VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Tom Test]

Click on this link to download the UPDATED MP3 file containing all of the auditions. It’s 23 MB and 17:35 long. : https://www.onlinefilefolder.com/4s1ku7u3YzyEWe

I have decided to delete all talent slates and simply ID each talent by number. By all means profusely praise those talent whose takes that you think “work” the best for this script. Please tell us WHY you think your favorites are good. Also fyi, I tightened up the pauses on many of the reads.

If you have “constructive criticism” to share (and I welcome it), I hope we can play nice. Obviously, no snarky or insulting comments. As our fearless leader has said “Sarcasm and invective are not effective means of getting your point across; they only make the point that you have a chip on your shoulder.”

What did you think of the script? Any problem areas?

What was your approach to reading this script? What was your strategy, how did you prepare?

Also up for discussion – what have you learned about being on the other end of the audition process? What’s it like to listen to 34 auditions (and consider projects on p2p sites that may have 100 or more submissions). What unexpected things colored, positively or negatively, your opinions? (For example, the way a talent slates can be a turn-on or turn-off, so for that reason I’m sorry we won’t have them on this time – it was a judgment call). Is there a way to improve this process if I do this again? I intend to do it again in a month or two. I’ll probably ask for one read only next time.

Finally, since this discussion can get very complex and have so many strands, I ask that you please refrain from threadjacking with humorous comments. Thank you.

After a few days I will reveal the identities of those talents who have gotten praise, though not the IDs of those who have had criticism so as not to embarrass or offend. I have lots of thoughts about all of this experience, but will allow others to start the discussion off before I pontificate

_________________
Best regards,
Tom Test
"The Voice You Trust"
www.tomtest.com

[Tom Test]

1 ) Take 1 used a Neumann TLM-103, take 2 was with an AT4047. Both went into an ART MPA Gold w Mullard NOS tube>Echo Mia sound card. Only light compression was used, plus maybe a little normalization to boost the levels.

2) Heil PR 40 going into a Mackie DFX-12.
- Output through tape-out into mic-in on an Apple MacBook Pro.
- Recording software was Audacity with output to MP3 using LAME MP3 library.

3) Very slight compression, and a little soft gate (my standard setup)
Very modest setup, yet quite workable for mine and my client's needs. I used a Studio Projects C1 mic, into a dbx 286A mic pre/processor, into a lexicon Alpha USB interface, into my 2.16G Intel Core 2 Duo iMac.

4) E-mu 12, Summit Everest, Mackie 1402 vlz3, Lauten Clarion mic.

5) AT 3035 mic, SoundBlaster Prodigy SC, no preamp, and sweetened in this setting I made in AA 1.0:
cmp 1.5 : 1 above -9 dB
flat 1 : 1 below -9 dB
exp 2 : 1 below -40 dB
Compensation Gain = .3dB

6) Both were recorded with a RØDE NTG-1 Shotgun microphone through an Apogee Duet preamp/converter and straight into Logic Pro. No compression, but a noisy neighbor forced me to throw in a noise gate. There was no processing other than a touch of eq.

7) EV RE-20 into Symetrix 528E into Audiotronics Model 212 sound board (mostly used for on air) into a Digigram UAX220v2 USB interface into a Dell PC running Windows XP. Audition is the audio editor. No sweetening at all, aside from a few settings on the 528E.

8) Gefell MT71s - GML 2032 preamp/eq - Neve Portico 5043 - Lynx L22 Soundcard - Adobe Audition 3.0
I have about a 2 db (bell shaped) boost at 6k on my GML eq section. As far as compression goes, I'm barely using the Neve, compressing (less than 1 db) with a 2 to 1 ratio, 40ms attack and 500ms release and then some mild limiting. I'm not doing any software processing at all.

9) 1: Audio Technica AT835b/Presonus Eureka; 2:Rode NTK/Focusrite Voicemaster
Just a touch of compression and EQ in the file. Same for both mics.

