 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop and We've got a great guest tonight. What wait, when do we not have a great guest this guy? I particularly like because he's a great guy George Washington the third is our guest today. Say hi George Hello, everybody. There we go. Everybody. Yeah. Oh, you met the other guy. Yeah, the other George. Sorry. Yeah, the other That's it's gonna be confusing for the next hour. So stay and I'm really tight attention. Got it I'm the third. Just call me the tech. All right All this if you've got a question for George or for George or for me, you know, I said, so it's gonna be Gw3 and And the other guy and now stop that It's time for voiceover body shop right now Voiceover body shop is brought to you by Voiceover essentials calm the home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements the folks who bring you source connect JMC demos when quality matters the oh heroes calm become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training Voice actor websites calm where your voice actor website shouldn't be a pain in the butt Voiceover extra your daily resource for voiceover success and by world voices the industry association of Freelance voice talent And now here's your hosts Dan and George Well, hello there. I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whitton and this is voiceover body shop or V. O B Yes Pump up your gain just a little bit there George. I need more gain all of a sudden you need more gain And I neither need less. I'm I guess I've been just I was excited and now I'm like settled in and now I'm sort of calm again. So there you go. There's three more DB coming at you. All right now We sound a little bit more even all right. Okay, so anyhow fascinating I was at a concert the other day At the skirble if you've ever been over there, I still haven't been there. Oh, is there a nice venue? Oh, it's a beautiful venue, but I'm we're sitting in the back row and everything sounded muffled Mm-hmm, and then I thought about it and I started cupping my ears I'm like I'm hearing the mix better now Then I stood up and I heard the mix a little bit better then Oh, and then I turned to my front Marci and I'm like, you know, we were in the background Let's go stand in front of the sound guy and suddenly there was this magnificent sound because the speakers were too low It was muffling every Yeah, yeah, yeah, they raised them up five feet It would have sounded fan the state of the art now is that they're all hung and they have like this thing called a line Array right right every year the Hollywood Bowl or this big even in smaller venues They will still even just hang two or three of those speakers because they don't need to throw as far But that's the state of the art nowadays and it really it improves the clarity in the back of the room Yeah, see now that was going on and I'm thinking oh George would be throwing up by now Being picky about audio definitely makes going to live sound live things harder But the bar is being raised all the time why we went to see a live not live We went to see inside out picks our movie being screened in a parking lot by UCLA for all Anybody that signed up online could get in and it was a full 7-1 surround Playback in a parking lot and it was impressive like it was oh, yeah, you really got the full effect I mean I was I was like not expecting that In a parking lot, you know, I was expecting like stereo with some subwoofers that would be fine But it was it was rather rather impressive and a lot of fun Yeah, especially because our pal Lori Allen is in that movie. Oh outstanding. Yeah, so anyhow speaking about standing We have an outstanding guest tonight If you're interested in hearing about, you know, how to make your career different and that's what we're all about here It's helping your voiceover career, you know We talk about the tech but we have all these great guests who talk about how it is they got where they are and Every story is different and then there's some stories that are Kind of unique But let me introduce our guest George Washington. The third Has a voice that stops listeners in their tracks and makes them pay attention George is a full-time Political voice actor. Why did I write political way does political stuff? But he's been a voice actor for over 17 years and helping clients communicate their stories His voiceover work extends to radio and television commercials e-learning corporate narration and telophony Or a telephony depending on how you see that and he provides solutions for clients all over the US and all over the world Let's welcome to voiceover body shop George Washington the third Good afternoon slash evening gentlemen good good to see you We'll just refer to you as GW3 because when we email that's when I call pretty common. That's pretty common Okay, I'm so I'm not being original or anything. Oh, no see, you know, I you know worked in restaurants and stuff where they'd called me Jorjito Yes, I was my family called me little George because my dad, you know, so yeah, just whatever works I had the same problem in my family. I was the little George as well Yeah, I was just known as hey you Anyway, but anyway, you're like me you're involved in all sorts of things and you know including a world voices voiceover education opera Tell us a little bit about your background and how you arrived at all of these things and what came first opera or voice acting opera did so first My background when I was in college, I was a vocal performance major for a while I ended up with a Bachelor of Arts in music and then I went into the what do I do with this and I went into IT and so I worked on PCs installing PCs fixing computers fixing software supporting users and I started working for First Union National Bank in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1998 and During that work somebody I got on an elevator with a woman named Elizabeth Taylor So George Washington the third and Elizabeth Taylor Elevator together sounds like a set up for it. Yeah, absolutely Well, and she asked me hey Do you want to be the on-camera host for a couple of internal videos and I said sure why not and so I started doing that in addition to my IT work and and one of those instances I had to go to a local studio and record the voiceover for what we were doing and Walking around this studio. It was just the people were so nice and this is you know They had some voiceover work things going on and I said hey What would I need to do if I wanted to do voiceover and they said well, you know bring a scripts We'll help you make your demos and we'll go from there and it was You know, you know how demos cost these it was 350 dollars So I went off for six months and Practiced and what did that thing that I never tell I tell no one ever to do again. I did it without coaching