 Hey, it's Monday night once again. We're back after a short hiatus Hope everybody had a good Memorial Day tonight. Our guest is joining us all the way from Scotland Mm-hmm, and that's the one and only Philip Banks. That's right, and he's live He's coming in on zoom and he's very awake very way He's a professional International voice actor after all he works 24 hours a day the man does not sleep clearly plus We've got we got a couple of questions, and we're gonna talk about The size of the room in which you record it and how that changes things so stay tuned coming right up here on voiceover body shop 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 voice over essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote connections made even easier Vio to go go dot com everything you need to be a successful voiceover artist J. Michael Collins demos award-winning demo production voice actor websites dot com 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 Dan Leonard Good evening. I'm Dan Leonard, and I'm George Whidham, and this is voiceover body shop or V.O. BS I Pretend there's a room full of people cheering Usually it's a room full of people in here, but no tonight. It's just the three of us intimate Yes, I think it's because they know our guest is far far far away across the globe Yes, so and they're like well, we're not gonna meet him It's like my show up not even jack game tonight. Yeah, I mean the big stars come You know jack's gonna be jack and the better-looking than what the I think jack has a girlfriend now Dan. Oh, okay. You're right anyway, and she's probably there Jack is at home taking a doing our at least social media Social media and handling that stuff for us tonight. We really appreciate it. So what's going on tonight? We don't have a regular news story. No, no John Florian is on a cruise. Good. So there's no news, you know from his cruise Well, that's no news is good news when it comes to cruise lines. Yeah, it's really going. No, no Salmonella No sinking, you know, yeah kind of stuff. What are you been up to? Been busy. Yeah fix building studios and stuff like that talk about that a little bit later Yeah, you know helping out, you know my my son Jacob is Going to be doing a long and tedious internship at Warner Brothers animation That's awesome. Yeah, which is gonna be really cool And we actually have one of his latest cartoons at the end of the show So don't go away After we are finished because you'll get to see his work and combine with some other people and it's really cool All right. So without any news, I guess we have to go talking about tech and stuff like that. So I guess you can lead off with the Something that's going on with the mr. Cipriano, I believe. Oh, yeah, yeah So of all the things that have come across my bow the last couple of weeks I try to think of things that might be of interest to some of you, especially you International voice actor travelers, which it's it's travel season. Yeah, some of you are gonna be traveling And some of you may need to work Joe in the case of Joe Cipriano He's going to be traveling to I believe Italy He might be on the way there now and he wanted to have internet that would work almost anywhere he goes There is no perfect Universal one-size-fits-all thing magic that gives you internet everywhere you go Some of you might go. Hey, what about the GPS thing? Yes, there is there are Jeep not GPS. I'm sorry satellites. There are satellite systems But you know satellites are just not happening For what we do the latency is to it's a little bit too high, especially if you're doing anything with source connect So it just doesn't make sense to do to do satellite yet Eventually, we're gonna have low-earth orbit satellites from from probably Facebook or Google ones You can like reach out and actually grab. Yeah, I think you'll see them at night They look like little stars floating around the planet. Yeah, that's gonna happen eventually. We're not there yet So this is the next big thing. It's the thing called skyroam and I can bring a shot of it up I have the technology and you guys can see what this thing looks like as I switch sources here for Our show. Let me go to Chrome There we go Now you should be seeing my screen. I see it. So this is the website skyroam.com get Wi-Fi Let's see what this thing is. It's a cute little round hockey puck-sized thing Which is kind of cool. It's got built-in battery. So it runs on its own battery But I think what makes it interesting is it's a pay-as-you-go thing and it works Well, they're saying basically in all countries and that's the most important thing because if you've had to travel and roam with your phone It's a pain in the neck It gets extremely expensive Sometimes I'll say go get a sim card at the bodega down the street from your hotel All right, you can get a cheap, you know internet But those things can be a pain in the neck this thing covers you and you pay a flat monthly fee to use it So that makes it really stand out. You only hit that's what I think it's cool about it You buy the thing once you keep it in your bag and you just pay for the day. You're gonna use it It's like eight euros something like that for a day. Well, I mean that could save your job You know, it's a good backup for the hotel internet, which is a total crapshoot. Sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's not But again, you have to remember it's not going to work everywhere If you're staying in a villa in Tuscany in the hills in wine country Good luck, you know, it's not gonna work. So but it's it's a very cool thing. I like I like its form factor Cool, see if there's anything more of interest on here on the website. Nope. There isn't okay Interesting. Yeah. Oh, and it's also a battery charger. So if your phone battery is going low, it can charge your phone Oh, so that's cool. Cool. Two-in-one device. It's like when there's no outlets available at the airport. Yeah, you sit there Come on. It's charged. It's charged. Okay. Yeah, pretty cool Mac has a new system coming up. Yeah today was the what he called the World Wide Developers Conference for Apple and Sometimes they introduce stuff that's exciting like new Macs and new iPads and stuff But this time no hardware. Nothing new computer wise it was just all about software and Their biggest announcement is their newest iOS, which is iOS 12, which I Personally don't have any devices that I'll even run it. So I don't personally care and then there is Mac OS Mojave, which is 10.14 and Again a lot of features that have zero bearing on your ability to do your work and Just there's just nothing there. That's gonna be a game changer for anybody that I've seen so far There's a dark mode, which apparently is a really big deal So that the whole overall theme of your computer is dark for using it in a dark room Okay, I guess but I mean I haven't seen anything that's been a game changer yet So bottom line as we say every stinking year Do not upgrade to Mojave The next OS when it comes out. We're just now feeling pretty comfortable with high Sierra Which is version 10.13.5? Although Dan, what's your little experience? I don't know upgrading to there was an upgrade yesterday And suddenly I got the white screen of death Oh, no, so it's like okay reboot it go in this thing, you know and and reload it like hold these two keys down It will reload the you know the system and it worked and it's like oh, I got my computer back It's just not a warm and fuzzy feeling when that happens No, but I never panic because it's still easier to fix a Mac than it is a PC when a PC goes bad. It's like By the way, we are not in a 7-11. You may think we are but we are not no those that can hear you We're in a subway station Here comes the 615 It's the gate sound it's the gate chime But anyway the Mojave yet not not ready for prime time not something you need I upgraded a client's computer from 10 point 13 point three to four point four Just basically an integral little update seemed completely innocuous and all sudden the monitor in his booth start stopped working So the bottom line is and this is the way I feel very strongly unless it's a security update like specifically about a security patch If your computer is rock solid it does we need to do every day it turns on it works and it's reliable Don't do an upgrade don't don't do an upgrade and don't do an update either until we say so until Until something is going on that's so annoying. They're going I don't know what's going on here I need to try something Back it up make sure you have a backup and then install an update. Don't do it just as a matter of course Well, they have a new update. It must be a fix I've been doing this for years I still stumble into that trap and then I end up having to fix the problem later to avoid doing updates unless they're necessary Yeah, but wait let it burn in for a while. Right. Okay The odd and id 20 everybody talks about this one. It's Yeah, what's going on with them? This is this unit really was my my go-to kind of high-end usb interface This was their their first foray into making a usb interface this company Super high quality preamps really clean Uh, it's been, you know loved and talked about by many voice actors and bloggers and things But I have to say that as of late, um, you know, if one unit gets flaky Okay, one and 50 people I kind of ignore it to I get a little concerned But I've had three different people now with that unit now having erratic problems and It's it's of course frustrating for them, of course I don't know if it's completely fair to call out audience and say that the product is Not rock solid because it's been around for quite a few years now and it's been proven to be really reliable Um, I will say that those that are having issues with the audience I believe based on memory all of them are using it on mac So I don't know if it's a mac update issue. It's doing it or what at this