 Hey, it's Monday night and we're back here with voiceover body shop and tonight our guest is Chris Edgerly Who apparently is many people? Yeah, he's a busy guy. He does a lot of things character voice work He does stuff on the Simpsons and he's got his own webcast We're gonna talk about all sorts of really cool stuff on various sections of the business And talk a little bit about creating your own content. Maybe very cool Yes, and I heard something about you being in a podcast convention. Oh, yes I was at a huge podcast convention. I'll fill you know what all that was about. It was actually rather exciting Yes, and we're gonna talk a little bit about Mike technique tonight Very good And if you have a question throw it in the chat room and Paul Stefano is there tonight and he will get that to us And it's my mom's birthday. Yeah To you all right families here all that on more and more I'm voiceover body shop coming right up two men Twin sons from different mothers with a passion for voiceover recording technology and the desire to make Recording easy for voice actors everywhere together in one place George Whidham the home studio engineer to the stars a Virginia Tech grad with an unmatched knowledge of all the latest gear and technology in voiceover today Dan Leonard the home studio master a voice actor with over 30 years experience in Broadcasting and recording and a no-holds-barred myth-busting attitude for teaching you how easy it is together to bring you all the latest technology today's voiceover superstars and Leading the discussion on how to make the most of your voiceover business This is voiceover body shop Voiceover body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials calm home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote connections made even easier Vio to go go calm Everything you need to be a successful voiceover artist J. Michael Collins demos award-winning demo production voice actor websites calm Where your voiceover website won't be a pain in the butt and voiceover extra your daily resource for Vio success And now live from their super secret multimedia studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are George Whidham and Dan Leonard Not that it bears repeating, but I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whidham and this is voiceover body shop or V.O B.S. Yeah, you guys are well rehearsed That's what I like to say. Yes. That's because our audience are regular viewers by not by choice, but by blood Yeah My family the entire Whidham clan is here tonight including my daughter, and I knew they were coming this time Because you had like a half an hour notice. Yeah No, it's it's really fun to have them all here. They've been visiting all week They head back tomorrow. So this is and it's it's my mom's birthday. So we're having a little bit fun tonight celebrating that And we've had a great time went to Dukes down in the beach Yeah, and had a really fun meal and then to keep the whole the Hawaiian theme going I was gonna say wait isn't Dukes and Honolulu. Yeah, it's the Dukes in name It was a long swim like right and then we had we watched Moana projected in the yard on a bed sheet last night very cool Which was fun. That's outstanding Well, happy birthday and thanks for joining us tonight. Our guest tonight is Chris Edgerly Now he's a noted guy. He's does a lot of stuff. That's the fascinating thing about our business Is there's a lot of voices out there and people who do things that everybody watches? But like they don't know who they are There's your chance to meet somebody tonight who has some really cool stuff going on in his career and some great advice And so stay tuned for that behind the scenes. That's right and We got a few more things to talk about gonna talk about Mike technique and if you got a question I could never say this enough put it in the chat room and Paul Stefano who is running our chat room tonight We'll throw that our way because we thrive on your home voiceover studio tech questions as well as questions for our guests We do so anyway with that out of the way. It's now time for And here is the voiceover extra news for July 31st 2018 mouse editing. Does that mean like, you know, anyway Here's an interesting idea for speeding up the voiceover editing process get your fingers chasing a gaming mouse The idea is transfer the functions you do on a keyboard to a mouse with multiple keys And if you're a gaming nerd as VO pro Neil K has admits to be this could be a simple deal in a new article Now at voiceover extra comm Neil explains that when he started in VO a number of years ago He felt that editing was consuming too much of his time taking him away from the mic So Neil let his gaming mouse into the studio and what resulted was a shaving of half the time He would otherwise be spending on editing Here's what he does using Adobe audition Excellent as the recording editing software and a launch attack g602 gaming mouse Which has multiple keys that you can set to do a variety of functions For instance on the mouse Neil's g7 key is used to record his g8 key gets him to clean up and compression The g9 and it is his key to cut and so on in the article Neil explains how to customize the mouse and create your own settings While Neil uses Adobe audition he believes you should be able to do this with almost any DAW and most gaming mice You can get a good gaming mouse for less than 50 bucks Neil adds and which could quickly pay for itself in the amount of editing time This will save you even if you're not a gaming nerd you might want to give this a try this article and Hundreds hundreds more are on voiceover extra all sorts of voiceover topics your daily resource for voice over success Now that's something that a lot of people have everybody does it a little bit differently I know it's a very custom kind of thing to do. Yeah, you know, I I use a magic mouse with Adobe audition You know zoom scroll boom boom boom. It's all finger movements and stuff Yeah, and I yours right and and I have maybe one or two keystrokes that I use for you know for you know For reducing the volume or doing those sorts of things maybe an end keep or mark So I mean you work you do what works for you. That's right. Yeah, I'm a trackpad user I'm using the trackpad here. I use this at home I use it on my MacBook because guess what if you have a MacBook, that's what's built into it That's what you got you're kind of stuck with so I've kind of gotten used to using trackpad The the the smart gaming mouse thing. It's just another way to go about using keyboard shortcuts, right? So For him, I don't know. I'd be curious to know what his left hand's doing When his right hand be we don't know assuming he is right-handed if his right hand is on the mouse I wonder what his left hand is doing So if he's doing all those things with the right hand the thing that seems difficult to me would be to remember What keys are programmed into the gaming mouse because you don't have enough keys to do every function, right? So you have to That would be tough to keep track again. It's very personal. There's also the shuttle pro, right? We've talked about the shuttle pro thing. That's turning the wheel. Yeah So that's sort of like a dedicated control surface for editors that give you a whole bunch of programmable keys and then a shuttle control for fast-forward rewind Another take on the same idea So if you found your if you find yourself constantly Clicking your mouse then going to a drop-down menu clicking there scrolling down to copy Then going to the next place where you need a paste then going to the edit menu clicking and clicking paste It might be time to learn some keyboard shortcuts or some mouse shortcuts There really isn't a whole lot you should be doing though it edit know where the marks are boom boom boom boom boom boom And the thing is if you know a lot of keyboard shortcuts from word processing, right? If you know control C or command C for copy control C commands V on the Mac for paste Guess what that works in your dog Sure works in pro works in I don't know about pro tools, but it works in twist-a-wave It works in sound forage it works in audition Yeah, so you know learn your keyboard shortcuts kids either the keyboard or the mouse Whatever it is learn some something that will speed you it will speed you up. Okay, so tech update this week Mm-hmm. I get to do it this week. Yes, please. Thank you. Yes. I I was in Very steamy Philadelphia, I mean it was a hundred and three in my backyard here today There was about 85 and about 95 percent humidity The heat index is it was like, you know, well, you know what Philadelphia is like being from the Philadelphia Yeah, it's like walking into a hot sponge Feels like you're wearing a suit of concrete. Yeah concrete. Yeah There are a couple of interesting things like waiting outside the redding terminal for a party and there's a cloud burst Well, we're all waiting to go. Oh, that's even more excited. Oh, yeah, apparently it's been fun weather in Philadelphia moist But then it's dry afterwards. Yeah, it's all you know, it's a win-win. Yes. Well anyway Well, I was at podcast movement and which was a convention of people who do podcasts Now if most of you are familiar with going to a voiceover convention, which are a lot of fun like Fafcon or The VO Atlanta or one of those where there might be five hundred of our cohort cohorts there Mm-hmm. There were twenty five hundred people at this conference. It was huge and this is not a fan conference No, this is podcast. This is people who are doing podcasts. Yeah, I want to do podcasts, right? And so I was there doing some technical advising with people. We had five. Hey, aren't you Dan Leonard setting or sightings? Hey Which was pretty neat. It was I mean It's at the voiceover conventions. I know everybody right. This was fresh faces. Very cool. Hey, it's great that you watch awesome We're on the radar. Yes But from a technical perspective while everybody's wanted to get to the tech stuff there were a lot of manufacturers there and I'm doing reviews of their products and the interesting thing was is they were all drooling because there are twenty five hundred podcasters To many of them except for the people who are making software specific to podcasting and some of it is okay And some of it is, you know kind of contrived The people who know how to record have a better way of doing these things but there were come adobe was there and yellow tech and sure and And No, I'm