I went back and I made a narration demo and a commercial demo and Then started getting it around and I was about 2003 or so And so yeah, so I've continued on working in IT and working in things and and doing voiceover on the side And eventually was able to move to the point where I said, you know what? This is what I do in its entirety as An opera singer so I started singing with opera Carolina in Charlotte in 1998 and I was I'm mostly in the chorus But I did have small roles and when we do the really small things like a mall in the night visitors I was one of the kings and and things like that and One of them I think is like hey, could you come do our phone messages for us? So I do the phone messages for the opera company and I did the in I do the in-house announcement basically to say here is our primary sponsor and You know don't use flash photography. So Even when I say yeah, yeah, exactly Yeah, if you need if you're gonna pay me to do something, you know that is using my voice generally I'm gonna say yes but yeah, so I kept doing that and and continued to do voiceover and keep trying to grow what I do my goal was to make my living with my voice and that's where we've gone and Things have reached the point where that's what I can actually do Yeah, that's great Once again our guest is George Washington the third as the discussion goes on if you have a question for him throw it in the chat room whether you're on Facebook alive or whether you're on YouTube or Wherever you might be watching this But you can ask him a question We will get to that in our next segment because I know Jeff Holman is in there with his Feathered quill writing down these questions and then you know holding them up to us and so we can see what those questions are That's some 21st century tech right there. It is we you know we feathered quill. Yes Well, it's only doing it for you George Washington for Anyway, now you do it all you do commercials including political spots e-learning corporate narration with so much Competition out there now and you've been doing you know you've been doing it online for what about 20 years now. Mm-hmm You know when we first started 20 years ago. It was like, okay It was kind of easy pickings for a lot of work now. It's it's a totally different marketplace How have you been able to differentiate yourself? What is I like to say? What's your competitive point of difference that you know that getting people's attention? Yeah, I I like to say that my competitive advantage is my versatility and I am I will do Pretty much whatever kind of work there is. I don't do audiobooks just from a timing perspective And I know that that is an entirely different work world than than I'm used to doing and I've done a handful I've just decided that's not where I want to be Professionally, but I like to I play up my versatility I speak about my background as having an artistic background beyond just being a voice actor and I make it really easy to work with me And so I want people to know that if you're gonna ask me for this thing I will have it back in time. I will have it back so that you can make changes I will make it if you want to be here while I do it you can be here while I do it I've actually you know most of the time we're doing You know doing it remotely whether that's zoom or whatever But earlier this year I did a narration for talking about the Rosenwald schools in the southeast and the Rosenwald schools Were schools that were built throughout the southeast with support from the then president of Sears Roboc Because at that time those school schools for African-American students were not being supported by the local governments and Julius Rosenwald Put money aside and had people Contribute and build these schools. So when they asked me to do the narration I was like sure and the person who was there said can we come and listen and I'm like, are you sure? And you know, this is not like I don't have a huge studio set up or anything So they sat on on the couch The gentleman and his wife sat on the couch and I turned on the monitors and I did what I needed to do And the next time he's like, I've heard it. You're fine. I can do it over, you know, Google Meet next time I also like when I say I'll do whatever they ask For the second version of that for South Carolina They said can you do on camera for us? And I'm you know on camera is not a problem for me so I drove down to Newbury, South Carolina and I did the walk up and Spoke the lines off teleprompter Jester to the place and then the next week we came back into the actual narration So I try and give them all the options and let them know what I'm fully capable of Singing everything Yeah, how do you how do you do your marketing? I'm gonna assume you have several different tools in your toolkit Well, I I will admit I'm not the greatest at marketing that that I'm not I Have done less of it than I would intend to but most of that's because getting ramped up and getting into doing things fully But I have been poking poking my toe into the LinkedIn Process and doing those things and making in using LinkedIn as a process I am pretty active on social media But I don't point at the social media to make it say okay I do voice over please hire me because that doesn't really tend to have a ton of get back most of it is just a Established that I am a known quantity Help the SEO Show people that what I'm capable of. I mean the stuff that I'm doing right now. Yeah, I read poems Right, I do you know, I do poetry where I read it I say it's the hashtag is one minute of poetry and I do a for the poem is sometimes it's over a minute But both times it's a minute or less I will do a reading and I will post it and I just point out here's something that I can do and I hashtag it with voice over as Well, and so it's more of a hey I have these other gears to and make people understand that yes if you need to be to do hard sell I can do that I can do the sports sell but this kind of read where I'm making something into a conversation Based on you know on this poetic lines those things work, too So I do have things like I use clothes as my CRM Which lets you do some real organized send the emails out and makes it a little easier It can interface with MailChimp, and I'm working through how to make that happen with what I do I have done some cold calling but cold calling isn't my favorite like there are some people who are great at it It's not my best thing. Yeah, that's a tough one for a lot of people's cold. Yeah. Yeah, that's just sales 101 Exactly, but you know part of what I way I look at it for most people especially when people are starting out I have to make sure you know who the recording studios in your local area are Find out who they are and if they have a Roster then go talk to them go talk to them. Don't you know don't