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| NOTICE: ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES -- Voice Actor COREY BURTON |
| Friday, May 14, 2010 |
New to this site? Please scroll down to read the official verification notice.
...and ENJOY! |
posted by CB @ 3:40 PM  |
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| Ladies and Gentlemen: CB Dot Com FINALLY Presents... |
| Friday, October 16, 2009 |
ANNOUNCING - Through The Ages
Brian Sommer asked: Would you discuss the differences in the styles and sounds of announcing through the years. Announcers from the 30's and early 40's, stereotypically to my ear, have a higher pitch, and pinched or constricted sound. They also seem to be delivered at a much faster clip. Those from the late 40's and 50's have a much bigger, deeper, rounder sound to them and are delivered with a bit more 'sculpting'. Gary Owens: "Your Announcer"
How much of this was due to the actual hardware that was being used at the time, and how much was chosen style?
Certainly the sensitivity and fidelity of recording and broadcast gear did have a great influence on announcing styles over the years. From mechanical transcription through acoustical horn devices onto wax cylinders, to behemoth analog audio consoles and heavyweight metal and oilcloth electro-acoustical/magnetic recording and audience sound delivery systems, from crude photo-optical, iron oxide particle tape, and spiral-groove platter transcription media to high resolution Digital storage and transmission, the tone and delivery of the "professional" human voice has undeniably followed the course of technology and society. Aside from the quaintly anachronistic "ballyhoo" tones still used for "calling" horse races, auctions, and flamboyant delivery of Boxing Ring and Big Top Circus announcers, most styles of public expression and delivering scripted lines have undoubtedly become less formal, less dramatized, and less projected overall - as Time and Technology "Marches On" into the 21st Century.
Besides needing to forcefully project the voice over a considerable noise floor in the earliest days of broadcasting and recording sound for public and/or home reproduction, limited frequency range and distortion had the effect of muffling and blurring the elements of articulation that define spoken words, and so clear annunciation and proper microphone technique was mandatory for all professional announcers and actors. Heightened use of melodramatic tone and phrasing was likewise helpful in communicating words and ideas through the haze of static and background RF interference common to those primitive methods of sound reproduction; but was also the prevailing style of public speaking throughout the first half of the 20th Century - with formal elocution lessons required for all entertainers and politicians, as a vital element of stagecraft for addressing a diverse mass audience. A universally legible "Mid-Atlantic" dialect supplanted North American and British Empire/Commonwealth nations' colorful - but formerly geographically isolated - regional vocabularies and accents; lending a standardized "touch of class" to those from more humble and definitively localized linguistic roots.
In the 1930s, The Age of Invention and Innovation literally crackled with the unprecedented Newness of it All; and so there was a thrilling air of discovery and importance coloring the delivery of now instantaneously accessible and rapidly evolving news and science bulletins; expressed in not-yet-streamlined "Tommy Gun" bursts of complex verbiage, feverishly exclaimed from distant locations all across the Globe. It was all electrically-charged with Fanfare and Momentous Event gusto!
As Radio Towers hummed and "Talkies" lit up the screen, bringing indelible characters and their voices to a never-before-imagined throng of massive human proportions, there was the major influence of the most luminous celebrities and infectiously popular broadcasters of the day: You can easily spot the impact that FDR's political speeches and Fireside Chats had on the fundamental tone and delivery of most announcers and public figures across America, in either conscious or subconscious desire to emulate his overwhelmingly captivating vocal presence in the media of that time. A Call to Arms motivated Americans and Subjects of the Greater British Empire to spring into boldly confident action while building a sturdy foundation of Industrial strength and emotional fortitude, to see us all through the strife and horrors of the second World War, to that Great Hopeful Beyond of a bright and secure "Modernistic" Future.
With the rise of The Swing Era came a wave of musically-modulated syncopated tones, and shifted the professional announcer's vocal center away from the horn-like nasal brassiness of those earlier formative days - down to a more sonorous full-bodied diaphragmatic placement, which meshed perfectly with the rich baritone warmth imparted by the great big Ribbon microphones and multistage Tube + heavy iron/copper transformer preamplifier electronics. The laid-back, comfortably-attired conversational speaking presence of Bing Crosby and Arthur Godfrey was now eloquently cultivated and bloomed to room-filling volume, without the effects of ambient noise and distortion cluttering and obscuring the broadcast signal to the point of distraction; so Announcers could melodiously Swing'n'Sway right along with the jazzy musical tones of the times, while Golden Age Radio accompanied Americans no matter where they might be - even in moving motor vehicles - 'round the clock.
