Brand New! Looking for feedback please!
Hi everyone!
I've done theatre since 7th grade, love acting, and currently do videos and narration for my place of employment, Titan Auto Sales.
I've been told I have a great voice and that I should pursue voice over. I have absolutely no training, and was looking to put myself out here so as to get some constructive criticism.
I really appreciate any help! Thanks so much!
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Hi Nicole, You sound very good. Maybe try the read as though you were talking to a friend. Conversational
Hi Nicole,
Thanks for sharing your work with us. I agree you have a beautiful voice with great potential.
A couple of suggestions:
As Michael says, try to sound more natural, try a more conversational tone. At parts, I felt you could have slowed a little bit, and allow more pauses between sentences. This will help you sound more natural and fluent. The idea is to transcend the reading and make your voice sound as a fluent, invisible speaker.
Quality-wise, the space where you are recording is not appropriate for professional recordings. There is a loud room echo and background noises (fan, computer, mouse click). Make sure you record in a quiet and acoustically treated space.
If you are interested in learning more about these topics, I invite you to check our articles and recorded webinars here: https://help.bunnyinc.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/203461624
Looking forward to your next submission!
Juan.
If you are interested in pursuing professional VO, the first thing to do is getting coaching. VO is so much more than a wonderful/resonant/deep/rich/dynamic/insert-adjective-here voice. Such a voice is a a wonderful place to start, and the experience you already have certainly helps, but do yourself a favor, and get a coach. There are many genres of VO- - some you'll like, some will turn you off, some fit your voice, some fit like oversized, baggy overalls. There is is much to learn and try and practice and explore. A coach will help you zero in and get going. They can teach you how to do conversational reads, salesy reads, e-learning-professor, and e-learning-peer reads, and so on. They can teach you how to breathe and to maintain your energy through the phrase instead of trailing off. They can teach you what to listen for!! They can also teach you techniques for editing and processing the audio. Do this before you invest in lots of expensive equipment or a special recording space. Once you know this is where you belong (in as few as 4 or 5 sessions, maybe), then recording space is your next priority. A medium mic can sound great in a good space, and an awesome mic (that cost more than a used car) can sound terribly in a poorly treated space. Oh, and don't forget to join voice groups on Facebook or LinkedIn. Never stop learning and training. People out there with decades of experience, who may even coach certain things, still continue to get training in other areas. And, no, I'm NOT a coach! One more thing, stop fast forwarding or tuning out during commercials. Listen to what your peers are doing. Listen to audiobooks. Listen to online training courses to see how the narrators deliver the audio. If you hear something you like, or hate, comment in those online groups.
As for your video, I agree with the other comments (more conversational like you're talking to your best friend over coffee and less big-room-sound) and would add that I found the breaths distracting. Often with commercials, they are edited out all together. Even if you leave some in, you might consider taming those that you leave in. With longer narration, like audio books, breaths are usually left in, but are not distracting. As Juan said, the flow of the read is very import, so don't knock the listener out of it. Pacing, when to maintain and when to vary, is something else coaches can help you with.