reach out to them personally go speak to them and See what you can do for them. I have I have clients here in town where they you know They don't audition me anymore. They you know for a lot of things they do send auditions But many times like hey, we have this thing for you. Can you come in and do it? You know in that way they are you know, I they are part of my normal here are the people I can count on Right, so yeah, that seems like a sign in a career that that's spanned some time where you When you get to that point where you you can fill in a lot of your day with just reliable client content that They just keep coming back to you and you don't feel like you're in a constant state of Got a hustle for the next gig got a hustle for the next gig. That's got to be a good feeling It is and you know, that doesn't mean that I don't hustle for it Obviously, I get my auditions and I try and get them in and make sure everything is done when necessary But it does help to know that here's a level that I know is gonna be here And then I continue to work on the rest of it to try and grow that you know, I'm Not being greedy just trying to make a living Mm-hmm. Well, yeah, you're just trying to make a living. That's the most important part Once again, we're talking with George Washington the third if you have a question with him or for him or about him Throw it in the chat room. We'll get to that in just a little bit So what once you get a client and it's important to make them a client and You've just you've discussed the ways that you do that that you know once you land a gig You know You make them a client for life by making their life easier and that's it's clearly what you're saying How how do you but how have you been getting most of your work? How did you get the initial work? So initially it was through production houses before I decided before I made an effort to reach out to to agents and So I worked with production houses and got There got work through them built up basically a book of business saying here's what I'm capable of and here's what I've done Then reached out to agents and I have multiple agents at this point My I have representation across the country though. I'm not specifically represented in the giant markets That's kind of the next move from a from a representation standpoint But I I have a lot of I have a lot of people who are doing You know that I get work from and again, you know, I don't win them all no one does You know, I try and remind those people who are starting out. You're gonna win one to two percent of them That's the way it works And so you have to make sure that you are getting work from enough people that that one or two percent Isn't gonna kill you by not having it available to you That's just the way this work is it is acting It is people trying to you're competing with a ton of people and I know a lot of us say we're not competing Yeah, we're not strictly saying you or me It is that in the end, but that's not how we have to function, right? Right. I look at it. I have always told people this is not a rejection business It's a selection business and most of the time you're not gonna get selected You have to keep building it up so that more people do select you and once they select you They decide to come back to you over and over again and that means being available That means being easy to work with Consistent yeah, yeah, and every every single time Now what when you and I first met that's good ten years ago I think probably you have kind and I found out you you're an opera singer Uh, you know and usually we'll get into talking about operas one particular opera or another I've done a little bit of Gilbert and Sullivan and stuff, but have you found that opera singing really helped your career? I mean that is there's something in in in singing and you know in a very formal way like that that helped you Understand how to you know, obviously how to use your voice, but it's Projecting is not really what they want anymore and opera is definitely Projecting because you're not mic'd or anything right exactly, you know, that is the thing is you're not necessarily Using that particular skill that projection you have electronics. That's not the job. That's not the job anymore but you do learn how to breathe and it is such a core need for what we do being able to to Diaphromatically breathe and not make it a big deal Right that is a that is a skill that most people Simply don't have when they come into it and there's not a reason for them to have it Right unless they've been in a situation where projection is what they have to do But then you have to work off the other parts of that projection, right stage actors who project You're like, okay. Remember this room is a whole lot smaller. That's not where you're trying to go You're not trying to push to the back of the back of the room anymore so I think opera helped in one getting your breathing right and You do have some acting that goes along with it But you got to tamp it back a little bit because it is awfully large, right? You don't do small things on an opera stage. You're gonna be big, right and so Learning how to to Take emotion from something Like music and then transfer that to the people who are watching You're still doing that, but you're now you're just doing it by doing it in speech On a more kind of blatant space about how opera helps I do get singing jobs now and again Where there's where you'll see audition that say we need an operatic sound. Oh, hey, I'm ready I think my favorite one for that so far has been one I did for fruit by the foot and The audition came in and they said and they just said hey How long can you hold a note? And I said how long do you need me to hold? And they said well send us an audition and just hold it as long as you can and I sent it and they said well We don't need That's what I've got then so I ended up just saying fruit by the foot for about Eight or nine seconds just hold it as long as they need it give it long enough so that they can use a fade That was they didn't believe you could hold it for a minute So, you know there are everyone you know and just because that kind of jingle that kind of singing isn't as important You know don't see that in commercial as much but two weeks ago I did another one that was just a you know just three notes, you know for this thing same kind of idea But I have that gear if somebody needs it, right? So That's what now that's short little short sound bites, right exactly my jingle might be three notes Exactly and having that and that can be any singer, right? I mean if you know how to sing and you can get those three notes You're in good shape. I like because it is a particular style and people know what When people do that, there's this, you know, it's usually in terms of it's gonna be a parody. It's