Bob starts off:

“There are lots of folks who think that voiceover work is all about the voice. Sure, there’s an element of truth in that idea. When we audition, many times the final choice the client makes is based on whose voice most closely matches what they’re looking for; but be careful how far you carry this idea.”  Read More.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO7Qrt9QzbE

It’s something I really enjoy doing and I am pretty good at it if I may say so myself.  If you would like to discuss producing your next demo please contact me.

Samples of Demos produced by Brian Hart

Russ McLamb Rock Imaging

Russ McLamb Country Imaging

Caryn Clark Radio Imaging

I produce all my own demos so you may listen to them also.  Read more after the jump if you are interested in learning about the demo production process.

Evaluation:

Now this subject is a bit tricky and I’m going to try to write it without being rude or arrogant.  I’ve recently implemented an evaluation process before I produce any demos and I may ask you to send me a copy of your current demos or samples of your work before I agree to produce anything.

Why?  Well, here’s the deal:  I love producing great demos. On the other hand it really drains my enthusiasm and saps my creative energy if I feel you aren’t ready for me to produce a demo for you yet.  I hate the idea of wasting your time and mine by creating a demo that isn’t going to bring you work.  My wife says I should just shut up and take the money but I can’t do that.  Producing a good demo is a very time intensive process and it’s expensive.  I need the satisfaction – and since you’re paying for my expertise you deserve the peace of mind – that comes with knowing it’s the best work it can be from your delivery and my production.

How much does it cost?

Well that depends.  Do you already have pieces you wish me to put together and re-master as a coherent demo or are you asking me to provide sample copy for you to voice?  Do you want me to direct a session or two via phone patch (I like to do this with newer talent)?  Do you want your demo to have a huge production value or should it be more minimalist?  There are a lot of variables that I customize for each individual’s style and type of demo so discussing your needs with me while asking me for a quote is best.

Right now my base rate for a commercial demo is $500.00 if you provide the workparts.  Imaging demos start at $750.00 each.  Expect to pay a bit more if I provide the copy or if you want a sound that is very labor intensive.  I have literally thousands of royalty free music beds and sound effects I include in my rates but if there’s a particular bed you want to purchase from a music source that might cost a little extra.  If you want me to produce more than one demo I have discounted rates available depending on how many and what type of demos you need.

I’ll ask for a deposit up front, with the remaining balance due upon completion of your demos (when you are satisfied with them of course!)

How many demos do I need?

Good question.  For starting talent I generally recommend one commercial demo along with one or two other styles such as narration, audiobook, IVR/telephony etc depending on your interests and where you think you might find work.  If you are interested in radio imaging you should count on at least three different specialized imaging demos.  Imaging and promo work are very tough nuts to crack so I highly recommend you explore the field and realistically analyze your commitment and chances for success fully before committing to making demos.

What files do I get?

When you are satisfied with your demos I will provide you with the produced version in your choice of .wav, .mp3, or .aiff files as well as providing you with a copy of the session files you may use for future revisions.  I also archive all my projects locally so if you wish for me to revise your demo in the future (add a new commercial for example) it’s easy for me to do so at a very reasonable rate.

Do you have more questions or would you like to discuss your demo with Brian Hart?  Contact Brian Hart for further information.

The new voiceover booth is coming along nicely thanks to the generosity of some fantastic people that know much more about acoustic design than I do.  The isolation walls and ceiling are done.  Over 300 square feet of acoustic insulation is on it’s way.  The new door should be delivered on Monday or Tuesday of next week.  It’s a heavy beastie but it has to be to provide the kind of isolation I want (and feel that you as my client deserve).

The Hart Voice Overs Booth

Today I got the flooring installed. Boy it looks pretty. And it won’t mess with the high frequencies in the voice range the way carpet does.

The new floor in Hart Voice Overs Vocal Booth

I’ll have the door system installed next week. The acoustic insulation should arrive in about another week. As soon as it gets here I’ll be able to treat the walls and hang a “cloud” on the ceiling. Then the new booth will be ready to go!

I’m very excited about the upgrade to this booth and I hope you, as a client or potential client, are excited about the great enhancements it will provide for your projects with Hart Voice Overs as well.

photo credit: re_birf

How do you write good copy for voice over?

Writing for the spoken word can be dramatically different than composing a piece that is meant to be read.  Take a magazine article or newspaper and read it out loud and you will quickly see what I mean.  You have to think about the context, the target audience, the speaker’s point of view… and on and on.  A lot goes into good VO copy.

I referenced good copy in my article “How to Hire A Voice Over” to some extent with the intention of addressing copy later in a separate post.  Digital Newsgathering has beaten me to the punch with a great  piece called “Say What? Best Practices for Writing Voice Over Copy” that you should read before sending that script off for the VO.