in Sennheiser. No, I'm in the course. They were there. They were there. Yes, and any booth manufacturers There was one our good friend a deal at vocal booth to go calm Yeah, and he has something that he's working on But it was interesting talking to the manufacturers because they were looking wide-eyed at all these people They had no idea some of them had somewhat of an idea yeah that This market even existed and it's so much bigger than voice over probably not as big as music Which of course all this stuff is designed for another world. Yeah, but here's you know Here's another huge market that they're going after one of the people who really was having a great time was our friend Roger cloud Who makes the cloud lifter? Maybe you're familiar with that. He makes a really high-end ribbon mic Yeah, and he makes this product. That's a good accompaniment to a ribbon mic or a dynamic like right That's very affordable a lot of podcasters use dynamic mics right these thing boosts the output a lot like 25 db Yeah, a real popular mic with podcasters is the sm7b and some use an re20 and Roger's like it's the perfect thing and we're like, you know, and I also have a you know a One of his t-shirts. So yeah, I had to mention his name tonight He's a good guy. Oh, right. Oh, he was great. I mean he came and found me which was which was great And but some other interesting nine you know, you know software people that have stuff that's just for podcasting But the equipment's all the same. It's all the same stuff Except, you know, they people tend to use dynamic mics For a closer radio type read, right? They like that radio-ish sound, right? So that was one major takeaway from this the other major takeaway for you voice actors out there and And and and as somebody who listens to a lot of podcasts and I know you do Because you're in the car a lot. I'm stuck here in the studio 37 hours a day There's a crossover here and the crossover is that people who are voice actors They could learn a lot from podcasters and it's something that the podcasters don't even know they're doing and that is that Podcasting is generally for the most part off-script. It's Usually somewhat ad-libbed or somebody has a story They want to tell and they might be working off notes or they might be reading it But for the most part the podcast that I've listened to it's like hi I'm so-and-so and here's my story for this week and they just start talking and if you're able to relate a story It's a it's a great delivery minimal ums and us and right, you know Yeah, but it's it but it's natural speech. Yeah, and I can't have the ums and ahs and stuff like that It's true and and and I think that voice actors could learn a lot from Instead of being very formal in how they present things To relax and just deliver it that way and I met a lot of people, you know Who are excited about podcasting or a bin podcasting? The other interesting thing is that I think you know, you know having some vision into the future I see great opportunity for voice actors with podcasting because it's a total fork in the road from broadcasting and Meaning that some of the major networks the major radio networks like Westwood one and several others are starting their own curated podcast networks, yeah, which means Advertising and there were some major advertising executives there that are like, you know, we're gonna have curated networks You know, we know that there are there are shows on World War two. There are shows on makeup There are shows on making ice cream or food or something like that. There's a bunch of different Varieties of of shows. I mean it's everything. I mean, yeah, but they can categorize them and they can bulk sell those Advertisements to major advertisers meaning that there's advertising dollars available to podcasts that are picked up on their networks Right thing is is everybody's got a podcast and it's the Wild West. There's no rules No, I know it's not broadcast is not not FCC regulated yet yet Yeah, and you can do pretty much whatever you want whatever format you want no matter how long or short Quality anything you want live scripted anything you want. It's just yeah, it's a party Yeah, so so people it's taking everything you can throwing it against the wall and see what sticks Yeah, so try doing a podcast Yeah, I mean if you've got something you're an enthusiast something you're extremely knowledgeable about something you can talk to often Talk about off the cuff without a ton of scripting. Yeah, it's a good way to go I do listen to podcasts that are clearly scripted and that's fine if they're very tightly produced like very short I don't mind if they're scripted that way because it means You know, they've got it They've put a lot of thought into what they're wanting to get out there and they're trying to hit a certain time frame And that I don't mind a short scripted podcast sometimes can be good But generally most of them are not so scripted. Some of them are very highly produced, right? Like the one the other one that I do the pro audio suite way not scripted but Very well produced like production values are very high a lot of editing happens after the show, right? You know what you hear on that show is not what goes out on the air, right? So it's so many ways to go about it Cool. Yeah, I got to listen to more of was there any gear that really stood out was there one thing that just like oh, oh That's cool. I hadn't seen that thing before There was a piece of software called Hindenburg. Oh, yeah Which one of those things I've known about it, but it's never really like that I found fascinating it it's it's a niche product. Yeah for radio drama For producing, you know, you know a story a story, you know Tonight on the air right and it's just formatted a little bit differently and it was interesting So I can't wait to do a full review of that and check it out and put it on my another new website I have podcast kits.com So you heard of your folks. Yes. Oh all righty Okay, well, we've got lots of stuff coming up again If you got a tech question for us a home voiceover studio tech question Throw it in the chat room and we'll get to it in our next segment and we're gonna talk about mic techniques So don't go away. We'll be right back And now we return to those thrilling days of yesteryear and we find our heroes Sheriff Dan and Marshall George On a dusty stakeout at voiceover gulch. Let's see what drama is about to take place This is the Latin Lover narrator from Jane the Virgin Anthony Mendez and you're enjoying Dan and George on the voiceover buddy show You know, there's two types of people in the world Those just getting started in voiceover and those who are established but want more work Don't we all? Vio to go go has got you covered if just getting started in voiceover Vio to go goes getting started in voiceover class is a deep dive into exactly how to do it right with video lessons taught by David H. Lawrence the 17th downloads homework quizzes and actual on-mic work and the price is right. It's Absolutely free just go to vo to go go com forward slash Start and you'll get instant access to the class. That's vo to go go com forward slash start now if you're already a working voiceover talent and you want more work then vo to go goes Pro program is for you. This is the most comprehensive Complete voiceover support system in the world with classes workouts private coaching demo production and more Teaching you the art the commerce and the science of voiceover if that sounds like it was built for you Guess what it was and you can get instant membership at vo to go go com forward slash Pro that's vo to go go com forward slash Pro getting started or going pro go to vo to go go com now It's everything you need to be a successful voiceover talent As a voice talent you have to have a website But what a hassle getting someone to do it for you and when they finally do they break or don't look right on mobile devices They're not built for marketing and SEO. They're expensive You have limited or no control and it takes forever to get one built and go live So what's the best way to get you online in no time? Go to voice actor websites.com like our name implies voice actor websites.com just does websites for voice actors We believe in creating fast mobile friendly responsive highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use You have full control no need to hire someone every time you want to make a change and our upfront pricing means you know Exactly what your costs are ahead of time. You can get your voice over website going for as little as $700 so if you watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voice actor websites.com where your VO website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what? That we're back here on voiceover body shop voiceover We think of it as it's our own little world, but there's there's more out there It's got fingers in the different industries. Yes. This is true Now if you're getting started in voiceover or you've been doing it for a while and you're mystified by These guys, you know the microphone and all the things that we have here that we do voice over with You got two guys that actually know how to do it, right? There are a lot of engineers out there tons. There are there are recording engineers They work in studios. They are fabulous. They're mostly musicians There's a show called Mike Pensado or Pensado's place. If that's what you're into go there geek your brains out, right? But we are focused on one thing a home voiceover studio, which is a unique Environment they we they didn't exist 15 years ago. Maybe you know some niche guy had a big Real to real bow weaver and there was a Don LaFontaine, right? Bo is faxing not faxing. I mean Fedexing real-to-reels around. Yeah, take the 80s putting him in an envelope and sending him out Not many MP3, right? It's a lot easier, but yes, the basics of recording are still the same and we teach that we help you get started and We can fix stuff when it breaks troubleshoot things Create processing design a studio from the ground up set up acoustic designs All kinds of stuff and the longer. We've been doing it the better. We've gotten at it. So that's the best part about I hope so yeah way we've been doing it for 15 years It's you figure you're gonna learn something sooner or later if they want to if they wanted to help themselves It's hard to do because you can crowdsource your stuff and that's a bad idea It's very time-consuming. Yes do it