Meet JC, Voice Over Professional

JC has been a voice over professional since 2011. His voice over experience has included a range of projects, from explainer videos to ebook narration (small to large) as well as phone scripts, sales videos, elearning, and so much more.

You can hire JC through the freelance platform Fiverr, where to date he has completed over 100 projects with 100% client satisfaction. Learn more by visiting https://www.fiverr.com/jcforyou/record-a-professional-voice-over-up-to-400-words-in-24-hours.

1. How did you first get into doing voice over work?

I started doing voice over in 2011 as I was looking to make extra money. Many people throughout the years have come up to me and told me I had a great radio voice, so I decided, after hearing about Fiverr, to give it a try.

From 2011 to 2015 I dabbled in voice over projects off and on without putting any serious effort into it, and I always received great reviews.

In January 2016, a friend and I were having a conversation, and in so many words or less, my friend told me I should get serious about voice over work as I could build a great reputation for myself. So, I got busy and started working hard at growing my online presence in voice over.

2. What inspired you to choose Fiverr as a platform for offering your voice over services?

The reason I choose Fiverr is I have heard so much about the platform from many other marketers and how it was a great place to buy services for various online tasks. After checking it out, I realized I could be a seller and start voice over projects, and voila here I am. :)

3. In addition to recording voice tracks for videos (which I'm assuming is your most requested service, but please correct me if I'm wrong!), what are some of the types of recordings that you've been hired to do?

So far I have been involved in video voice over projects but this has only been more lately. In the past six months to date, I have been involved in advertising projects, motivational projects (lots of them), spiritual projects, sales page voice overs, and ecourses in teaching people how to learn internet marketing, use online services and use software programs. I have also done phone scripts and acting projects (even though I am not officially a voice actor). I even did a project for the city of Chicago which was amazing, and I have turned eBooks into audio books for various clients (small and large projects).

4. In your opinion, what are some qualities that give a recording a professional feel?

In my opinion, caring about the project is number one. Even if you don't care for the actual content, you need to care about the end result the client is looking for. Learning breathing techniques, and having an excellent quality microphone and setup is also very important to the success of the project.

It's crucial to maintain a professional attitude throughout the project regardless if it is a $5 gig or a $5000 gig; I treat them all with the same quality and always give 150% so every project is a success.

5. How do you approach each individual project to make sure you're capturing what the customer wants in the recording?

I could get the same project from different clients and each client would want a different ending result. That is an example to make a point, as getting the same project from different people doesn't happen, of course. But there are similar projects that people look for, and as I said, they all have different ending results they are looking for, so my commitment on every project is to keep open communication and keep my clients informed throughout the process and ask questions to confirm what they are looking for at certain points in projects (when necessary).

When I am not 100% sure about a voice over project, I will send a part of the project to the client for review so they can give me feedback on whether I am on the right track as I should leave nothing to chance.

The one main thing I offer is unlimited revisions even after the gig is completed and closed. Also, I offer revisions regardless if it is my error or changes they want to make after listening to the project. My clients have been very happy with this added benefit, and just the same I rarely have too many revisions and 99% of the ones I do are due to changes the client makes.

Thanks, JC!

Breakwall by Megan Pitcher at ArtPrize

I strive to write about a variety of different artists and creative work on this blog, so I was excited to hear about Megan Pitcher and her project called Breakwall which is set to be presented at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan. ArtPrize Seven occurs between September 23 and October 11, 2015 in downtown Grand Rapids. If you are in the area, you can see Breakwall at the Site:lab (Res345) venue. This link from the ArtPrize website has more information.

Breakwall is a dance piece that involves unique sound work/design as well. When dancers move through the sonic environment that Megan has created, it activates the sounds of waves. Her work has a strong basis in ideas of identity formation, and her choreography reflects an acute awareness of the ways that, in her words, "the small actions we do all the time define who we are." This awareness of the everyday also extends to exploring everyday images and how these familiar images as well as actions shape cultural expectations.

In short, Breakwall gives us a space to contemplate questions of the individual vs. confining social structures--and the ways that we can redefine conventional notions of female/feminine through our awareness, artwork, and individual actions.

Megan has created the hashtag #breakwallbodies which she encourages people to use whenever they make choices "to stand for women against the tides of cultural criticism."

I really like the notion of the tides/waves as metaphor here, and I'm looking forward to exploring more of Megan Pitcher's work. Check out the Breakwall page on her website as a starting point. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.

Meet Julian H. Scaff, Author of Sketch Your Soundscape

Julian H. Scaff is an an electronic musician, visual and user experience designer, and university professor. He is the author of Sketch Your Soundscape, available from Designing Press and Amazon. Learn more about Julian's work by visiting his website.

1. Why do you talk about the idea of "sketching" when it comes to the practice of hearing/ listening?


In a broad sense, a "sketch" is a rough, unfinished drawing of ideas. It's a very efficient means of recording ideas and information in ways that are useful, both for developing skills and for being able to recall those ideas or data later on. We tend to think of sketching in relation to visual media, so painters will make sketches to develop an idea before setting paint to canvas, or a designer sketches ideas before making a final rendering in Photoshop. But I've found that sketching is also a great tool for working with sound. I've tried some different ways of sketching soundscapes, both for my own work and with my students, and the template in my book is a result of those experiments. What's different about sketching sound as opposed to something visual is that you can never make a freeze frame of sound. Sound can only exist in the flow of time, and only within a spacial orientation to the listener, so the template I developed for sketching soundscapes allows the listener to sketch sounds in both space and time.

