Dave Courvoisier's Blog

Be Better at PR

Google is fascinating to me right now. You probably gathered that from my GOOGLE IS ON FIRE blog of last week. I'll stop with the open infatuation after this article...but I won't stop being a fan. There's just so much going on with their many services, and the new ways they're integrating them. Along with all that, I've found a new marketing blog I want to tell you about. It's a site you should put on your RSS feed reader. And THAT puts me in the embarrassing position of reneging … [Read More...]

7 Great Reasons to Join WoVO

WoVO: an affectionate acronym for World-Voices Organization. WoVO is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) with the altruistic motive of being the Industry Trade Association for voice-actors everywhere. http://worldvo.org = info and sign-up. http://worldvo.com = online WoVO community. Do you know what an Industry Trade Association is? For the dictionary-like definition, I like Wikipedia’s description as well [...]

‘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 [...]

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 [...]

Cracking CraigsList

Newspapers hate CraigsList because it DESTROYED their classifieds (and their revenue). Most everyone else loves CraigsList…but as a lead-generating source for voice over jobs? Meh. Like Guru, O-Desk, Elance, and a number of other online freelance job clearinghouses, CraigsList — at first blush — looked to many of us as a decent possible source of [...]

Finding Your Way Through the InfoNoise

Yesterday, word spread fast that Scott Fortney had a heart attack. Scott is known to us all as a helpful voice actor who often posts Adobe Audition tutorials on YouTube, and started the Adobe Audition FaceBook group. His wife had just emerged from an illness, and now this. Prayers needed. On the same day, a [...]

Conversion

Just give me the word count willya? Give me a word count, and I can pretty much decide a lot of things: time-to-complete-narrration, time-to-complete-editing, my cost, YOUR cost…a lot. And you wouldn’t think it would be that hard to get the word count. I mean, just about everybody uses MS Word in one form another, [...]

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 [...]

6 Essential MS Freebies

‘Ran across the “DownLoad Squad” blog and this article on handy free Microsoft programs and thought any VO artist might benefit from the wisdom herein. BTW, I use Windows Live Writer to blog almost everyday…it’s one of the items on Lee Mathews’ list, and quite user-friendly. I recommend it. CourVO

CES for VO’s

My total time at CES this week was 4 hours one morning…maybe more like 3 hours and 25 mins. That may sound like a lot, but time goes like: (I think you get the idea). The microcosm of the Exhibit Floor is like a futuristic city of commerce with all the finest in hucksterism, sales, [...]

A New Day, er…DAW for iPad

SOMEONE keeps coming up with this stuff, and I can’t resist! MultiTrack DAW by Harmonic Dog is available on the iTunes appstore for $10. Here’s the specs: * Per track EQ (2 bands parametric, 2 bands shelving, 18db boost and cut) (3GS or later). * Per track Compressor (3GS or later). * Ability to monitor [...]

uAudition?

Under the heading of: ”Shoulda jumped on this months ago”…somebody beat me to the punch and has designed an iPhone app for VO auditioning. You might remember, I blogged about methods for doing just that in “Poddio Update“. New smartphone technology opens up incredible technology to make our already internet-based VO methods even MORE portable. [...]

Keeping the Broad View

Back when Driver’s Ed was taught in public schools, my instructor gave me a tip I’ve never forgotten. “Keep the Broad View,” he said. Meaning: always scan the visible scene passing all around me for developing actions. Sure, you have to break away to see the detail of what’s directly ahead of you, then check the rear-view mirror, too. [...]

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 [...]

Cyber Monday Deals Worth it?

Yes. But it’s kinda like shopping CostCo or Sam’s Club. You haven’t really saved money if you bought something on impulse that you really didn’t need…even if it WAS at a great price. Cyber Monday started in 2005 with the support of shopping trade group (shop.org) that noticed a spike in online Monday sales following [...]

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 [...]