that way. Yeah, so the best thing to do is either go to mr Whittem here at George the tech comm is where you can find me in my world of Voiceover technology and if you're a podcaster I can help you set up a killer sounding podcast chain and also teach you production technique to speed things along so Anything acoustics all that stuff. I can create your presets at George the tech comm Dan also does a lot of that same stuff over at Home studio home voiceover studio dot com. That's right. Yeah, I am and of course I'm getting into the podcasting thing And I can do all that stuff for you as well and we have seven years of actual real-world podcasting experience Having done the show that might be helpful to you Yeah, so if you're listening to this as a podcast you know We know how to do it because you're listening to it as you're driving down some highway somewhere anyway so we'd like to help you out and There's so many things we can do for you So find us at our websites and let us know that you need some help. Cool. Any questions have popped into Yes, we talk my technique first. I will go to answer the questions first. Cool. Then we'll get into my technique a devox he says Huge podcasting market. So does that mean that maybe there will be more competition in the medium low-end for equipment? Yeah, I would say definitely. Oh, oh, yeah Yeah, I was talking to the guy from focus right one of the developers there. I this was a great conference Oh, man, and he came up to me and He's like this is an amazing market. Is there something that you know that we're not doing at focus, right? They could help these people more And I said well, you could have something like, you know Yama has got with the a GO3 or a GO6. Yeah with a loop back and maybe you know come up with and Yeah That's what you want to see in a developer Yeah That's cool You're seeing some of the guys that are involved in the nuts and bolts of these products and the development of these products Yeah, exactly because yeah, I think came out with a scarlet that was centered more towards what via and podcasters do Could be pretty killer. Yeah, so I I see yeah devox I think there's some major league stuff coming that way. Yeah, or maybe some triple-a stuff Yeah, I've seen some stuff come out from Yamaha like we said The you know, there's some gear out there that tries to set to target that podcast webcast market But there's a lot more to come I'm sure as this market grows and they start to pay attention. So Stay tuned. All right. Well, yeah, there's a question here. It's not really tech related. This is new viewer from Australia Somebody having lunch. All right enjoying a lunch. Yes. He's an American though. All right, not an Aussie Can you list some sites to find work? I've been doing work for the last few years too Is it appropriate to make contact with the client if I was contacted by the broadcaster? I was contracted by see contacted by CNN and the client only wanted me to do Ask CNN or try contact directly do great typing there Don't want to step on toes. The job is done. I just want a client. I wanted the client to have my info The first question first. Yeah, where do you go? You know, there's again, it's my favorite metaphor It's like mince in the checkout line at the the supermarket Or whatever they call them in Australia, you know the convenience. I only mean yeah No, when you're just going through the checkout line false line, right exactly the impulse all the gum all the mince Yeah, you know, maybe an occasional kind bar You know if you want to be healthy and then But you've got the pay-to-plays You know We won't mention any specific names Because there's a lot more of them now than there were a few years ago Where you pay to be on a roster and you get to audition for stuff and and that's okay The people who are really successful in this business team in are the people who do their own self marketing They do are they send out the postcards. They're making phone calls. They're sending emails They are networking walking in the local businesses literally. Hey, did you happen to need a voiceover? Why what's that you'd be surprised? Yeah, it can happen So that's our advice to you on that sort of if you're watching a commercial You know local commercial for some product. We're listening to a local commercial and it's you listen to a gun This is terrible. The voiceover is terrible. That could be a prime business to contact right, you know and market directly to them Yeah, do you see the at the email today about the plosive and a commercial it was sent out to our group And yeah, it was a national commercial and there was a plosive, but it was talking about peas Jordan Reynolds was like, I'm embarrassed by it. It wasn't him, but it's like well What do you want for 60 something like in a little pee pod that kind of pee? No, it was a plosive pee He was talking about You have to see the commercial maybe we'll post it you guys can see it all for yourself So the other part was it is it appropriate to make contact with a client if I was contacted by the broadcaster I'm a little unclear about the question Yeah, that must be an Australian thing there Yeah, generally that the client is good You're gonna be contacted by the client or the client's client or the agent or the agent that's Casting you or something right so that's that's kind of a hard one to answer. Yeah, I don't have a good answer for that Yeah, try to try to specify a little bit more on that Yeah, all right a little bit on Mike technique. Well, yeah a couple extra seconds here. Yeah, our guest is ready to go So yeah, Mike technique is vital. I always talk about how so vital, you know acoustics are important Acoustics are prime as far as I'm concerned number one number two is Mike tech Neek because if you if you got a really expensive mic if you use it wrong It's gonna show how wrong you're using it Yes, so there are standard ways to use a mic Now I've got my 416 here. How convenient it is convenient And and a 416 which is very very popular With people these days, it's not cheap, but there's a reason it's not cheap because it's really good But if you use a 416 You don't I mean unless you're doing promo You don't talk right into the front of it But you have it at about a 30 degree angle to your chest and you talk underneath it and By doing that You don't make any plosives You can't pop the mic if you're the mic is out of the pops right you'll notice There's never a plosive on this show no because our mic is up up here Now you're probably wondering why do we get away with having the mic so darn far away? How do we do that George? How the heck do we do that well? The reason we get away with it is because our acoustics are so well done and our room is big Yeah, and we have a large space around the mic and very good to very well tuned acoustics Yes, you get to have less tight mic placement Right when you have the inverse of that which most of you do when you have a really small booth Very small with minimal acoustic treatment or you know one inch or two inch foam on the walls and that's about it Guess what your mic placement has to be really spot-on. It's got there's a very small sweet spot Where the mic is gonna sound good, right? It makes it harder on you, you know When you get to go into a professional commercial studio with all this space You get to have so much more room to work the mic just to circulate like I did this so nice But those home studios take really good really tight mic placement, right? But if you've got you know with a normal home studio mic You know with a good studio condenser mic like the Harlan Hogan VO1a here. Yeah a little extra plug there should be like about this distance from it and The bottom of the mic it should be upside down and the bottom of the mic should be at about eye level because our ears and Can we lower this? I'll drop it in the frame. It's a little bit more visible You guys Okay, can we do that? No, I think you're at it. It's I think we're like really as far out Okay, that's far out man. Oh, there we go. Oh, thank you. So there's the bottom of the mic right there's the bottom of the mic So yeah, so the way I would normally address it is again. I level at the bottom Copy down underneath here and I can go Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers all day long and it's gonna sound just fine You know I need a pop screen. Yeah, that's so Celine Dion doesn't spit on a mic too much Yeah I think there's a lot of tradition around that and people think that you know because I see a pop screen in all the pictures You don't really need what I'll tell you I was at a studio What was it called studio B in the RCA studio down in Nashville? Mm-hmm, and there's pictures of artists and video and archival films of artists singing into a u8 u47 or use They like to use 67 right super sensitive very high-end mic These guys could work that mic and never pop it right no pop screens because they knew my technique We had a dialed so learn your mic technique. All right. We're rolling on here. Well Chris edgley is standing by and we'll be talking to him in just a minute and Finding out some cool stuff. So stay tuned. We'll be right back here on voiceover body shop Are you confused about how to set up and maintain a professional quality voiceover studio? No wonder the information out there is mostly Mythology this is the best microphone to use you'll have to have a preamp You need a soundproof booth. This software is the best your audio must be broadcast quality Consult with someone who knows the truth someone who's been there in the trenches doing voiceover for over 30 years Someone with unparalleled experience with voiceover studios Who's worked with hundreds of voice actors and designed hundreds of personal studios? He knows how to teach and cares about your success In one of the harshest environments known to voiceover your home Dan Leonard the home studio master Separate myth from fact and get a handle on your personal voiceover studio Contact the home studio master at home voiceover studio.com drop off a specimen of your dry audio for a free analysis Everybody this is a little spot. We do every show for our friends over at source elements The creators of source connects the great software that allows you to connect your studio to pro studios all around the world Studios that want your talent and they want to have it now They don't want to wait for you to send in files. They don't want to wait for you to record They want to direct you and