Moving on to the cheerfully optimistic 1950s, Chesterfield and highball-infused Madison Avenue cool was the style palette of "the nightclub set", and mature tones of articulate character actors began to dominate the soundtracks of commercial and industrial productions, while show announcers and host personalities took on the handsome "sparkle" of a warmly personable, yet skillfully persuasive "trained" broadcaster's Voice of High-Gloss Polished Authority. The soaring full-throated hyperbole of movie trailer announcers like Art Gilmore and Dick Tufeld cascaded from RCA System® optical soundtracks out of Altec's massive Voice of The Theater™ loudspeaker horns, leaping forth from hometown big screens like luminous cannon fire over the mid-century cultural divide.
With the completion of the Interstate Freeway System and its ensuing Drive-in "Nation On Wheels" Culture came the Solid-State / Dynamic Mic "Boss Radio" era of the '60s; with its youth-driven rebellious enthusiasm and defiantly unruly delivery; pumped-up, compressed and exploded through an aging forest of AM Radio towers out to millions of Space Age 8 Transistor pocket radios Made in Japan and unapologetically musical 6X9 Delco and Philco whizzer-cone car speakers - delivered with stylized hipness that cajoled and winked at listeners with wild adenoidal Rock'N'Roll abandon. Simultaneously, Walter Cronkite's steady-handed News Anchor delivery set the tone for Adult-oriented information broadcasting and documentary narrative, as commercial announcing gravitated away from exclamatory lyrical tones, towards the more "plain spoken" credibility of veteran Golden Age Radio/Movie Character Actors; now somewhat career-challenged and looking for lucrative new performance venues in the burgeoning TV Industry. The 3 Networks bore a distinctive sonic signature back then: an unintended metallic resonance through The Bell System's heavily-enhanced / limited-fidelity string of extended Land Line "feeds" (referred to as "Switched 56" audio, which later evolved into the Integrated Services Digital Network - or ISDN), giving all "official Network source" newscasts and daytime TV a uniquely compromised "lo-fi" - yet undeniably "authoritative" tone.
The 1970s quietly gave rise to the Condenser Mic era of FM broadcasting; with its relaxed and "cozy", subtly-inflected "naturalistic" voices and personalities - no longer saddled with overcoming AM's inherent noise, distortion, and relatively poor frequency response to finally transmit the full compliment of tone and personality to a mass audience. Ken Nordine spoke with such intimacy, it was almost as if you were telepathically linked to his conscious (and in his unique style, sub-conscious) "inner voice"; and National Public Radio delivered news and informational features with softly-feathered gentility. Old-fashioned Announcer voices started drifting away from "center stage" prominence, eventually relegated to the dusty booths and back alleys of fading AM Radio and TV Game Show programming.
When motion picture production finally made the leap from the fidelity-challenged legacy technologies of cumbersome optical/magnetic film machinery to silently preamplified all-Digital recording gear, Movie Trailer announcing and narration went from coarse gravel splatter, to whispering rumbles of master storytellers. By the mid '90s, TV promos followed in shadowy facsimile style, eventually gravitating towards Today's overbearingly "pumped up" delivery, with wheezing melodramatic urgency - that sounds more like the strains of a sudden onset of intestinal distress, than the kind of provocatively "arresting" Epic Movie Teaser/Trailer voices they are surely meant to evoke. The once widespread inappropriate use of Sennheiser's timbre-canceling 416 shotgun utility mic only further served to strip and coarsen the qualities of tone and delivery that had been so richly rounded and smoothly polished throughout the mid-century's fully-matured era of Analog Audio technology.
There were red-hot fire-hoses of broadcasting on the wildly expanding playing field of network and syndicated Entertainment Media Enterprises springing forth in the '60s; that would eventually all congeal into a few monolithic Über-Corporations by the late '80s - ultimately snuffing out "local flavor" in the rising floodwater of our currently prevailing creatively-suffocating Radio-TV Mediocracy.
