Once a luxury, the Home Studio has quickly become a ‘must have’ tool for any Voice Over artist. We saw this in 2020 with many professional recording studios unable to host clients or artists due to Covid-19 restrictions and many scrambled to create a space and buy equipment so they wouldn’t miss out on work.

The problem I find with this is that for anyone just starting out in voice over, the quality benchmark may not be so obvious, that is until someone rejects a recording.

Now it should be noted that I’m talking about quality from a technical point of view, which is completely different to your ability to do the voice over. Specifically we’re talking about things like the properties of Microphone you use, recording levels, room reflection and ambient or unwanted noise. You could have an amazing voice and deliver a great read, but if you can’t capture it in a way that meets professional standards you’re going to have issues when pitching for jobs or recordings being rejected.

This is why we’ve created the Home Studio Score Card.
This service is designed to help you improve your home studio setup by giving you a score across 4 key areas based on a raw recording you provide from your studio.
Along with a score out of 5 in each area, we include comments and suggestions so you can work on improving your recorded sound.

A Home Studio Score Card assessment costs just $27.50 inc. GST and you can order yours at https://www.voicesoftomorrow.com.au/technical-consultation

Aimee Smith is returning to Melbourne and will be running a 90minute session to demonstrate how to use Twitter to find leads for video game character voice auditions.

In 2019 and early 2020 we had the pleasure of hosting multiple sold-out workshops with Aimee aimed at those wanting to get into video game character voice work but didn’t know where to start…and how she’s coming back!

This time Aimee will be running a presentation to help you navigate Twitter to uncover leads for video game character auditions.

So who exactly is Aimee? Aimee Smith is a Sydney-based, Australian Voice Actor best known for her roles as Milla in Freedom Planet, Alysia in Battlerite, Ktara in Siegecraft Commander and Olivia in Heroes Arena (but her list of roles extends far beyond what we’ve written here).

The upcoming May 21 session will be run at a venue in South Melbourne from 6pm and consists of a 1-hour presentation followed by 30minutes of Q&A.

We hope to see you there! If you’d like to attend you can BOOK HERE.

If you’re new to voice over, at some stage you’re going to need to be able to record yourself to practise, audition or perhaps for your first job.

One key piece of equipment you’ll need is a Microphone, but you don’t need to spend a lot on this (at least not when you’re just getting started). The truth is that you can spend as much money as you have in your bank account on a really great Microphone, yes I’m talking thousands of dollars, but we certainly don’t suggest you do that as you’re just starting out and still learning about voice over.

So what Microphone should you buy?

USB Microphones that can be found at most electronics retailers (JB HiFi or Officeworks) are a great option as they are simple to set up and start using quickly, however they don’t all sound the same and there are plenty that are not really good for much more than as a desktop Microphone for zoom meetings.

Working as a sound engineer for 28 years, I’ve used plenty of different microphones for different purposes, but I’ll never recommend a Microphone (or another other piece of equipment) that I haven’t personally used.

Ok, here’s my recommendation…

The Blue Yeti Nano USB Microphone. The cost is usually around $150, but I see that Officeworks has them for $128 right now.

Yes, you’ll see it has a desktop stand but don’t use it like this. Get a microphone stand and use the included adapter to mount in on the stand so you can use it at standing height. You can also then consider adding a pop-filter.

Finally, it’s important to mention that if you’re looking to make high quality sound recordings from your new Microphone, you also need to consider your recording space. Even a $4000 microphone will sound terrible in a poor recording environment. I’ll talk about setting up a recording space another time but if you have any questions feel free to reach out any time.

Andy

Update: Our April Introduction to Voice Over workshops are now fully booked and we are now taking bookings for June.

These Introduction to Voice Over workshops are perfect for anyone who has little or no experience in Voice Over and wants to not just find out what it’s all about, but actually get in a studio and give it a go!

As part of the in-studio workshops on April 17 and 24, you’ll also attend a 2 hour zoom session on April 14* (from 7pm) where we’ll get most of the discussion and theory done to give you more time in front of the Microphone when you attend on one of the Saturday workshops.

There’s not another beginner’s voice over workshop like this in Melbourne.

You’ll learn, you’ll have fun and leave wanting to do more!

We hope you can join us. Remember we have just 3 more places available over the two workshops. Book now at https://www.voicesoftomorrow.com.au/course-dates/

*If you can’t make it to the zoom session you’ll have the opportunity to view the streaming video of that session before you come to the in-studio part of the workshop.

What is Improv and how can it help you get better at Voice Over? We quite often recommend that people consider attending some improvisation classes as part of their journey into Voice Over but what’s the benefit?

Voice Over Coach Cecelia recently caught up with Amanda Buckley from Impro Melbourne to dig a little deeper into the world of improvisation. Have a listen below.

In just 4 weeks we’ll be back in the studio with our next Introduction to Voice Over Workshops!

