Anthony Smith

I love tabletop RPG’s.  They are, of everything that I do, probably my favorite hobby.  It’s really not a surprise, though.  I get to practice character voices, I get to be creative, and I get to tell collaborative stories with my friends and my family.  Man, I feel like a lucky guy!  But then I decided to go and do it for a podcast, and boy is it a ton of fun!  It’s also way more work than I ever imagined, and I’d like to talk about my experience.  

And So It Begins

So it’s 2019 and I’m working the midnight shift at my previous job.  I had just gone to my local Books-A-Million and found a book series that seemed super interesting called “The Nevernight Series” by Jay Kristoff (click the name if you’d like to check them out.)  The writing style in those books is super interesting, and it inspired me to start working on the campaign that would eventually become “Another D&D Party”.  Specifically, I emulated his writing style in the dream sequence that started out the campaign.

Building the World  

Then started, no joke, a couple hundred hours of world building.  I personally love homebrew worlds, and for a long time I used a different “world” for every campaign that I ran.  I say “world” since it was just…whatever I decided to create next.  Thankfully, I was able to draw on a lot of those “worlds” to combine them into the singular world that I created for this campaign.  The world that will be the setting for my campaigns for the foreseeable future.  I even ended up writing a lore book which explains the history of the world up to the point of the campaign.  That way, some of my players can be caught up on the history of the world for roleplay opportunities.  

Character Creation

After all of that, I talked to my friends and family to curate my players.  This became one of my first hurdles in all of this, but we’ll get to that later in Part 2.  Of everything I had done to this point, this was my favorite part.  I also believe that character creation is one of the most important parts of the whole process.  However, it’s probably for a different reason than you think.  

Sure, figuring out what everyone’s going to play is super fun.  For me as a Dungeon Master (DM), I take character creation, specifically backstory, very seriously.  I have always allowed my players’ backstories to affect and alter the world that I build.  This game is no different.  Sure, you can have your fighter, rogue, cleric, barbarian, and wizard, but that doesn’t explain WHY they’re there.  I’m lucky enough to have players that want to further the story, and the best way to make their characters fit organically is to let them build their character’s “world” within the campaign setting.  There’s a great resource out there for building better backstories which you can check out HERE.  This channel is run by my sister who plays Naia on the podcast.  

Putting it together

Next comes putting all of that hard work together.  So between myself and all of my players with their character creation, backstories, and us working together to see where their ideas fit in the world, we’re well into 300+ hours of pregame work.  I initially started out with 5 players, but eventually added an extra one since I wanted this to be a very high powered campaign.  The last thing that I put together was the soundtrack for it using royalty free music from Epidemic Sound.  That was another 80 or so hours of fielding hundreds of music tracks to find just the right songs to really gel everything together.  Then, the session 0’s to get everyone into the character’s headspace and establish their lives in the world.

Tragedy

As I said at the beginning, I started work on the campaign in 2019.  I had just put the final pieces in place so we could start…just before March of 2020.  We suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a pandemic.  Our first few sessions, which should have been in person like the session 0’s for each character, had to be had online.  I ended up dragging out everything for as long as I could in hopes that we could get back together soon.  We had a handful of sessions online and were finally able to meet in person again in July.  But, it wasn’t to be.  Come October of 2020, we had a bad Covid scare, and it was decided that the whole thing would be postponed.  I ended up running an offshoot campaign on Roll20 that took place hundreds of years before this one.  And finally, in July of 2021, we felt it was safe enough to get back together.  

 

Alright, I hadn’t intended this to be two parts, but I think this is a good spot to end.  Come back next week for part 2!

You know, every now and then I take a look back at my life and come to a realization that it’s no wonder that I became a voice actor.  Honestly, the signs were always there, pretty much from the beginning.  I was a loud baby, I pick up accents easily, I give people whiplash because I change my voice mid sentence for fun, I’m loud, I love cartoons, video games, and pretty much all animation, and did I mention I’m loud?  

Everyone that knows me knows that my first love is character acting.  However, there’s one thing above all else that has bothered me.   Even more since I’ve started doing more work within the business sector of the industry.  As a business, the best thing you can do is build a voice for your brand.  So why is it that, more often than not, businesses use different voice actors for commercials, phones, and corporate videos?