2. What are some common constraints or habits that prevent us from really hearing the world around us?


The biggest thing is focus. Unless we are in a very quiet place, there is always so much sound going on around us that we can't really hear it all and be able to function in a normal way. The same is true with our vision: only people with a photographic memory can actually see and focus on every little thing in their visual field, and that's pretty rare. Most of us can't do that. But by practice, focusing our attention, and recording what we hear, we can become better listeners. My book is really designed for that purpose.

3. Would you tell us a little bit about what inspired you to write your book and what audience you had in mind as you wrote it?


The seeds of this book were really planted about five years ago when I was working on a number of sound art projects, including some radio shows I was doing in London, Paris, and Beirut, and I was trying to make sketches and drawings of soundscapes that I was designing. At the time, I was also teaching at a university in the Netherlands, and for a sound art class I began experimenting with sketching exercises with my students, trying out different ideas and methods. Over time and doing a lot of research, I found methods that seemed to work really well and others that didn't. I also found that a book like this didn't exist, so in a lot of ways I designed the book I wish I'd had for teaching.

The audience is first and foremost students, so I designed the book to be small enough to slip into a backpack and inexpensive so that students could easily afford it. Secondarily, I think it could be really useful for sound artists, music producers, sound producers for film and television, DJs, etc. You can not only use the book to sketch existing soundscapes, but also as a compositional tool for creating original works, or even for mapping out stereo and surround- sound design.

4. In your own life and work, what has best helped you become more mindful of sound and to perceive it more fully within the context of the physical body, time, and other layers of our/ your experience?


There are a lot of things. Going back to my youth growing up in Tucson, it probably started with spending a lot of time in nature and just laying on my back and listening to all the sounds of the desert. My childhood was filled with the cacophony of cicadas, noisy little summer insects. In college I started working in radio, and I loved audio editing on old reel-to- reel tape machines and doing live studio recordings. I developed a good ear and sense of timing by recording and editing hundreds of radio station IDs and PSAs, and I also hosted my own late-night radio show for about a year. A couple of early influencers on me were De La Soul and Negativland. They both made such rich, multi-layered recordings, and I spent hours listening to their albums over and over again on headphones trying to dissect all the sounds. And lastly, practicing meditation has helped me a lot, not specifically for listening but more holistically for being able to focus my senses.

As I state in the book, listening doesn't just happen with the ears; you can listen with your whole body. Some sounds can't be "heard," but we can feel them in our bodies. Sound is just vibration. I had a very visceral learning experience with this fact one time when I was doing an artist-in-residency on the island of Crete. After swimming in the ocean, I lay down on a large boulder about 100 meters from the water. As I lay very still in the hot sun, I began to feel faint vibrations on the rock itself. After awhile I realized that the vibrations were synchronized to the waves crashing on the beach. I could feel the sound of the Mediterranean Sea reverberating through stone. It was a subtle but powerful revelation.

Thanks, Julian!

Meet Salvo Riggi, Sound Engineer with GTR Recording Studio

GTR Recording Studio is based in Dubai. They help artists, DJs, and musicians record and launch their music worldwide. The studio has the latest professional equipment, and they offer a range of services including sound design, music composition, voiceover services, video editing, mixing, music synchronization, and more. Check out GTR Recording Studio on Facebook to learn more.

Our interview is with GTR's sound engineer, Salvo Riggi.

1. What do you provide artists at your studio?

We help artists by using the best equipment ever: universal audio analogue and digital equipment. Also, we work hard to keep our prices lower than all the other studios in Dubai. The important thing is that in addition to better prices, we offer better quality.

2. What made you decide to start GTR Recording Studio?

I was inspired to open GTR Recording Studio because music is one of the most amazing things in the world. It's something people can enjoy every day. The meaning of GTR is Good Time Recording.

3. How do you help artists reach a worldwide audience with their work?

In addition to recording music, we distribute the final product in more than 400 digital shops, including very high-traffic sites like iTunes.

4. What is the music scene like in Dubai, and what do you bring to the scene?

The music scene in Dubai is big because we have many solo artists and bands, so there is a demand for professional recording. The benefit that GTR Recording Studio offers is knowledge. For example, weknow all about frequency, and we have a qualified sound engineer. We work with the best machines ever, names like Universal Audio; we are using a Teletronix compressor, 1167 compressor, lexicon reverb... It's our goal to give people the quality of analogues--a nice and warm sound.

5. What are some of your goals for GTR Recording Studio in 2015?

Our goal for 2015 is to see many of our up-and-coming artists go to the top of the charts!

Thanks, Salvo!

Introducing Wireless Stereo Speakers, a Practical Website on Wireless Sound Systems

As someone whose car still has a cassette deck, I have to admit that I'm not exactly a resource when it comes to sound systems. However, I know a useful resource when I see one, so if you're looking for tips on wireless sound systems, check out Wireless Stereo Speakers, a website with a wealth of product reviews and how-to information on installing wireless speakers.

Maybe you want a home theater system with great sound? Or maybe you want to listen to music on wireless speakers while you relax in your garden? You can find information on these and many other setups for all areas of your home or office or any other space where you want high-quality sound as you listen to music and/or watch movies. Also, if you want better sound with your portable devices like smartphones, the site will walk you through everything from how bluetooth works to choosing the best products for your needs.

The front page of Wireless Stereo Speakers gives a really straightforward overview of how wireless sound systems work. It's a great starting point for setting up your own system. I also like the installation guides as a source of practical information.

It's great to find a blog that's been put together by someone with a strong interest in the topic, and this is a useful site created by an enthusiast who wants to share the benefits of wireless speakers with other people who want to upgrade their home theater or stereo for the best viewing and listening experiences.