The grand and glorious tones of yesteryear began to fade from the Public Ear, as independent and local Radio/TV ownership was essentially wiped out by the FCC's ill-considered deregulatory floodgate-opening: Unleashing creatively-hostile (and sociologically amoral) media raiders like Clear Channel® onto a cash-starved playing field; who bullied the airwaves away from the dedicated entertainers and informers of big and small town America, while dramatically redefining the concept of Broadcasting Talent - to rude button-pushing ignoramuses with abrasively unrefined tinhorn voices, and no sense of shame or ethical responsibility - let alone basic public speaking skills or any notion that such a thing might be desirable when heard by the now choice-deprived commuters and retirees still hungry for spoken word entertainment and meaningful information streams...
Once the Hollywood dream factory was slowly nibbled away and digested by multinational corporate investment groups, and the Great American Movie Industry was passed from mogul-established family-run Studio Back Lot proprietorships to generic industrial mass-marketing conglomerates during the late '80s, cold hard numerical "facts" and figures erroneously derived from scatter-shot random audience polling and blind "demographically targeted" survey data - ultimately ushered in the misguided concept of "The Anti-Announcer". It seemed that "average" test subjects were no longer "buying" the polished professional tones of their grandparents' bygone society; so the push was on towards voices meant to conjure images of approachably unsophisticated next-door neighbors or "trustworthy" types carelessly extracted from some commercial advertising executive's imaginary hometown high school yearbook. Never mind that Anti-Announcer voices have never effectively convinced or sold anyone on the merits of a sponsor's products; but the mighty Marketing Industry still reaps billions concocting faulty testing and promotion schemes for clueless "diversified" investment group fiduciary committee chair-members to over-fund with reckless, unquestioning abandon. And yet this fervid demand for ever-less-polished, ever more embarrassingly amateurish voices to deliver ever-less-compelling, less-literate and less-expressive words continues - in the face of ever-more-diminishing popularity and financial returns. ("Will the last programmer please switch off the 50,000 Watt Tower on your way out the door?")
The once finely-woven fabric of Professional Announcing (and some forms of broadcast narration) began unraveling to a threadbare pile of soiled shop rags since the early 1990s, to satisfy the still pervasive corporate media world spasm to foist overtly amateur-grade talent - with woefully weak, even repellingly unappealing voices and cluelessly illiterate linguistic skills - into the once exclusively professional traditional roles of Announcer or Narrator - whose unappealing, unconvincing voice tracks must then be Frankensteined to life by underpaid rookie audio editor/engineers, from scores of barely usable snippets, into a "glitchy" patchwork of instantly forgettable, inspiration-free verbal drone, to accompany their poorly-produced steaming heaps of dumbed-down "reality-based" documentary and commercial productions - to then be aggressively over-marketed and force-fed to "the mindless masses". ...And so it goes.
But wait! All is not lost for those who care about excellent quality voices in electronic media. Like the returning interest in analog vinyl records and "retro" filmmaking and product design, classic-style professionalism in announcing and narration voices is actually more in demand now than I can recall over the past two decades. Far more. Bright young producers and writers increasingly revel in recreating the musical and experiential textures of our optimistic, polished, genteel past eras: The crass cacophony of our current soundscape is proving to be merely an irritating roar of background noise - drawing no significant interest and inspiring no joy or satisfaction from the increasingly restless, fragmented and confused vast public audience. In order to stand out and garner successful/profitable attention, the push is on to bring back the classic sounds and sights of a hopeful nation. A nation of pride and quality. Civility and Taste. Richness of ideas and expression. The things that make life a wondrous adventure - and transport us away from the trials and tribulations of the depressingly deteriorating infrastructures of our daily existence.
And that's precisely what great Announcing is all about.
Thanks for Listening. |
| posted by CB @ 6:00 PM |
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| NOW PLAYING |
| Sunday, September 20, 2009 |
| Currently airing
Animation...