meant to be funny Then I got that, you know, I don't I don't need to do the entire toreador song for anybody Just for their for a commercial so right yeah I think a lot of people especially when they're beginning, you know And I in George and I get a lot of audio from people one of the things we notice is people breathing in the middle of sentences Uh, which you know drives me nuts. It's like if you can't read an entire sentence without taking a breath Yeah, you got a problem, you know, I mean there are people out there that you know that we probably all know It's like they will talk and talk and talk and you'll go take a breath take a breath But it practicing as you were saying diaphragmatic breathing It's really important to be able to read one or even two sentences without taking a breath and which you know Saves an awful lot of time with editing and stuff like that It does and but I think what happens for a lot of people is you're if you're not prepping if you're not And that doesn't mean you necessarily have to go and go line by line and look at every line and do all those things But you got to get your eyes ahead of the text enough to know that I'm not gonna have you know I have all of this text to say so I need to get a good breath when I start I need that two seconds or three seconds of diaphragmatic breathing before I get into this so I can do those first two sentences before I actually need a breath and Recognize that you can take those things out, right? You know, you know, it's it's not necessary to To get to the point where you're like Right when you've read all the way to the end of your breathing. I heard Yeah, I've heard it too and you know, I try not to let that become a habit with because every once in a while You're like you're going and you're in a flow. You're like, okay Stop go back to the beginning of that paragraph and start that again with a good breath So it doesn't feel like you're running out by the time you get to the end You know, that happens in not just audiobooks, you know Long-form narration and e-learning and that sort of thing when you run into people who don't write to be Spoken and they're right writing to be read You know, yeah, exactly. I actually write back to people when I get copy and it's clear that they wrote it for me to read out loud I'm like, thank you so much for being considerate of how this actually works. Absolutely Once again, we're talking with George Washington the third We're talking about his voice over Career and some of the cool stuff is If you've got a question again throw it in the chat room Whether you're on Facebook live or whether you're on YouTube live And we will get that question to them in just a couple of minutes Now one of the areas that you've been active in in the last few years is the subject of diversity in media Can you tell us what you think about the current state of affairs and how you think it can be changed and really what? What brought your attention to this? well Clearly as a person of color There's always an interest in what diversity is and and how we can be a part of what's going on and There is and this is just reality There has up to this point been a baseline acceptance that the default voice is a white male voice and That has been the way it works unless it was Advertising that was focused directly at a you know The black community or Hispanic community and that would be the only kind of voice that you could use Unless you're really speaking to that area But in the last few years we've seen the growth of the use of different kinds of voices that are considered for general consumption All right, and that is a good thing. It's it's good to grow. It's going to be happening more and more It's not just a matter of ethnicity anymore as I'm sure people have seen non-binary postings You know and I know that some people say well, what does that even mean? That is up to the listener and up to the people who are doing the casting to say does that sound like a non-binary voice But I think that's all to the good We are getting better at this. I think the industry is getting better at it of recognizing that We need to hear the speech of more than one kind of person if you're reaching out to advertise influence Get people to to do what you would like More people who can hear it in a voice that sounds familiar to them Will be more beneficial to your message and that's I think that has been a a a Point that we have gotten better and better and we can continue to improve as that happens, you know, we've seen this with Female voices in spaces that we traditionally didn't hear them in sports in automotive That is starting to happen. That's a good thing to make sure that people that that representation is happening across the board Yeah, I totally agree. Once again, if you got a question for George about any one of these topics Throw it in the chat Roman. We will get to that in just a second You and I are working on a project together Because we haven't been able to do this in a couple of years we both serve on the the board of world voices and One of the things that we've wanted to do is get our annual Conference back together and we've not been able to do it obviously because of the pandemic, but we got one planned for Orlando Next May so it's less than a year and you're in charge of this I'm standing back waiting for whatever this you need me to do Tell us a little bit more about what what we're thinking about here so Wovo con as you mentioned is is an important important part of the world voices community in that this group of people Should be organized around one of the main principles that we have for the organization, which is members helping members and Part of that commitment to members helping members Should be face-to-face Meeting the people that were also in the organization sharing of knowledge so that people all understand That their needs can also be met by other people in the industry who have similar experience Not everyone has all the answers but everyone has some answers and we want to make sure that that is part of what we offer as an organization and Wovo con like many conferences Disappeared for a while due to the pandemic and I've specific experience with the whole pandemic and what kind of impact it can have on a life and I we did what was necessary and we also had run into a situation where we had done it for seven years or six years and we had kind of tapped out on the people who were who had been organizing and it's it's hard work and We looked at it this year and said we need to bring this back as a part of what we do to be of value to our members and We want people to be able to come there share their knowledge get new knowledge and Be reminded that they are not alone Because what we do is such an isolating business In that we are working in boxes