Voiceover and Business

You’d have to live under a rock to not realize how important voiceover is to the business and corporate sector for the world.  I won’t insult your intelligence by giving examples.  However, I can’t believe how many businesses won’t hire the same voice talent to craft the voice of their business.  We always talk about the importance of continuity in brand colors, logos, slogans, marketing material, but I see that idea slip a lot when it comes to voice over.  

Building Your Business’s Voice

Now, I understand that a lot of voice actors specialize in specific aspects of our industry.  But, a lot of talent that specializes in the corporate sector can fulfill quite a few of the needs of businesses.  It seems to me that someone that works in that sector would jump at the chance to work with a company to build their voice. 

When you have a recognizable voice for your business, it starts to feel like a friend.  Especially when you hear the same voice in the advertisements, IVR, hold messages, and voicemail greetings.  When you hear multiple voices, it has the very real potential to become disjointed and confusing.  It’s like hiring a different voice actor to play Bugs Bunny in every episode of Looney Toons instead of keeping Mel Blanc in the booth.  It would feel like a different character in every episode.  Instead, utilizing one voice actor lets you know that you’re watching the same character in every show, or in this case, the same business.  

If you take the time to come up with a cohesive logo, color scheme, and supporting business imagery, you have a solid foundation for the persona of your business.  Working with a voice actor to create a voice is the other half of that.  Do you want it to be edgy?  Do you want it to be sweet?  A company I’m working with wanted something super sentimental, warm, and inviting.  Voice talent can help you achieve all of that and more to help give your business its best chance of new or continued success.  And that’s it.  I apologize that there wasn’t more substance to this, but this is something I’ve been thinking about for a while.  It was nice to muse about it on the page.  Whelp, until we meet again, take care!

Hello Voice Actors!  It’s Been a While!

Hello, fellow voiceover people, it’s been a while!  It’s to see you again, and I hope you’re enjoying the new website!  I won’t take the time to bore you with reasons why I haven’t been here.  I will say, though, that I’m excited to see back, excited to see what becomes of my business, and happy to share that with you.  So let’s go ahead and get into the meat of this blog post. 

If you haven’t started following my social media, you should definitely stop reading this article and go do that.  I’ll wait!  Ok, now that you’re back, it’s currently the week of March 5-12, 2023.  I’ve taken the week to talk a little bit on social media about AI and the buzz I’ve been hearing in the background of this industry about it.  There is certainly some fear that AI generated voices are going to disrupt our industry, but I’m here to argue why I don’t believe it will happen to any great extent and why I don’t think that it’s a bad thing.

The Intelligence of AI

Artificial intelligence is something that we hear about a lot in science fiction.  Usually, it ends up with it gaining sentience and destroying humanity in some kind of “Event Horizon”.  Unless of course it enjoys its life as the brain of a star ship or building of some sort.    It’s pretty cool to me that we’ve all lived long enough to see something from the future become “reality” in a way. 

I recently voiced a social media post for a client that talked about AI.  The post talked about Machine Intelligence which is the umbrella term for the way computer systems learn, develop, and adapt without being told what to do by a human.  It produces “Weak AI” that doesn’t truly think and focuses on a limited number of things.  However, if things progress as they have been, one day we’ll have “Strong AI” which will go much further than this!  The possibilities are potentially endless as AI continues to develop and get better at what it does.

So is it Useful?

Without a doubt, AI has its usefulness.  I personally use AI to help with my own creativity.  It’s a wonderful tool to craft practice scripts and character slides.  I also used it to help me homebrew my setting for the Persona themed TTRPG that I run opposite my D&D podcast. My brother-in-law used it to craft an entire birthday one-shot for my sister.  There are TikToks all over that talk about using it for table top.

A friend of mine uses it to curate social media posts for his business.  I’ve found use in doing the same for mine to help me hone in on my own posts.  IT professionals are using it to write code to help them fix problems with machines with a high degree of success. Even AI art, which is the major seed of controversy with AI, is breaking away from using existing artwork to create the “airtwork” that it creates.  However, it’s important to remember that AI is and was always intended to be a tool to be used by humans, and that brings me to my next point.