Its all good stuff but pay particular attention to the section on timing.  It can be very hard to condense your message into 30 seconds and keep the pacing at a good speed but it’s critcal to having a great voiceover read.

It is also good practice to read your script out loud after you have written it.  You’ll find things that may seem clear on paper but don’t translate well in speech.  We also tend to write rather formally and your VO may call for a more informal approach.  For example I might write  “We are all going to the store”.  However you might not say we are in casual conversation, you might say we’re.  It’s those little details that can really bring out the character and enhance your message in great copy.

In addition to being a professional voice actor Brian Hart also offers copywriting consults and services.

Multi Track Mix in Adobe Audition 3.0

Panning

Let’s be technical for a bit – and I’m going to use tech terms and jargon in this posting so be prepared if you’re new to the production game.  This post is for all you creative services directors, production directors – whatever it is you call yourselves in radio these days.  Me?  I prefer prod guy (or girl) or if I’m feeling particularly cocky: prod guru.  Yesterday I was working on a piece with a very high production value.  Lots of compression, reverb, EQ, various whooshes, stutters and gizmos.  You get the idea.  I decided to spice it up a bit more with some creative panning and that’s when I broke one of Hart’s rules:

Hart’s Rule #214

“Never pan a track more than 30% out of center”

I was playing with a plugin I’ve got that has some pretty neat panning effects and it sounded great in the studio.  Just awesome.  So I finished the piece up and ftp’d it on out into the ether.  On my way to pick up my son at daycare I decided to listen to it on my iphone because; boy I just really nailed that one.  Hmm, where’s that cool panning effect?  Yeah, couldn’t hear it at all.  I plugged the phone into the truck’s sound system.  Still couldn’t hear it.  That portion of the VO had vanished faster than  Bernie Madoff’s golf buddies.  That  reminds me of another of Hart’s rules:

Hart’s Rule #3

“Listen to your mixes outside of the studio”

But that’s a topic for another post.  Back to panning.  When you are playing with stereo effects in your mixes it’s generally a good idea to mix for mono compatible stereo.  Don’t pan a track more than 30% out of center.  Your vocal track or effect or whatever it is will stay nicely in the mix if you have to convert to mono at some point in the future.   And there are reasons you might.  If you happen to have an AM stick in your cluster you know what I’m talking about.  Sure some AM setups will handle a stereo file but what if the sum gets reversed somewhere?  Engineers do make mistakes occasionally despite what they may tell you. That beautiful commercial or promo you produced either sounds like crap or is unintelligible over the air.

Believe it or not a small percentage of your audience still listens to your FM in mono too so a mono compatible mix keeps them happy as well.  For that matter I know quite a few FM talkers that broadcast in FM mono to help out the signal footprint.

Mono files work best for phone systems and some internet applications too if you plan on playing the station or a set of promos through your phone system for example.  So it’s generally a good idea to keep your panning at a reasonable level.

Like most rules this one IS meant to be broken:  There’s a PSA about driving out right now where the VO only speaks in the right channel for a bit.  It’s cute, it’s clever and memorable, and it emphasizes the point of the PSA very well.

I’ve heard some killer imaging where the stereo field is wider than Kevin Smith’s butt.  And there are times when I too follow the sage words: Go Big or Go Home.  Just make sure you know the final destination of your mix and that it doesn’t need to be mono compatible for sure before you break that 30% threshold.

Now the savvy among you are saying, “But wait, Brian you played your mix in stereo devices so it shouldn’t have mattered.”  Right.  It shouldn’t have but it did. So I investigated today.  The new plugin I was playing with sounded great in the multi track mode but after I ran the mixdown through a multiband compressor with the brickwall limiter set it royally screwed it all up.  Yet another lesson – pay attention to how your plugins interact with each other.

So there you have it.  Hart’s rule #214

Agree?  Disagree?  Leave a comment below.

-Brian Hart is a prod guy guru and voiceover  actor.

The site struck me as a delightful use of the potential of audio and social networking.  I eventually asked the originator of the site – Ivan Reyes – if he’d mind responding to a few pointed questions about Chirbit, specifically the possibilities for voice-actors.

It looks to me like the future holds a lot of promise for this way cool application – Chirbit.  Check it out by clicking on the quote.

photo by loop_oh

My wife was looking at my website and noticed all the links I have to other voice actors and she asked me “Aren’t you promoting the competition?”  Excellent question.

