Dave Courvoisier's Blog
Voice-Acting in Vegas
‘Best $47 You’ll Ever Spend
In less than two weeks, the Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) takes place in New York City. The conference itself is only one day, but the entire Audiobook publisher's community makes this their seminal annual event by putting APAC in the context of other meet-ups, sessions, mixers, and awards. For one thing, the Audies take place the day after APAC. The Audies is the equivalent of the Oscars for audiobook narrators and publishers. SAG-AFTRA is holding a meeting...so is … [Read More...]
Google is on Fire!
Without getting to the politics of corporations, loyalties, patents, stock prices, or international intrigue, can I just say that Google is the new Apple?…the new Apple in the sense that they’ve earned the mantle of the hippest, coolest, most innovative and technologically edgy/highest quality products around. The Google I/O Developer’s conference is underway right now. [...]
For the first time ever…
…I was approached by a wannabe voice actor who touted his cold-calling abilities, not his great pipes. I was floored. Really. I mean, how many times a month are you contacted by a newb who claims they’re always told they have a great voice, and were convinced that was their ticket to free riches. I [...]
The Patterns of Pace
My Dad was born about the time the Ford Model-T became popular. He died in the middle of the digital boom, even though he wasn’t part of it. I marvel at the changes he experienced, but I’m even more astounded by the pace of change WE are all seeing now. Technology is a blessing and [...]
Demos are Portraits
That old adage about beauty being in the eye of the beholder comes to mind as I sit down to write this blog about demos.. The art or performance that appeals to me or you may not trigger any response in the next person. The whole process is so subjective, opinionated, and couched in experience, [...]
Zellman Dishes on ‘Done by Six’
Many of us who were not lucky enough to attend FaffCamp, did NOT hear Cliff Zellman’s big announcement last weekend. Your first introduction to that presentation may have been from my friend and fellow VO blogger Paul Strikwerda, who wrote about Zellman’s new brain child “Done By Six” just as Cliff was hitting the stage [...]
Everybody Loves a Mic Sale!
There is no one single piece of iconic equipment we identify with more than the microphone. It’s so hard NOT to put it in your branding material, your website, on your business card… even though it’s cliché in the extreme. So what?! The microphone IS an extremely important part of the equation that makes you [...]
Why Adobe Should Talk to CenturyLink
CenturyLink is a relatively small Telecom player, but they are the main provider of traditional (wired) phone service in Las Vegas. They are also aggressively moving into competitor Cox Cable’s typical realm: TV and Internet. Which is why Adobe should talk to them. You see, Tuesday, CenturyLink’s internet service went down all across the country. [...]
Big Name Hollywood Voice Over Babylon
Al Pacino is about as big as it gets in tinsel-town. He’s never done a voice-over role before…and now he continues in that deficit… although it was close. Pacino was all set to be the voice of the villain Eduardo in the animated film Despicable Me 2… but pulled out two month’s before the film’s [...]
Advertise Your Voice on Twitter
Google started it. Facebook capitalized on it. LinkedIn got on board, and now Twitter is following suit. All these social networks offer ways to advertise your services. Twitter’s maiden offering is a new self-service ad platform. ‘Great article complete with how-to directions from HubSpot: HERE’S HOW IT WORKS. Since serious money can be involved, you [...]
You Didn’t Go to FaffCamp (or Voice-World): 5 Ways to Fight Post-Faff Blues
How cool is it that the burgeoning community of voice actors, coaches, and audio producers… event producers and organizers can mount TWO huge VO conferences in one weekend successfully! Even though it’s a myopic view, the social media streams Derek Chappell and I curated over the weekend (FaffCamp, VoiceWorld) reflect enthusiastic support, breakthrough “aha” moments, [...]
Double-Whammy VO Weekend
Yesterday I posted the Storify Social Media stream for FaffCamp in Charlotte this weekend. But a good many stand-out voice-actors, coaches, producers, and agents will be hunkered down in Toronto this weekend, too. Voices.com is holding its Voice World Toronto Saturday, and the line-up is pretty impressive. Derek Chappell and I are also curating and [...]
The FaffCamp Social Media Stream
Just because I can’t be in Charlotte, NC this weekend for the first-ever FaffCamp, does NOT mean I’m out of the loop. (sniff) I’ll be living vicariously through the attendees tweets and FaceBook posts. In fact, my bestie Derek Chappell and I will be riding herd on all the social media posts we can find [...]
How Others See Us
We THINK we know what the client wants. We BELIEVE clients see us the way we want to be perceived. We do our homework, attend conferences, get coaching, listen to webinars, take branding seriously, and talk to our peers in online forums. The sum total of our diligence positions us for what we hope is our [...]
Taking Command of Your Contacts
Why do you suppose spammers and hucksters and phishers and endless social media promoters desire your email address so badly? Every time you download something (even for free) the one price of admission they always seek is your email address. Am I right? Next to your phone number and your social security number, and maybe your [...]
