A VO agent wants to sign me! I need a VO demo reel to put up on my website and their casting site to setup my profile. I called a production company to produce my VO reel. They told me to record3 voice files per demo and that each voice file should be 20secs of VO like my commercial demo would need 3 voice files same for others like narration/character. Then send them high quality mp3 and they will produce them. Does this sound right to anyone! The cost is $750 for 3 demos!
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Unless you're going to the studio that price seems too high. The only thing they could do with your files is maybe clean up the sound if there's background noise and edited the files to fit on a music bed. If you're going to their studio and they have a nice selections of mics to capture your voice and edited it on Pro Tools or something similar then the price isn't too bad. Depending on what market your in, you could contact a local radio station and ask if you could hire their studio out most have a voice over booth and software to record you. Plus chances are if they like your voice they may have contract work for you. Don't go to the top stations try one in the middle of the ratings where you know they aren't as busy. Even a local recording studio would be less cost. Say the studio charges $200 an hour you could record quite a bit of material in an hour. If you used another hour to edit with an engineer it would only be $400 and a much higher quality. Hope this helps! Learvis
Learvis YOU and the rest have helped me a great deal thank you ever so much im new to this but im investigating and asking questions. You nailed what i thought! Sometimes i question and anaylize myself too much missing what i should be doing! Blessings my friend
I most definitely will look into that! Thanks again Larry! Love the honesty with you all.
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Read ads from top end magazines, download Audacity and play with it until you can record on it. It's easy. Buy a USB mic (spend about $200 on it) presuming you have a computer good enough to record. Relatively quiet room to record in. Cover windows with bedspreads if traffic noise. I produce demos too in my studio. I'm in Dallas. Are you near Texas? I produce demos for people in my studio. Let me know.
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Better: change city ph Agee words etched . Good advice
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$750 sounds a little high Emily. But I'm just outside Toronto, so things may be a little cheaper here. I paid $250 cdn for mine, it's just over a minute with 6 clips in it. 20second clips seem a little long, you only have 10 seconds to grab their attention on each clip or they're gone. Mine has gotten me a lot of work and a ton of praise. I might suggest shopping the job to another producer, don't get cheated ! Good wishes, and any other questions I'll be glad to help if you need. :) Peter
Thanks Betty and Larry! Trust me im taking all this advice very seriously! Yes, Peter im finding that its 750 per demo with 3 voice files is expensive!
Thanks Johnathan! All of you have been saying the same thing! That says a whole lot!
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To put this in perspective. I pay 75-125 for a VO artist to send me a file from their pro studio with many corrections if desired. More if I am using it for Broadcast. license fee. I would think that a studio should provide the mics, booth and mix. Place it on a disc in WAV and MP3 format for your safe keeping. I bet you could post a gig on Toolbox above for job postings and get it done for half of that. Maybe less. This is a 3 hour job unless you cannot nail your lines. 3 - 30 second Spots with a generic background track...
Wow! Now this is different thanks Simon!
Ahaaaaa Alle i hear ya! I always do my homework ask questions and so far right here on stage32 you are all on the same page! I write my own stuff i just read other scripts for ideas i dont actually use them. I have an agent interested so i want to give them better than my best. Thank you! So much for the advice.
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Oh my gosh, I didn't realize they wanted YOU to do your own voicing and then rinse you for $750 to crank out a demo? They should be wearing stockings over their heads and carry guns, at that rate. Crazy. All the advice you've read here is solid stuff Emily, and I applaud you bringing this to us instead of falling victim. Good luck ! Keep in touch
I will always bring stuff to the table and hopefully others will read so they dont fall victim. I dont do anything until i get sound advice and i love you all for being honest here thank you so much. When i get it done i will post to get corrective criticism!
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You're in LA. I recommend you got to http://www.demosthatrock.com. Chuck Duran is in LA and is well know in the biz. At least check it out.
Thanks Paul i will check it out!