VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[louzucaro]

The website / web server should have almost nothing to do with your audio files.

The only exception to this would be if your site has some sort of Content Management System where you're using a Browse... button to select audio to upload directly to the site, and it's reprocessing the audio (such as when submitting an audition on a site like Voice123).

Otherwise, if you're just uploading the file with a program such as Expression Web, FrontPage, etc., all it is is an MP3 file sitting on a computer out on the web.

I noticed that your files all seem to be about a minute long, even if the audio is only, say, 25 seconds. And the bitrate is 256k, which seems unnecessarily high.

So, using your Cell phone MP3 as an example, the file is :57 long, but there's only about :23 or :24 of actual audio, the bitrate is 256k and so the file is 1.75MB, which is really huge for less than :30 of audio.

If this doesn't sound like the specs of your original audio file, then perhaps you ARE uploading these through a CMS and your audio's getting reprocessed (badly). If not, I think you may want to rework how you're creating your MP3 files.

Also, I generally recommend against having spaces in filenames (like your MP3 files)...stick to letters, numbers, the hyphen and the underscore character. Spaces in the filenames may never actually cause an issue, but it could, since spaces need to be encoded / unencoded in URLs in most cases.
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Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

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

[Jeffrey Kafer]

Second what Lou says.

Microsoft isn't going to be able to help you with your audio files. At the point in which they play, they're actually playing from your local computer because they've been downloaded to your cache. Unless they are streaming, which I doubt.

Your media player settings are going to define what program plays the files. For me, it would be Windows media Player because that's the default. If you have Quicktime installed, chance are that will play them since QT pretty much takes over your system.
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Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

[ronphi]

Thanks Lou. Here are the figures from the original recording on my computer.

Audio: 256 Kbps, 44,100 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo.

Using the generic web design tools the upload portion has the Browse button so it appears they are using some sort of content management.

I tried renaming the file with underscores but it didn't help. I am leaving the files alone for the time being in case MS needs to look at the the files. After I hear back from MS I will try saving at a different bit rate and uploading. Do you suggest going down to 96 or even as low as 64 kbps?
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Ron Phillips

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urging for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

[louzucaro]

Ron,

Well I would edit them down so that the file ends when the audio ends...there's no need to have a 1 minute file if your audio is 24 seconds.

Second, save them at 128k rather than 256k. You could probably safely get away with 96k, but try them at 128k at most.

Also as I said and Jeff echoed, MS won't be able to do anything...since the specs of your original are the same as what I saw, that means MS' CMS isn't touching the files.

One point to what Jeff said, while it's true that you could have issues if QuickTime is your default media player for MP3 files, Windows Media Player by default will attempt to stream MP3 files regardless of what the web server is doing.
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Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

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

[ronphi]

Thank you Lou and Jeff. I found a conflict. WMP is my default MP3 player but Firefox was set to use QT. I can now play the files completely in both IE and Firefox.

I guess I was thrown because Elaine mentioned she was having the same problem as me. I thought it must be on the server end.

I also pared the files down and Implemented Lou's naming convention and bit rate suggestions.

I really appreciate the help.
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Ron Phillips

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urging for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

[RayAnime]

Hi Ron!

I don't know about a lot of the audio specs people have been talking about lately, but I just wanted to weigh in with my two cents on the overall website.

I like the color scheme, but I agree with the others who aren't too keen on the image; it looks a bit too much like corporate stock photography to me.

If you still want to use a photo, there are some great resources out there for images that aren't quite so "in the box" as most of the stuff that's freely available. Stock exchange (www.sxc.hu) has awesome free images and their partner site, www.stockxpert.com, offers some very cool professional images/graphics as well--you have to pay for those but in most cases they're only $1-10, based on the image size (higher res = more expensive), and they're royalty free. You can also go to http://search.creativecommons.org to find free images you can use from a number of sites including Flickr and Google. It may take some time to find what you want, but there are some great photos out there!