point, but Um, I would say buyer be beware with the audience id 22 It's not been quite as rock solid as as we've remembered it to be Um, I think they're a little brother the little brother of the audience id 22, which is the id 4 Much simpler and why I like the id 4 is it doesn't have an on-screen software console To make your head explode these things can get really complicated on off volume. That's all you need. Yeah I have a client who for a while there I was putting these in in place of like a mackey mixer for people with isdm Right, it does give you that extra ability to send audio to the isdm box and then back Or an old school phone patch whatever this thing could do it But it left him high and dry on friday And it just was very frustrating for him And I was the one having to troubleshoot it on the way to the airport At the airport getting picked up by the airport You know, it was just not fun and we had to talk him through a backup Fortunately, he had an old mackey mixer around and we were able to patch around the problem, but It's just it's not something i'm feeling super uber confident about right now. So anyway, that's my little consumer Warning about that consumer alert. Yeah, just just just be a have a spare I guess the bottom line is no matter what it is you buy Have a spare on hand. Okay, you know, it's just it's just good practice cool Topic of discussion. Yeah, let me throw it out there. Let's see if it sticks against the wall Since we're talking about walls here Sometimes there's a discussion of should I be in a tiny little booth? If i'm not claustrophobic or should I be in a larger room? and You know when i'm trying to decide when someone's trying to decide where to put their home studio or perhaps relocate What works better acoustically? They both have very different demands I find that you know if you if somebody only has a small space they can isolate themselves like a closet Or if they buy a booth, they've got to deal with that But if you've got a large enough room How is it that we can you know decide which is which is the right room? And then how do you treat it and they each room has a very different sound a bigger room's Going to have a slightly livelier sound How do you look at that? I really like a bigger room If you have the luxury of having a larger space that you can work in that you still have control over This the environment. Yeah the isolation The bigger room is great to have and I think I think philip later can speak to this because I know He's working in a little bit larger room than like a little you know iso box or something. He's working in a decent size space It's just so nice because you can work the mic at a further distance Then you can get away with in a much smaller space right if dan and I were in a five by six room right now We would not be able to work that far away From the microphone as we are here Our mic is just out of frame right? Yeah We're giving a re-cross. There it is. There it is. It's right there You see how far away you you in voice acting if unless you have a we have a big room around us We have a high ceiling the room opens up around us and it's a Acoustically treated all around If not for that you wouldn't be able to work the mic that kind of a distance Right, it's really nice being able to be this far away. You you have a lot of flexibility in In movements and it feels more comfortable and it's more conversational because it literally is more the distance to somebody's ear Then if you're talking half an inch from it and a lot of people tend to misuse that proximity You know unless of course they really like the sound of their voice That close up and they're used to talking into people's ears. Yeah Yeah, it's it's all it's it's the amount of space between you the mic and then the mic and the walls and the ceiling Right when you have several feet around all those parameters It's just you can open up your your placement and you can get more relaxed. It's really really nice to have Cool. Well, how big is that room approximately? Or the one i'm building into exceptional minds. Uh, it's seven and a half by seven and a half That's that's like that borderline between a small booth and a right bigger enough room for two or three people And uh, and we we locked out because the school had a bunch of room, you know office room dividers And we just ripped the the metal frames off of them and just bolted them to the wall And we're able to create the shape that I wanted and now it's just going to go through You know the fine-tuning of what's going to work in that room But it's going to be really nice and then the animation studio there will have a Studio that they can use and because they do bring in important people and uh, they work on projects If you watch any big movie, especially a marvel movie or something like that and watch the end credits to the end Exceptional minds will come up because they're the guys that do all the credits for all these movies now Oh far. So, uh, that's cool. Yeah Is the room uh, is the ceiling height in that room standard height or no It's a it's a little higher and it's a drop ceiling. We're gonna have to deal with the air conditioning noises and stuff You know the way we'll do that is turn off the air conditioning. We're recording. Yeah Yeah, there's there's there are solutions that are less expensive than soundproofing your conditioning Turning it off if you if you can if you can deal with the a c being off High ceilings are fantastic. I mean the higher the better Yeah, I mean if you're stuck in a low ceiling space Sometimes the only solution for you is going to be to literally sit down Yep, you have to drop the mic away from that ceiling, you know, we think about the walls But sometimes we forget about the ceiling the mic still picks up the ceiling as much as it does everything else So drop the mic down sit down on a high stool, whatever it is But you'd be amazed at moving the mic from the ceiling about this much Can make a really audible difference You'll get comb filters off the ceiling and and it's the proximity to a wall is very very important Comb filtering is that hollow e sound that boxy sound we want to avoid right all right Enough tech for now Sure, okay, right. Well, if you got a question make sure you get it to us to the guys at v obs dot tv And or in our chat room and jack daniel was out there Taking everything we're saying and and everything that you guys are saying in the chat room and throwing it to us Yeah tonight we're we're getting philip on in the next segment because it's really late for him So we're gonna get him in here. Yep, and then after he's done We may have time if you have a few we may have time to throw a couple tech questions questions in there Excellent already. So stay tuned. We'll be right back with Mr. Philip banks joining us live from scotland right after these important messages Yeah, hi, this is carlos. I was rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop Yep, this is v obs proven anybody can have a show these days 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. Wow This is v obs Thanks for joining us once again for another episode of voiceover body shop 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. You're still watching v obs Every monday nine eastern six pacific voiceover body shop. I love when they talk p.s about Hey, what question do we get most often far and away? It's how do I even get started in voiceover? And we have a fantastic answer for you All you have to do is take v o to go goes free free getting started in v o class. You heard right. It's free It's available online 24 7 at getting started in v o Dot com you can see it right down there If you've been watching voiceover body shop and thinking that you need to get in gear and start your own voiceover career This is the class you should start with You'll learn about the vocal skills you need the storytelling skills you need the equipment you need There's just like this thing and uh all in one single comprehensive online class taught by v o to go goes David h. Lawrence the 17th now this class won the backstage readers choice award Four years in a row and again. Guess what there's no charge. It's absolutely free Want to take it? Yes, you do getting started in v o dot com. That's Getting started in v o dot com go there now 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 voicehactor websites.com where your v o website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what? All right, we're back This guy is our next guest a former investment director of a swiss bank philip banks Is a professional voiceover talent based in port gordon scotland Far far away in another time zone and another they've several time zones Uh, he was the winner of the 2016 vox award for best male voiceover performance a constant presence on the v o bb We'll talk about that and one of the uk's most talented voice talents and a self-described tree stump We'll have to ask him about that. Let's take a look at some of his work that you might actually recognize At the height of the cold war a covert mission to save the children of cuba Don't worry when castro is gone. You're coming back exiled for their own protection We were proud we were here for a reason operation peter pan. It was real. It was not a movie. That's the day my childhood ended Go inside extraordinary stories of survival and the quest for the american dream Escape from havana on cnbc the world you've been waiting for is here come and live it Amazing memories are within reach at a universal orlando resort hotel Universal orlando resort vacation like you mean it Inside the court of henry the eighth he was brutal. He was ruthless The virtue of ambition you had to demonstrate that you are useful to the king the art of seduction She wanted to be queen and the conviction of faith. Do you believe it was god's will only go so far When a tyrant rains Inside the court of henry the