- on Cartoon Network:
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Cad Bane, Count Dooku, Ziro the Hutt ...and assorted others
Batman: The Brave and The Bold
Red Tornado, Thomas Wayne, Doc Magnus, Mercury
And on Disney Channel:
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Professor Ludwig Von Drake, Dale
Phineas and Ferb
(assorted bit parts; mostly Announcers)
NOTE: These marquee listings are limited to lead character roles in current productions. Supporting and Bit roles will only occasionally be mentioned under this banner. With decades of character voice and narration work in constant circulation, there is a fairly good chance you'll discover something I've worked on every day - somewhere on a TV broadcast/cable network near you. ...Enjoy!
Oh... "Check Local Listings"
For a sampling of recent promo/trailer work, visit my page on the Jason Marks Talent website. |
| posted by CB @ 7:14 PM |
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| ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES! |
| Saturday, September 5, 2009 |
This website is the One and Only authentic source/address contact and connection to Voice Actor COREY BURTON.
It has lately come to my attention that there are a few impostors, inexplicably pretending to be Corey Burton (that's me!) on the Internet. What anyone might gain from such an inconsequential masquerade is beyond me - apparently nobody has done any real harm to either career or personal reputation, so I wouldn't think of taking any offense or action to shut down this kind of mischief, or try to scold or embarrass anyone for the pretense.
But I would like to point out that much of the information regarding credits* and personal details is factually incorrect, and most certainly does not reflect my actual point of view or personality - which you will find truthfully expressed right here - in these home page posts and throughout our interactive message board. (*IMDB is the single reliable source of credits. Practically all other seemingly "official" TV/Movie/Fansite credit listings are riddled with inaccuracies.)
I do NOT comment on any other message boards, I don't have a Twitter account (nor have I ever "Tweeted" a word), do not participate in Facebook, Friendster, FriendFeed, MySpace, Yahoo! or Google "Buzz", Chat Rooms, Texting, or any other form of "social networking" platform: This is IT. A one-stop, exclusive domain and portal to all things CB - and if you think you've found me lurking or "networking" anywhere else, you can safely presume it to be a counterfeit. I've even seen at least one fabricated "interview", with paraphrased and wholly invented quotes based on factoids and comments synthesized from the few legitimate interviews I've done from time to time, which have been initially "published" on well-regarded, journalistically sound websites - by ethical and authentic reporters.
Again, I take no offense. It's even somewhat flattering to think that anyone would bother impersonating or inventing an alternate construct of personal presence for voice acting fans to interact with. But it still surprises me that any behind-the-scenes performer would be thought to have any measure of the kind of celebrity appeal that a bonafide Star or influential Public Figure carries, considering the fact that we are not personally seen or heard in The Public Arena - and that only the Characters we portray have a noteworthy name and image through the various forms of media in which we perform their scripted dialog. The quality writers, directors, sound editors and animators are all equal partners in generating those characters, and deserve just as much appreciation and credit as we performers may get for entertaining and delighting fans and spectators through "the magic of Human Imagination": We're all just "makin' a living in Showbiz" to the best of our abilities.
*and just a side-note: As explained further down in these posts, I may only occasionally sign a few autographs under very special circumstances - so unless you're certain there is a legitimate charitable cause directly benefitting from the contribution - do not be fooled into paying for my signature on anything. Chances are it is a forgery; I have never charged a dime to sign autographs - and unless it's a memento of a personal contact or conversation - my scribble has no monetary value as a marketable commodity. So don't do it! |
| posted by CB @ 10:45 AM |
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| Meeting Walter Cronkite: Another "It Came from The Message Board" |
| Sunday, August 9, 2009 |
Upon the passing of the the greatest newscasting icon the world has ever known, it was brought to my attention that many new visitors to this site might enjoy my personal Walter Cronkite story, recalled in this R.I.P. tribute from our message board:
R.I.P. Walter Cronkite
So many eloquent and thorough tributes have already been made on television and in posted/published prose, there isn't anything I would personally add...
Other than my recollections of spending a remarkably privileged day "hanging out" with the great legend, during the shoot for the Disney Animation Studio Tour piece, "Back to Neverland". I had recorded the stand-in voices of Mr. Cronkite and Robin Williams for the Animatic template representing what the finished production might look and sound like (along with my own Cap'n Hook lines), and was invited on to the set to possibly join the background players, as an honorary "Extra" for the day. As it turned out, they had more than enough bodies there already; but when I showed up to report for duty, producer Bob Rogers (who I'd known for a great many years) spotted me standing there, and began motioning and calling for me to "...come and meet Walter! He's been listening to your impression of him on the Animatic soundtrack for a month, and wanted to say hello!".
