Shopping For Voice Talent?
Read on....
Since it's inception, TSP has always strived to inform and educate those who are looking to hire professional voice talent. This section of the website offers information you'll find useful if you are shopping around looking for voice talent and is purely for your reference. Enjoy!
The VO Industry Today
Consider this.....in the last 5 years (or less) "professional" voice talent offering services on the Internet has grown from 500 to 125,000!
500......to 125,000.
That, Dear Reader, will tell you a lot about the industry right there. The proliferation of "wannabe" voice talent out there on the Internet is staggering. Thus, the challenge for those looking for voice talent nowadays is sifting through all the garbage to make sure you're getting a quality product for what your paying.
While P2P (Pay to Play) sites appear to make the task of finding voice talent easier for consumers, in reality they have only served to create a cesspool of mediocrity; 90% of the members are people who simply pulled out their credit card so they could call themselves a "professional voice talent."
P2P sites and others who sell services to VO talent are selling the "dream" - the thought that anyone can make a living using thier voice - and this is why there are so many people out there claiming to be VO artists. These days, it's not difficult to set up a recording studio and deliver digital audio. What used to cost $20,000 to get a clean, professional sound now costs about $2,000!
The caveat is, finding voice talent who know how to do everything:
1) They need to have a background in Performing Arts (script interpretation) and Broadcasting (to read commercial content).
2) They must be a skilled audio recording engineer.
3) They need excellent business skills to work with a diverse client base.
4) A solid marketing background is a must if they are to succeed.
5) Tech-saavy to run a website, not to mention the skills needed for audio recording.
6) Finally, they must be skilled communicators. This means they are excellent at composing e-mails, verbal communication, content on thier website, etc.
These are skills that can't be acquired by simply purchasing a membership to a P2P website. It takes years, nay - decades - for most people to acquire these skills. Further still, I've heard people who have all the experience but are still sub-standard from a talent/performance perspective.
VO, is not "easy" to do - for anyone.
Get an Audition
Always……. always ask for a "dry voice" sample from their studio before you book voice talent for a recording session. You wouldn't buy a car without a test drive, so why would you spend money on audio you haven't sampled?
The problem is, you can ask for a sample and get one, play it on your computer speakers and it sounds just fine. However, computer speakers can't reveal the true quality of the audio like a pair of active reference monitors used in pro recording studios – even most voice talent won't invest in this “must have” aspect of a recording studio because they're expensive - around $350.00 for a low-end pair.
Active reference monitors (speakers) are “flat” – they give you a true, accurate reference of the audio you're sending out. The clarity is amazing. So amazing, that simply listening to recorded audio on them ultimately forces the talent to make significant changes to their studio, because suddenly, they can hear all the noise and crap that's behind the actual voice recording.
Simply put, if a voice talent doesn't have active reference monitors, then they don't know what their audio truly sounds like when they send it out, because they're probably listening on the same type of speakers you are. It's tantamount to selling pizza to the public without tasting the product first.
Almost all the audio being recorded out there is far below the accepted standard of a -70 db noise floor (a “noise floor” is the ambient noise in the room where the audio is being recorded). So, when you go to compress your audio for use on the web or manipulate it in other manners, the final product sounds crappy.
I've posted on P2P sites, asked VO talent to submit audio for review…….and about 5 people out of 350 responses had “clean” audio that I could use. I offered advice to one talent on how to improve his sound and he said to me:
“Well, no one has complained, so why should I do anything to improve it?”
This, from a so-called 20 year professional voice talent.
The long and the short of it is, hiring talent with a home-based recording studio is a slippery slope, indeed. If you want a professional product, go through an established company that can offer up references. Otherwise, I can safely say that your search will be long, the talent itself sketchy and you'll need some technical skills to be able to properly scrutinize submitted audio.
Defining Voice “Talent”
You request an audition of your script. You get the audio and you have a listen. Ask yourself this:
Does it sound “natural” or does it sound like someone simply reading words from a page, making love to the sound of their own voice? Is the narrator speaking “to” you…..or “at” you?
If it sounds natural and normal (like a conversation you'd have with a friend) then you've found a pro voice talent.
If it sounds like Ronny Radio or Promo Patty, then you've found an ex-broadcaster….and what you hear is what you'll get. Which leads us to the next topic…..
The Ex-Broadcaster
For some reason, ex (or current) broadcasters - normally radio folks - get it into their head that, by nature of the fact they have spoken into a microphone and read a weather forecast……are qualified to record, edit and deliver an hour-long e-learning project.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
A while back, I came upon an old radio colleague who mentioned that she started doing freelance VO.
I asked her to send me some audio and I would consider using her service if it sounded good. I listened to the audio….and I'm sorry to say it was just terrible. She was using the same mic we used back at the radio station we worked at, which was the wrong mic altogether - dynamic.
Her read was…..well….below average at best, no different from her radio days. She had little or no acting or interpretation skills. Her audio was full of noise and power hums (a common occurrence if you don't know how to run a studio).
Overall, a classic example of the sub-standard product offered up by ex-broadcasters – most simply don't have the chops or know-how to run a proper, professional VO business; one of the many pitfalls of hiring an ex-broadcaster.
The sad part is, she was getting “lot's of work”……or so she told me, from P2P sites. She's probably charging next to nothing for her service…..happy that she can work from home. Even worse, she doesn't have a clue the damage she's doing to professionals in the industry and the disservice to her clients who are supposed to be paying for a quality product.
Ex-broadcasters make up almost 70% of the VO industry. Their experience doesn't always mean they're any good…..or have any talent….or can record audio properly, but, they spoke into a mic at one point in their lives and therefore, consider themselves "qualified" to voice your project.
Buyer beware.
In Summary
1) Be sure to look for an established VO service - anyone with less than 10 years of experience....will sound like it. Go with talent that have a proven track record and check references.
2) Ask for a “dry voice” sample (audition) of a small portion of your script, recorded in the talents' studio. Some talent will use a different mic or “watermark” their audio so you can't use it. If this is the case, tell them they can change your script if they like, but you want a clean sample for review. Scrutinize the audio you're going to be purchasing; if you don't have proper software or the know-how to do the job, drop me a line, I'd be happy to review it for you… ;-)!
3) Expect to find a lot of ex-broadcasters who all sound the same….temper your expectations.
4) Rates are arbitrary, but the rate TSP charges is widely considered “Standard” by professionals in the business. That being said, look out for those offering a ridiculously low rate; it will more often than not be a rookie, wannabe or ex-broadcaster offering big promises and little value, service or quality audio.
5) Searches on P2P sites (membership-based "bidding" websites) will prove to be a waste of time; a lot of garbage to sift through before you find something of decent quality.
I hope you've found this information useful.
Kind regards,
Todd Schick
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