eighth tuesday april seventh at nine eight central only on pbs We're back and joining us from Where is that? It's uh port gordon, right? Thank you port gordon scotland This way that's right. Thank you port gordon scott. Philip. All right Welcome to a voiceover body shop Thank you very much. I'm still awake. So this is good. Yes. Now. What exactly is it 2 a.m? in in scotland 225 225. Yes. Now where now where this is right on the coast, right? You're like near a harbour or something Do you give um when i finished it? How will you take the uh the dog for a walk? um 100 years behind me Is the north sea? Uh, and i can walk along the beach to port gordon harbour my a rapid walk um Take me about five minutes And when i get to the harbour I'll be able to hear the seals shouting at one another. Wow That's and and of course you probably get the winter storms there too, which are probably a lot of fun Oh, yeah, sure. There's medication when uh, uh, but you know my second arm is literally snowed in for two months Two months two months. What the heck it's like being in buffalo Yeah Anyway, you're you're quite the mystery man actually to a lot of people you're you're well known everybody sees you You know you're commenting on a lot of the forums and stuff like that um But you're off there in the middle of you know off there in the bay harbour by the north sea and away from the rest of us Here in southern california and uh and the continental united states and canada and mexico and You know it's a corner of the world Tell us a little bit about yourself and you know, we we heard that you were originally an investment director of a swiss bank um So hiding people's money apparently, uh, but how did you get into i know lots of guys called scleomy How did you get into voiceover from from doing that? I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time A friend of mine was moving from one of the big bbc radio networks to commercial radio And I was in london and the only was to take her out for dinner And how this woman never made a living in radio. I never know because she was late for everything So I was actually dragged into this studio while these people Um, you know the conference fafcon Oh, yeah. Oh, yes That comes from a bit an english thing faffing about and they said it means we're just goofing off and having Faffing about is never a good thing My My friend allison would faff about was late for everything I was dragged into a studio while they were trying to make two promos one for um a jazz Program and the other one was for streaming for folk music And eventually i'm starting to get hungrier and hungry and hungrier. So I start saying things with the view to getting kicked out and I because they were all sort of being all very precious and lovely about it You know say well, should we try this and should we try that? I said, well, why don't you do this and somebody literally threw a document at me and said well, if you also I won't use the exact phrase, but it was um, perhaps you'd care to try But it was a slightly aggressive and me I I just grabbed the thing and started reading And bbc sound engineers are great. They they they don't care what's going on They just see somebody sitting in front of the mic and say can you give me sound for level plays And so I started reading and my friend is staring daggers at me And when I finished talking this guy said can you do this one while you're here? and When I left You know my friend apart from swearing at me and beating me in the arm She explained what voiceover was all about And I said how do you do it and she said well, you make a demo and send it to everybody So I took her half a day off of Work and because I was but it was a senior position So you could just kind of vanish provided me. Did you work? A hot video I can tell you now. It was a music recording studio. Uh, it cost me 95 pounds about 135 dollars I just recorded utter garbage onto uh audio preset and Mailed the world in his wife And there was a particular telephone approach that I used. I can remember calling people up. Do you use freelance voiceovers? And the idea is first rule of law Never ask a question to which you don't already know the answer So they would say yes second question, right? May I send you a demo and before they even had a chance to think I always said you're allowed to say no by the way And only one person in the few years that I did that said no to me Because he wanted to book me And that's how it started. So it's very very random Yeah And then my part of the bank was bought out and so I just I smiled and took their money And the rest is history. I guess pretty much. Yeah, I mean, that's that's a very common story about a lot of people getting into voiceover they're They're in the you know, as you said the wrong place at the wrong time sometimes the right place at the right time You know, they're they're a writer or they're you know, they're like, yeah, you do it And that was certainly the case with with don la fontaine When I guess orson wells didn't show up once or something like that. So the story goes Uh, but yeah, but if that situation comes up If you don't know what to expect I guess sometimes you can You know, you can do it right and I'll go well, he's unaffected And that then that works. He's authentic. He's he sounds real Most yeah, I'm affected just means has no idea what he's doing. Yeah. Well, there's also that You know, you're you're very well known for expressing your opinion about things And on some of the various forums What do you see since you've been do now? How long have you been doing this? How long has it been since that incident that dragged you kicking and screaming into our business? Uh, 28 years. Okay. All right. So you know what's going on You've seen the you've seen a change and you know from a You know from a perspective from across the pond from us, but What do you see as some of the biggest issues in our industry today? The the positive side is because there are more and more people trying to make a living Doing voice over work. There is suddenly a flight to quality Which is why you'll notice the people who perhaps a few years ago were sort of getting by, you know They were never going to be buying massive yachts, but Things were fine But what's happened now is because we've reached saturation point You know, when you when you saturate a sponge drips start falling out And so there's that flight to quality. That's the good side The downside is that there are an awful lot of people who Honestly believe because they're doing something for say five dollars They do the arithmetic in their head and they just say well, if I do 20 of these a day I can live off of 25 thousand dollars a year. That'll do me fine And so the the the the degree of separation between you should like perhaps and perhaps not is getting wider Yeah, clearly, you know, it's it economically. I mean there's In the time that you know that I've started doing this which was, you know, almost 20 years ago. I mean prior in a radio career But the thing is is that we've seen With all these people coming in we've also seen with the internet a huge influx of work That didn't exist before. I mean the idea of a home studio didn't exist 15 years ago I mean, there was a few people that might have some real-to-real things and be able to do that Which is probably what you were doing and It's it just changed very drastically about 15 years ago with you know with online casting and such Did you adopt that or did you stick with doing mostly your own marketing? Pretty much I The internet was an extension of my marketing. But one of the things you do is The best way to stand out they say, how can you stand out in a crowd and the trick is not to be in one And so so you can use internet as part of your marketing But the reason people spend so much time on marketing Is because they hate the thought of spending time on sales With marketing you can just say well, I've got market penetration Or I've got exposure or I've got likes on my facebook page or I've got followers on twitter But it's actually turning that into dollars. So if you if people change their focus from marketing to generating sales That's actually a terrifying transition because Your sales efforts are measurable You know, that's why CEOs get an obscure performance bonus. Whereas the sales staff get commissioned on sales I remember one company when I started off in investment management the broader company encompassed A direct sales force guys basically sold life insurance and the top salesman for The life insurance division actually earned more money than the CEO of the entire group He was good He was good. So the internet is a good thing that we're one of the things a lots of videos do Is they will join every single If you put a line of paper clips on someone's desk and a voice over what I said, we just join them And it's The idea of the internet is to be found somewhere not to be found everywhere Because what you tend to do, you know people say it's great for SEO But unfortunately for the people who think like that the people who Design the internet they have the box of et cetera that are actually smarter than the people who do the seo Yeah, they're always a step ahead of the seo people Yeah, absolutely right. So the thing to do is just make sure that you can be found somewhere because by being found everywhere All you do is just devalue the currency Hmm interesting interesting point Yeah, you know, I don't think a lot of people think about that But then again, a lot of people in this business aren't thinking about anything except I want to be a voice actor And you know, and I think in their lives the problem. We have such an influx of people Um And as you said, you know, the the quality is is probably dropping off at the edges there Uh, is the influx of talent? Outpacing the influx of work. Yeah And I say talent meaning people who actually know what