Will AI Take Voiceover Jobs from Voice Actors?

Honestly, I don’t think it will.  Regardless of what may happen with AI, the “human element” is required for the voiceover industry.  And I can hear all of you now reminding me of THIS article; “But James Earl Jones just sold his voice as Darth Vader to Disney to recreate it with AI!”.  Yes, he did.  They can now AI generate his voice for voiceover.  But in the episode of Kenobi in which it happens, there’s still a human element to it.  It’s still going off of Hayden Christensen’s line delivery, which I’ll admit is quite good in the Kenobi series.  The reason that voice generation works so well for a character like Darth Vader is because his voice is already portrayed as largely robotic. 

I’ve heard delivery of AI voices for commercial reads as well, and they’re also quite good.  I’d go so far as to say 85-90% of a human voice, but it’s still just a little bit too perfect.  Enough so that it kind of falls into the uncanny valley.  I know some of you won’t like hearing this, but the best thing we as voice actors bring to read is just the little bit of imperfection.  It’s what makes them human and is the one thing that we will always have on AI.  And you know what?  That’s ok!  I hope you enjoyed reading this and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.  Thanks for checking it out, and I’ll see you all in the next one!

The Tea on Voice Over

There’s nothing that I enjoy more than sitting down after recording and editing voice work than brewing myself some of my favorite tea, sitting in my favorite chair, and turning on some of my favorite YouTubers or TV Shows.  Well, that is except taking that same pot of tea and playing some of my favorite video games.  It helps me relax after a day in the booth or a day working on the business side of this industry.  Even as I’m typing this, I’m deciding between my good Earl Gray or my favorite Maple Apple Cider herbal tea from Stash Tea.  While I could sit and talk tea for way too many hours to be healthy, tea is not what today’s article is about.   

Self-Care and Voice Over

We are lucky enough to live in a world where mental health has become a primary focus.  Therapy is often easily accessible as are medications to aid in depression and anxiety.  Plus, there are plenty of different things we can do for ourselves, too.  Self-care is extremely important when it comes to dealing with stress, and voice over can be very stressful by nature. We have to keep up audition numbers, deal with rejection, meet deadlines, manage our own finances or hire people to do so, etc.  It’s a lot to keep track of!  There are so many different things that can count as self-care, we’d be silly not to take advantage of self-care as a coping mechanism.  

The Importance of Self-Care and “After-Booth Rituals”

To my point, I believe one of the greatest bits of self-care that we can have as voice actors is having what I call “after-booth rituals”.  It is so important to have things to look forward to doing after a day in the booth.  It’s super great to wind down and relax after yelling into a microphone for hours.  I’ve already talked about my personal favorites, but there are so many things you can do.  Maybe you’re into a bubble bath and wine after a day’s work.  Perhaps your favorite thing to look forward to is smothering your pet in love and kisses.  No matter what it may be, we need to have things that recharge us for the next day in the booth.  If not, we can all burn out very quickly in this industry.

Think of the Possibili-”teas”

Ok, that was the last one.  I promise that the tea talk is done.  I know this was a shorter blog than the others I have posted, but that’s probably ok.  It’s all been just a long and fancy way to say “have fun with something after recording”.  It’s extremely fulfilling to me to be able to share my thoughts and experiences with you.  Until the next one, take care!  I’ll talk to you again soon.

Welcome to 2021!

Congratulations!  If you’re reading this, then that means that you and your voice over business made it through the hellscape known as 2020 and into 2021.  That means that you’ve survived all of the political strife and have lived to see a new president and vice president take office.  That means that, so far, you’ve managed to survive this virus that has plagued the world for the last year!  So, once again, I would like to say “Congratulations” and give you a proverbial pat on the back in celebration.  

Out With the Old, In With the New

It’s not a big secret or profound realization that people make decisions they are unhappy with.  Most people take on the “New Year, New Me” mentality because of this.  They dedicate the last few days of the previous year and first few days of the new year deciding what their “New Year’s Resolutions” are going to be.  I’m sure many of us have done this as an attempt to convince ourselves we will make better decisions than we have in the past.  I know I have, and I’d be willing to put money that you have to. *Disclaimer: Will not actually put money on it as it is a guarantee I’ll lose.  Thank you, luck!*

So What Does That Have to do With Voice Over?