they want to get your audio on their computer Now that's what you can do is source connect because it's recording your voice via the internet in extremely high quality It's indiscernible from being right there in the same studio and it's proven technology It's been around now for over 10 years if you want to give it a try go over to source dash elements.com and you can get a 15 day free trial of source connect standard You don't have to have one of those little usbi lock dongly things anymore to use source connect standard You can use it right away. Give it a shot Tell them that we sent you and we really appreciate their support over at source elements We'll be right back with dan and our guest chris right after this You're watching v obs dot tv. I don't know why it's crazy what they do here I think I'm gonna go somewhere else and have a cheese sandwich All right, it's time to introduce our guest who is waiting patiently after getting his kids all clean Uh, perhaps most recognized for voicing various animated characters on the simpsons chris edgily has a sweeping vocal portfolio that spans animated television and multiple hit video games He's even made a few television appearances including hot in cleveland the king of queens sequest 2032 and keenan incal. Oh great show While chris enjoys his time on screen He's at his best when lending his vocal talents to animated television movie and video game roles He's also been doing stand-up comedy Or at least did for about 10 years, which is going to be fun to talk about and uh, he also has a web show That he does with his brother and we're gonna talk about all those things. Please welcome to voice over body shop chris edgily Hey, there he is. All right Should I do an english accent just in case people think I actually am the chris edgily? Yeah, it made a slight error yesterday when I was putting the promo together and I'm like, oh a picture of chris edgily He says, oh, here's here's the picture. Yeah There's all these pictures on the internet. This guy looks exactly like you Is yeah, I'm gonna say he looks like me because I'm older than him. I know that Oh, okay. Yeah, I could have just come on and just tried to roll with it Yeah, no Yeah, now we got an email saying no, that's some british guy who has some kids show in england And his name is chris edgily Who knew? Thanks for being Wherever he is. I hope he's working. Yeah Well, I'm glad to know you are so tell us a little bit more about yourself I mean I talked a little bit about those sorts of things. How did you get into This amazingly weird business. We're in um You know, everybody's got a different pathway into uh, vo as we like to call it but I think almost everybody at some point that does the kind of work I do like the wide range of voices I think it all starts in childhood when you discover that you can amuse And to irritate those around you why of course Yeah, and I discovered that early on I had two older brothers and later I had a younger brother and I would amuse my friends My family my classmates and then eventually around college. I decided to try stand-up And once I did that I integrated the voices into my stand-up act and then Pretty much was on my way. I mean it was a circuitous route And I spent more time Doing professional stand-up comedy in the beginning and that's where I was really beginning to take off But I got tired of the road And I used to live in Orlando, Florida. I moved from savannah george in my hometown to Orlando to get started in show business and um I booked a lot of uh, just you know, random acting gigs, you know that That's where the keenan and kellen sequest credits come from from my time in Orlando And uh, then I would work as a comic and then I gradually picked up a couple of random voiceover gigs and then when I eventually moved to la After about 10 years of being a road comic I decided to focus mainly on just staying in los angeles and pursuing voiceover was able to land in the ages and I've always kept one foot or at least a toe in the stand-up world because the live performing is very useful But it's really been a while for me since I've really considered myself a comic. I've been a Basically exclusively a voice actor For at least 15 years. Yeah, I would say yep, but doing stand-up. I mean It's a big help. I was gonna say I mean you you build your Character chops and your timing and all that stuff from doing stand-up, right? Absolutely. I was just talking to my wife today. I read an article about how hard it is for veteran comedians established comedians to make a living in los angeles doing comedy because there's not very many paid sets And I realized that there but for the grace of god Go I because if I kept at it in LA I might have gotten my break I might have gotten a netflix special or a sitcom or something else or I might have really hit on the road But I would have had to travel a lot I would have had to say goodbye to having a normal family life, which I dearly want and my heart goes out to my stand-up brethren because they have incredible performing chops And it's a really valuable asset when you get voice acting, but they can't all do voice acting and so I'm glad I had all that time on stage because As I was telling my wife, I was sort of recapping how I got into this business I made a living as a road comic, but it wasn't a great one But what it did do Was it helped me set up the career I have in voiceover? I cannot underestimate or understate the value of all that live performing experience and how it's enabled me to Do what I've been able to do in voiceover So anyone who's thinking about it get your butt on stage and give it a try Yeah, I've always wanted to do stand-up, you know Generally, yeah. I mean, yeah, but usually it's just over dinner And getting lots of eye rolls from my kids But um, my father was the same way and it was like, you know, thanks dad Uh, but it called dad jokes, by the way. Yes, you know, and I still remember some of them Which were really good. I'll tell you some later um So all right, and there's a lot of famous other good voice actors who also came out of doing stand-up like tom kenney And bill farmer, uh, you know, and these guys are just amazing and how they do this kind of stuff Now now you've you're you're now making a living here in hollywood Doing the commercial work, uh, what type of commercials have you done that we might all be recognizing? Oh, let's see. I've been doing stuff for dominoes for quite a few years Knock on wood mainly it's radio. I started doing tv And uh as sometimes happened my voice got replaced by another voice early on in that run But I kept doing the radio stuff and since 2009 I do You know a couple of radio spots for them every year that they run for a while and I've done uh, geez, um I I am very fortunate to say I cannot possibly recall all the commercials things I've done it's been a couple a hundred different Uh spots over the years, but you know best buy Miller light red hook beer. I well, let's see No, I don't think I've ever done Ikea. All right. I'm gonna go visit my website so I can tell you guys what I've done That's how ridiculous I am about my own career. Yeah, that's voiceover though. Yeah Yeah, yeah, always got to check up on your profile. Make sure it's up to date No, I am D.B. And apparently samsung Um, uh assassins creed commercial leave eyes best buy a pure one import spearing a dog chow met life timberland i-hop Uh, Volkswagen. Oh, he's the one that popped the pee It was it was an i-hop commercial Actually, I was gonna do a quick little video about that too. You guys are I mean I know I can learn a lot from you guys on mic technique because you can always learn something But I have a trick for how to not do uh a pee pop Even if your mic technique is bad if you don't have the mic in the right place There's still a way to get around doing a pee pop, but you have to do your lips just right So it's probably just easier if you do it your way and just Yeah, well, we know lots of techniques one, you know, you just Say the pee with the teeth clenched or something in front of your you know using the old pencil trick Yeah, I found that if you instead of pushing the pee out you just sort of Separate your lips and just sort of push it out that way or just gradually Yeah, I just be very soft The ear and the mind will pick up the pee where it's supposed to be and do the work for you So you can actually just sort of gently place it where you need to go, but It's just easier if you listen to dan and george kids And we'll take that endorsement So anyway, so you're also doing animation Uh And that is you you've got to be really be here in la to be doing animation. Don't you? Yeah, um, I would say that there are I mean, there are people that like tom cain as an example. He's a fellow client at cest I think he lives in the midwest And I know he probably flies in occasionally But he's a very in-demand actor and he they probably are good at working around schedules But he'll fly in and do some animation as far as I know But yes, if if you really want to have a very busy career, whether it's voiceover promo Animation video games, what have you it is ideal to live in los angeles You can probably get away with doing more commercial work not living in la But if you're going to be doing animation, you kind of have to be here Yeah, I mean correct me if I'm wrong didn't tom cain establish his career here then relocate. Yeah Yeah, I don't want to talk out of school, but I'm sure that You know, uh, it's kind of hard to get established if you're not here and um The double it sort is uh, it's a very expensive place to live Yeah, uh, what how did you get into animation? You just said I want to do animation or did someone say, hey, you know, you'd be really good at this or Kind of the way I did it Like when people ask me, how'd you get the voiceover? Uh, the real question they're asking without knowing they're asking it is how'd you get an agent? Because you're not going to get that far without one if you're if you're going to do union work But frankly if you want to do a lot of commercial work and a lot of animation and video games things like that you're going to need to be union and You're going to need an agent because the agent is going to open those doors for you get the auditions that you yourself are Not going to be able to get So the way I got an agent is another circuitous answer I can trace it back in a few steps all the way back to my time in orlando because I Basically