Reddit mentions of The Art of Voice Acting

First, I listened to this from the mindset of a casting agent. From that perspective, I stopped after the Pet Meds spot sounded exactly like your slate.

Then I listening to this from a fellow VO, here's some suggestions:

It sounded like you did the entire thing in one sitting. This is bad. I know this is just a quick sample to show us here, and that's fine. As a general rule, each spot needs to sound like it was recorded at different times in different studios, with different mics, and engineered by different engineers. You want it to sound like the demo is made up of actual commercials playing on the air that you've cut and pasted together.

What are you shooting for with your future career? Do you want to do character-based stuff for anime and cartoons or commercial stuff? This demo was sort of a weird mashup of the two niches mixed together.

Actually that got me thinking: You COULD do a whole demo reel of character voices doing commercial spots that are ridiculously out-of-character for the copy the voices are reading: A Brooklyn accent for a Victoria's Secret spot - a snooty English accent for a Mexican restaurant, a happy, kid-friendly voice for a monster truck rally, etc. If you can pull the character voices off believably (and that is the key) then this would definitely be memorable to an agent or casting director. A little secret: if you can make em laugh, you get remembered and doing something like this would definitely be different to the person listening.

The key to doing this is to pull off solid, believable character voices. Your accents and affectations need to be spot-on exact. If you cant do a particular voice believably, dont include it.

However doing a demo like that could also backfire. The agent wouldn't know how to place you. They'd be saying, "Is he wanting to do commercial work or character stuff? I dont know."

Technically speaking, your mic needs some EQ. The sound was very harsh in the mid-range area and not much in the lower frequencies. A little EQ and compression would help.

I hear a little bit of room tone. Overall this isnt too offensive, but you should try to go for as dead of a sound as possible.

I put together a list of tips and suggestions for new voice artists on creating their demo. Some of the things I already mentioned here, but there's a lot more included.

I know you are looking for a coach right now, but do everything you can to learn as much as you can BEFORE you get a coach. If you are aiming for character stuff, read Yuri and Tara's book, "Voice-Over Voice Actor." It will give you some insight into the world of voice acting.

And a great all-around textbook (pretty much the bible for VO, really) is Jame's Alburger's "The Art of Voice Acting" which has tips, techniques, and more information than you could imagine about getting started and doing things the right way the first time.

There are a ton of resources out there that can help you.

I'd also look into Voice Over Club Its sort of a good entry-level start to professional coaching. They have a monthly fee and have several training courses laid out like e-learning modules. Its very affordable and a good way to start out. From there, you can start looking for one-on-one coaching.

Also, dont overlook classes in your area. Stage acting, improv, comedy classes, etc are all really good resources to learn the fundamentals needed for the business.

And lastly, don't forget about /r/recordthis. This is a great way to practice, get advice from peers and maybe even make a couple of bucks.

Hope this info helps you. If this is something you want to do...REALLY want to do, then jump in head first. Keep pushing yourself. Keep learning and growing. Dont give up.

Thanks again! Moved this post to here instead.

I think what would help me most is this book. One of the things I'd really like to do someday is voice acting, and this book seems to be highly recommended to people looking into that field. I've got plenty of more fun things, but this would be actually helpful.