Well, that all depends on what your resolutions are.  I’ve seen a lot of voice talent posting their “Voice Over Resolutions” on social media over the last three weeks.  Before I get into the rest of that, I will say that I think it’s awesome to set goals for yourself and voice over business.  Perhaps you have your eyes set on a new client, or you want to strive for higher yearly earnings.  Maybe it’s one of the many other things it could be for yourself and your business.  It’s always applicable to set yourself goals.  

Why are Resolutions bad for Voice Over?

I, personally, have a fundamental problem with the idea of “New Year’s Resolutions”.  Answer honestly; when is the last time you saw someone actually keep a New Year’s resolution?  I think that they’re bad practice.  That being said, technically they aren’t “bad” for voice over.  In a business as competitive as this, it is VERY important to set goals and milestones for yourself.  While a New Year’s Resolution technically does this, it’s easy to lose it.  There’s something about the term, “New Year’s Resolution”, that seems to make it easy to fail.  It’s almost like people associate it with failure and the enabling excuse of “maybe next year” when that failure becomes self-fulfilling.  

What Should I do?

I would argue that it’s far better for us as voice talent to set goals for ourselves year round.  There is a lot of good to be said about setting small, achievable goals on the road to your big goals for the year.  It urges you to keep going and gives you a sense of accomplishment.  I, for one, would rather feel accomplished knowing that I achieved part of my goals.  It sure beats the emotional strain of a New Year’s Resolution that I’ve failed to keep.  In my opinion, it is best to start small and have small increments leading to your overall larger goal.  For example, I might have a long term goal of increasing my yearly earnings by 25%.  Then, I might set myself smaller goals leading up to it such as one extra booking a month.  Once I’ve achieved that, I might decide to set my next goal is two extra bookings a month.  The next step might be an extra booking a week and so on.  If you incrementally increase your goals as you achieve them, you’ll find that you’ve built your own pathway to success.  Just because it might help, HERE, is a link to a free, printable goal journal for your use!  This goal journal can be used for many things in your life if you print it all, or you may choose to just print a specific page.  I think it’s a great and very helpful handout!

What if I Don’t Achieve All of My Mini-Goals?

Frankly, it’s alright!  It’s easy to look at the negatives when you don’t reach all of your end goals.  However, if you’ve even achieved a few of your mini goals, then you can look back and see that you accomplished more than you did last year.  There’s still some small comfort in the “small victories” you make throughout the year.  This is just a simple way to bring those “small victories” to light in a world where it’s hard to see them.  Anyway, this is a fairly short blog for me, but I think I got my point across.  As always, I hope you were able to take something from this to apply to yourself, your voice over business, and the rest of your days.  Take care, and hang in there!  Happy New Year!

What’s more important when setting up your home studio; the quality of your recording equipment or the quality of your recording space? 

Expensive Gear is Fun!

There’s a point of pride in having that fancy “holy grail” mic you’ve had your eyes on.  There’s satisfaction in having that awesome interface you’ve dreamed about and those nice, expensive Mogami studio cables.  Most people that I’ve known in any sort of music or recording industry have a taste for expensive gear, myself included.  It’s exciting seeing that new Neumann, Sennheiser, or AKG mic that just showed up from the delivery guy!  Is expensive gear really what it takes for success, though?

The Need for Proper Voice Over Equipment

Sure, the microphone you’re packing in your setup makes a difference.  There’s no denying that.  An XLR microphone is king for professional voice over.  You just can’t get the same out of a USB mic that you can out of an XLR.  Even looking at a “one to one” comparison between the XLR Audio-Technica AT2020 and USB Audio-Technica AT2020USB, you can get far more clarity and headroom out of the XLR version with a good interface.  This isn’t to say that USB microphones don’t have their time and place.  They are fantastic for YouTube and streaming services like Twitch or for the hobbyist that is looking at Voice Over to see if it’s something they would like to pursue.  For professional voice over, however, the truth is that an XLR microphone is necessary to make a career.

