Voice Gym Review

So on Sept. 21 I attended a voice gym at The Forge audio studio.  It was a new experience for me, as I had not tried any radio ads before and that is what the focus was.

Lots of great information, such as that most radio ads are 30 seconds.  Some are now 15 seconds, and the odd flash is 10 seconds.  Most studios will record several takes, then edit them into the final ad.

It was a challenge for me to NOT go into a character for these, and the one time I did a bit and he (Paul) caught me on it!  He was great at guiding me since he knew I only had the animation workshop to go on.

There were four of us there, and by staying and watching the others I gained lots of pointers on the kind of direction and expectations involved in recording radio spots.  One of the other attendees has done radio ad work before, another has taken several training classes and the last one is in the broadcasting program at Mount Royal.  Watching the ones with experience was very interesting, and I could easily imagine hearing the finished ads on the air.

Advertising is an odd idea for me.  It is one of those zones where if the company wants your voice to be THEIR voice, you are in.  If your voice isn't the style/sound they are looking for then you are out.  No amount of training practice is going to change the basic qualities of your relaxed speaking voice, so it really is a mater of having that "something" that they want.  Maybe your take on how to emphasize the script or (maybe) put in a character they hadn't thought of.  Something to make your audition stand out.  It could just be having the confidence in yourself and projecting that through what you are putting into the recording.

I still think I would do better doing characters.......

Voice Gym

I'm going to a "Voice Gym" tonight here in Calgary.  It looks to be a get-together at the studio to practice the craft of voice, focus on commercials.  It is put on by VoiceSpot and looks like it should be interesting.  I have to pick a couple of the scripts and somehow practice what I'm going to do before I get there.

I did write the office back and ask for more details on what happens at these things, but there is no response yet.

I'll post how it went tomorrow.

Actual response.

Yay!  One of the local companies did get back to me with quite a lengthy response.

Dan Willmott over at VoiceSpot talked about several classes they offer as well as something they call "Voice Gym".  That looks interesting, as it is time in the studio where you get to practice behind the mic as we as meet up with other people involved in the industry.  Of course, most of the work is in advertising, doing commercials.  As he pointed out, animation is fun, but very limited and hard to do alone.  The next one is in October, but I don't think I'll have the cash to get in.  I should be able to catch the next one though.