I've been interested in a site called Voice123.com. It's a site for all the pro voice actors. My past voice over coach recommended it along with a few others. I checked it out, and it's very professional! All the voice actors had some stunning voice over demos, and I was pretty impressed! I've enjoyed Fiverr (I've been on it for half a year now), but I'm not getting as many gigs as I'd like to. I know, Voice123 could be harder, in fact definitely will be to get voice over gigs, but I think it would push me to learn more. Although, the only thing holding me back is the monthly fee. It's kind of expensive, so I'd have to be making enough to pay it off, and still make extra money. But, I would have an advantage since there's practically no one under 16 on there, so if directors need a young teen voice, I would have a good chance. If I do join, I hope it works out. If so, this could be a very giant step forward in my voice over dream.

I decided to write another blog post about helping the family make their home studio. When going over the things to get, the mom of the family said that she had been to a recording studio to record her singing voice. I know that her singing is excellent since I've heard her voice a few times. 

She said that when they finished recording, they added a lot of effects that made her voice "sound like a robot." I knew what she was talking about. 

Many people add TONS of effects to their voice to make it sound better. There's nothing wrong with effects, but you can get carried away with them. 

I think it's ok to use a small bit of it to give it that cherry on top. But if you overdo it, you'll sound like, well, a robot! 

I used to add a lot of compression effects to my voice to make it pop, but I soon learned it sounded fake. It didn't make me feel like I was listening to a real human being. Now, I don't add any effects to my voice, unless it's a commercial type gig (I can explain why, but it would take too long). Of course, excluding the little bit of noise reduction and dynamics processing!

My sister's boyfriend's family talked to me about them wanting to make a home studio. Most of the kids in the family play instruments and sing, the mom is especially good at singing. They have been asked that they should record themselves, but they don't know what right equipment to get. They knew I did voice-over and audio engineering, so they asked me what they should get. So a few days later I sent them links to the equipment they could get. I gave them three choices depending on how much they were willing to spend: 

$471            with TWO Audio-Technica AT2020 mics, an audio interface, stands, and acoustic panels
$631            with TWO Rode NT1-A mics, an audio interface, stands, and acoustic panels
$1,111         with TWO Blue Baby Bottle mics, an audio interface, stands, and acoustic panels

When I went to their house, they had a whole room they wanted to make a studio. Unfortunately, it was very echoey and was full of reverb. They asked me if they would need the "echo stuff." So I included three dozen 12x12 (a square foot) acoustic foam panels to reduce the reverb. They also said they wanted several mics if there were several of them recording (like a singer and a guitar). So I gave them the choices between the Audio Technica AT2020 for $115 each, the Rode NT1-A for $195 each (I bought this one when it was $360, so the price has had a dramatic drop), or the Blue Baby Bottle Mic for around $350 each. Then, I put two microphone stands in the list (I found a bundle of my favorite cheap stands for just $33 for two stands). Then I put an audio interface jsut like mine, but with four channels instead of one, by Behringer. 

So they chose the $631 rout. I think they chose very well!

When I was going through things with the lady that wanted me to record the audiobook, she asked me to record a sample page from her book. I did and sent it to her. She asked if I could add effects to that audio quality, then gave me a sample of another narrator clip.
The main thing I noticed was that the narrator added a lot of EQ and compression. That makes your voice sound really crisp and come out more, and it helps a lot if you have a deep booming voice. In my personal opinion, I recommend that you don't use too much of it (it's fine if you add a little bit) for an audiobook. Even if you sound "epic," it's usually very distracting for a listener. But it's not always bad. In fact, it's very useful for online commercials, E-Learner videos, tutorials, intros, and sometimes character acting. The lady wanted it like that, so I added the effects, and she was satisfied.

This is the first sample without the effects:

I was going to blog about this a month ago, but we were still figuring things out.

Anyway, a month ago, an author contacted me and asked if I was interested in narrating her audiobook (from home). She said it would be around 70,000 words long! So we talked for a month over different things like payment and content of the book. We agreed on $200 for every finished produced hour, and the book should be around 8-10 hours long. Just recently, she contacted me and said that we'd begin the recording process early next spring. It is in quite a while, but I've heard many voice actors say that voice over takes a lot of waiting.