.
If you have any questions or topics that you’d like to see covered in this segment, e-mail your suggestions to [email protected]
Male: Tech Talk, walking you through the technological landscape.
Stephanie Ciccarelli: This week marks the first of five segments from Colin Campbell of AffordableAnnouncer.com.
Colin Campbell: Microphones, there are two basic broad categories of microphones, dynamic and condenser. Which one you want is personal preference.
The difference is a dynamic microphone doesn’t require any external power to operate. It simply modulates the voltage based on your voice and that’s that. Dynamic microphones have the advantage of not picking up a lot of external noise in the distance but condenser microphones are generally preferred by voiceover artists because they’re very sensitive.
The problem is if you have any external noise in your room such as me in my basement – fortunately right now, the furnace isn’t running but when it does, my condenser microphone which is a good 20 feet from the furnace will pick up that noise, even using a noise gate. Most voiceover artists prefer condenser microphones because they pick up every nuance of their voice. They get down into their diaphragm and they can feel the tones and the resonance of the voice.
But some people prefer dynamic microphones because they don’t like the extra sensitivity and some feel they’re warmer. Condenser microphones tend to be hot.
Now, I’m talking to you on a Shure KSM32. A Shure KSM32 is a condenser microphone. My mic preamp processor provides 48 volts of Phantom voltage up the mic wire to the microphone to provide a bias on the diaphragm that translates into a hot sound or a sensitive sound. Now beyond those two broad categories you get into patterns or pick-up patterns.
What is a microphone pick-up pattern? Well, a microphone pick-up patter determines at what angle a sound comes at the microphone where it’s picked up.
This microphone that I’m using Shure KSM32 is a cardioid pattern or unidirectional. What that basically means is you have to face the microphone in a certain direction to get a high quality crisp sound and if you were to come at it from the back end, away from the cardioid pattern, the reverse of that you would normally do, you wouldn’t be heard very well.
Omnidirectional microphones from the root word omni, pick up sounds from all directions. Most voiceover artists would prefer a unidirectional or cardioid pattern because it blocks noise coming from the other side of the microphone. Probably one of the biggest hassles that voiceover artists have especially in home studios is rejecting noise.
It’s amazing how much noise there is in the world especially in a home. I’m in the basement and I can pick up the furnace when it comes on, somebody flushing a toilet upstairs or taking a shower or my dog running down the hall or my little child chasing a ball. It all comes in to my highly sensitive condenser microphone.
So if you’re trying to decide on a new microphone, you have to decide firstly between a dynamic or a condenser. That’s the first thing you need to decide. Once you get pass that, then you can look at models.
Now in the dynamic microphone market, there are some very good ones. There’s the Electrovoice RE20 and 27. I think the 27 is a little better than the 20. It’s newer and it does a better job and in the condenser microphone market, well there’s the king of them all, the Neumann U87. That’s the current model of the famous Neumann microphone that people just seem to think is a legend. They have some lower-priced ones but I’m told by knowledgeable people – hey, see? Noise. Somebody just flushed a toilet and I and you probably can hear it too.
Anyway, back to the Neumann. A Neumann microphone has a name for itself and if you could afford a Neumann U87 somewhere out over $3000, then God bless you. But when you get into the cheaper Neumanns, you’re really buying a name, kind of like Sassoon jeans. Of course these days that’s probably – doesn’t mean anything to anybody but it’s a name when it gets into the lower price Neumanns.
So if you can’t afford the U87, I would say don’t even buy a Neumann. A lot of people tell me that the Rode NT1 and NT2 sound a lot like – sound a lot like a Neumann yet they only cost $200 or $300.
Now, I don’t know. I have not had any personal experience with either, either the U87 from Neumann or the Rodes. I don’t know what they sound like so you’ll have to experience that for yourself. I chose my microphone the Shure KSM32 based on this criteria. I’ve worked in radio for many years and we had at the studios two microphones depending on which studio you were in. We either had an Electrovoice RE20 or 27 or we had a Shure KSM32.
Well, I certainly like the way the KSM32 sounded better than the RE20 or 27 but that was now in hindsight strictly based on the fact that the Shure was a condenser microphone and I like that hot sound that got right down into my resonance and could bring all those nuances up. Now of course I’m at home fighting the sounds that are in the background because it’s so sensitive.
So the first thing you need to decide when buying a microphone is whether you want a dynamic or a condenser.
In the next episode, we’ll talk about mic preamps and processors.
Stephanie Ciccarelli: That’s great advice Colin, especially for those evaluating which microphone to purchase for their home recording studio.
Male: VOX Box, answering your voiceover questions.
Stephanie Ciccarelli: Now for a word of insight from voiceover coach Bettye Zoller of VoicesVoices.com.
Bettye Zoller: So many times, students will say to me, “I hear that voiceovers are so difficult to break into. I’ve just given up before I start.” And I say, “Well then you will never do voiceovers and that is for sure.”
If you wanted to open a dress shop, would you ask yourself if there were any other dress shops around so you wouldn’t do it because other people already own them?
If you wanted to sell real estate, would you decide not to get your license because so many other people were selling real estate and you’d heard it was so hard to break into? If everybody thought that way, we would have no dress shops, no doctors who ever finished medical school. Go for it, not only with voiceovers but with every area of your life. Stop that negative thought that will do you in.
Ask life for a penny and it will give you a penny. Ask it for a dollar, and it will give you a dollar and that’s what life is all about. This is Bettye Zoller, VoicesVoices.com. Follow that dream.
Stephanie Ciccarelli: Thank you Bettye for that dose of encouragement.
And with Bettye’s advice, we reach the final moments of the show.
Before we go, I’d like to remind you to go online to nominate either yourself or one of your peers at Voices.com for a Voicey Award. The response so far has been great and we’ve received over 100 nominations. Thank you to those of you who have already participated. The deadline to nominate someone is February 14th, 2007 at 11:59 pm. Just go to Voices.com and click to download the nomination form on the VOX Daily blog.
As always you can send in your feedback via email, audio clip and you can also call in to leave a message to air on the podcast. Just dial 1-888-359-3472 ext. 117. Looking forward to hearing from you. Bye for now.
Links from today’s show:
VoiceyAwards.com
India Insures Vocal and Instrumental Talents
Colin Campbell
Bettye Zoller
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