I also think you should make your audio clips available on the home page so it's easier for people to find the info they're looking for (your voice!). What if you condense the info you present in the current home page text to free up space for links to your voice samples? That way the info on what you do is presented more clearly AND people have immediate access to your demos. See the image below (I know the design isn't great, but I just played around in Illustrator to give you a general idea of what I was thinking--yes, there's that dreaded microphone up in the corner--haha)

Also, why not make the text that says "contact me" (where you say "please contact me directly for custom demos . . .) into an email link, or a link to the contact page. I know it's already right there in the sidebar, but the more ways you make it easy for people to reach to you, the better (in my opinion).





I think you're off to a great start though! I hope this helps, and best of luck finishing up your site. I can't wait to see it when it's done!

[ronphi]

Thanks Ray I appreciate the information. The site (as it stands now) was designed with the limited tools and resources available through Office Live. Just recently they opened up the free accounts to HTML editing. I am working on a fresh design but in the meantime I might just take your suggestions and implement them into the current site.

Thanks again.
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Ron Phillips

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urging for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

[RayAnime]

There are so many things to think about in this business aren't there? As if worrying about the all-important demo wasn't enough!!

Anyway, just wanted to let you know I do like your site design and the direction it's going--I just posted the picture so you could see what I meant about perhaps tightening up some of the text and adding the demos on the home page (I'm such a visual person, so I like pictures) . . . the design I posted just looks different because it was easier for me to do it that way (by making some simple blocks of color & plugging the info in to approximate the look of your site) than to re-create exactly what you have on your site, if that makes sense.

Even as it is, your site looks a lot better than 99% of the stuff floating around on the web these days! Best of luck with this whole process!

[Bailey]

You've got lots of ideas going through your head now.

How about one more.

This may echo the thoughts of Philip earlier in the thread.
In your beginning statement...
Welcome to the voiceover page of Ron Phillips. If you need a voice for your Industrial narrations or Commercial VO projects you have come to the right place.

How about...
When you need a voice for your Industrial narration or Commercial VO projects... consider Ron Phillips Voiceovers.

I say that because, If you need implies a question,
... andWhen you need implies an impending fact.
_________________
"Bailey"
a.k.a. Jim Sutton
Retired... Every day is Saturday, except Sunday.
VO-BB Member #00044 .gif" alt="W00T" border="0" />
AOVA Graduate 02/2004 ;
"Be a Voice, not an Echo."

[RayAnime]

I agree with potentially playing with the wording of that intro sentence.

I definitely still think that after your name in the header, the most prominent pieces of information should be what types of VO you provide (narration, commercial, industrial, etc) and the "listen" section featuring your audio clips.

That way some harried person looking to hire a VO actor will know exactly what they're getting without having to search or really read anything if they don't have the time or are too impatient.

I'm not saying your text isn't important, but the bare bones of what you do (narration, commercial, industrial, etc) & how you do it (audio clips) is MORE important, especially since the bulk of the text will be repeating info the visitor already knows in some respect (your name is at the top of the page, so they know whose website they're visiting, and they probably already know it's a VO site, since they looked you up in the first place), and the rest of the text is the "sell." Again, I'm not saying it isn't important, it's just in the hierarchy of information you want to make sure that the info that someone who's going to hire you will want to find ASAP is the most visible info on the page.

You don't have to do it the same way I did in the image I posted, but I still think it's important no matter how it's done. . .

I hope I'm not being annoying--I always seem to over-explain myself . . .

Okay, that's enough out of me. Shutting up . . . . now.

[Jeffrey Kafer]

I wouldn't bother with a "listen" section. Put your demos on the front page since that's probably the most important thing your customers want to hear. Why make them go an extra click? Put the incidentals such as your about page and testimonials in different places if you want.
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Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

[RayAnime]

Oh, I meant the "Listen" section on the actual home page--the place on the page where all the demos would be listed--not a link to another page with the demos. That was probably confusing.

[Jeffrey Kafer]

ah, well then we agree!
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Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com