like these for long periods of time and it's nice to be able to have those moments to talk with people and And know that there is a shared community there now We are different from the other conferences in that this is not one it's not a money-making venture for us and it is specifically for our membership and So we like to think that that sets us apart from the others not that anyone is any worse or better but this is for us and I believe that that's a positive thing that we can offer to our membership Yeah, and on that note, we're gonna we're gonna start to take a break here in just a just a second but George great having you with us and again if anybody has a question for him about any of the stuff that we're talking about throw it in the chat room because we love hearing from you and knowing that you're out there and watching our show and Paying attention to what's going on out in the voice of a world and George is one of those guys. It's like really in there In the trenches doing what it takes Anyway, we're gonna take a break and we'll be right back with George Washington the third right after these important messages Don't go wait. This is the Latin lover narrator from Jane the Virgin Anthony Mendez You're enjoying Dan and George on the voice of her buddy Shaw Well, hello there. I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voice denouncer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat Weren't you this is virgin radio? Well, okay? We're not that innocent. There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working Dickies because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values a leader for California And a voice for America. It's smart. It's a phone. It's a smart phone, but it's so much more It's a the files are ready. Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice? 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You get the point Unfortunately, they're under the same inflationary pressures as everyone else and they'll need to restock in the not so distant future No doubt. They'll be sticker shock for them and you so right now is the time to order that port-a-booth pro or Vo1 a voice over microphone and their VO 2.0 headphones fight inflation at voiceover essentials comm Hey there, it's David H. Lawrence the 17th. I teach a curriculum called VO heroes pro close to 40 classes on voiceover performance the business the technology the mindset and with all those courses I'm sure there are still things that I Don't teach and I'd love to know if you wouldn't mind helping me out What you'd like to learn is there's something that has always puzzled you about our business or something You just don't know about or something that you you wish you had a better take on Go to VO heroes comm slash survey. There's a one-question survey waiting for you, and that is what would you like to know? I'd love to teach it. So VO heroes comm slash survey. That's VO heroes comm Slash survey, let me know what I can teach you and I thank you This is Bill Radner, and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with Dan Leonard and George Wittem VOBS dot TV And we are back with George Washington the third hero voiceover body shop again If you got a question for him throw it in the chat room plenty of time to to do that as well Let's see here. We got one question here starting off from Terry brisco He says I've done six different categories of voiceover in my first year Everyone says that you should focus on an area that you're starting out as you just said You're someone who's known for their versatility. Do you subscribe to that philosophy? Why or why not clearly you've spread yourself out in a lot of places? So Terry what I the way I look at it is Do all kinds of stuff when you're starting out so that if you decide I'm gonna focus on one You know which one of those things you can focus on Because you are going to have to find out if some of those things are things you like or not Right if you start out right now for instance and say well, I'm gonna focus on audiobooks. Well, that's great You better like audiobooks I My take on it has always been do all the things Until there's a reason to do only one of the things It gives me the opportunity to try a lot of different things to do different kinds of genres to Do different kinds of characters and all that and it leaves me less vulnerable to when I lose you lose a thing and Then everything else collapses around it So it's I say try a lot of things do a lot of different kinds of things Some people will say that's not the right right direction. It's worked for me Right, and that's really what counts. I know a lot of times when I'm talking to people when they're just starting out My question to them is what's your superpower? You know, what is it that you do? Professionally now or are escaping from because I've met a lot of you know recuperating chiropractors and podiatrists and ITV and I You know if if you have knowledge of that area, I mean when you started doing voiceover it was because you were in the business that needed you to do that and You know, but if somebody's an expert in IT or military intelligence I've heard that one or was a priest or something along those lines It's amazing where the opportunities are if you have that knowledge and that network to work with Yeah, and that's one of the reasons that I say to people starting out is once you have professional demos tell everyone you know everyone Things will come from the most random places. I will give you a strange example So when I started out in Charlotte, I was also doing on-camera work I was doing some on-camera commercials and all that while being an IT too So that didn't work out so much, but I had an agent here in town Her I have since we are no longer working together as agent and client. We're still in contact. I have sung at Her mother's sisters and unfortunately her husband's funerals But when I sang at the last one that was where I met the gentlemen who had me do this most recent series of documentaries Because they are they said they would they heard me saying we did the work You know, we talked to the real briefly they reached out to me later and said we think you're the right person to do these documentaries Tell everyone tell them all the time and One of the things I also say is don't ever tell them you're aspiring You are a voice actor Are a professional yep once you have professional real demos you are a voice actor Don't give them a reason to think while you're just new into this is starting on this is what you do George you got a question there? Yeah, I wanted to know more about the tech in your studio Where are the tools that you like to use? We obviously see your mic, but there's some more something going on on that mic arm I wanted to yeah, and then just tell us about the rest of your