Our Introduction to Voice Over Workshop has been running since 2018 and is unique to any other Voice Over Course / Coaching in Melbourne because;

• You’re working with 2 Voice Over Coaches who are also experienced, agency signed, working Voice Over Artists.
• We run the workshop in a professional recording studio.
• It’s a group workshop, but we keep participant numbers low
• You get plenty of time in front of the microphone
• it’s fun!

Here’s what the February workshop looked like…

We can’t wait to get back into the studio for the next workshops on April 17 and April 24 (Which also includes a Zoom session on April 14) and places are filling fast!

How fast?

For April 17 we have 2 places available
For April 24 we have 3 places available

If you have questions about the workshop or other coaching options feel free to get in touch via the contact form or our Facebook page (or you can give us a call on the number at the top right of the screen).

See you soon!

If you’re interested in finding out more about Voice Over and trying it out for the first time OR already have a taste and want to dig in deeper, we have just set dates for our next workshops.

For beginners, we’ll be holding out next Introduction to Voice Over Workshops on April 17 & April 24 (which includes a Zoom session on April 14). This is ideal for anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to step up to the Microphone in a professional setting and record a voice over for a Radio or TV commercial. Perhaps people have been telling you that you have a voice that’s very easy to listen to or ‘made for radio’ – let’s see what you can do with it!

For those who already have some experience in voice over, have already done one of our workshops or completed another voice over course, we’re excited to launch our “Next Step” workshops on June 12 and June 19. Bring the basics with you as we’ll be tackling more challenging scripts that involve Character Voices, Emotion, Syncing to Video and more!

You can book for both of these workshops now HERE or feel free to get in touch and ask questions.

We’ve just completed our first Introduction to Voice Over workshop in 12 months after restrictions finally allowed us to get a group of people back into the studio.

Having changed the format of the workshop to suit current Covid safe practises we cut the workshop down from 2 days to 1 day (plus a zoom session) and now have fewer participants in the studio. This allows us to adhere to social distancing guidelines but also give each person just as much studio time and only commit to one day of their weekend.

The earlier zoom session for our January workshop allowed us to cover of the discussion and theory so more time was spend doing practical work – so in the booth actually recording voice overs.

So without any further delay…here’s what it looked like.

We hope you can join us for one of the next workshops in Febuary!

Like many of you we’re glad to welcome in 2021 and finally get back into the studio for our popular Introduction to Voice Over Workshops.

Yes, restrictions have lifted to a point where can can legally (and safely) have a small group of people in the recording studio to give you the best introduction to what Voice Over is all about.

As part of the ‘new normal’ for us we’ve changed the format of our workshop slightly, breaking it into two parts;

1 – A two-hour zoom session
Previously we’d don’t much of the ‘theory’ and discussion sitting around a table at the recording studio, however we’d discovered that it works well when we do this part of the workshop via Zoom so we can focus on more practical things on the studio day.

2 – One Day Studio Recording Session
This is what really sets us apart from many other Voice Over courses / workshops. 5 participants will spend the day (11am – 4:30pm) in a professional recording studio in Southbank. Everyone gets a copy of their unedited recordings, plus we’ll edit and mix one of your voice over recordings and give you the finished production (for example a radio commercial).

The next workshops are being held on February 20 and February 21 with the zoom session on February 17 (evening). There are now 2 Places available for February 20 and 5 places open for February 21.

Feel free to reach out of you have any questions about the workshops. We hope to see you there!

It’s fair to say that everyone with a business is looking back at this year and saying to themselves ‘well that didn’t go as I thought it would’, and well, Andy and I at Voices of Tomorrow are just the same.

At the start of 2020 we were planning 4 voice over workshop weekends and we only managed one before Covid-19, social distancing requirements and the risk of the old’ air born particles’ ruined our party! And let’s face it, many other’s parties too!

So things changed and we changed too, we did plenty of great online coaching sessions, met lots of new students and set people on the path of their voice over discovery.

We ran our intro to voice over workshop on zoom and Andy ran online workshops on how to record and edit.

But again, like for many others 2020 made us revisit how we did things, in our voice over careers, and in our training and workshops.

Both of us got our home studios updated with Source Connect, a program that lets you connect with studios world wide, we auditioned, we worked with clients here and overseas, we got a better idea of how the industry adapted to the work from home idea, and we looked at how we could give more insight to our students into an evolving industry.

We worked on voice-body connection and refreshed ourselves on theory and great exercises to use as vocal warm ups, and we decided that our weekend workshops will be different from now on. With less people per session, more studio time, more one on one coaching and happy voice people at the other end!

So we wish you a happy Christmas and fingers crossed for a more even keeled 2021.

If you’ve been thinking about getting more from your voice then come and join us for a blast in 2021. Our next group workshops are happening in February (2 dates available) and once we get into the new year we’ll be ready to welcome you to 1 on 1 coaching sessions again too.

Take the first step, you’ll love it!

Cecelia.