I suppose that is one way of looking at it, that yes I am promoting the competition but I think that’s a little too simplistic and here’s why: 

The Competition

Most of the time I don’t really think of other voice actors as competition.  They are colleagues and some are true friends.  There are some voiceover artists I admire greatly and some I am very thankful they take the time to mentor me.  Others are not as far along the professional curve as I am and I try to take the time to help them when they ask.  So no, in my mind they are not competition.

Many Styles

As a professional I want you to have the perfect voice over.  Hopefully I can provide that to you but if my voice isn’t the one you need for your current project that’s okay.  There are certain styles of VO I excel at and get paid well to do.  Other voiceover actors have styles that they perform better than I.  In that sense we are not competing at all since we bring different things to the table.  I want your project to be a success.  If I can be a part of that success that is fantastic but if another voice is better suited, that’s cool.  Hopefully you will keep me in mind for your next project.

Promoting The Industry

photo by Brian Hart

When I promote another voice actor by adding a link to my site or posting about them I’m not necessarily promoting the competition, I’m promoting the voice over industry as a whole.  When a movie theater puts up several posters of different films on their wall are they competing against themselves?  No, because regardless of what movie you select the theater profits.  When you hire a voice actor the entire industry profits.  So again, while I hope I am right for your project and can work with you on it, I’m very happy to see my friends and colleagues in the industry getting work and gaining exposure too.

Now you know why I feel it is okay to provide links to other sites on my blog.  But I pose the question to you: Am I promoting the competition?

This weekend I was painting my voiceover booth when I realized how much painting and voiceover acting have in common.  Now I bet you’re saying to yourself, “Brian you’ve sniffed too many paint fumes.”  You’re probably right but humor me and keep reading.  I think you will agree with me in the end.

I spent a part of my life as a professional painter almost by accident.  I worked with a construction company for a while and ended up being quite good at painting so eventually the boss made me the “go to” painter.  I mention this so you know that I actually do have a legitimate perspective in comparing voice over to painting.

Painting takes a certain level of skill.  Sure lots of people do it but only a certain number are good enough to make it a full time profession.  One of the guys I worked with was an excellent framer and he’s the man for tile work.  But he’s awful at painting,  absolutely terrible.  So he didn’t paint often.  VO is the same way.  As a client you want to make sure your VO (or your painter for that matter) has the talent, skill and experience needed to get your job done right.  As a painter I was lucky to have a mentor who taught me the “old” ways of painting, critiqued my work and helped me improve.  I was very fortunate to work for him.  A professional voice over will also work to improve their talent and skill through additional training methods.  I’m also very lucky to have a few mentors willing to work with me and help me improve for my clients.

A quality painter uses the proper tools for each job.  As a painter I love to use a quality Purdy Nylox brush.  It has a great action, paint flows smoothly off the bristles, and it’s a breeze to clean up.  But it’s not the right tool for all jobs.  Sometimes I need a foam brush or one specifically for oil paints.  A professional voice actor will also select the proper tools for each job.  In his or her case the tools include their voice – how they modify things like tone and delivery speed – along with the proper selection of mic, preamp etc.  As an example I generally use a Sennheiser MKH 416 for imaging and promo work but I might select something like an ElectroVoice RE20 for a radio or tv commercial if I am trying to convey a particularly warm sound.

In achieving a great paint job, a professional knows that prep is very important.  When painting a wall it needs to be smooth and clean, drop cloths need to be laid down and primer might need to be applied.  Prep is key to a quality voiceover as well.  A pro voice actor discusses your script with you before the session and rehearses the read before they ever hit the record button.

A good professional painter can cover minor flaws when painting- making the overall room look great.  A professional voice artist can work through minor flaws in your script as well providing you with a delivery that enhances your overall project.

Painter's Comb

And if you wanted to learn something about painting- umm okay…  Here’s a PROTIP:  Get  a painter’s comb.  This is by far my most helpful tool when painting. It makes cleaning brushes a snap and it costs about $4.00. Make sure and get the kind that has both the comb and the bristles.

Well?  I may be high on paint fumes but I bet you’ll agree that painting and voiceover have more in common than you  first thought when you read the title.

Please bear with me.  The site hasn’t even been up a week yet and I want new demos to go with the new site.  It’s a work in progress and I had no idea how much excitement Hart Voice Overs would generate in it’s first week.  But I know you can’t decide if you want to talk to me without something.  So here is an overview of some of what I do from my other site, Brian Hart Productions.  Please ignore the phone number at the end, it’s no longer valid.  My new number is (251) 752-9221.

Brian Hart Overview

This demo is mainly showcasing my audio production but my voice is also featured throughout.  There are more demos on that site you can listen to as well.  I know you’ll like what you hear and if you decide I might be a good fit for your project please contact me for a free audition and quote.

Contact Brian Hart