all the things we can't see in your frame So I have a this this Neumann TLM 103 here I also have and I'll swing it into the camera a little bit here I also have this shotgun mic this The Sennheiser 416 and as you noted I have them on this swing arm here in this studio bricks booth My interface is an Apollo twin duo a mark to my Mac my M1 Mac mini is sitting outside and so it is doing it runs everything else in here and I have another monitor sitting outside So I have two monitors to work on and if I'm going to do any kind of editing Because occasionally I make videos and whatnot and I run premiere out there So I can edit on a larger screen on a 35 inch screen And yeah, this this is the studio bricks VO edition I put a keyboard tray in here so that I can just sit here and type as well and Yeah, so that is in general. That's my basic setup Got it. Do you have a Do you have a Mirrored setup or like the monitor inside the booth is an identical mirror of what's outside the booth Is that how you run it? Actually, this is like I run my I run my DAW and my scripts are happening here and out there is a secondary It is a different display entirely So I drag things back and forth like if I go out there to work I just drag the Mendoz over to that side and I work on that screen Oh cool so And I use as a DAW I use Audition Adobe Audition. Do you find that with the Apollo? I mean we we've talked about the Apollo many times and we have our pros and cons about it But do you do you really feel like you take advantage of the tools that are in that the Apollo provides or do you feel like you just use it on a more basic level that you know Doesn't differentiate it that much from other interfaces. I'm gonna pump you up here because That was why I signed up that I know that's not the intention But I'm gonna say it anyway that is why I signed up for your webinar because I do feel like right now I'm not using it to its fullest extent I need one of the reasons like I need to understand I wanted to understand the virtual inputs better I wanted to understand how it works and what I can do differently I mean honestly one of the things I enjoy the most about having it here is it's right here on hand and I Can make some make your quick adjustments right there I had a full mixer before But it couldn't sit here close at hand and I had to reach under to do stuff So this made that easier and I did sign up for your webinar because I want to know more about how to use it better I do have that Thing working on now. I use a couple of you know, like I use loopback for for you know Routing so that I can move things from one to the other like if I'm doing play back for somebody It makes it easy to go right into the playback and all that but yeah I want to know more about my interface and I think it's important for voice actors to know those things They don't have to be you obviously But they should know more about the things they're doing Not necessarily because they're gonna offer all of these grand things like most of us don't have to do full production We're delivering dry lines, but it's a good idea to know what it's capable of For instance like in audition most of us will never use or very rarely use multitrack But occasionally you might have to listen to some music while you do your record and know how that works And you can just put that in a multitrack and hit record and record against what's happening there and then just you know Send out mix down just your lines and there you go Yeah, and you can have video to you can drag a video Right into and have the video on screen and work with exactly so you need to know a little you need to know enough to be Dangerous, I guess is the best way to put it and that's why I want to know more about that interface because I want to know How the what's the best way for me to use it especially since I have two microphones connected to those outputs What's the easiest way to switch back and forth because audition looks at that piece of hardware, you know instead of Those inputs per se so being better about doing that. I think it's important to know all that. Yeah Yeah, what do you why would you use? The 102 or the 103 versus the 416 Well, it's some of it is because I've done video games, right? And they don't generally don't want the they don't want the 416 For mixing purposes at least that's what they say now you and I both know that some of the reasons they say that is gate Is gatekeeping? right It's because they're saying hey, we only want this kind of microphone and they'll say it's a 103 or a u87. I'm like, yeah Most of us are not having u87s hanging around in our studio, right? But um I liked like last year. I did a I did a few video games and I do a lot of stuff for them The 416 is like my home base and I personally wanted to say you're not going to tell me the reason I didn't get hired is because I didn't have This available to me, right? And so if it is because if it's if I didn't do what I needed to do that's fine But it's not going to be because I didn't have the equipment for what was necessary Yeah, I I don't think I've ever heard of somebody not getting the job because they say well I've got this type of microphone If you if you if you sound good. Well as we like to say in the show you are good Um, and so it's not really the microphone, but there is a distinct difference between the 103 and the 416 I mean, yes You know one is one is they both work differently at different proximities and stuff like that Uh, but the you know clearly the 103 is a lot mellower for you a voice like let's say your yours are mine Definitely, you know that is I always my description is the the the 416 is sharper And it's sharper and brighter And for a lot of things it's ideal for what I want to do But you wouldn't say if you're gonna if you're gonna do an audiobook You wouldn't necessarily say that's your best choice because it is a little more ear fatiguing But that's I would say, you know You don't have to do this setup and a lot of people never need more than one microphone I just like to be able to have that option Because I've done different kinds of things like video game stuff when they said hey, we we want this one to match what we already got Here you go. I'm ready to go Right, you gotta say yes Yes Exactly. Yeah. Now terry briskos asking what is that swing arm? I must know I've got a couple of those sitting around for you know displaying my ribbon mics and stuff You can get those like at guitar center on amazon really easily. Yeah Yeah, this swing arm I got for 12 dollars on amazon And it you know the arm in that comes with this booth is usually set for a single mic mount But I wanted to be able to switch back and forth without doing any unplugging And so I went and found this mic arm and like I said, it was 12 dollars Went right in the same place