Accent Question
Hey folks!
Wanted to get some help understanding what my accent sounds like to people. Recently I learned my English speaking Voicebunny account is being closed because my North American accent doesn't sound authentic enough.
The VB Staff I corresponded with mentioned:
"Our quality control manager personally reviewed your profile and we have found that your English accent is not native and, therefore, we can't offer it to our clients."
This was a bit surprising to me since I was born and raised here in the US, and have worked standard American VO outside of the site!
Would anyone mind listening to some of these samples in question and keying in on where my accent doesn't sound authentically American?
https://soundcloud.com/rafaelmmiguel/welle/s-FeCYJ
https://soundcloud.com/rafaelmmiguel/zohar
https://soundcloud.com/rafaelmmiguel/commercialreel-englishspanish
Cheers,
Rafael
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Hi, Rafael!
I have reviewed your case and I think there was a mistake somewhere with the message you received. Our apologies for the confusion. I'll find what may have happened.
The reason why your account is being closed is due to quality issues found in your deliverables. Your quality is inconsistent, some audios have unacceptable levels of hiss, others have distortion. For that reason, we have decided to deactivate your account until you achieve a consistent level of quality that's up to par with our quality standards.
I hope you understand the reason behind this decision is to guarantee high quality deliverables to our clients, and to favour the best talents out there!
I invite you to check some of the webinars and articles we have in our community that will help you find a solution to your problems. You'll be back on track in no time! :)
Kind regards,
Juan
Ah, gotcha!
That makes more sense, thanks. As I mentioned with the VB staff member I've been corresponding with, I think there might've been an accent discrepancy with my auditions for UK/British accents, but I have since removed that option from my language/accent settings on my profile.
In regards to correcting the quality issues on my deliverables, how can I demonstrate improvement in order to reopen my account, or do I need to start from scratch at some point with a new account?
Thanks!
Rafael
Hi Rafael!
I just wanted to pitch in to mention that the accent situation is, indeed, present. We sat down together to determine what's what we found in your accent. The issue with this is that it gives the impression of not being real because you mumble a lot.
Keep in mind this is aside from the quality issues present and that Juan Santiago mentioned.
Hope this helped!
Ah,
Thanks guys. I can definitely understand the distortion quality since I was improving my studio as I got going on VB beforehand, but I'd love more specifics on where you are hearing mumbling in my samples/files. Would you be able to point anything out in particular?
Cheers,
Rafael
Hi Rafael
The mumbling is more typically present at the beginnings of the sentence and is directly related to how you enunciate words. Keep in mind that tone variation is important, but you also have to pair it up with a good pronunciation and enunciation technique. When recording, talking like you would in a normal day may end up mixing some of the words to make it faster. We usually do this as a reflex because the people we talk to understand how we communicate. However, for voice overs, you need to be very careful as to pronounce each and every syllable correctly.
Our Pro Tommy Griffiths hosted a webinar with us on this regard and it was really great! You may be able to learn some tips! You can find it here: https://goo.gl/gSVTdD
Hope this helps!
Hey guys, wanting to follow up on this thread since I just got an e-mail from Angela asking to take the survey for feedback.
Hi Rafael!
We looked at your history and besides the quality issues and a number of rejections from our QC team, we see you have an overall poor success rate. This may be related to the quality and performance issues we've brought up before.
Now, we recently opened up English - Latinamerica, and we think your voice may work best under this category!
So, in order to reactivate your account, you must first solve the quality issues and then we can do two things:
1. If you are ok with it, we could close your account and you would have to go through the application process again and start from scratch.
2. If you would like to keep your current account, you can submit the audio files through this medium in order to be reviewed by our QC team.
Let us know what you prefer.
Best,
Juan.
Hi!
Thanks for getting back to me...
Either of those options sound fine, but I am curious if there is any way I can keep the positive aspects of my account record, such as the favorite I received from a client attached to my account as well as my submitted auditions that were not rejected?
Thanks for helping me out!
Rafael
Hi Rafael!
If we keep the account, it would be kept with all its attributes, rejections and favorites. For this reason, I actually suggest we start over. I believe it would be much more beneficial for both parties. I mean, we would be able to review your current quality and make sure it matches our standards and, if approved, you would be able to work with us again with a fresh profile. Would that work?
Let me know!
Yes,
That would be fine, I would think it would behoove all parties to retain the favorite so that that particular person could bring VB more business through me prospectively, but what you are suggesting sounds good.
Let me know the next steps,
Thanks,
Rafael
Awesome, Rafael.
Your account has been closed so you can reapply again at any moment. Please keep our comments about your quality and your performance before you do. This way, you can make sure you're not rejected.
Thank you for your interest in working with us! Let us know if you need more help on this :)