they're doing right, right I did a test earlier on uh this week I bought a shotgun mic and it's one of those it looks exactly the same as uh 416 and uh, I plugged it into my equipment and If I could have got a screen print out it would have said what the hell do you think you're doing? And and do you know what it is again this microphone, you know, that's just a tin shell Uh, but it's everything that's going on inside and people just don't seem to get that the conversation you are having about rooms Uh I'm amazed how often uh, when you know people are sending me audio. I can hear the room Uh, and the room should be invisible Unless you do you know these you can you can put reverb on a voice if you need that effect, but um I'm a new guys in the sound expert Is there any successful way of removing reverb from a recording? It's once it's there. Yeah there forever. It's uh, it's in the works isotope has a uh, I believe a d reverb and a waves does But they they can maybe soak up some of the echo, you know, if it's recorded in like a Cathedral or something it can soak up some of that But what it can't do is deal with those comb filter Early the things we were talking about the things that make a room sound hollow or colored Those tools can't deal with that. All right. So yeah, you can't fix it in the mix It's always we always say fix it physically Do whatever you can to make the room like you said invisible and uh, so Again, if somebody wants to add reverb to it or something like that, that's the engineer's job That's not our job as voice actors. Uh, and we're not supposed to be engineers It's supposed to be simple and easy and hit record and go And the room shouldn't become a factor and you should never use filters to try and fuss with it. Yeah unless I don't think you've ever noticed people in that they post videos or pictures. You can always tell the guys who are x radio Who have just moved into voice over because their voice over booth looks like the last radio station they work With an re 20 Whereas actors, um The reason uh, they have to study Um is obviously to get into a part But the other advantage is they learn to pay attention. They're listening and so therefore they don't care whether it's pretty or not They just listen to the guy when I when I set up here a guy He uh classic fm is one of the big at national stations over here and he built their studios and I said This is what i'm doing. I'm moving up to scottland. What do I need to do and he said, um First he said by the best microphone. We can't afford And uh at the time and he literally pointed at one of these Uh, and I know I said well, I better write it down and I forgot But he then said make sure that the room sounds perfect um So, uh, you know, they always say you talk to any stuntmen in the movies The first thing a stuntman will say, you know, you say, how do you keep yourself safe? How do you make sure things work? They say surround yourself with experts Absolutely, you know anybody who doesn't I don't know what i'm doing sound wise. I have no idea Which is why I make the call or I send emails out to people and you know, you just say you know help Check to follow That's what we like to hear So what what are you using in there obviously you've got a nice u87 there Which is you know the mic that you know the best mic most people can not afford but uh But it you know it helps because it takes it it creates some problems and it also, you know solves a few problems But uh, what have you what's your chain there? What are you? What are you running that you can actually describe to us? Um, I mean this one's just out in the office, but I have this is uh, literally u87 And in that side of me there is actually the voice over booths in there is a u87 ai Um because of where I am Uh, the conversation we're having about kit have a spare Oh, absolutely For me, you know, it's a problem if my either of these mics go wrong It's going to take like you tend to have these repaired. Uh, but if you needed a new bike mic, it's going to take two days to get to me That's a very costly time period to be not working. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely right. So um, but the I'm sending you if it's a clean feed So, you know, they'd be you know, there's no, um, you know, $20,000 jewelry, you know followed by um A thing with streams that does stuff, you know, it's just a clean feed My view if I hand you a coffee and say Uh, look, I wasn't sure whether you took cream and sugar. So I just put half some cream and two sugars You've always lifted out of the spoon And also ignorance is bliss, you know, if somebody said to me, well, can you uh, can you gate it at 5 db? I don't know what it just said to me Would you get it at that 5 db? Right, you know, which also means they don't know what they're talking about either. Um, so anyway You know, it's a weird stuff and it's exactly, you know, the questions people ask you just say, okay, we know where we are you're just uh, I was once An airport and a guy just passed his private pilot's license And I made a comment that one particular airline had changed aircraft and this guy wanted to fly in the 7 30s And when he grew up, but they just changed to airbus Um, and this guy just looked and he said well, and he said it depends on the cost code of those aircraft And I looked at it in his instructor And his instructor said, oh, that's just a piece of jargon. He's picked up And I always remember that now that you know when people say what did the guy say when he said, you know You know, can you double double gate your upstream and check your board rates? It's just a piece of jargon. He's picked up Yeah Yeah, I I find that you know, and I was I was discussing this on facebook this morning because somebody had asked a question about A microphone or something along those lines and people start to come in with Oh, well, this is my chain and I've got this and I've got that and finally I'd had enough and I said look People ask you for the time. You don't need to tell them how to build a watch And uh, it's it's pretty important that people Ask the people who know what to do As you said hire an expert and you know, and that's what we do And that's why we do this show and if you're just joining us Our guest is the one and only philip banks who is joining us From scotland all the way from you know all the way across the pond and on the other side of england Which is kind of cool. Uh, and then uh If you've got a question for him throw it in the chat room And I know jack daniel is in there typing furiously away with all the questions we have for philip and and for us And uh, he will get that to us and we will relay that question to him and philip will answer that question I gotta make a shout out go for it to the voiceover bulletin board people Well, we're gonna talk about the v.o.b community. We're gonna talk about but there's a number of people in the chat room tonight that um, I know I've known from that community now for I don't know. I've maybe been on there eight or nine years now It's longer. It's longer than that. It's been around for a long time since uh, You know since she started that cool to see a lot of you in here Yeah, so yeah, I'm a lot of people know you from the v.o.b.b. When did you start, uh, you know bopping into there and and telling people what you think Uh, it what I'm guessing 2004 something about that uh, and it was really uh about the I know what I don't know And so I just needed people who knew what they were doing. What was interesting is what you do to identify yourself um The trend now is people post in the critique forum for their demo feedback and they just go Um, but the idea is to just say look, this is who I am. This is what I do and I can remember um Just being made to feel singularly unwelcome because Yeah, people were sort of coming up with all this nonsense, you know, so the the the thing to do is you just make a joke Uh, and people said well, he's arrogant and I just think you know, and it's one of those things where you just say no You're allowed to laugh guys Um, but I just thought okay, that's fine. Um, and I remember sending an email to uh dbq bunch of said If you want to remove me, that's fine. I wouldn't be no least bit offended And because of that my reaction, you know deep said no, you're probably okay if you said that Yeah, it's funny. There are some people who um I'm always suspicious of people with weird screen names Because the internet is the perfect hiding place for people Yes, I I've met certain people, you know, so, you know, it's like, you know, we're from the bobb Um, and there's this guy. He's like four foot two 32 pound soaking wet Cowering in a corner But you know, his screen name is big david he's six and he's one of those Art kick your butt for you talking about And he said when you actually meet him in a bar all you can hear is Help me And um And so you know, that's why if I ever join a website, I just put flip bank. It's not self promotion It's just that you know, I I don't like the idea of the internet being I respect people's privacy But I don't like it being a hiding place for people And you know, because it does actually create barriers as you know, people who work remotely, but you know, sometimes you don't even speak to clients Um, it's nice to actually if you've got a problem And just pick up the telephone and talk to them Um, so, you know with we need to not dehumanize people um, and also The bobb is a great way of challenging the cheerleaders Um, and it's it's just to say that um this A comedian called Harry Enfield and he did a show and he used to Pope fun at the Liverpool Puglians and the Liverpool Puglian people people in Liverpool Are very fiery so as they can actually be losing their temper at one moment And then your best friend literally in a breath And part of the sketch would be you know, these guys would round and then the Liverpool Puglians would go Cam