Well, I was thunderstruck. I hadn't even considered that Robin and Walter would have been handed the demo video beforehand - let alone with my vocal "model" tracks of their anticipated performances intact. But there was Bob, cheerfully introducing the Great Icon to me, as though he actually was our own personal Uncle Walter - and I'll be damned if he didn't fit that description to a tee.
Instantly warm and personable, he complimented my rendition of his voice, quipping "I don't know why I even bothered to show up! Ya sounded exactly like me - wud'nt sure if they hadn't just lifted recordings I did somewhere that I forgot about...". And then, in the most surreal moment I can imagine, he faced me point blank - and with that all-too-familiar classic style, leaned-in and asked "How did you get into doing Voices as a career? Was it something that came naturally...?" and so on, following up with more questions, quips, and observations on the subject. The thought was so loud in my head that I almost thought it could be heard by the crowd of onlookers: "Oh My God! I'm being Interviewed by Walter Cronkite!". Anyway...
 "and You are There"
The day progressed, with cast and crew working their way through the set pieces for each shot; and with Robin having the bulk of the lines to rehearse and improvise, and everyone else busy with their personal roles in completing an entire location production schedule in a day, Walter and I just naturally seemed to gravitate to the quiet corners of the stage with very little to do - except chat. About Radio, Announcing, TV, Journalism, Walt Disney (who he'd gotten to know a bit), Show Business, Science, Astronauts... The World and Life in general. He regaled me with amusing anecdotes about his own perceived shortcomings as a wannabe entertainer and suave emcee. "Boy! I really laid an Egg at that one. They never let me forget it. No - stick to the News, they told me. Well I guess they knew best...".
Anyway... That's how I'll always "know" Walter Cronkite. Throughout a long, remarkable day that couldn't imaginably be topped, in my wildest dreams. A wonderful, warm, exquisitely comfortable, chatty and wise old funny uncle, who anyone would delight in spending time with. Who also just happened to be The Undisputed Authentic Voice and Conscience of All America. The most Monumental Human Oracle of the 20th Century.
"And That's The Way It Is." ...forevermore. |
| posted by CB @ 4:47 PM |
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| Studio Projects C-1: Microphone Bargain of the Century |
| Tuesday, December 30, 2008 |
While I can't claim complete victory in the battle to unseat the ugly-sounding 416 shotgun from voice over studios and booths everywhere, I have seen the tide turning in many circles of this business, since sounding that initial call of despair on this website. Their inappropriate application for nearly all Character Voice work, in the fields of Animation, Video Games, and for some Radio & TV Commercials has indeed not "swept the Industry", as I feared it would when that rant was first written - but perhaps it planted enough seeds of doubt to have averted what seemed to be an inevitable plunge into permanent mediocrity in the way professional voices are recorded, and ultimately perceived in our world. And even though there has been a push away from polished "First Class" Documentary Narration (in casting parameters for both writing and voice talent on commercial "Cable" networks), on the bright side, following a brief flirtation with "the shotgun" several years ago, Documentary production facilities have all pretty much exclusively gone back to recording with high quality musical-grade microphones. Either way, doing a majority of my own solo Voice Over work from home these days, I get to use whatever mic best suits the piece and character, regardless. Who knew that poorly planned "panic" session scheduling + remote digital audio technology would = better sounding V.O. work? Well, it certainly can - just so long as the performer is familiar enough with the audio gear and acoustics needed to properly compliment their own vocal sound, anyway.
-Click here to continue reading this post- |
| posted by CB @ 4:02 PM |
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| I oTTo sign those oTTo-graphs |
| Monday, December 29, 2008 |
| (...Silly phrase based on what someone once wrote in an old yearbook...)