cold called an on-camera agency in orlando because you could do that in 1994 when I did it And said I'd love to have some representation. I've been doing stand-up and they said well come on in. Let's meet And they gave me a monologue to prepare. I came back the next day did it. They said okay. We'll work with you So I start going on on-camera auditions Eventually some voiceover work comes along They send me on voiceover auditions and I book one or two things and then Eventually my name gets around town because orlando is a smaller market As a guy who could do lots of different voices So next thing you know, I'm working at sound deluxe studios in orlando doing scratch tracks for all of the villains and And the heroes on the amazing adventures of spider-man theme park ride And this is around 97 So they said we're just getting the ride in the early stages. We want to do the soundtrack We want to do the voices just for temp. So come up with different voices for Electro and hydro and dr. Octopus and all these different guys and For peter parker and for j. Jonah Jameson So I put on character voices for everybody except spider-man. I thought Spider-man is close to my age. He's a lot like me. He's kind of a smart alec. So I just did my own voice Well after a few months of going in and out and doing sessions for them The director of the ride showed up and said, how would you like to actually be spider-man for the ride? And j. Jonah Jameson we cast around and you're our favorite choice for those two and I said sure So they flew me to la and I recorded there with the rest of the cast that had been cast as the villains and That went really well. It was a lot of fun and it took a couple of years Going in in different stages and recording and finishing up that ride And eventually I moved to la in 97 and by 99 we finished the ride And I ended up doing based on that another ride for universal just some random voices So I got to know the people at universal studios in los angeles One day around 2000 they said Do you have an agent? I said no, I'd really like one. I've been touring doing stand-up And I'm trying to find a way to stay in town They said well, we know a really good agent named pat brady And she is over at ksa, which is kazarian spencer and associates And they said we'll get you meeting with her. I said sure so I got a meeting with pat and I made a good impression on her and she said all right I want you to go home and make a demo of as many voices as you can like at least 20 or 25 And I went crazy and put like 50 voices on there and I came back and she said okay Let's whittle this down into a good demo and I'll sign you and we'll start working together And to this day, I am still with pat That's 18 years later and she moved up to cdsd and took me and some others with her and based on working with pat and And her being at the right place I got all the auditions I could ever ask for and some of those included animated features animated television programs things like that and you just eventually book certain things and you get into that world so um Long story longer It's it's not a one-step process I mean And that's what I try to tell people is that it will not happen overnight But the reason why I got to do the job on the spider-man ride was because I earned a reputation in Orlando The reason why I got to do the permanent job on the ride, which is still running at islands of adventure in Orlando Is that they like the work I did and the reason why universal stuck their neck out and recommended me to an agent It's because I was doing good professional work for them Right, so people make calls on your behalf They open doors for you if you show that you are committed to what you're doing that you have the chops and that you're easy to work with Because you can be really talented, but if you're difficult It's going to be an obstacle right absolute Yeah, if you're just joining us here on voiceover body shop Our guest is chris edgley who is a voice actor does a lot of character work Does a lot of cool stuff. We're going to talk about more of those things as we move along here Now you also Do video games and I suppose if you're an animation video games was a natural transition to you because it's a huge business now It is and the bulk of my video games came earlier in my career because of the work I do on the simpsons can be pretty exhaustive. So I try to save myself for that So I do the occasional video game now. It's it's rarer like I did work on one recently. It was a lot of fun I'm not allowed to announce anything about it because everything is an nda these days but yes, um video games and animation are close cousins especially now because video games have become incredibly realistic and they really love The uh, the most nuanced performance possible, but it's also still a video game So there's a lot of drama. There's a lot of tension. There's a lot of action. You're yelling your head off. That's for sure And yes, they uh, they do go hand in hand a lot of the techniques Yeah, well It's it's it's not easy work You know doing doing doing the the gaming work because it is screaming and all those other things Uh once again, if you've got a question for chris edgley about all this stuff And we're going to talk a little bit more about a couple other things throw it in the chat room Paul Stefano was in there Jabbering away with all of you and getting those questions to us and we'll get that to those in the next segment Um, now you were talking about how you're on the simpsons Yeah, how how do you get a gig like that? Uh, I just wrote in you know, I just writing letters and they said fine. You're on the show big fan big fan Yeah, can I do funny voices? Yeah Yeah That's that's another one where um, you know, I won't go in too into the details of it But it was just an opening was available They need somebody who could do some random voices and you had to be able to show a pretty wide range and pretty specific abilities and I I got my opportunity and I I made the most of it. And so that was back in 2010 that was 10 years almost to the day after I signed with pat brady uh, and I do not lose the uh, the The incredible sense of um, I don't know fate whatever you want to call it That 10 years to the day after she told me when she first signed me You really do those animation voices well hold on to that because you never know where that'll lead And 10 years later. I get the job of my career, right? And um, it's been an incredible run on that show and hopefully we'll just you know, keep going Yeah, 28 years they've been on now something like that You're recording season 30 right now. Oh, jeez. Yeah, that'll be that week I uh, I joke that um Uh, I was in college when that show started airing And my alma mater is University of Georgia and the alumni association contacted me and said you're one of our alumni out here in SoCal we have some interns who are getting into the media world Out here and we'd love for them to meet with you and and see a little bit of what you do And I said, let's come to a table read the Simpsons and I told them Uh, I was basically your age when this show started And I think that kind of blew their mind it blew my mind. Yeah Yeah, and of course now you you get the opportunity to work with you know Some of the great people in the business too like Dan Castell netta and uh You know, Hank Azaria and Harry Scherer Harry Scherer Julie Kavanaugh, Yardley Smith and Julie Kavanaugh Neil Pamela Hayden Dave Not just the best at that, but they're also really cool. I'm just yeah, they're as nice as you can be Yeah, they're fun. They're fun to meet too Um, we're gonna take a little break here right now And again, if you've got a question for chris edger lee about all this cool stuff Throw in the chat room right now. We'll get to that question Right after these important messages Style watching the home of the nfm the all-new iphone reserve your disney world season pass now Through all the runny noses three in the morning coughs An all-new american crime story tonight on fx this week only it's pasta fest at all of garden heart rate crime blood pressure Perfect. I grew up with the classics and now with stup hub. I can get authentic tickets to the best shows the all-new chevy cruise from 16 995 Fee inspired think at the beauty that's uniquely yours at sephora this week at home depot It's our garden fest sale with up to 30 off all garden tools sod and seeds Hi, it's j michael collins and these are just a few examples of the first class demos My team and I are producing if you'd like to have something similar Visit jmc voiceover.com and click on the demo production tab to find out more You know every monday. I have to talk to harlon hogan, which is a pleasure Because he's like here's what I want you to talk tonight on your show tonight So he wanted to mention interestingly the the voiceover resource guide Which appears in several cities, but here in la it's put out by Dave sebastian williams and his wife terry and it lists everything that you could possibly need In the voiceover world including you and me and our show and all that kind of stuff And usually you go into a studio or one of the casting lounges and it's sitting there And you should probably subscribe to it and voiceover resource guide is Really cool, you know and which is why I advertised in there Asked his voiceover essentials.com harlon hogan's company because he knows that you guys read it and he knows that you guys Need the stuff that he has Like the portabouth Portabouth we've shown it on the show many times. Yeah, it just packs up you can put all your stuff into it And you know your computer your microphone your cables and you unfold it and suddenly you've got A voiceover studio wherever you are if you're in the Antarctic you could use that I doubt you'd have internet, but at least you'd sound good doing it But he's got the pro and the plus And they're great for when you're on the road and you know sometimes Some people are real obsessive about recording on the road If you've got to have something good there a portabouth pro or portabouth plus is Probably the thing you should have and the place you can get it is voice over essentials com And it being summer and people doing lots of traveling It's a good time to have one and if you don't have one go buy one now at voiceover essentials.com All you got to do if you want to see what one what which one would work best for you Is go to the bottom of our homepage here where you're