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12+ Ways to Avoid VO Fatigue
You’ll find it right there in the Voice Over Dictionary: VO Fatigue: ”…a psycho/physiological syndrome exhibited by the accumulative stress and exhaustion resulting from the endless pursuit of freelance voice over success…” We’ve all been there. The syndrome strikes irrespective of age, gender, race, time of year, time of day, or relative humidity. Some of the [...]
You Are What You Write
Think about it. If you’re old enough…how much did you write every day BEFORE social media came along? Not everyone has made the transition to the New Media world with grace. Yet…in a day’s time, you (1) text (2) email (3) post on FaceBook (4) post on some other social network and (5) create content [...]
Effortless Email Enhancement
Three email add-ons. Three brainless installs. Three programs that immediately multiply the amount of information you will instantly have about people interacting with you by email. Social Media connections bring you engagement with your clients, peers, and prospects on those platforms, so you can’t afford to lose an edge by missing critical information about those [...]
D- D- Don’t Overlook This!
There’s all the art and heart and psychology of what you want to bring to the microphone, and then there are the simple mechanics (only sometimes they’re not so simple!). ‘No shortcuts to the words on the page, especially when those words convey something important to the client… like maybe their PHONE NUMBER! Just one [...]
HandHeld iPhone/Pad Mic
CES is here in Vegas this week, but I haven’t seen THIS gizmo on the show floor! It’s only available for PRE-order from a foreign company — IK Multimedia — but the iRig Mic is touted as the first hand-held mic for your iPhone. I’ve blogged before about Blue Mikey and using the iPhone for [...]
Workspace Excellence
We all like to pride ourselves on having a comfortable, workable, utilitarian workspace for doing our voice acting, but what if it could be uncluttered….even esthetically nice to look at too? Then you gotta check out this article on Lifehacker to see how the guy did it. VERY clean desktop, and 3 monitors! Nice. CourVO
Synthetic Voice: Revolutionary or Repugnant?
It’s likely that we’re not far from a computer-generated voice accomplished enough to satisfy a sector of buyers who aren’t as discerning as the audiobook group mentioned above.
ISDN Down?
NY-based Voice Talent Erik Sheppard writes to pass along some info from VO Tom Kane. Kane believes he’s discovered maybe some real issues with ISDN long-distance service provided by AT&T. ISDN has always seemed to me one of those chicken-or-the-egg conundrums. Do you get ISDN service so you can develop the kind of clientele who [...]
Giving Voice to Your Invoice
The invoice is admittedly one of the most important documents your voice-over business will generate. Not just because you want to be paid, but because it’s an extension of your brand, your business savvy, and your bookkeeping practices…and ultimately customer relations. This blog is NOT about the best invoice software on the market, ’cause invoicing [...]
Time Adds Up!
Maybe no one does this by hand anymore…but once in a while, I REALLY need to just do a quick addition of some various final times of VO files for invoicing purposes, and I don’t add so well in Base-6 (remember HS math?). My search led me to an online site called ScottSeverance.us that has [...]
Voicezam
One of the clear indicators of a product that’s dependable is its longevity in the marketplace. Trends in the business of voice-acting come and go, but proven products last over time. January of 2009, I first mentioned Voicezam in this blog. Hard to believe it’s been more than 4 years ago. At the time, I [...]
22+ Ways to Send Large Files
10-hour long AudioBooks? 40-module E-Learning projects? 100-slide PowerPoint Presentation? Oh, and did I mention, the client wants all the finished production in .wav files? You know…the best quality, and the BIGGEST size? Today’s Voice talent has to be a whiz at sending big audio files with dependability, ease, and speed. You may have already [...]
3Desk, Enable Talk Project, and VideoBlocks
Wednesday — out of nowhere — I got a rash of LinkedIn connection referrals to a new freelance P2P site called “3Desk“ Like Elance, and Odesk, and Thumbtack, and about a gazillion other sites, 3Desk (it appears) is a marketplace for local freelancers, and freelance-seekers. The site says: “…Our Goal is to create the simplest [...]
5+ Google Reader Replacements
Google doesn’t sit still for long. Even on their flagship products (search, email, calendar, G+, etc) they’re constantly tweaking. Sometimes they just bail on stuff they’ve spent billions on (Buzz, Wave). Latest on the chopping block: Google Reader. Fans are not happy. There’s even a petition circulating. Let’s recap. Google Reader is actually an RSS [...]
6 Cool Usable Tools
My list-making gene is expressing itself again. Part of the reason is that the News Director in my newsroom (ahem…my boss) asked me to compile some online journalism search tools for my colleagues. In the process, I found all sorts of resources that anyone — Yes, even voice actors — could use to their advantage [...]
7 Simple CRM Solutions
CRM: Customer Relationship Management Not that your customers or your relationships need “managing”…it’s just a term that applies to any number of available software systems that help you track, communicate with, and…well…manage your contacts, clients, friends, potential customers, and business associates in all sorts of creative ways. I realize that many of you may not need such [...]