10) Recorded in Cool Edit 2000 with an RE-20 mic through a dbx 286a pre-amp with none of the processing features engaged and then into a Creative Labs Audigy 2Z Plantinum external sound board. The only other processing was to pass each file through the noise reduction effect in Audacity 1.3.4-beta to clean up any room noise, computer fans, etc.

11) Sennheiser 416/Symetrix 528e/MBox2

12) AKG C 3000 B to M-Audio FastTrack Pro (usb) to DAW running Sound Forge. I cut out the preamp since it didn't seem to be bringing anything to the party. I also used different pop filters on each take. Can you tell the difference?

13) Neumann TLM-103>Universal Audio LA-610 Preamp>M-Box>Mac Powerbook G4 No Processing or Sweetening

14) Take 1 I used a Sennheiser MKH 416 shotgun mic. Take 2 I used an AKG C2000B mic. Both ran through the preamps in a Mackie VLZ mixer into a Motu 828 MkII Firewire interface. I used Motu’s Audio Desk software for editing and the Track Plug plug-in from Wave Arts to give them a dash of compression and gating.

15) Shure KSM-44 > EMU 1616m > Presonus BlueTube > Adobe Audition 2

16) Sennheiser 416 microphone, M-Box Pro and an Avalon 737 sp pre-amp. I also added some compression after with Bombfactory bf76 through Protools and then normalized to bump up the level a bit.

17) Lawson L47FET>Focusrite Trackmaster Pro Platinum>MBox 2, Pro Tools. I added a touch of Bombfactory Dynamics (Just a tiny smidge) and normalized to -3db.

18) Rode NT 1A > Alesis MultiMix 8 mixer and into my computer via USB connection. The Audio card in my computer is RealTek.

19) Sennheiser 416 (borrowed)>dbx 286a mic pre-amp (thanks to e-bay)>E-mu 0404 USB interface. Audacity software, Sound booth (former guest room closet, thanks to my wife)

20) Shure KSM44 into a Edirol UA-25 into Adobe Audition 1.5. I used the Bill Campbell compander settings.

21) Signal chain: U87ai-> Grace Design 101->RME A/D - D/A converter-> M-box1 -> Pro Tools LE->Waves REN VOX/REN Comp/RenEQ

22) The file was recorded in AA and run through Compander and normalized for sweetening. My big fat signal chain is: Audio-Technica AT3035 Mic> ART Tube MP USB interface

23) TLM 103 > Speck 5.0 Mic Pre at 37db gain no output transformer > Echo AudioFire FW Interface Sweetening: Adobe Audition 3 Compander set to 2:1, EQ shelf down 2db past 4kHz, Hard Limiter set to -3dbFS.

24) Neumann U87 into Apogee MiniMe into a Mac running Digital Performer 5. A little Limiting and Expanding, but otherwise clean.

25) Sennheiser MHK-416 to Mackie/Tapco 220 FX mixer (using internal mixer preamp) to M-Audio Fast Track Pro USB to Dell T4300 Workstation running WinXP Pro SP3 Software is (in this case) Sony Sound Forge 9. (I used the Izotope Mastering Effects Bundle to do the compression on each part of the audition.)

26) EV RE-20 mic into a Behringer Eurorack MX 802A board into a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Sound Blaster sound card (coming out of the board just with RCA cables into the Aux. in on the soundcard). I recorded it in Adobe Audition 1.5. I boosted the gain a little bit after recording, did a little compression and then a bit of noise reduction.

27) Samson C01U USB microphone plugged into a Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio card on a Dell Precision T5400 workstation, with an Intel Xeon CIP, 2.83 GHz. Recorded with Soundforge, edited in Audacity. No sweetening or compression, no filtering. Edited only to take out breaths and snicks.

