My voice over journey is going okay so far. I need to get my $h!# together though. I need to get my narration/character demo done soon, and I need to audition like a banshee! If anybody has a microphone sitting around, I’d love to have it! I’m learning to edit, too. I cleaned-up my recent recording for My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Abridged, and Rarity sounds pitch perfect, with every seam pressed and proper! Still, I need to focus less on assisting others and focus more on my ambitions. What were they again? Lol.

I recently went to September Day’s seminar about Voice123. September is awesome. Her story is similar to mine and is inspiring. I learned a lot at this class, and it led me to a new time-absorbing obsession: Voice Tagging. It’s soooooo fun!

Voice123.com is a site where voice talents can showcase their demos, find work and audition for jobs. In your profile, you tag your voice with different words to describe its quality. Well, I can listen to other people’s demos and help define their sound. I can’t comment on their recording or demo quality, and that’s almost a shame. It’s great to hear my competition, but some of these demos are bad, like “Why did the person pay money for this site and post this?” bad. Here are the things that make me face palm:

Bad Copy
Copy is VO language for script. I’m shocked that people don’t put more time and thought into this. A demo is a performance/marketing piece, the main way your voice is heard, so quality, variety and script order is important! Many people had just one poorly recorded audition as their demo, with no editing. Eeew.

Demos shouldn’t be a million seconds long. I mean c’mon. If people can’t take 30seconds to read a whole resume, what makes you think they would listen to more than 30 seconds of a demo? Variety is the spice of life, so I think a demo should have a handful of different types of copy that can display a VO talent’s voice range. People also need to consider the order of their copy. Don’t start it off with a depressing piece about cancer victims, and seriously, don’t make each sample long. Editing is a good thing, people!

Bad Recording

Look, I get it. These people want to get in the business so bad that they want to jump in immediately, but let’s be real. Nobody wants to buy a static-filled, echoed, uneven mess, even if it’s edited. Either get better equipment or find a place to record.

Other Weird Things

I’ve heard some weird stuff while voice tagging. I particularly love the guys who try to create a demo with one dialogue of different characters all voiced by one person:

Pirate: Argh! I will make ye walks the plank!

Wizard: Not before I smite you with my magical magic!

Pirate: en guard-wait? Who is that?

British Dude: Why hello, blokes. My hot air balloon had a most unfortunate explosion. May I use your phone?

Pirate: What is the phone ye speaks of?

Wizard: Does he meaneth a crystal ball of magical magic?

British Dude: Oh poppycock! Did my balloon cross a time barrier and defy all laws of time and space?

Anime Guy: Woaaaaah! Who are you guys? I am a space ninja from space sector 69. Can I borrow your intergalactic transmission video messaging device?

Pirate: All you scurvy dogs are walking the plank! NOW!

British Dude: I’ll never make it home in time for tea!

News flash,  no. Just no. Also, I hate it when there is only one track on the demo, and it has two voices with no indication of who is who. Good work, Dumbass. You didn’t indicate your gender in your profile, and there is a guy and girl in the demo with only one piece of copy. That’s worth my time and your money. And, if you plan to add music or sound effects to your demo, make sure they don’t drown-out your voice. Duh.