I’ve been a very bad boy with regard to this blog being on the back burner. It’s basically life just getting in the way. I never intended this blog to be the end-all-be-all when it comes to voiceover or any other subject. Other bloggers fill that void better than I ever could. It’s more of a place for me to share whatever is occupying my thoughts or inspiring my actions when I feel the urge. Sometimes, I do it out of habit. But lately, my habit has been not to do it at all. So I’m going to try to be better about it.

Kara Edwards wrote a brilliant piece today on this same topic and it’s her post that inspired this post.

Check it out.

http://karaedwardsvo.blogspot.com/2009/11/confession-and-thank-you.html

The Voice Registry blog over at Voicebank.net is hosting a contest asking people for their worst voiceover experience.  99.9% of my sessions go down great with no lasting side effects. But there was one experience that stood out to me because I had to stretch in a way I really wasn’t comfortable stretching. So I wrote about it hoping to win an Ipod Touch, which would come in really handy since my mp3 player just bit the dust and morning closed captioned talk shows are really boring me at the gym.

So if you don’t mind casting your vote for me, just click here and select “Joe Szymanski” from the dropdown.

Many thanks! The story follows:

If you’re like most, you continue to improve as time goes on. It’s kind of like watching a flower grow. Look often and you might not see differences from one day to the next. But come back a week or two later and things are in full bloom.

I recorded a long form narration job early last year for a client that was a pleasure to work with. Recently, they decided they wanted to update some copy to reflect improvements to the product. No big deal, ordinarily. But little did I know what we were both in for with this particular session.

Obviously, they wanted to maintain the same tone and vocal style as last time so the new VO would match nicely with the old stuff. As soon as the producer began playing some of it down the ISDN line as a refresher, I noticed right away that I was working at a higher level than when I recorded the work originally. This meant that in order to match the tone from last time, I’d have to bring myself back to the level of ability I possessed the prior year when it was recorded. I had to make my delivery purposely sound worse!

It was stiff, sing-songy and a bit pukey in places. And worse, it had to be recreated! What kind of hack did they hire last year anyway?

Forty minutes later, we finished up and I stepped out of the hot booth for a drink and a breath of air. Phone rings. “Uh, yeah Joe… Were you possibly using a different mic last time around?” Oops. I had forgotten to mention that I had switched not only my microphone, but my preamp as well since we had last worked together. (Note: I don’t recommend this to anyone if you have continuing jobs that require pickups from time to time.) Blindly figuring that the ISDN would have provided a clear signal for the engineer to ensure consistency, I hadn’t given it much thought or concern. Now, I was giving it a lot of both.

I scrambled to hook up my other mic and run it direct into the board. With the producer back on the line, we re-recorded the entire session. And yes, the second time was just as purposefully altered as the first, though mercifully it didn’t take quite as long.

You can see why this turned out to be one of the biggest and most unexpected challenges of my VO career. I never dreamed that improvement could come back and bite me like a dog gone rabid. Funny thing was, the producer liked my current read style a lot better, but for purposes of blending new with old, everybody’s hands were tied.

Measured growth in any creative venture is refreshing and rejuvenating. And looking back to who we were can be a good indicator where we’re going. There’s joy in that journey for sure. As long as you’re ok with off-roading once in awhile.

Gotta say, I’m really looking forward to listening to Ryan Drean’s latest two-part interview over at his podcast, The Producers.  But I need something to take to the gym with me tonight, so I’ll have to save it for then. Because everyone knows, when you workout with Ryan, you burn double the calories! Well not really, but it passes the time nicely.

Steve Stone is a great guy and a really talented voice actor. Go check out Ryan’s interview with him here.

I’m a big fan of email, just like you probably are. But as Dan O’Day and Ann DeWig talk about together, sometimes our use of the system is flawed.

Go check out Dan’s conversation with Ann, here. It’s a long file but a great reminder for all of us that send and recieve tons of email each day. Especially as it relates to voiceover and auditioning.