down, cam down, cam down And it's nice to be able to say to some of you sort of shaking efficiency just calm down calm down Look, I don't know if you've noticed how many cheerleaders there are Um in the voiceover industry Um, but nobody's actually said to them. We don't have a football team guys Hmm. So it's like, you know, yeah you go Nothing really Well, you know, it's I I have a good intelligence good intel here that you have been on that amazing website Since 20th of june 2005 And you've posted 9 520 when times which is a total 3.91 percent of all posts ever posted on the So I think you might be as busy as everybody says I think you might be a shareholder At the v o b v at this point, but really yeah, but it just the just the profile though I mean this would throw a lot of people is his occupation voiceover glamour model Tree stump. See I did do my homework. That's right. You know interests world domination voiceover kittens and fluffy bunnies And obviously he hasn't changed it in years. At least we know he's normal. Yes. Yeah, he's one of us I'm one of the guys But I wonder what were some of the topics that you you can remember discussing on there Out of the 9 000 posts that you did Oh, I get it really for me. It was just getting up in the morning And to get my brain in here Uh, I would just randomly write something and sometimes people would buy into it. Otherwise, we get This denation is a great one for my phone will ring. It's yet. Hi, honey. What are you doing now? so um But the big pay to play one You know that that was kind of the story of the decade wasn't it? It was And everybody was shaking their fists to one another and I was aware that you know, so any event That people want to influence in the usa involves people parking They can't one side of washington and marching across to the other side and back again You know, so it was a bloke for freedom. Wasn't it been there done that? Yes, we've all done it. It was just we walk up for the white house and go Here we go now And you give the people the other side of the border from you, you know, so everybody painted the picture of them being the spawn of satan And and again, actually The guilty is charged. I think That is one of those things he said, you know, you can't just sort of shout to them and say you're trying to do this You're trying to do that. It's you know, it's a bit like the um You know having pity on goldman sucks He's all bless, you know, so but but have another bonus. You'll be fine in the morning Um, and this is when the voice over you at industry unites to do absolutely nothing except shout at one another Uh, and you just got to say no guys what you've actually got to do Is if every one of us just sort of stood up and said no here. I am you can't find me in canada or Um Or wherever it might be If you ever watch, um, do you have the dragon stand in the us or the equivalent of the dragon stand? No idea what you're talking about. Okay, but uh CEOs from various companies meet people with business ideas And they present the business ideas and the people the so-called dragons will take a stage in the business Uh I guess it would be yeah, yeah, it's just a yeah because that's the other snappy name, you know, so we Brits come up with, you know It's like when we came up for a title for our new show. We called it the news But I actually saw one of the people who runs one of these pay-to-play websites Uh, uh voiceover related thing and they were presenting it to these dragons and it was the irish version of dragon stand What became perfectly clear throughout the entire presentation? The people who owned the pay-to-play site didn't know what they did and neither did the dragons Fascinating true I wonder who that was anyway If you're just joining us once again, we're talking with Phillip at banks uh from pork gordon scotland who stayed up late late late tonight or got up very very early To talk to us here on voiceover body shop if you've got a question for them Get it in the chat room and uh, we will get that to them But right now we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back here on voiceover body shop. So Do not go away. Don't go away Okay 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 dot com drop off a specimen of your dry audio for a free analysis All righty. Well, this is usually my spot. It's your spot because it's source elements But I got involved this week. That's right because We want to do a little like sort of commercial slash testimonial, right for exactly a product from source elements called vizdin and Source connect was the tool of the day that we were telling everybody to get and we still believe it's still very popular It's gaining popularity But there's this interesting other thing using the internet But it also uses your good old zephyr or whatever you have sitting in home, which these things are now Very inexpensive on ebay Under 500 even under 200. Wow So you can now connect your existing or maybe something you found on ebay ISDN box like your zephyr extreme or whatever To the internet and uh here to tell us about a real world situation without naming any specific names. I think Well, you can mention the name. Oh, we can just not wear heat that name is we're gonna drop a name Dan drop the name. Who is the guy that you set this up for and and how is it working? Uh, dr. Phil dr. Phil of all people. Yeah, no I got called in on a consult and they were having a lot of trouble with his uh, his home setup uh, we're you know because he also does the radio show for cbs and The at&t line wasn't working and when it would rain things and it was just not working and i'm like flaky Why don't you guys consider? And you know an an ip solution to this yeah like source connect. Yeah, and they're like What's that and i'm like come on now? So it we uh, I said look if you need to have ISDN because they wanted something completely simple that was like Familiar right like dialing a phone. They don't even have to dial it right just at a certain time They're gonna call it and auto dialing the mics there and and dr. Phil is you know Going on the other side. I don't trust what you're doing here. I don't think that's a good idea right but uh, or whatever he does on his on his on radio show and uh, but Made it simple and they they said okay, we'll do that and we got the box I just plugged it in and boom nice and they're like Trouble free it's stable. It works. That's fantastic and that's And and of course yes, and hopefully they will refer me to other people But that's what you want. Thank you for letting us know about source connect and visdn or vizdin or whatever they are calling it Because now dr. Phil is using it and if dr. Phil is using it Anybody can use it. Yeah, I mean this this is the kind of tech that the top voice brass I sound like to say dream of because they don't want to have a computer in the middle of the midst of this thing Even though we know that inside the zephyr is a little tiny computer It's a one-job box and it does that one job extremely well You know and it hasn't been updated in 15 years. There's no good They're not going to be any os update that's going to break it It's just going to keep on working until it doesn't and so this is a great tool So visdn you can go give it a try over to Source-elements.com and while you're over there if you've never been over there at least sign up for an account and get source connect now Absolutely, that's totally free. It's free. So anyway, there's our little spot for source elements. I hope you guys watch this source elements This was a really good commercial All right, we'll be right back with philip banks. They tuned 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 olive garden heart rate crime blood pressure Perfect I grew up with the classics and now with stop hub. I can get authentic tickets to the best shows The all-new chevy cruise from 16 995 Fee inspired they get 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 And we're back with philip banks joining us from port gordon scotland And it's a pleasure to have you with us and he doesn't even look Remotely tired. Nope. He looks just the way he does at all time of day. Yes So but you know being where you are and all the work and we showed You know some of the stuff on your reel earlier in the show You're doing stuff in north america and you're probably doing stuff In the far east because there's always a demand for a british sounding voice that's actual because Brits can do american accents, but americans just cannot seem to fake a british accent I don't know what it is. So you're you're you keep a probably a pretty weird schedule. I would imagine Yeah, it can be very um Disruptive But it does mean that you'll sometimes find me walking in the dog at six in the morning But equally or finally walking out one in the morning Over here if you're in one of the major soaps a coronation street or east enders You've got a uk tv audience of 10 million people and you're famous I've got a worldwide tv audience of about 300 million people and I'm nobody And that's just fine, you know, because because these people, you know, can't take the trash out without the paparazzi Anything out that trash can gives me a smile So it's um, you have to manage your sleep and you'll notice behind me sort of a big sort of else shape couch and nap time is great. It really is um, and my thanks to uh, bob sound for reminding me At some time You've talked to him and you just wrote you're napping off. You're not listening to me But you know a 20 minute nap Really can uh, rejuvenate you Or and the only other thing I have beside me, which you can't see I've got a rowing machine And so I regularly wrote about You know, I do a 10k row every day When I'm out with best the border collie. I have to run with her as well Fantastic is a border collie after all Yeah, that's right. I mean take your 10k run for best. She's just thinking and Um If I'm