The Life of A Non Union Voice Artist : Day 3 and 4

Hey All,

Day 3

1) Voices.com Auditions 14 total
2) V123 Auditions 3 total
3) Did one call in job
4) Had to redo a part of a job as well.

Total recording sessions with editing 3.

NOTE: Sometimes a client will request a call in. This is different that ISDN, this is just a phone conference. I constantly tell clients that I have worked with PBS and many large companies where they just listened in through phone. ISDN is not needed. If it's a small job, under $500 then they shouldn't be asking for a service that costs you a hundred a month. If it's over a grand, then yea, at that point, you might as well visit a studio and hire someone to do the call in.

I've done hundreds of non-union vo jobs, I have NEVER had a client love my voice, want to hire me, and then say, "Awww no ISDN? I can't hire you then."

There's this kind of assumed thing that if you buy quality equipment, ISDN, top of the line software, that you are worth more than other vo artists. In essence, it's all about the performance. Unless of course, it's obvious and you hear voices and sirens and cars in the background.

Day 4

1) Voices Auditions 12 total
2) V123 auditions 11 Total
3) One job
4) Edited a redo

Total recording sessions with editing 2.

A thing to note about this week, this was from mon-thursday, so auditions are likely to taper off as the weekend starts.

Look at the numbers of auditions between Voices and V123, now this may change if you are female, older, etc. I only offer the stats. V123 is priced the same as voices but offer far less auditions for me. I use both because I can make my money back on both.

Have a great night everyone.

The Life of A Non Union VO Artist: Day 2

Hey Everyone,

Here's the Tuesday Stats

1) Voices.com Auditions 8 jobs Total= 1 Recording Session
2) V123 5 Jobs total = 1 Recording Session (same session as Voices)
3) Out of Home Travel Audition = Left for Agent's Audition
4) Single Repeat Customer Job = 1 Recording Session (separate from Voices)
5) In Home Agent Audition = 1 Rec Session, (Same as Job)

If you get an agent, (usually if you live in NYC or LA) they will send you out every now and then for auditions. These are usually shots in the dark unless you already won a few jobs or you're just amazing. Unfortunately, these trips into the city take away time from my Non-union work, but the payoff is a larger job.

The stats here, 2 recording sessions, one job.

Tomorrow, I do a call in job that came from voices.

Those are always fun!

Take care everyone.

The Life of A Non Union VO Artist : Stats Day 1

Hey Everyone,

So, here is what I did today. Monday, is my start day, so it's usually a bunch of auditions from the weekend and the new auditions that just came in.

1) 16 Voices.com Auditions, 2 Trips to Record
2) 8 Voice 123 Auditions 1 Trip to Record
3) 2 Outside Client Auditions was on V123 Trip to Record
4) 1 Small Job Recorded was on Second Voices.com Trip

So, overall I had 3 Recording sessions,3 editing sessions.

You want to minimize the amount of back and forth you get to the mic. The only exception is if you see a job that you really think you have a chance at. Then, drop your shit and record asap.

Today was a relatively slow day. But, if you look at the stats, I only made money off 1 job, the rest are around 26 auditions.

Tomorrow, I'll be going to an early audition for my NYC agent, which is usually a shot in the dark.

Oh and I was able to eat, workout for an hour, and do a small amount of grocery shopping.

This is your typical day one.

The Types of VO Files

Here's a tiny tip that most new people don't know.

The three primary files I get asked for are

1) WAV
2) MP3
3) AIFF

Other's do exist but, these are BY far the top three.

For an audition file, especially if you are auditioning directly to a client. You want to use MP3. And a fairly small quality mp3.  We're talking 192kbps. We do this for 2 reasons. It's lower quality so they can't just plug it into a video and still it (though technically they could). Second, you want to have smaller files to upload.

I put all my auditions in an audition folder. I save them all, because you never know when you are going to need them. If they are mp3 files, you can put thousands in there and not hurt your space. So, to conclude, MP3 for auditions only. (unless specified by client, in which case, ask them the EXACT quality they want)

WAV is my go-to for all jobs unless they ask for AIFF or MP3. It's a higher quality file, pretty much lossless and it's not terribly big. AIFF files are huge. I use Wav files, 44,100 Hz, 16 Bit, mono, PCM. It's mono, because you aren't recording with two separate microphones.

Here's a basic rundown on Wav files. If you record for say 20 minutes, it's about 80-100 megabytes. So, it's big enough to be quality and small enough in size to be able to keep around.

Always keep your jobs on your computer. Don't go deleting good work, you never know when a client might need those files.

AIFF is a special type of file. It's lossless, HUGE, and doesn't sound much different than a wav. Sound engineers want these but they usually say WAV is fine. Basically, if someone really wants a AIFF, offer wav, if not then ask what specific aiff rates are they looking for and be prepared to big files.

I don't pretend to be an expert on this, but I have been an VO artist for around 6 years now, and I've never had a single client come back with questions on quality. So, what I know is solely based on experience.

Have a great day everyone.

Justin