Voice Over Doesn’t Need to be Expensive

It’s also worth noting that the quality of your XLR microphone makes a difference, too, but not as much as you want to think.  The industry standards for voice over are the Sennheiser MKE416, the Neumann TLM 103, the Neumann U 87, and the AKG c414.  They’re all fantastic microphones to be sure, but they aren’t inherently necessary to get somewhere in the industry; well, save for some places that require specific microphones.  There are other great options for microphones out there.  Lewitt comes to mind as a company that makes microphones of extremely high quality for a very reasonable price point.  My backup mic (and the one currently in my booth) is a Lewitt LCT 540 Sub-Zero, and I love it.  Aston has a wonderful line of microphones, as well, and the CAD e100s is a phenomenal microphone that is more than capable of standing up to the “big boys”.  Even the extremely affordable Rode NT1A is a great option for a booth mic.  All of this microphone talk leads me to my big point though.  Your microphone choice plays a much smaller role in your setup than you think it does.  

If my Microphone Doesn’t, What Does?

So, you’ve got your Neumann U 87, your Apollo Twin interface, your Beyerdynamic HD1770 Pro headphones, and an AMS Neve 1073 preamp in your booth.  You’ve spent well over $5,000 in setting up your recording space with top of the line equipment.  You step into your booth, get everything turned on, and start to record.  When you listen back to it, you find your entire recording tainted by echo and your neighbor’s lawn work since he apparently picked that exact moment to trim his hedges.  Why?  You haven’t spent time or money to ensure your recording space is treated properly.  The Single.  Most.  Important.  Thing.  You.  Can.  Do.  Is to properly treat your recording space to soundproof it and minimize echo.  The ONLY sound we want to hear is the sound of your lovely voice.  How you treat your recording space is infinitely more important than the gear you fill it with.  

How do I Know That’s True?

Mike DelGaudio’s YouTube channel, Booth Junkie, is a phenomenal resource for both new and established voice actors alike.  He has a video entitled “$50 mic vs $1000 mic: an UNFAIR comparison!”. In this video, he compares a $50 used AKG Perception 100 and an industry standard Neumann TLM 103 which, as of writing this, cost about $1300 new.  It should be a complete and total blow out, right?  Well, it is, but probably not in the way you’re thinking.  He keeps the AKG Perception in his booth, which is very well treated, and it sounds beautiful when he speaks into it.  Meanwhile he speaks into the Neumann mic in various places around his house which aren’t treated.  There is no comparison.  The audio of the cheap AKG would get selected by a casting director every time over the Neumann, which cost 26 times as much, in these circumstances.  I’ve taken the liberty of linking the video >HERE< so you can check it out in your free time! 

Are There Other Options for New Voice Actors?

Of course, there is an understanding that not everyone starting out has the option of, or access to, a soundproof recording space that they can treat properly with acoustic panels and acoustic foam.  There are a few ways to “cheat” at doing this that can help.  If you have a walk-in closet that is filled with clothes you can wrap yourself in blankets.  That helps deaden the sound quite a bit!  If you have a space that you can treat but isn’t completely soundproof, then there are different microphone options than the traditional condenser mic.  The Sennheiser MKE416 shotgun mic is a great option if you do have extra money to blow on a microphone.  A second and much more affordable option is a dynamic microphone such as a Shure SM7B (MV7 for a cheaper option) or an Electro-Voice RE20 (RE320 for a cheaper option) which cuts out a large majority of sound once you get a few inches from the mic.  These are great options to help, but they still aren’t a complete alternative to a fully and well treated area.  

In Conclusion

Voice over can be an exceptionally fun and exciting business to get into.  It has the potential to be an incredibly rewarding career.  Just like with any other business, you need to have the “tools of the trade” in order to do your job properly.  Yes, your microphone and preamp quality is extremely important, but all else pales in comparison to the importance of a well treated recording space.  If you are starting out, I would give you some simple advice.  Treat your recording space with your budget before buying your equipment.  If you need to save a little bit longer to buy your microphone and preamp after treating your workspace, then do so knowing that you’ve given yourself your best chance to succeed by treating your workspace.  I wish you the best of luck as you build your way into this business.  Happy recording!