28) Rode NT2 mic / Universal Audio LA-610 mic pre-amp / protools as interface/Sony Vegas 5/Sound Forge 8

29) Rode NT-iA>dbx286>MBox2>MacBook

30) Peluso 2247LE, and Fearn tube Pre to TC Finalizer - Lynx L22 PCI slot soundcard in a Mac G4. Touch of EQ added in the mids for ntelligibility/clarity and normalized. Finalizer settings (some multiband comp and EQ) were created a few years ago and I can't come up with detail on those at the moment without looking up a whole bunch of old preset notes; ) Kinda designed it to optimize for mp3 conversion.

31) AT2020 -> dbx 286a -> Tascam US-144 USB interface -> crappy old HP laptop.

No post processing. On the dbx, slight compression (drive 1; density 2:1), de-essing (freq: 8k; threshold: 2.5), and gate (threshhold: 2 lines below -30; ratio: 1.5:1)

32) Shure SM58 mic, soundblaster sound card > Mackie 1402-VLZ. Dry voice.

33) RE-20 using Mackie 1604 pre's into a MOTU 2408mkIII and then edited in DP5 on a Mac Quicksilver.

34) U87ai>Avalon 737>MOTU Ultralite. Compression through Compander setting in Adobe Audition 1.5
_________________
Best regards,
Tom Test
"The Voice You Trust"
www.tomtest.com

[CarynClark]

First off, hats off to you Tom. I'm sure this was a bit of work for you. Thanks for doing this for us.

Ok, I'll start. I'm avoiding doing other things...

You know when they say, you'll know it when you hear it? #13 was the one that gave me chill bumps. 15, 24, and 28 were my runners up.

Also liked:
1 - take 2
3 - take 2
6 - take 2
9 - take 2
12 - take 1
20 - take 2
22 - take 1
second to last (not sure what number it ended up being... i mis-numbered my paper) - take 1

What did you think of the script? Any problem areas? -- I liked the script myself. It certainly does lend itself to getting preacher-y, which is not what I think they would want considering the use. Would have been nice to have the video description.

What was your approach to reading this script? What was your strategy, how did you prepare? - I tried to take in consideration the use of the audio (business meeting for a Health Care Co, I believe... so this was to employees or end users about the company is my guess), Depending on the video, my feeling is that they would lean toward a man, but I gave it the old college try anyway.

What have you learned about being on the other end of the audition process? - I have a short attention span anyway, so given a client's workload, I have a feeling that people who cast really go with that "I'll know it when I hear it" feeling. You either got it or you don't. Some of the reads were very character-y (similar to Darth Vader or old time newscaster)... I don't know that given the usage that is what the client would be looking for. But, what do I know, really? Again, you either got what they're looking for (and they don't know what that is till they hear it) or you don't.

Ways to improve? Yeah, definitely one take only, next time, I think. Edited to add: I like ID# -- I actually don't know many of our family's voices, but I prefer the ID# method.

Thanks again Tom!!! I look forward to hearing what everyone else thinks and re-listening to the top picks to learn more.
_________________
Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

[Tom Test]

Thanks for getting this started, Caryn, and for your thoughtful reply! However, I might ask to put this whole thing on hold though, until I can fix the problem with the horrible audio quality of the master file.

I am crestfallen at the awful audio quality I now have, and I don't know why it happened. Question: when I open an MP3, add a bunch of other MP3s, the save and close that file - THEN repeat the process a few times - am I making a compression of a compression of a compression every time I add new files and save it again? That's the only explanation I can think of.

I'm happy to send someone a short snippet of the file in question to your e-mail address. It sounds very artifact-y and echo-y. Craptacular. I'm glad you were able to use this Caryn, but I think I really must fix this sound problem ASAP. When I do, I'll put this together *again* and re-post a link.
_________________
Best regards,
Tom Test
"The Voice You Trust"
www.tomtest.com

[Tom Test]

Okay, I have confirmed that my problems is multiple re-compressions everytime I added new auditions and re-saved! I was doing this piecemeal as auditions came in, and that was the problem.