Last week was the annual Promax/BDA conference in New York City. Promo producers at both the network and affiliate levels converge on the Hilton for three days of seminars and networking. Attending numbers were down this year, probably because of the economy being what it is. I talked to one producer who’s employer wasn’t sending anybody this year, even though they were already based in NYC meaning no pricey hotel or airfare to worry about. A sign of the times for sure.

There was a good side though. The annual Promax party hosted by my agency, Atlas Talent, is typically standing room only. This year, however, there was a little more breathing room inside the three-floor venue that hosted the event. It was great to finally put faces to producers and fellow voice actors that I knew only through email. That’s always a good thing when it happens.

After a couple of unseasonably cool days (perfect!) New York got pounded with rain on Thursday, canceling lots of flights and delaying mine by two hours. Once we got on the plane at JFK, we sat for another hour before finally getting off the ground. It was good to finally get home and a booking on Friday morning made it even better.

New York is such a unique and fun place to visit, When you work by yourself day in and day out in a much smaller city, it can really be a shock to the system during the first day or so. But as they say, it’s all good.

The LA Times just did an great interview with LA trailer and promo voice artist, Scott Rummell. Wanna know the greatest thing about Scott? Though this particular article doesn’t mention it, I can tell you that before Scott got into VO work, he was a salesperson for a radio station.

Yes, the cream always rises to the top, provided the cream doesn’t mind a lot of hard work to get there.

Thanks to Donna Reed and Bob Souer for the alert on this.

There’s a theory out there in voiceover land that the buyers who pay the least turn out to be the biggest pains in the… you know.  I suppose it’s true in most businesses. It’s been called the PITA quotient which is beautifully blunt. Mary McKitrick blogs about a book she read not too long ago that suggests these people are actually costing you money.

That being said, I must have good fortune because I can count my past true PITA experiences on two or three fingers.

I’ll admit it. Sometimes, I’m not the biggest fan of change. Sure, change can often be good and sweet is its taste after battles have been fought to get there. But other times, change is like a whirling tornado, uprooting the landscape as we know it and leaving us scrambling to keep up.

You may have heard that Radio & Records Magazine abruptly shut down operations yesterday after 36 years. I received my usual daily industry briefing email from them in the morning with no hint of what was coming. By that afternoon, the staff was gone, the website down and lots of heads were shaking with the realization that radio and records (as an industry) will never be the same.

R&R is just the latest casualty in the print media collapse. It’s never been more clear that we are on a path that’s quickly favoring the immediacy and environmentally friendly nature of the web. But what seemed like a good thing at first really has me wondering lately. Sometimes evolving technology seems to take us backward instead of forward in many respects. In this case, our choices on how we read information are becoming more limited which seems very anti-21st century when you think about it.

I don’t know about you but I get tired of computer screens. I read off of them all day long. My eyes often get bloodshot and fuzzy as a result of this necessary evil, which my optometrist told me there’s really nothing I can do about, save for a few eye drops here and there.  Print media has always a welcome break for this set of eyes. A way to unwind outside, in bed, or even while answering nature’s call. (TMI?) And honestly, the thought of having to lug my laptop out onto the deck with my coffee and make sure the battery is charged and the glare from the sun isn’t blinding my reading just seems… frustrating. (Side note – good invention idea – a laptop sun visor)

As I get older, I realize how set in my ways I am. I’m not as fluid as I should be. I get annoyed at being inconvenienced and it turns into blogs like these. Maybe a healthy perspective would include something about how blessed I am to have the immediacy of the internet at my fingertips. Because it’s true, it really does enhance my quality of life in so many ways. But as change continues to happen, both good and rotten, I’m really beginning to appreciate why the old-timers eyes always lit up when they began a story with “back in the good old days…”

Ryan Drean continues his podcast series with great interviews featuring VO talent Chris Corley and imaging producer Jeff Thomas.

Link up to the latest here.

I was looking over my RSS feeds today and noticed the folks at Giveaway of the Day were making available a free audio editor that you might want to try out. It’s available for free download and installation, today only. Normally $29.95. The screen shots look a lot like an early incarnation of Cool Edit.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/mp3-music-editor/