Go there now and set your feed reader to that page as this one will become inactive in about two weeks.

Thanks for your cooperation in this move of the blog. It’s for the better, really, I promise.

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Go there and resubscribe to the feeds there if you want to be updated on the latest content (there’s some awesome stuff coming)!

Thanks for your loyalty. Keep it up and move it to the new location! Thanks!

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This blog has reached another stage in it’s progression towards being the best blog it can be, that means it now has it’s own real estate on the web.

http://www.votips.com

This means two things:

1) If you’re subscribed to receive my feeds in a feed reader or by email, you will have to go to the new page and re-register your feed reader to that blog.

Which leads me to my second point:
2) This page will become inactive in about a month. I will no longer update it at all. I’m going to place a countdown on the side of the page later today that shows you how long you have until this page is erased. Please redirect your feeds to the new address asap so you don’t miss the switch when it happens.

Thanks for your loyalty!

Also, some new and exciting things are on the way with the institution of the new web address, I won’t go into too much detail now, but there will be some awesome resources for you coming down the pipe. I’ll get more specific as the time draws closer for the launch.

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Most people think of monks high on a mountain somewhere high in the Himalayan mountains sitting around on mats with their legs crossed.

That’s not where I’m going. Meditation is simply deep thought. It’s actually something I practice quite often.

Let me explain…

There’s a common phrase “Think before you speak” and that’s what I am advocating… sort of.

When you get behind the mic (those of you who don’t have a lot of experience) what happens? Do you feel a tightness in your chest? Does your heart beat faster? Do your palms start to sweat and your mouth dry out? Why is that? There is another common statement that says “We fear what we do not understand”. I put it this way, “We fear what we do not know.”

There’s one obvious way around that: get more experience. This is hard to do unless you’re landing gigs. If you’re not landing gigs because you don’t have experience, there’s no hope, right? Not quite.

There’s a way around that and it’s pretty easy, but it requires concentration and imagination. One way I prepare myself to get behind the mic without ever powering up the studio is run through the process of an audition or recording in my mind. Yes, meditation. It works wonders.

I know it may sound weird, but if you run through the scenario (any scenario, not just voice over stuff) enough in your head, it will become second nature when you’re actually in that scenario at a later time.

For instance, I close my eyes and I envision myself holding the script in my hand, sitting on a stool behind a microphone. I feel the headphones on my ears and hear my voice when I speak into the mic. I look behind the mic and there is a large glass window, behind which sit a producer and an audio engineer. The producer gives me instructions and I hear them in my headphones. I do what I am told to do. I read the script and time slows down… you get the idea.

Go into as much detail as you possibly can. It helps some people to imagine themselves in third person, kind of like watching yourself do everything.

To go through a complete session only takes about five minutes or less. Using your imagination, put yourself in as many different recording environments as you can possibly imagine. Change the wall coverings, change the mics, whether you can see the producer or not, sitting, standing, etc. The more situations you run through in your mind over and over again, the more prepared and calm you’ll be when it comes time for an audition or recording session.

This exercise can be included in your warm up. Your voice, lips, mouth, and tongue aren’t the only things that need a good warm up, you know.

Don’t do this when you’re tired. Closing your eyes when you’re tired can only lead to one thing. Sleep. Get up, move around, and do some jumping jacks to get your heart rate up, then start the brain up. It will be easy from there on out.

Meditation takes a lot of practice to stay focused, but it helps keep you centered and helps you prepare. I recommend it, not only for voice over artists before auditions and recording sessions, but for every kind of performer before any performance of any kind!

May your mind be focused and your thoughts clear, young grasshopper.

No related posts.

Outright
This service automatically imports your paid invoices from Freshbooks and keeps track of your expenses, profits, estimated taxes, and can export to ANY financial or tax software. Did I mention this was FREE!? This site is one of those sites that will help you stay organized and help you keep your books in order, be that for your business or for personal use (I use it for both!).

Google Documents

In my mind there is no better company in the world than Google, I could devote a whole blog post to how awesome their company and all their services are (hey, that’s not that bad of an idea!). This has to be my favorite service of theirs (not including the search engine, GMail, or their advertisement services). This is your space online to store all of your documents. That may sound boring, but it’s awesome! The service is free (once again) and you can store, edit, view, and share ANY kind of document: PDF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, real text format, and plain text. Check it out! It’s really handy for helping clients with scripts or showing them your rate card, or any of another billion uses you can think of!

Launchy

Do you ever get tired of meandering through menus or digging through your dock to try to find that program? Well, no more. Launchy is a lightweight program that runs in the background and is activated by ALT+Space. When you activate it, you can launch any program on your computer just by typing in the name. How cool is that? This program saves me tons of time, I’m sure it will for you too!