So, in my not-so-copious free time, I will reassemble this master audition file and reload it. I hope to have it done by tomorrow at 11 am CST. So if you have not downloaded the master audition file yet, please wait until tomorrow.

Thanks for your patience! I'd hoped this would be a valuable learning experience, and it sure has been for me already.
_________________
Best regards,
Tom Test
"The Voice You Trust"
www.tomtest.com

[Don G.]

Tom,
For what it's worth, I'm sure many of us still have the original uncompressed .aiff or .wav files and could re-send them to you so you don't have to take any steps backward. Just a thought.

[Tom Test]

Dan, I still have all the original files, so no need to re-submit. My problem was every time I'd add a new batch of files to the master file and saved it, it was compressing already compressed files (I didn't think it worked that way - live and learn!).

So I'll re-assemble the master from all the original submissions and re-post on Friday.

Thanks!
_________________
Best regards,
Tom Test
"The Voice You Trust"
www.tomtest.com

[Monk]

Tom,

I can send a .wav file too, it's large however, perhaps too big to email.

I can ftp or put in the car and drive it over. Anything I can do to help.

Thanks for doing this, the signal chain stuff is very helpful, I like the Senheiser 416's sound a lot.

(that's a little clearer I think)
_________________
Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me...

www.monksvoice.com

[tokyofan]

I don't see a link...
_________________
www.chriskoprowski.com/en

[Tom Test]

Okay, I started from scratch and re-created the master file. The sound quality is now excellent, well worth the extra effort (took my entire morning). Please download the file and listen to it carefully.

If anyone wants a file that is made only of folks who sent me WAV files - so you can better hear the audio differences between signal chains - let me know via PM and I'll send you a link.
_________________
Best regards,
Tom Test
"The Voice You Trust"
www.tomtest.com

[Jeffrey Kafer]

#14. I don't know who you are. But I want your voice.
_________________
Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

[David Swinehart]

[Monk]

very very cool Tom!
_________________
Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me...

www.monksvoice.com

[Gp]

thanks Tom that sounds SO much better!!

[louzucaro]

First off, thanks so much Tom for doing this whole thing...very cool!

My favorites were, in no particular order: #14, take 2; #28; #29

(I say no particular order, because those were my favorites, but none of them was "what I heard in my head" when I read through the script)

Per your questions, Tom:

What did you think of the script? Any problem areas?
I don't enjoy getting this type of script for auditions. For one, I don't have the kind of voice that I'd want to cast for something like this, and for two, this script works better IMO read somewhat slowly and, you know, that's not one of my strong suits as a V.O.

I also had a weird thing going on in the last line where I felt like I couldn't get enough air into the last line and still have it sound ok...kinda hard to explain.

Still, I actually like my take ok

What was your approach to reading this script? What was your strategy, how did you prepare?
I felt it needed to be thoughtful, somewhat "inspirational" without sounding preachy or overdramatic. I also didn't want it to sound dark or heavy-handed because I read it as a "happy ending" script.

What have you learned about being on the other end of the audition process? What’s it like to listen to 34 auditions (and consider projects on p2p sites that may have 100 or more submissions).
So glad you posed this question because that kept running through my head. By the end of it, I was kind of frustrated that I never did hear the take I was hoping to hear. And I went back and listened again, because with so many takes in a row, it was definitely a bit numbing after a while, so "being familiar with the scope of the file" after the first listen-through, I felt a second listen would be a good thing.

What unexpected things colored, positively or negatively, your opinions?
Pacing played a big part...there was a pacing that I thought was appropriate and if something veered too far off that, it bugged me. This goes not only for the reads themselves, but for the silence.

Is there a way to improve this process if I do this again? I intend to do it again in a month or two. I’ll probably ask for one read only next time.
I think we should submit as WAV files so that people aren't getting recompressed. I guess a good variety of scripts for future versions would be fun, including some, maybe, that were cast as women (without telling us that) if you have any so that we're all playing in each others' spaces

Again, thanks so much for taking the time to do all of this Tom!
_________________
Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf!"