Pay to Play Sites
There are always discussions of whether the Pay to Play sites are worth being on, whether they are working for the voice seeker or the talent, and if they are a useful tool. Here is my perspective.
Having been on a number of sites in my early days, I have settled with just the main two, Voice123 and voices. When I started out, I auditioned like crazy…everything that came my way. I used these auditions to gain experience in recording myself and learning new voice delivery skills. I soon started to win auditions and build relations with a number of clients from all over the world. Now I am busy all the time and hardly ever audition. When I do, I choose only auditions which I know would suit my voice and which are of higher value than the $50 to $100 postings, leaving them to the other people who are starting out on their voice over career.
But the other benefit of remaining on these sites is that it gives me another exposure for seekers to hear my voice other than just my own website, and I get direct messages or invitations to audition. These I nearly always do.
There are many complaints about the manner in which these sites are managed – too mechanical, difficult to approach, not working for the people who pay their wages with their subscriptions (the talents). I used to raise my blood pressure – now I just use the system and ignore any niggling annoyances I come across along the way.
To summarise, I feel that there is a place for the Pay to Play sites. For the non serious seekers with low budgets there are the inexperienced voices – and the seeker may just get lucky with a talented new one. And for the experienced producer with a sensible budget, then the busier voices will be included in the auditioning process.
Microphones
There are endless blogs about microphones. Each one suits one person and not another. It depends what the mic is being used for and the tone of the voice being recorded.
I seem to have built up a selection of mics, some expensive (a Neumann and a tube Rode) and some cheap. But I always seem to come back to the same mic which seems to suit any job I do. It’s a Rode NT1A. This is an inexpensive mic that I bought when I was starting out for £150. I have a deep voice and with close mic work it can make the voice shake the speakers. Back off and it picks me up. Shouty shouty and it copes brilliantly.
Maybe I should just buy another one as a backup and forget about constantly wasting money on trying out new mics that I rarely use!