where you would normally put one microphone And I will even do this here It's called a it's got a t bar. So if you're yes, you're searching look for a mic t bar Or a stereo bar or something like that I mean you can literally put three mics on that thing if you wanted to probably good. Yeah, and it works as easily as uh Is that right just a simple switch and there you have it There you go. Now you can hear the difference between those two mics. It's kind of cold to hear the difference in that space Yeah, exactly All right, george, you got the question from j. Horace black. Hey j um Any quick pointers you can give an opera singer who wants to do voiceover? Do you do any coaching specifically for opera singers? So here's what I say opera singers have an advantage And most singers have an advantage because you already know how to breathe You already know how to take basically what I will call vague direction Because you have been told you need to give different kinds of feelings emotions and all those sorts of things So you are coming in armed already any voiceover coach I think Would be pleased to have somebody who already knows what it means to put a motion in their performance And that you can go to anyone it doesn't necessarily have to be a specific one Who's going to work from opera to voiceover? You are working with an advantage already It doesn't mean that suddenly people are going to hire you faster But it does mean that you are going to be able to take direction better because you're used to it already It's just applying it in a different space So I I don't know that there's any specific direction that you have to take or The specific coaching you have to get as a as someone coming from an operatic background into voiceover You have to know to tamp down your projection You can work on that and be able to take direction that seems Not specific right you've been told to sound taller You already know what that feels like Right and so you can work on that sort of thing without having to do a lot of processing Because you and almost everybody you know knows that People don't know what they want until they hear it Yeah, right they're going to say oh, I need to I need to hear this Angela Brown. Do I know Angela Brown? I think we were in uh Uh, we may have been in porgy and best together here In charlotte some years ago So yeah It it's it just take it takes it just takes you being open to direction And you have that going in so I think that's that's the positive nature for voiceover For people coming from music particularly opera, you know what emotion is in your performance Absolutely, yeah, he had a second part that went went technical Should we talk about that go ahead? Yeah, it was about your Apollo and how you're using it I have to know he has Yeah, you're not using No unison plug-ins. No no his reaction none of that fancy stuff. Yeah, mine is mine is as is at the moment And so again my one of the things I wanted to do was learn how to use it better See if there's any value to that for me But thus far I've had no complaints about the things that I've been able to produce so And I think dan is very much a believer in microphone interface software Yeah, keep it simple. Keep it simple. Yep. Yeah I actually had a question about woeville con too another one and then karen and I asked about the dates again So we can repeat the dates for woeville con, but what what does make that conference unique? I mean, I've been there so I know obviously, but um, what does make it what differentiates it from the other big conferences happening So I I think one of the main differentiators for us is We do have speakers. We will have people come in and do keynotes and that sort of thing But the individual things that are taught there are taught by the people who are our members of woeville con of woeville those people who are willing to share their knowledge In that setting and and say I have this You need this Here's what we're doing nobody's selling Our own people are not selling to our members. They are sharing their knowledge freely And trying to give and and we've heard this in every kind of conference sharing those nuggets To say here's some information for you to take back. We ask our membership Where you know, do you have something you want to teach? Let us know tell us what you want to talk about and we can put you on the roster of of instructors So that's what that's what I think makes us a little bit different. We're not there to sell you Any more than what we've got coming in? This is for us to share I mean one of the things we do on the sundays is we have the family meeting right We talk about the industry where we're going as an organization What we want to be doing in the coming years And make everyone want to be a part of this and contribute to it This is for the better for the greater good of the industry and the organization Yeah, and and and that's the whole point is we are an industry association. This is a not-for-profit organization Uh, we're we're not as george was saying we're not we're not there trying to make money off of this because As george and I will tell you we're not making any money off of it. We're doing this because it's important to the industry Uh, so that and that's why we want people there because it's fun It's great to you know to meet your you're the other people in your community And of course exchange ideas and stuff and a lot of that goes on In the lobby and out in the hallway and and that's what makes it such a fun conference and uh, You know because it's not commercial Uh, the way a lot of these other ones. It's not like, you know, here's 10 agents We're going to tell you how to do this stuff No, here's a bunch of other voice actors in our organization who tell you how they do things Sort of like what we're talking about right now And that's not to say we don't have agents involved, right? We do have some some agents involved with us But we're not they're not there to sell that's I think that's the the Um, the most important Yeah, it's gonna be may third fourth fifth fourth fifth and sixth fourth fifth sixth next year Yes, so we're going to celebrate may the fourth be with you And Cinco de Mayo that same weekend talk about a party Bring your lights and her birthday my birthday. Yes, and and his birthday in Orlando, florida. Let's make sure we understand We're gonna be our land in Orlando. So can't wait wait to uh to do Um, no somebody's asking when will the demo be ready to you a demo player ready to use? I'm really excited about this and I thank you for providing it. It's going to be ready Probably this week people have been testing it. We got all the bugs out of it It's it's gonna it's definitely going to be hitting the main the the main road Uh this week So we know what we're talking about so world voices as one of our