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craigcrumpton
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Joined: 17 Mar 2008
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Location: Atlanta, GA
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 Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 7:12 pm Post subject: Oh Noes! The Future of VO looks bleak |
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...if you believe this article from "Kathleen O".
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Future-of-Voiceovers&id=4164897
I don't normally quote articles verbatim, but...
| Quote: | From automated tour guides to on hold telephone messages, voiceovers play a prominent role in our lives. Voiceovers deliver the advertising messages you hear on TV and radio and narrate e-learning programs, corporate videos, and audio books. However, as voiceover technology continues to advance, what will come of the voiceover industry? Will human interaction be replaced completely by voiceovers?
You've probably had the experience of dialing a call center and receiving an interactive voice response instead of being attended by a live customer service representative. While some may find it frustrating to interact with a machine rather than a live human being, an increasing number of businesses are using voiceovers instead of hiring and training call center staff.
In the future, every call you make may be answered by an interactive voice response rather than a live human being. Currently, interactive voice responses are advanced enough to recognize basic replies, but in the future, perhaps they will be equipped to have entire conversations with callers.
Another possibility is that the need for voice talent may disappear completely in the future. Today, speech synthesis has become so sophisticated that it can be used to create unique, virtual singing voices, so it probably won't be long until someone creates a software program that's capable of replacing male and female voice overs.
It's highly unlikely that vocalists will be completely replaced by virtual singers since people have a soft spot for live performers, but it wouldn't be surprising if voiceover software takes the place of voiceover talent, who perform most of their work behind the scenes. Unlike famous musicians and performers, voiceover talents usually have legions of adoring fans.
A voiceover software program may work by enabling you to upload a script and then converting the text into speech. You won't have to worry about doing retakes of a voiceover because you will be able to tweak its inflection, pace, and emphasis with a few clicks of a mouse.
Although it's possible that professional voice talents will be replaced by virtual voices in the distant future, it's not likely to happen as long as voice talents continue to treat voiceover delivery as an art form. Professional voice talents understand that even the slightest changes to their voice can dramatically alter its impact, and they undergo voice training in order to master the subtleties of inflection, volume, and timing.
Voiceover talents also must possess good acting skills in order to deliver voiceovers that are entertaining and believable. If machines are one day able to deliver voiceovers that are as memorable, impactful, and believable as human voices, then the voiceover artists of the future may have something to worry about, but for now, the future looks promising for the voiceover industry.
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With the woefully dismal picture Kathleen has painted, it doesn't look very promising at all.
Also found the grammar flaw in this statement ironically amusing:
| Quote: | | Unlike famous musicians and performers, voiceover talents usually have legions of adoring fans. |
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Deirdre
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bobsouer
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 7:23 pm Post subject: Re: Oh Noes! The Future of VO looks bleak |
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Here's what I took as the most salient point of that article:
| craigcrumpton wrote: | | Voiceover talents also must possess good acting skills in order to deliver voiceovers that are entertaining and believable. [b]If machines are one day able to deliver voiceovers that are as memorable, impactful, and believable as human voices, then the voiceover artists of the future may have something to worry about, but for now, the future looks promising for the voiceover industry. |
Not a bleak picture all all, to my eyes. And yes, the lack of a "don't" makes quite a difference in that earlier line.
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craigcrumpton
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Joined: 17 Mar 2008
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Location: Atlanta, GA
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 7:37 pm Post subject: Re: Oh Noes! The Future of VO looks bleak |
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| bobsouer wrote: | | Not a bleak picture all all, to my eyes. |
I realize I took that last bit out of context. However, my problem with the article as a whole is that it continually focuses on the negative, and then suddenly at the end tries to end on a positive note...almost like it was an afterthought.
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imaginator
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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i've heard enough synthesized speech to know that voice actors are not going to be an endangered species in my lifetime. ...and probably not in yours, either!
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rowell gormon
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Bailey
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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I agree with rowell, and I use the following comparison:
Human voice overs are like ice cream. It's been around a long time and most people just love it.
Then in 1988 came Dippin' Dots... "The ice cream of the future".
22 years later... Ice cream still beats Dippin' Dots, hands down.
Would you like one scoop  or two ?
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melissa eX
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:36 pm Post subject: |
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| What on earth are Dippin' Dots? |
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Bailey
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Melissa wrote: | | What on earth are Dippin' Dots? |
Why do I feel like an 8-track tape right now?
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Jeffrey Kafer
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 11:05 pm Post subject: |
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So here's a reversal: I was approached by a company called Blog Radio to read blog posts as mini podcasts. Apparently their service currently uses a synthesized method of reading these posts, but some of the higher profile blogs didn't like the robot voices, so they were looking for real voice talents to replace them....
...at $30 per finished hour.
So in some regards, robots are being replaced by lowballers.
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melissa eX
MMD
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Location: Lower Manhattan, New Amsterdam, the original NYC
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 11:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Why do I feel like an 8-track tape right now? |
Oh, I know what 8 tracks are - I have a bunch of them - stored somewhere in the basement - along with 16mm film and 1" videotape.
But I still don't know what Dippin' Dots are. |
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Lee Gordon
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 11:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Melissa wrote: | | What on earth are Dippin' Dots? |
Dippin' Dots are little globules of ice cream, roughly the same size and shape as Israeli cous cous, that someone thought would be a really nifty new way to enjoy ice cream. What the inventors and promoters failed to take into account was, ice cream was not lacking in ways to be enjoyed and therefore a new form factor, while a novelty, was not necessarily an improvement (sort of like CourVO's "new" logo).
It's like all those film clips from 20-30 years ago predicting a future in which we'd all be wearing polyester clothes and eating meals of texturized soy protein washed down with glasses of Tang. Just because technology makes something possible, doesn't mean it's desirable.
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melissa eX
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Location: Lower Manhattan, New Amsterdam, the original NYC
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| Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 12:06 am Post subject: |
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| Glad I missed them. There are definite advantages to having spent long stretches out of the country. |
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asnively
Triple G
Joined: 17 Jun 2006
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Location: Los Angeles
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| Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 12:36 am Post subject: |
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Dippin' Dots are a fun novelty, but...beware. If you're, hypothetically, startled by a RollerBlader on the Venice Beach boardwalk and spill an entire cup of them down your blouse, you could end up with a bra full of tiny, frozen BB's. That melt.
Hypothetically.
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bobsouer
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| Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 3:53 am Post subject: |
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IF you happen to be wearing a bra at the time. Hypothetically.
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Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
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todd ellis
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| Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 6:54 am Post subject: |
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ok - dippin dots are AWESOME! they were invented by curt jones, an ag. student at southern illinois university - and the world head quarters and production facility are in paducah, ky. curt is a super-nice guy! they flash-freeze the ice cream with liquid nitrogen to create the little pebbles of deliciousness.
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