running she runs in front of me but looking back at me barking Uh, and she won't stop barking until I'm running fast enough. She's hurting you Yeah, yeah, that's right. It's it's uh, the running term is near death experience But I'm the typical old guy, you know, I've noticed the cheekbones are rematerializing the leg muscles are great But you know, I still look like I've swallowed the beach ball And I keep teasing people in the village just saying and it's sometimes in a few years time people are gonna find my lifeless corpse On an old railroad line that runs into the beach and they're gonna look down and say yeah, but doesn't he look well Exactly That's what I'm hoping for. Yeah, that's what we're all hoping you're gonna fall off a mountain on that bike Here is one of these days, but uh So let's get back to talking a little bit about voice over here What what do you think has helped you the most aside from having a fabulous voice? Which and you've under and you understood because when you first started out you were just being you And and you've obviously continued to just be you there are some people in this business And I think it was uh our guest last week, uh, who was saying there are just some people who are Naturally born to do this and all the studying in the world that you can do you're not going to be able to to do what they do because God graced you with such a great voice and uh, but what has worked for you You know professional what sort of things have you learned to even make that better? It's lose the affected style It gets back to what you're saying about b you there is bbc Reporter here. I think it was the friday before last they were doing something about me on network radio Which was kind of relevant to a talk show And she said can you just introduce yourself? She wanted to obviously take some Level from me. So I just said, you know, um philip banks out of in paul gordon And that's all I said And she said because she put her headphones on and put a mic in front of me She said, oh, you just went into voice of your voice over voice No, I said you just pointed a microphone and put your headphones on so you were hearing it differently But I did explain that, you know, there are some people who uh, because they get very very affected What's was speaking to somebody from mcconn ericsson? And I referred to a particular radio station and their commercial production department and this guy said, oh, yeah They use people who cannot talk properly And that was it. You know, he dismissed an entire roster of voice over this and If you just find the mood and hold it It's still you uh, I I gave the example, um You know the sales commercial, you know, I've done you The organized crime run furniture stores because if you ever notice whatever sale they put on The lowest price for a three-piece week is always 399 There's one guy in new york who tried to push them out for 395 and they found floating down the river Work with cement shoes. It was Mr. Scleone. He needs a void And but with those, you know, I said everything is 399 and when I was talking to this producer I said now, can you imagine this scenario? You know just shouting at people about furniture and getting very excited about it for 29 seconds for a tv commercial It sounds weird. I said now here's a scenario where you find that mood imagine Guy's walking out Uh past the jewelry store with his girlfriend and then he proposes to him. So will you marry me? And jeweler said, yeah, I'll be delighted to And then she said I've got to go back to work now And so he walks calmly to his best friend's house Opens the garden gate Touch gently on the door waits for his friend to answer the door his friend answers I said, how are you? So when I just have some use for you jeweler agreed to marry me, but of course that's not what happened at all She agreed to marry him. He walked around the corner when she was outside. He ran at 400 miles an hour to his friend's house Left over the garden gate as he knocked on the front door He opened it turned the handle burst into this guy while this guy was watching sports on tv and he looks and what's wrong? Julia would agree to marry me Now if you actually just take that sentence, do you agree to marry me to three p. Suites all now 399 That's how you just simply find the mood now. That's not me affecting your voice. That's just me after the three espressos That is quite the backstory That's that's pretty good. We have a pina carry by Yeah, by the mark cashman has waltzed into our studio to this afternoon And it's always great to see haven't seen him in a while, but thanks for joining us Mark, it's great having me. All right. It's great having you in here One of the things I I know you from phil is conferences uh I get the feeling that perhaps you you've probably soured on them a little bit yourself But I can remember, you know us being at a dinner at a conference and you came in in full scottish regalia uh Yes, that was um voice 2010 2010. Yes in uh in los here in los angeles and i'm like I was impressed You know that you would come in and and and do that what what prompted you to do that? Or is that just formal attire in your in in your eyes formal attire and uh, and I was married at the time and my ex-wife is a sutherland Uh, and that was the formal sutherland Clown attire, you know, so that's the form, you know, there are, you know casual kills that he would wear just, you know to add to our Excuse me, but that's the you know, that's the full dress thing Interesting never never been, you know, I'm not like shane. I'm like, you know, monk You know, who's where's where is the kilt stew got a neighbor that wears a kilt too Which is kind of weird something to spark in my brain. Go for it. Philip. Do you remember sending a big? pink duffel covered in owls full of candy To the u.s. Do you remember doing this? Uh, yeah, very goody Was it for an uncle roi barbeque per chance? Uh, yeah, of course. Yeah, that's that's exactly what it was. I was at that barbecue Yeah, that's right. It was the um scottish stroke um british candy fest. Yes huge duffel and What's funny was that bag at the end of the party or near the end, you know, there was the bag And they were wondering what to do with it, you know, and I was like my daughter It's gonna love that bag And to this day that is my daughter's favorite bag for coming to dad's house on the weekends and Traveling that that's her bag now. So I think I'd like to hear it because I was kind of wondering whether it was going to be disowned No She was able to get rid of it and made good use of it She loves it and it stands out like on a on the belt, you know, it's I mean it it is not mistaken for any other bag So it lives on I thought you'd like to know It lives on uh, and there are no more sugar addicts in the u.s. Then there are in the uk Thanks to one barbecue. I mean, you're supposed to be eating half a can of really argue And so I'm spending um tunics wafers and goodness that's what else. Oh mad. Yeah So getting back to conferences. Have you been to many conferences in the past couple of years? No, no, it's um It's interesting that we just had a big one in the uk the vox, right? Oh, no, it was the uh, the the gravy for the brain one. Yeah. Yeah, the gravy for the brain one and It's interesting that people just go this is awesome. This is great. This is fantastic and then Two days later if you look at social media and you're waiting for the success stories tumbleweed Crickets Yeah, Joe and it was interesting that that particular weekend Myself and a very good friend who both worked for one particular company jumped on an aeroplane uh on the friday flew out of the country Took the senior management and the producers for this particular company out to dinner And we just split cost between us and I had an email from uh ellie Two days later just saying I've just been asked to do this and it's one of their huge job And she covered her costs in one And they can't be good for that Sure, sure. And so, you know, while everybody was at the conference patting each other on the back We were just you know kind of doing the let's work for a living thing um, and I always say, you know, if people are if If somebody's in a room with a coach or at the end of a line with a coach and a coach saying you need to be able to do this I would say, uh, how does that work? Give me the success story Uh, and it's amazing how many coaches, you know, and both of them in fact probably Uh, but you know, who did it's that lovely word? Because you need uh I said about this, um company that I used to work for um talking to some of their um top sales people They would just say well I heard about this idea for tax planning. I went to see some of my clients And there's one guy who's telling me that because he was doing so well. He actually increased his target So he didn't have to give his secretary a bonus And this was in june of that year and he said to me and I'm bearing in mind. This is about 1982 Uh, he said so far. I said my secretary is on um, I'll put it in dollar terms. It's on a $54,000 bonus And all this guy did was You know if I tell people um Because occasionally people say yeah, how does this work? You know, can we do this and can we do that? I said well the last time I did this It resulted in this and then that you know Sort of paid the mortgage or paid off the mortgage You know people would sort of note you there's no section is a buyout and buyout means that somebody owned your work Nobody can own your work. They can put it down on paper to sign all sorts of documents. They do not own your work and residuals are or royalties or Repeats as we call in the new uk are the best new year present you can get particularly if you had a If you celebrate christmas if you've had an expensive christmas the commercial that You showed I think it was for the harry potter one I think it was january Playground it for four or five days of the christmas new year period my agent in the us sent me a check and You know it was five figures And you know it's kind of it was a dire straight song of money for nothing in your drinks for free If you if you do a buyout for somebody or just saying yes, you can earn my work Basically what you're doing is you're selling your pension to someone where you're selling your children's inheritance What a way to look at it. Yeah. Yeah, sorry. You know, I just pre buy massive yachts every couple weeks We we have a pile of questions from our massive audience It was spread out across the globe Philip fans phil fans who knew you were coming saw our promo and said wow, we got to be there for this uh starting off Yes, uh, paul stifano asks philip. How do you feel about whisper rooms? uh They don't do what they say on the box That's probably true on the tin as you say over there. Yes Yeah, yeah, that's right. It's easy. They don't work. You can actually build something um for about 20 percent of the cost of a risk whisper room which will be 10 times more effective That's true um Mr. Woodham is a multiple part question. Yeah, you get you get the second part. Uh, also How do you feel about voice actors promoting themselves on facebook or other social media? That is something you did address quite a bit which is don't be everywhere but be present in a Particular as a place. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Most of the people are they're just talking to other voice actors, and I'm not sure I won't said to On somewhere quite recently I don't know anybody who would ask A guy on the street for advice on how to become a millionaire And really promoting yourself on certain social media Is you know, you know, I've just done this is awesome and people say itself. I Got any work today say no more facebook If I was busy, I wouldn't be on facebook That's a lot of that. Yeah He also says thanks for showing us the real you. Um, he says as much as I love your v o b b shenanigans The real you is much more charming So paul says thanks. Yeah Yeah, he still misses some send me his paypal address Jack Daniel asks do you have a regular vocal warm-up and would you mind sharing it with us? No, I figured that was going to be the answer to that See that one coming a mile away the way I sound The only thing I have to be very cautious of is sounding too dark And so, you know, so sometimes you just try and it's a bit like it sounds like a joke You know, but you think of kittens It just you know that I sell in two marketplaces You know, there's the one I used to be the voice of the horror channel with good reason Yeah I was once in the big supermarket chain over here is tesco and I was in tesco in elby on one occasion and all the kids Would come out from school rather than have the school lunches They just go and buy donuts and things but in the upper floor. They have all the tv's and high-five and about 30 school kids Looking at tv and they're playing with the channels and they get to the horror channel and The scottish accent and they have certain things up here next time you guys make don't say hello How are you just go fit like malune? Which is doric which is the regional dialect up here, which basically What do you like my friend or my lad fit like malune? But these guys Young kids were watching and one of the kids as I was wheeling my trolley or cart behind them The horror channel is going and there's a promo playing And this kid was telling to his friends and basically saying this is scary This is the words he used to just say this is a very scary tv channel. He went, oh, this is mental spooky And and as I walked past them all I said was even spookier than you think And I think they're still standing there You just think we aren't moving because They say they can't see you Uh, if you don't move and the one of them saying you and he's not of a looser act Oh That is fun, isn't it um Todd ellis and melissa xl berth want to know where's best they want to see your your border collie. I'm sure Probably Like most dogs are I I think she's asleep upstairs And when when she hears me stop talking and she will hear a particular click of a switch And then she'll come down the stairs and then we have to go around the harbor Oh nice, but funny enough if i'm doing a Uh a Skype session with melissa and I built the speaker's eye Melissa will get one sentence into the conversation Best in the room. Oh, I love it. So because best has photographs that um, um, um You know her and melissa because melissa came over I can't remember this last year. So I just spent time in port hall just concludes cold, isn't it? Oh, yeah, oh nice Um, uh, maxine done says hello dear phillip. This is a wonderful and I'm so glad you're here I'm curious if you go on holiday And if you do do you have a real holiday or do you make it a working holiday? And take equipment with you And if you do take equipment, what do you take? Uh, it's that's a serious question the equipment I take is an a320 Uh My my christmas vacation was basically spent flying out of recubic in iceland And I thought this is great. I'm going to get to see iceland So my first trip was to new york and then we flew down to san francisco and back again. Just thanks guys Holy cow So, um But it meant what I burned up on my flying hours. I don't fly. It's not my job It's just I've got the right license for doing it So there's an agency who's very kindly when they know that I need money for my training budget and to keep my hours They just find me stuff to do Is that right? seriously Seriously, okay so so uh To answer the question do do you find yourself having to work on a vacation or can you really? Can you really take a vacation? Uh, I don't go out to speak if you think where I live. I don't you know, I'm sort of permanently on vacation Yeah, but but if I go away then I am away and I just let people know, you know, I'm not going to be around for five days 10 days Um, I think it was two Christmases ago. I spent Uh, I flew over to la and on the 20 We call it boxing day. You call it 26 of december I met up with um bill rogers and his wife camille And I spent christmas in new year with them because On new year's eve while everybody else was basically letting off fireworks that they smuggled in from nabanda We were uh bill Me and camille were in their kitchen making the cullin skink Which is a local fish recipe and you can google it if you like smoke fishes awesome really easily so no, um When i'm working i'm working when i'm uh when i'm on holiday or when i'm on the day off then i'm not there are occasions where um I will always try and make myself aware of where there's a A local studio because there could be you know the job of the decade comes up And so you might need you know if you're on island somewhere you just fly to another island or take a boat to another island And then they just do it somewhere It's always a good test of your career Have a day away from the office Accept every single job and hire a studio to do that job in and if you can't afford to pay the studio you're not challenging that Good point. That's a whole nother topic I we will not get into but the fact the voice actors give their studios away for everything they do is kind of a Yeah, I mean you know how much these cost um And you know you've got to earn the money before you buy it I don't want to frighten the life out of your credit card company Yeah, well as we like to say you don't buy great equipment to get work. You work to get great equipment Sure. Yeah Um Got time for a few more questions here one from joy baker. This is a great question What's the best and worst direction you've ever been given? And are they different? Uh There was one funny if I mentioned that earlier when we were talking I did a TV commercial which ran in 48 countries for um Uh a company called boopa and there was so much money riding on this the creative director from the agency, which is terrifying Um, which is not uh, you know a good place to be and There was three words That that linked to Linked some sequence of pictures And she spent five minutes explaining how I should deliver these three words So we did a take again um and She went, uh, okay, Philip. Can I say something else? And I said no just listen And the director the picture director was Spanish. He didn't speak much English, but he uh understood English One night when she said Philip can I ask you can I just say one more thing? And I said no just listen and he just roared with laughter but um But the a friend of mine once uh was um given the direction. Can you do it again? But in a bit more of a general overall accent I need to write that down first You know, and it's good. I said can you get faster in the slow bits and slower in the faster bit Um No, it's about there was one guy who was having a bad hair day um, and He was swearing at me all the time. I mean really it's one of those sessions where you just think um, I'm quite patient and tolerant uh, and eventually I just said can I just say something to you and I won't repeat his response because I can't um And I said look at some point during the session I Given you the impression it's okay for you to address me in the way you have just to be clear it isn't And he went I'm abandoning this session and just dropped the line by the time it took me to walk out that door He'd run up three flights of stairs Stairs spoken to his boss this boss friend. He said, uh, you know, Philip it's a module here He said I've just spoken to Graham. He said and as a result of your attitude during the session We're not going to use you anymore. And I said would you be prepared to sign something to that effect? Really speaking of bad hair days These are two men that are not having those any time soon It's just you see I'm six four if I was five for eight. I'd have a full head hair. Well, there you go Yeah, and now we'll leave it with this one announcer Our friend Doug