watching this very show And click on the icon of harlin hogan and it will take you right to voiceover essentials.com and you'll see The demonstration of the portabouth plus and the portabouth pro and why they are perfect for you So go over there right now and buy that and everything else he has on that page harlin will be most appreciative Anyway, thanks for being our sponsor for seven and a half years harlin. We'll be right back with chris edgerly. So stay tuned Hey guys, this is tom also known as the voice of spongebob square pants And you want to fill your ear holes and your eye holes with dan and george and the audio body shop Snails like it too Speaking of tom kenny anyway Uh, we're talking with chris edgerly and we're talking about the wide range of voice work that you do But you know when when you do all this work, it's like you don't want to get pigeonholed into certain things You want to sometimes you want to take control of your own career or you want to create content And you've done this with your brother david who is an animator Tell us a little bit about but uh, this company you've started and what you're doing with it Yeah, we're uh, we're called edgy brothers, you know edgerly edgy Hi Yeah, I know But my brother and I have always been pretty good collaborators and uh, like I like to write the stuff And he gives me good notes on it and I do the funny voices and then he's a really talented artist And he taught himself animation and he was even mentored for a bit by a disney animator years ago So he's learned some really good skills and he taught himself this computer animation program And so what I would do is just send him a funny voice and he'd animate to it and back and forth We went he thought let's just create some shorts just some fun stuff just for us and see if anyone else likes it And I asked him what's the easiest thing for you to animate and he said Something with no arms or legs Or a neck Yeah All right, um, in animate objects it is and we just thought you know, he also has a as a day job He used to work in bars a lot bartending. We thought how about we just have bar glasses talking to each other And he said, okay. Yeah, I can do that and he started rendering these glasses and and I would just Think all right. I'm just going to do each glass will be a celebrity voice so the martini glass is peter otul And the tall collins glass is jeff goldblum And the short shot glass is martin scorsese The beer mug is uh, or the beer pint is gary bucey And the hurricane glass is harvey fire steed So those are those were my celebrity jumping off points to come up with character voices for these So we just called it happy hour and it's all these glasses just sort of talking to each other And comparing notes on their lives and just you know It whatever misadventures you can get them into in about 90 seconds or less And we had a lot of fun making and we made about eight of them And we put those up. We have clean versions and not safe for work versions So they're not safe for work versions You can see on patreon if you just sort of give us like a dollar Then uh, great. We get the dirty stuff Yeah, exactly you get the you get the stuff ma and pa watch when the kids done been put to bed So as they say The versions I won't show my kids like all right, that's what you get to see and then um And uh, and then now we're coming up with a new idea Like we'll go back and do more happy hour episodes after we come up with a new idea because the whole point is Our company is really about whatever Dave and I can come up with and animate throw out there And when we're bored, we start something new so we started doing Kickstarter campaigns for decks of cards and We had a lot of success doing that But it's very tedious getting the cards made and shipping them out to all your backers Some of them were in china and russia and it's just it's a it's a headache. So we thought let's make Virtual content. Let's make digital content that way we can just make it and put it up And that's what this is now. So edgy brothers presents. It's basically edgybrothers.com And it's whatever animated short has seized our fancy and um Right now happy hour the completed shorts We have and we're working on a new idea that we're really enthusiastic about and as soon as we get something cranking We'll let you guys know great, you know, it is great having an animator in the family Yeah, you know my my son's an animator and I get I get to be in those and it's it's great fun And so I I take you just like well, what can you do you write it out? You're just like well, what would this guy say in this situation and then just roll with it Right. This is also where the stand-up background comes in a lot of it I just sort of write on the fly But what I'll do is I'll talk to Dave and say here's my idea What if the glasses wanted to learn about Soccer and they saw these british beer pites standing nearby What would that conversation go like and he said all right? That's good Try this or this and I just step into my booth here right behind me. Yeah, and I just start kind of Going with it. I just imagine how the conversation might go and then I type out a few more ideas and I only need to make it about a minute or so, but it still needs to have a structure It's got to have a set up in a punch line. It's got to have a premise And then you have to fulfill that premise and hopefully there's a little bit of a pivot or a misdirection So as long as those beats get hit Then it doesn't have to be Something that precisely follows a script. It's got to be something that I find funny and when I send it to Dave He's got to laugh at and if he thinks you know, it doesn't kill me. What about this or this then I do it again And so we kind of make stuff that we find funny and we just hope that other people agree right All right, and everybody should be trying to create some of their own content if they're they're bored or Something if you can create that stuff And it's funny or it's good or it's you know, that sort of thing don't limit yourself to just Reading scripts So it helps you it helps you create your own creative jobs, which is really important Well, you ready for a couple of questions from our vast audience all over the world including australia Where it's after lunch now Uh, mr. Whitom you take the control of the question gram here. You got it, sir Okay, the first one that i'm seeing coming in we've got a few of them from one of our great Audience members has been consistently with us for a while now thomas machin The first one that came in from thomas is agents Are they worth the effort or is it just more effective to just keep doing your own marketing? Well, um, the answer is yes and yes agents are absolutely worth the effort because they will open doors for you That you just will not be able to open on your own. I could not have gotten on the fox lot without my agent That's just that's just a hundred percent true Um a bad agent is not worth it But you won't know you have a bad agent until you're with them for a bit and you realize you're not getting the work You want or they're just not representing you the way you should be And then you you amicably part ways and move on. I have been extremely lucky. I've never had a bad agent In la here. I've had pat had has taken me to cesd and everybody there is awesome So it's been great. However, the agents will also tell you we can only do so much for you We would really appreciate it if you would also market yourself and help us help you So a good agent will also advise you to get on social media build a following Engage with people that might know your work and appreciate what you do And uh and tweet about your comings and goings. I mean it's amazing But when I go like to the Warner Brothers lot or it's somewhere on the fox lot or to some studio And I tweet a picture of me outside the booth before I record people love that and to me it's just in every you know, it's just sort of something I do but People really get into that they want to see what it is you're doing and they want to pick up any tidbits you might have of advice and And that is self marketing my agency cannot do it all for me. So Um, it is worth it to have one and it's also worth it to bust your hump getting your own name out there They they need help. They can't do it all for you. So it sounds like a sort of a Uh a vague in between answer, but both are true Well, this this there's another thing that dovetails off of that. Yeah, I've just been reading through the questions from also from thomas Obviously the agent is worth it. So he's saying, you know The process you went through to get an agent nearly 20 years ago Is it any different now? Do you think are you going to go about a different way now to find an agent? Then you did 20 years ago It's uh, well, first of all, yeah, you're probably not going to be able to cold call an agent get a meeting, you know Um, yeah, uh, that was maybe never true in los angeles and it was only occasionally true in orlando I have no idea what that market's even like Um, I can speak from my own experience, but I I can say this Build your resume as much as you can on your own if you're not Getting access to work. Then of course, it's a double as sort. How do I get an agent? If I don't have any work to show the agent that I'm good that means it's all on your demo Agents will listen to a demo, but even then They won't use the demo as the sole reason to sign you a demo is really going to get you a meeting with an agent because What the agency is going to do is they're going to sit you down and give you copy And they're going to read you and direct you and they're going to see how well you do at taking direction How quickly you can take the copy and interpret it and give it your own voice And how sharp you are. What's your technique? You know, can you pick it up quickly if you have those attributes? Then you should be able to put together a pretty good demo and then you should be able to get to that agency Sit in their booth and give them what they need within two or three takes Because your demo could be amazing, but if it took you 50 takes to do it It's not so amazing because on the day you're hired for a job. They don't have all day they need you to get it and get it quickly and So if you get a great demo together that's step one Then play it for anybody. I mean, I I I don't have much time to do this anymore But people have sent me demos to listen to just for advice and I'll I'll take a minute and listen and um I try not to be brutal. I just tell them where they're strong and where they could work on you know a couple of things but um The people that I have walked into my agency and gotten meetings on their behalf because they already had a resume They still Had to meet with the agents. They had to sit in the booth. They had to get copy and they had to Show that they knew what they were doing and these are people with a stabilized on-camera careers so It sounds really daunting um And it is But I tell everybody the same thing There is absolutely no reason why you can't work your butt off Get an agent like I got one Prove yourself to them and start working as a professional. No reason that won't happen. All right Uh next question is from devox and he says uh, what are some good ways to keep multiple voices straight? Especially when they're in the same scene and can you give us a little example of that? Well, I assume they mean if you're doing some kind of project where you're doing two or three voices And they're all in the same scene with each other. