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10 Voice Actors Who Shaped Your Childhood and You Didn’t Even Know It
From an unlikely source comes this story: "10 Voice Actors Who Shaped Your Childhood and You Didn’t Even Know It." Some of them are names easily recognized in the industry, including the legendary Daws Butler and Mel Blanc, but includes some that you may not truly may not know.
My personal favorite on the list is Bill Melendez the voice of both Snoopy and Woodstock, if only because over this Thanksgiving weekend, we watched "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" and "Snoopy Come Home." By the way, if you have a need to hear a sad song, check out "Do You Remember Me (Lila's Theme)" from "Snoopy Come Home." Never fails to draw a tear for me.
Another one of special note here is Kevin Clash, the voice of Elmo. He recently was the subject of a film titled "Being Elmo," and from all accounts is definitely something to check out. Even though Elmo's voice tends to grate on us as adults, we cannot deny the impact that Clash has had on a generation of children through Elmo and Sesame Street.
Are there any voice artists from your childhood that had an impact on you?
Eat Right For Vocal Energy – Protein IS Your Friend
My friend Ann Utterback returns with another great article on VoiceOverXtra about eating right for vocal performance.
I am a "man of substance." That is, I'm large in the normal scheme of things, 6'4" and closer to 240 pounds than 220. And every so often I am possessed by the "you must get fitter" idea, particularly in light of my family history of diabetes and knee problems. So I am aware that too often, this can lead to not eating for performance, but eating only to lose weight, cutting back on things in a willy nilly fashon that makes you crave things you shouldn't have, having them, then overcompensating out of a sense of guilt or obligation.
As Ann points out, moderation is the key in everything, but remember that your vocal performance is just that: a performance. One that requires energy, and maybe more than you recognize right out of the gate. Eating right is one of the little known aspects of the craft, especially if you are one of the many involved in long term projects or regular multi hour sessions required by audiobook projects. Keep this in mind when you grab that coffee in the morning and go all day without eating. Your performance will suffer, and so will you!
Your Backup Plan | SOUND4VO.COM
My friend, voice artist and engineering rock star Dan Friedman has posted a short and sweet article on the Sound4VO blog about having a backup plan for home studios. As I am not ISDN equipped at home, I know that my backup plans are not complex, but it reminds me that i should have one.
Technical difficulties are a part of the business, and you have to be prepared to find another way. Maybe it involves having a fully loaded laptop ready to go in the event of a main studio computer meltdown, a standing agreement with another talent or local studio to duck in when all else fails, things like that.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a backup to do...
An Open Letter to Skype and How it Might Happen
There is a Twttier fellow you should be following: @SomeAudioGuy. He is an audio engineer that works heavily in the voiceover field, and his daily observations about what actually goes on in some pretty high profile sessions are invaluable to the beginner in pointing out what kind of preparation you should have going into a session and the etiquette you should follow if you ever want to come back. He also blogs at his site, http://someaudioguy.blogspot.com/.
Back in March of last year, he wrote "An Open Letter to Skype on Behalf of Audio Engineers," in which he asks Skype to do something that doesn't seem that far fetched anymore:
"See, if you're capable of linking our computers to engage in real time 720p video calling at 30 frames per second, SURELY you'd be capable of granting us a 256kbps or higher audio only connection."
He proposes this as a way to get past the cost and technical difficulties of ISDN, and even as a competitor to the growing Source:Connect platform. I have used Skype in place of a phone patch in the past, and will likely do so again. but if Skype were to offer such a thing, this would be revolutionary.
Enter Microsoft.
On Monday, the Redmond software giant entered into an agreement to purchase Skype for over $8 billion dollars. Considering the company was valued at $2.7 billion during the worst of times at the end of it's ill fated time as part of eBay, this is a huge jump.
Skype as a company has bounced around over the last few yearrs. They started as an independent company, were inexplicably purchased by eBay in 2005, spun off again in 2010, and now this. Over this time, they have introduced and discontinued many features, but the core functionality has remained and been improved. Now Microsoft steps in with its $55 billion dollar warchest and takes on a company currently provides about 13% of the international call market share.
Microsoft has the money and incentive to make Skype a viable rival to any number of telephony solutions. Skype on its own probably did not have the funding to go this route. This opens the door for Skype to provide exactly the level of quality that SomeAudioGuy asked for back in March of 2010. He said:
"You would become the hero of studios nation and world wide. You could single-handedly lift the entire recording industry out of the data dark ages. And We would gladly pay for a stable service."
I think more than just the audio engineers would rejoice. Love them or hate them, Microsoft has this power. I say keep your fingers crossed for developments in this area to end the "tyranny" of ISDN.
Lora Cain: Female Voiceover Talent for Commercials Promos TV Movies Animation
Via Scoop.it – voiceover and voice acting
Lora Cain female voiceover talent provides voice overs for Commercials Promos TV Shows Films singer writer Los Angeles CA to New York NY (Lora Cain: Female Voiceover Talent for Commercials Promos TV …: Chicago hotels – Low and Discount Rates in …
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Lora Cain: Female Voiceover Talent for Commercials Promos TV Movies Animation
Financial Literacy Month – For Voice-Overs? – Kevin Readdean …
Its National Financial Literacy Month, and we voice-over actors need to wake up and smell the derivatives... or is that residuals!? ... Freelancetaxation.com – a site by financial planner, Susan Lee, which has a wealth of information on taxes for ...