Terkel says Philip. I've been trying for years to make my voice deeper If I shave my head Well, I sound as good as you do Yeah, you also need to spend three years reading law and economics at Oxford. There you go If you don't recognize the accent, it's educated Phil it has been a super pleasure having you with us here on voiceover body chef Thank you so much for staying up late And it's been a big light. It really has. Thank you so much. It's been it's been a true pleasure Now go walk best go walk the dog. Yeah, just quickly before you go. Congratulations to Jacob He's now in the top five percent of the world's population having graduated. So Good on him. Oh, great. Yeah, congratulations. All right Well, we're going to show a little bit of his stuff in just a little bit so stay tuned for that Phillip banks. Thanks again for being with us. Alrighty. Well, we're going to take a break and then we're going to come back and Sort of say goodbye. So Be right where you are when we come back So you can watch it 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 want your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voice actor websites.com where your via website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what Yes, voice over essentials is having its first ever audio accessory sale The more you buy the more you save get a minimum of 10 off any accessory purchase By buying $50 or more of accessories and then get 12 off Buy a hundred dollars or more of accessory items and get a full 15% off Discount applies to select accessory items only like their v1a A pop filter for for their v1a microphone. It's the wraparound pop filter the headphone hanger For hanging your uh, your your headphones. What a great idea. Really useful. I can't say any times I got one right over there crashing crashing to the floor because they're never hung on something. That's right The abs boom stop or boom jock as I like to call it And so if you know if you got one of those weak goosenecks in your boom, uh, it will hold it up Yeah, kind of important. Also the uh The harlin hogan stopwatch Also, he actually has a harlin hogan stopwatch and of course our wildly popular multicolored led voiceover recording sign with remote on sale All you got to do is click the on sale button menu item on the voiceover essentials.com website for all the full details So, uh, yes, thank you carol meryl. There's a there's a name that hasn't been heard and quite some time Uh, yeah, get the recording sign. It's great, uh, because you can set codes with it and all sorts of things So people know exactly what's going on in your booth or maybe they don't Anyway, go over to voiceover essentials.com now for their accessory sale and uh, the way to do that Let's go to voiceover extra voiceover essentials.com And or the on sale Button menu item right on their website and you'll it'll just come up and you'll and you'll see those so Or go to the bottom of our website here where You know his picture of him talking into his port of booth is right there click on that It'll take him right there. He'll know that we sent you and then he will continue to be our sponsor So we can continue to bring you this amazing show with great guests like the banks. Alrighty. All right We'll be right back after this. Thanks harlan 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.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 audio books 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.com. That's voice over x t r a dot com That was great having filip banks. It was I mean, you know, he has a reputation But he's a gentleman and he was great having him on He's sort of like the british bob sour. They sort of sound the same only with a with a slight scottish accent You know, it there was a something that came in earlier that was in the chat room. We didn't address it was about using vizdin Someone said can I use it in the hinterlands or out in the sticks or whatever that internet basically? Yeah, if you had broadband and broadband doesn't mean like super high speed 50 megabits up and down if you've got consistent Three to 800 kilobits a second your typical dsl um, you're good because isdn the the way isdn works is it combines two Channels of data as an a and they call them b channels and they reach 64 kilobits a second Not that fast and when they're smashed together you get 128 k 120 kilobits per second. So as long as you have an internet connection, that's reasonably faster than that Maybe two to 300 kilobits per second Consistently, you know, if you can get that day in day out You're good to go good to know you don't need super high speed to do something like that So vision is going to be good for you probably. Yes. Absolutely. All right next week on this very show We won't be here. Oh, we're taking another week off because jacob is his graduation is next monday And there'll be people here and it'll just be difficult to do So maybe we can do it another night. That means I can go do my monday night kirtan chant There you go that i've been really missing for the last three or four seven years On june 18th though phil proctor from fireside theater will be returning to our fine little theater. Yes He has a book coming out and uh, we'll have more great stories from him June 25th, Dave crevasse is getting on the 15 and coming down through these the cahones parents cahone pass And joining us here in our studio Uh, he just retired from a wonderful career as an anchor man And is now full-time voice over and we're gonna hear all about what that transition was like That'll be interesting. Cool. Yes. That's awesome. Who are our donors of the week? I noticed there were a few there were actually let's go check the donor box. We've got donors We've got lots and lots of donors Eric Aragone Andrew Kaufman if you ever watch the show these names are extremely familiar to you because they donate Regular practically every week. Don Griffith another regular donor. Thank you. Um We've got Scrolling scrolling scrolling keep those donors scrolling martha con martha. Hey, what's up? Thank you shanna pennington baird And ant land productions still in some way sponsoring the show. Thank you, huckleroy And let's go back a couple more because we skipped a week. So I need to go back a little further diner birds all Thank you Stephanie Sutherland's These names familiar. Yeah, people are regular patty gibbons Regular donors to the show they uh, they've clicked the little subscribe button and they're sending us Anywhere from a buck a week or more or a month whatever it is they want You know, they can do that and you can do it too just right here on the website And the dan and marcy lennard foundation for better webcasting Nicely done. Oh, thank you Let's see if you've got a problem with your home studio or if you don't know anything about a home studio There's only two places you can go here or Yeah, there and to get there you go too. I'm so glad we rehearsed I know I'm over at george the tech George the tech dot com. That's where my brand of tech support is you can book support there you can get Processing stacks. I'll help you design your studio or just listen to your audio and do a sound check Right, and I do this and I do the same thing Uh, you can go over to home voiceover studio dot com. Yes, the greatest website URL ever found Yes, it is great It is it's yeah, it's a lot to type in but uh, if you need help with your home studio, we're the guys to come to Everybody's an expert on a home studio Usually their own trust the guys that have done hundreds Probably upwards of a thousand between us definitely over a thousand. Yeah Absolutely. Uh, let's see what else Show logs we have the show logs. You can access them right here on the website If you like techy geeky podcast, there's my podcast the pro audio suite with Andrew Peters and daren robertson and robert marshal. Yes out there Okay, uh, if you'd like to be uh here in our studio, you can do that Just write to us at the guys at v obs dot tv or be like mark cashman and just dropping drop it Which he did very sneakily tonight Absolutely did did not make a sound Yeah, but if you want to if you want to come and see the show and you're here in the greater los angeles area on a monday night Uh, write to us at the guys at v obs dot tv and subject audience And we'll give you the secret handshake. Also, send us your pictures of your booths. We want to see your booths Yeah, uh, I mean, I like this picture of la at night It's kind of cool from behind the holly, you know from standing behind the hollywood sign But we want to see what your booths look like and send them in landscape Not in portrait, right? I'm taking pictures in portrait. Makes no sense to me Uh, anyway, we need to thank our sponsors like harlan hogan's voiceover essentials dot com voiceover extra source elements do to go go Voice actor websites dot com and j michael collins demos. Alrighty. Well, we need to thank marsy Of course, we're letting us be out here in the garage, which is really kind of cool Our producer catherine curtain forgetting as great guests like philip banks Can't beat that on jack daniel uh for chat room duty tonight and our floor producer and technical director and it was perfect tonight I think this is a no edit. Yeah, I got a little Never satisfied. Okay, but I assume or lino. Thanks for helping us And jack the goalie for the show notes and lee penny simply for being lee penny. Well, that's gonna do it for us Uh, stay tuned because we're gonna run a cartoon, which is jacob's latest project and it's different It's very different. So stay tuned for that and uh, you know, we know this is not an easy business We appreciate you coming here But if something breaks, here's what we like to say When in dude Reboot We'll see you next week guys or in two weeks actually so stay tuned for jacob's cartoon and we'll be see you in two weeks Bye I'm locked house of tolerance Blah blah blah blah