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, well Ideally what you're going to do is you're going to do a separate take for each character. Of course all right now I've I'm very very fortunate to witness the great dan castle annetta go from Homer Simpson to grandpa simpson to crusty the clown all within about five seconds Whoa, he can do it. Uh billy west. I've heard is I've seen him do it too He can some people could just go down the page and pivot pivot pivot You know and I have you know, I can kind of do something like that as well But you know when they give you a chance to do one character per take in a lot of times in that situation you'll get to do that then um Really, it's just practice and if the characters are distinct enough Then there should be technical things you're doing with your voice to be able to differentiate them So if I was doing a guy that was from sort of backwoods appellation He's you know choked back at all that Well, as soon as I sort of had him speaking to a received pronunciation brit There are a couple of technical things I do with my voice And of course if I was going to be someone who is a bit more like the queen mother Well, then I go to the different part of my brain that accesses it. You see what I mean You're a champ, dude. Yeah, you're a trooper. We're pulling out that on the spot Well, look some of its technique but some of it is if you're just creating your own content just cut And then yeah all one You know one character and then play them back get them in your head and say all right I'm going to play off this person now and then boom put your mind where it needs to be to do the second character If you're practiced enough Yeah, you can do them all in in one. I mean that's look some of that stand-up training I used to go on stage and throw out as many voices. I could do in five minutes And it's a fun parlor trick and all that but what it is is a technique And technique is how you keep them all straight. Just be technically faithful to each voice and it'll happen Um, thank you man. That's fantastic. Richard Harris He has a question for you. What is the right way to put together a character voice demo? Okay, um good question. Uh, there are different Ideas on this. I'm sure you guys have your own thoughts on this too, but I'm of the opinion that um You don't want to overdo it as far as each character If you hear a good five seconds of a character voice Then five to ten seconds at most is really all you need to hear to know. Okay, they do that voice well If you have a minute you should be able to pull out a good 10 12 voices Convincingly In that character demo because a character demo has got to be a large It's got to be a good range or if you don't have a big range, but you do three or four characters really well Make it 30 seconds Don't waste anybody's time You can get your point across with a good voice in five to 10 seconds and 10 seconds is almost a long time If you've listened to a lot of demos all the time You don't need to hear a voice for 10 seconds straight to know that a person does it well or not well So brevity and if you can You know, they don't necessarily have to talk to each other They don't necessarily have to be all telling the same story. Just make each one entertain Awesome advice This one's about gear And it's for me because I want to know about a little bit about your gear You don't have to geek way out on us But give us a little rundown of your signal chain from mike to the computer and what kind of environment you record in Sure Mine is it's pretty simple. I mean you guys are like the real tech heads here So I don't have the I just don't have the the the knowledge you guys do but I've been using a sure ksm I believe it's called Geez great mic 15 years. Yeah, it's a great mic You can get it a guitar center or amazon Any really good microphone dealer is going to have one it's It's one of the most I think widely used kinds of mics condenser mics are very popular and This is a good one. I it's not a top end mic, but it's not low end either It's probably a five to six hundred dollar mic 32 ksm 32. Does that sound right? Yeah ksm 32 That's right. Yeah, it's pretty top end great mic. It is an excellent microphone Yeah, and what's that going to Oh, you guys that yeah, you guys must have a wide range there too. I'm sure. Um, what do you plug that into? Yeah Yeah, this is a custom made booth Think you can It's pretty well I mean, you're not going to be able to see in there. It's a cave. I like it nice and dark Nice and dark because I've got it kind of soundproof Um, and uh, yeah, I've got some sound foam up there And I just use my laptop. I've got a mac and I've got A pre amp my pre amp is like 15 years old. It's a mobile pre It only cost about a hundred bucks and uh, and then I switched it out I got a newer version of something like that And I couldn't tell you much about it except that it's red It's just I mean We know what it is then Like my wife is a musician and she said get this one This one's good and I said, okay. And so, you know, obviously the sure KSM you can't just run it right into your computer It's too powerful. So you run it through a pre amp Um, I use audacity as my recording program. It's free. It's open source and it's Really easy to use a trained monkey could use it and I improve of that and um It's got nice bells and whistles if you want to do more with it But if you're just sending in auditions All you need is some good quality recording and the ability to edit easily and then boom Export into an mp3 and you're off. So basic standard laptop A nice pre amp, uh A nice condenser mic and audacity and I am good to go and yes, I have I have a nice Booth it it cost a few thousand because I had it custom made and um as far as uh What anyone could use I I have to admit you guys were talking about the uh, the the portable studio The box. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I used to use one of those. They're extremely effective And I dare say I I used to have I bought a fabric box from Ikea I stuffed sound foam inside of it cut a hole in the back put my mic there put it on top of my desk When I had an apartment and I didn't have closet space to create a studio Excellent acoustics. So if you only have like 30 or 40 bucks Go to that go to that person's website because I'm sure it's not that much more expensive than that and a little bit more But it's really good It is it is. I mean, it's nothing matches having a booth But that portable box is amazing. You can do a lot worse than that. I assure you I like this guy. He understands keeping it simple and not overthinking it. Yeah, that's right Which is what we don't need to overthink it if you've got a walk-in closet and it's got carpet And you've got clothes hanging on either side. You're going to get amazing acoustics Absolutely Alrighty, uh, tom ancient has another question here and this is you know for someone who's established in and you know A working professional he says do you still get coaching or mentoring to pick up new ways of doing character voices? Or other things you've never thought of Uh, that's a good question. I do not yet direct Coaching or mentoring. But what I do is I pay attention and I am very lucky I get to work With legends in the business and I am not asleep at the wheel when I'm in the room with them I look at what they do and I'll pick up a tip here and there just listening and Sometimes I'll just chat with them about oh, how'd you come up with that voice? Or you know, how'd you do that or we'll share stories about how we created something and And if you're just hanging out with creative people, especially if you're fortunate enough to be around really successful Super talented creative people you were going to learn By osmosis just being around them if you're paying attention because it is a good question You can never stop learning. You never should stop learning. And so whether it's Whether it's people who do seek out a coach and work with them or people who just like looking at new stuff like I'll I'll watch cartoons. I'll watch animated stuff that my friends are in and I'll check out what they're doing and think That's why they booked it over me. Okay. I got you They did something amazing that was not quite in my wheelhouse. Maybe I should work on that Yeah, learning from your peers. Obviously, yeah, super valuable, especially when your peers are of that caliber Yeah, absolutely. If you're lucky enough to be in the room, you know, take mental notes It will help definitely a team man has another one about you obviously work from home But how what is a typical day if there is one? Yeah, how does it go for you typically? Um, I'm lucky I don't work every day. Most voice actors. I know don't work every day Even the really busy ones get the occasional day off and most of what I do is I get my auditions in And my agency will send out all their auditions by 6 30 p.m. That's when their office closes and I'll have the choice of either getting the auditions done that night before they're due the next day Or I can get up early, you know and and um and send them in from there But I have two young kids and so if my wife is not able to be there to help out with them Then I've got them to take care of And uh, it's summer. So they're not in school So it depends on what my schedule is like if I don't have a booking It's really about getting those auditions in and if a