One of our uh benefits for membership is we are providing a demo player that you can use on your website And it is html 5 based as I believe is the way It in that it it plugs right in it's just a bit of code It you know adds your demos and you can and they can be played back Um, and you don't have to invest in anything and that's part of what we're doing to offer our membership as a as a thing And we're going to be improving it as we as we go. We've actually talked about here are the few the features we'd like in the future Absolutely. Well, George, it's always just a pleasure to talk to you no matter what But thank you so much for being with us on our show today and uh, we really appreciate All of your knowledge and we look forward to having on again real soon if people want to get a hold of you Where do they go? I am at Vo evolution.com. That is my website to be rebuilt soon, but vo evolution.com is where you can find You don't need to rebuild it. It works great. It's one of the best websites I've seen Anyway, George Washington the third. Thanks for being with us Thank you. All right. See you George. All right, we will be right back and get ready to wrap it up and Rerack it for tech talk right after these messages Yeah, hi, this is Carlos Ellis Rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop In these modern times every business needs a website when you need a website for your voice acting business There's only one place to go like the name says voice actor websites.com Their experience in this niche webmaster market gives them the ability to quickly and easily get you from concept to live online In a much shorter time when you contact voice actor websites.com Their team of experts and designers really get to know you and what your needs are They work with you to highlight what you do Then they create an easily navigable website for your potential clients to get the big picture of who you are And how your voice is the one for them plus voice actor websites.com has other great resources Like their practice script library and other resources to help your voiceover career flourish Don't try it yourself. Go with the pros voice actor websites.com where your vo website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what It's time To thank source elements because they are still supporting vobs after all these years at least five or more and uh At this point, um, boy You know what source connect is right? Yes. You probably do right even watching the show even listening to others in the voiceover community talk about it and There's no doubt that it's well loved. In fact Some minor proof of how much people appreciate source connect and source elements is they just won an award They just won an award it at the one voice conference and got best Uh service provider for the voiceover industry Um, which is amazing. It was weird because I was in the same category. So I mean, I'm honored to have lost to source elements, you know, because these guys are the real deal and they've been They've been serving audio industry and voiceover industry specifically for as long as I have if not longer Um, they've been they've been there really since the beginning Almost of the home studio revolution. Honestly. Anyway, I won't go on you guys know They are go if you haven't needed it yet Then you probably have your demo license already If you don't go over to source dash elements dot com And get your step your demo and start playing with it start getting used to how it works And learning why it's what producers really prefer to use in voiceover productions We'll be right back right after this You're still watching v. OBS Apparently you are Anyway, we're gonna rewrite it for tech talk here in just a minute So if you've got questions about home voiceover studio tech, which I knew that's one of the reasons you guys come here Throw those in the chat room as well if you got a problem or a question or something along those lines We will get to that in the next hour Uh, anyway, uh, so next week It'll be tech talk number 85 or if you're staying live like you should You'll be able to play along with us here. Uh, let's see here. What else we got going on here You've got an audio you've got a webinar for a twisted wave coming up Yeah, this time i'm doing audiobooks So i've taught twisted wave for just sort of general beginners more advanced and now Audiobooks because well anybody knows it records audiobooks. There's a lot of minutia and a lot of organization And workflow to be really efficient So i'll be teaching that you can sign up for that at george the dot tech slash Webinars and while you're there right underneath the big banner or the picture of me on it and stuff Right below there's a raffle copter. What the heck is that you can sign up and be entered to win a free Webinar pass to whatever webinar that you want. Um, you just follow the prompts on there and you can share it with your Followers and uh, that's how it works the more you share the more tickets you get essentially so uh, check it out Cool. Um, thanks for listening. Yeah, uh, we've got our donors of the week large pile of them starting with You know 949 designs. That's our good friend. Lee penny. That is jonathan grant kasey clack christopher epperson sarah borges phillips appear tom pinto Shelly abaleno brian page patty gibbons rob writer greg thomas a doctor voice antlion productions uncle roy shana penetin baird martha con don griffith train moseley diana birdsall and sondra milman weller Close enough that was actually almost time makes it harder It does Hey, make sure you join our mailing list too. Go to our website v obs dot tv And click on sign up for subscribe to our newsletter because that way you'll know who our guest is going to be this week Which is really cool. Uh, we also need to thank our amazing sponsors like harlin hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements vio heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com jmc demos and world voices dot org the industry association of freelance voice talent Join today. Uh, thanks to jeff holman for his work in the chat room tonight and in facebook and in uh, youtube live and sumer lino for getting it done From wherever it is that she is probably in her lair In her lair and leap any for just being leap any and for donating to our show. We really appreciate that uh, stay tuned now for a tech talk And uh, we're gonna rack rack that up right now But you know, it this is not an easy business and that's why we bring you all of these really cool people That know the business inside out backwards and upside down And give you the opportunity to learn from them and that's important But when it comes to your audio, hey, if it sounds good It is good. I'm dan lennard and i'm george widdum and this is voiceover body shop or vio bs See in a sec