Audacity

I’ve saved the best for last, especially for a blog about voice overs. Audacity is one of the best audio editors on the market, free or not. I use it when I’m not running windows (on Mac or Linux) and I love it! It has all the functionality of most audio editors and gives you some awesome capabilities when it comes to filters, importing, and exporting of audio. If I were to have a figurative voice over toolbelt, audacity would be on it. Try it out, what have you got to lose? It’s free!

Well, that’s not all the open source software in existence, but it’s definitely a recap of my favorites.

How do you go about obtaining the software that I mentioned? There’s a couple of ways. On some of the listings, I provided a link in the title of the software. Click on that, and away you go. If there is no link in the title of the software, just google it and make sure you download it from one of the top few links (to make sure you don’t infect yourself with a virus or anything.)

Happy Open Sourcing!

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What is open source? Open source means that the program is not owned by any one certain company. This is great, that’s one of the reasons why the software is free. Programmers give their time and help develop the program, and they’re paid by donations made to the project (please donate to the developers, they’re good people) and ads they sell on their sites for the program (click on their ads too).

I felt compelled to make a list of the open source applications that I use daily because these are truly great programs, sometimes even better than the program upon which they’re based.

Firefox

Probably the most widely known open source application. Firefox is an amazing internet browser. It has a built in pop up blocker, tabbed browsing, and (my favorite part) add ons! Listing all the add ons I have (not to mention how many there are). Firefox is faster than internet explorer and seems much easier to use. I recommend it highly. It’s one of my favorite applications on this list.

Thunderbird

Goodbye Outlook! From the same developers as Firefox comes the best email program on the market. Just like Firefox in it’s ease of use, speed, and add-ons, Thunderbird is my favorite email program out there.

Skype

How would you like to be able to communicate with those you know by typing, talking, or seeing them face to face all on your computer screen? If so, Skype is for you. You can call Skype to Skype for free or pay a low monthly fee to call landline phones in the US or abroad (SkypeOut). You can also have a number in your area code where people can call you just like a landline phone (SkypeIn). I use Skype for my business phone. It’s awesome (and if you want the added features, they’re cheap)!

CCleaner

Computers get clogged up when a lot of unnecessary files stick around in their temporary storage. There are also lots of other parts of a PC that need some upkeep as well. CCleaner does it all. It will help keep your temporary storage space on your hard drive sparkling clean.

GIMP

Everyone’s heard of Photoshop, but hardly anyone I meet has heard of GIMP. I think GIMP is FAR easier to use and has some pretty awesome features that you won’t find in it’s more expensive and much more complicated sibling, Photoshop CS3 or CS4. If you’re an aspiring graphics person (like me) or you just like fiddling with photos, you’ll love GIMP’s features and price tag!

Well, that’s it for part one. Next time, five more EXTREMELY handy and free applications that will be useful to you as well as your clients!

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And NOW, the Subscribe by email form is REALLY fixed. I just tried it with my own email to verify it (like I should have done the firs two times.)

Now it’s even easier to get the newest posts from my blog in your email inbox, just put in your email on the top right corner of the blog, fill out the information in the pop-up window, and you’re all set!

If you have any questions, contact me.

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The Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator

This should help you figure out what to charge per hour to make ends meet. Keep in mind though, as a voice talent, you will work less than most other types of freelancers out there, unless you have more to offer your clients (script writing, audio editing, etc.) You also don’t want to charge more than you’re worth. Don’t worry, clients will be the first to tell you if your rate is too high, but by then it already be too late.

The more you offer, the more you get paid (that is, if you’re jack or jill of all trades and also master of all of them). This is true with your voice as well. If you have a very bland and uninteresting voice (which sometimes is called for) you probably won’t get called again. Practice and you won’t have to worry about it.

Ok, post complete. If you’ve tried to subscribe by email in the past, it was broken (since the introduction of the new theme). Now it’s fixed! Subscribe by email and get new posts right in your email inbox!

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Script Collection

I was writing a script collection until I came across this AWESOME resource on Jeff Kafer’s blog.

There are thousands of scripts in this collection and they all seem really great. DEFINITELY take advantage of this resource for your demos.

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I moved away from GoDaddy and moved to HostMonster since they’re better, cheaper, and faster (and a lot less vulgar).

Thanks to those of you who stuck around.

Anyways, here’s a cool site I found that can help anyone who needs help with timing. (I know I do more often than not).

The Online Stopwatch is an awesome resource for voice talent. I use it to time myself on dry reads before I step into the studio to keep my practice on track. I like using the countdown clock because it gives a visual reference you can see with your peripheral vision (without taking your eyes off the script).

I have it bookmarked, you should too.

Thanks again to all of you for hanging on through the downtime. Many more great resources like this headed your way.

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