couple of the characters are deeper voice characters I will save them for the morning because I'm pretty froggy in the morning And for some reason my voice just gets higher pitched as the day goes on. So Uh, basically I I get to spend most of my day around the house if I want So, you know, mainly I get my auditions out of the way and then it's just all right. I'm going to go exercise and um I'm going to go spend some time with my kids if I've got a booking. I'll I'll drive wherever I need to go to do it And uh, and that's it, you know, and then You know, if it's a if it's a day where it's a regular show I'm on then the schedule is pretty solid I know when I have to be there and I know when I'm going to leave but It's this is a dream job. Most of my days are fairly open Well, I mean it's a lot of work, but you you have to keep your voice healthy and Uh, thomas mation gets the last question and he says when you're working constantly In animation and games and all these other things. How do you keep your voice healthy or have you performed? Even though your voice Wasn't a hundred percent. Did it affect and did it affect your performance? Uh, yes. Uh, well it starts with this right here drink a lot of this water water water stay hydrated Uh, especially since I live in LA we live in LA. It's a desert. So You will get dried up. Um Basically hydrates, uh, don't smoke You know, if you do smoke, I I hope you really enjoy it because uh, it's going to take uh It's going to take some of your range away. Um, obviously some people are Such good character actors with such textured voices that the smoking probably helped them. But you know for me That's a no-no. Um I do not drink very much at all. I used to have like, you know, one glass of a wine or beer a night You know, which is not even that much but these days It's it's very rare and uh, that keeps your voice pretty elastic pretty healthy I have friends who do vocal exercises every day, but I don't really do that. Um, just just talking and and um, keeping myself well lubricated is seems to be enough and uh Yes, if you're working on a video game You learn early on how to do diaphragmatic breathing and diaphragmatic screaming So that if you're gonna yell You don't do it from your throat. You push it out from your gut so you can really scream really loud Without actually being really loud And there are ways to cheat it so that you can kind of get away with it over a four-hour session But it's um casting director once told me when you audition for the video game You get to decide how hard you're gonna work because when you do the audition if you scream your bloody head off That's what they're gonna want from you for four hours Right if you find a way to diaphragmatically do it and cheat it a little bit and make it sound as real as possible If they like that then when you book it, you'll be able to sustain that So that's something that if you're not familiar with it, you might want to work with a coach on how to do that kind of diaphragmatic Vocal delivery that will save your throat because I have lost my voice from doing and it was a video game And the next day you're not quite the same. The funny thing is the one time I really lost my voice from doing a game It was doing a game called flight simulator And I never yelled for the entire game. It was four hours of mid-range talking And the next day my mid-range was completely gone But I had falsetto and I had bass But I had absolutely no mid-range for 24 hours. I never heard why that happened No, that's amazing. Yes, and on that note. Well, Chris, it has been a pleasure having you on It's great meeting you and I'm sure we'll run into each other in gelsons or ralphs or one of those places one of these days And Right and again if they want to find your your web channel, what's the web address for that? You can find me at chris edgily.com. You can go to edgybrothers.com. Check out what my brother and I are working on Or you can find me on twitter at chris edgily and I also have a youtube channel where I just I've got a lot of my commercials and Animated stuff up there and pretty soon. I'm going to be creating my own little Vo notes clips about just, you know, a little bits of advice for the industry Excellent. All right. Well, thanks for joining us and thanks for hanging out with us tonight Alrighty, all right. Have a great evening All right. Well, we'll be right back to wrap things up And we'll be right back Aaron voiceover bunny shop Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer that place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics Like audiobooks, auditioning, casting, home studio setup and equipment, marketing, performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one stop daily resource for voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voiceover audition It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voiceover x t r a dot com God i love doing this show, but then again if we've been doing it this long if we didn't like it it would be We would have been over years ago. Yeah, yeah forever. Yeah, I think we get along. I know. Yeah um Next week on this show and again, thanks to uh chris edger leaf for joining us next week Good friend of ours. Jamie muffett is going to be here while i'm not here. He's actually in philadelphia Hey, i didn't see him there when i was in philadelphia, but he has a great podcast called Vio school podcast He's a voice actor an audio engineer and an actor and a director and he has a great british accent So he'll be with us next week August 13th in studio bob bergen will be here. All right, bob bergen everybody wants to hear from bob bergen August 20th in the studio paul pape who we've had on a couple of times great guy And and then on august 27th Catherine haran from the voice caster in burbank. We'll talk a little bit about Voice casting. Oh, that's great. It's always huge for our audience to have casting people Yeah, so we got a great lineup coming up in august So make sure you're tuned in for that Alrighty, who are our donors of the week? All right. Well, we've got some very familiar names for you folks who listen to regular listen to us regularly eric aragoni andrew kaufman Going down the list martha con i'm martha shanna pennington baird ant land productions Going on down To do Oh, oh, I think somebody's trying to get my attention in the audience tonight My dad George widham senior George widham senior who is in the audience tonight say say hi dad. Hello everybody He's one of our donors of the show diana birdsaw and uh, stefanie sutherland And man it goes on What's this one tracy h. Reynolds all right that loops us around to last week's already fantastic All right, again remember that george and I do this stuff and you can find us at Well, you find me at george.tech.com or george of the tech For people that like short domains. Yeah geeky types and For me you can go to homevoiceoverstudio.com and uh, you will get the same great service Maybe just flip a coin who you're gonna go to or work with us both, which is always fun because we do talk Anyway, uh, let's see what else is going on here. You've got your geek podcast and This is a podcast the show logs dan Sutton's been joining in with jack to golly doing the show logs Thanks dan. Yeah, we really appreciate that We are uh, also a podcast and you can get us on podbean stitcher itunes Google void uh google podcast podcast. Hey google or okay google. No not google. Hey, uh, uh, Alexa, Alexa does it. Hey, Alexa. I want to listen to voiceover body shop I know and google does it now or you don't you don't have any software anymore to say Okay, google listen to voiceover body shop and you got a podcast right there. It's absolutely amazing Uh, we're here every monday night if you're in the greater los angeles area like the wittom clan is tonight You can actually join us here in the studio By writing to us at the guys at v obs dot tv and say audience And we'll give you the secret handshake Uh, what else? Oh, it's your mom's birthday. Happy birthday to mary with him for uh, happy birthday mom Is the audience camera working? No Not even the upside down version They're gonna have to all come over here and be on camera. Yeah, okay All right. Well, we also need to thank our uh, oh and tonight's booth was uh, actually turned out in the end We went to bow weavers. Oh, it's bow weaver studio. Yeah. Yeah, he's very proud of that That is a beaut of a booth sending your booths pictures. I didn't design that one. All right All right. Well, we need to thank our sponsors like harland hogan's voiceover essentials Ah voiceover extra source elements view to go go voice actor websites dot com and j michael collins demos All right. Well, we need to thank of course the dan and marcy lennard foundation for the betterment of live webcasting our producer katharine curidan uh for finding a great guest like chris edgardly and all the great people we've got coming up uh tonight, uh Paul stafano was in the chat room. That's right. Did a great job with that for jack. Yes and uh, also our floor director technical director In gal about town who just knows all about this stuff Sumer lino who did a great job tonight It was perfect all the way through for the last three weeks. You can't beat that Okay, good She just remember just remember to hit record. Yeah, let's do this again. Okay. Very good because it's not warm in here at all Right. All right. And of course, uh, we need to thank lee pennie for simply being lee pennie Come visit us lee. Come on. Alrighty. That's gonna do it for us this week Where else are you gonna get this information? Where else are you gonna learn all about voiceover? It's we have written the entire bible of how it's done 330 live episodes One episode after another from start to finish not cut in half. We give you the whole thing 330 That's right. So join us again next monday night. Uh, i'm dan lennard. I'm george winnow And this is voiceover body shop or vio bs And remember if it sounds good, it is good All right. Hey, let's get the witem clan in here so they get everybody can see them Okay, well everybody knows ella And there's the birthday girl she can have a seat and come on mom And Brother steve's or let's kick your head down there is the camera. Remember the camera is that thing right there? George senior is coming in here wearing a really good hawaiian shirt Yes, you guys honor me every time you're here. All right. I appreciate it mom Have a great week everybody. Love you Bye