Anyway - to get right to the point: Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to respond to the many kind and complimentary notes and inquiries that have come my way from genuinely interested fans and good folks all around the world - in recent years, I've come to realize that it honestly isn't possible for me to fulfill most autograph requests anymore. With the constant stream of disruptively sudden shifts in work scheduling and other assorted demands on personal time and energy that would seem to require IMMEDIATE UNDIVIDED ATTENTION! on a day-to-day/moment-by-moment basis, I'd either have to somehow become a far better organized and diligent individual, or hire some type of Personal Assistant/P.R. manager, just to accomplish that seemingly simple regimen of sorting, signing, and sending my handwritten thanks and good wishes back to everyone in timely fashion.
So, if you have tried to reach me for autographs in the past, or have been thinking about requesting one sometime soon - I'm afraid I can only offer you my heartfelt apologies for now; with the somewhat shabby consolation of knowing that I do indeed read and appreciate each and every one delivered (no matter how they actually get here) - always with the sincere intention to reply "as soon as time permits". And that's when the phone rings again...
I'll get to it... Tomorrow... uh, Soon... Oh, maybe one fine day... Uh... When Time... ...Stands still?
Sorry about that!
***** All the Best -- CB |
| posted by CB @ 3:26 PM |
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| It Came From... The Message Board! |
| Tuesday, December 16, 2008 |
From time to time, I'll be lifting bits from our long-running Interactive Message Board conversation to post here, up front - if they might be of interest to what I'd figure to be a more diversified general audience of website visitors. If this sparks your interest, feel free to stop by the 'Board. You don't have to sign up or post anything, to enjoy the rambling diatribe about All Things Voice Over. Check it out, if you're curious as to what goes on there...
Comfortable?
I've been infatuated with microphones since I was 6 years old (or maybe as young as 4); and so, have been more comfortable around them than practically anything else in the world. Other than the "public speaking" aspect of their use, I dare say it's difficult for me to fathom why anyone might feel intimidated by one; although I certainly can relate that sense of discomfort to having a bit of telephone phobia, and being put on the spot in situations demanding a certain ease of speech/communication with unfamiliar "adults".
The more substantial and imposing the microphone is, in fact, the more relaxed and "at home" I feel about performing or expressing myself: Confident that it can magically transform and enhance the sound of the human voice to respectable levels of weight and intellectual "presence". If anything, I tend to feel powerless and "lost" when expected to deliver good vocal performance if being picked up only by a distant shotgun or tiny lapel pin mic - with no sensation of personal proximity to the almighty ear of some fabulous sound-capturing device.
Like any other form of technology, the less contact we have with these devices, the more fearsome they may appear to us. Once a voice actor/performer realizes that microphones can serve as their most supportive "best friend" in a recording/broadcasting/P.A. environment (in terms of helping you sound your best) - any and all sense of intimidation should melt away completely. ...Why, they're as harmless, warm and "fluffy" as a kitten... |
| posted by CB @ 9:15 AM |
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| WHAT'S CAUSING THESE FUNNY SPOTS ON MY.... RADIO?! |
| Saturday, September 14, 2002 |
 Great radio doesn’t only consist of brilliant On-Air personalities and smart, well paced programming: Oddly enough, some of the most delightfully memorable moments on Radio are the commercials. Growing up in Southern California, perhaps the most memorable long running radio campaign joyously proclaimed: “Every Day’s a Special Day at Thriftimart!” in its sprightly jingle - which I now know was written by a clever ad-agency man named Mervyn Oakner... Who turns out to be the father of my good friend Anne. Also a skilled veteran in the advertising world, Anne’s brother Larry Oakner has written a very fine book (and to my knowledge, the first of its kind) on the subject of Radio Commercials; specifically those outstanding ads which amuse and entertain, as well as effectively promote the client’s product.
AND NOW A FEW LAUGHS FROM OUR SPONSOR: The Best of Fifty Years of Radio Commercials is a bright and scholarly work which not only documents several great radio ads, it also gives us valuable insight as to why they are great. Featuring spots by people I truly admire - Stan Freberg, April Winchell, Bob & Ray, Dick & Bert, and more; the book comes complete with an Audio/CD ROM, so you can listen to them as you look over the ‘copy’. I would hope anyone interested in writing or producing radio commercials reads it. Hopefully, it will lead to fewer injuries resulting from our desperate attempts to switch off our radios when horribly offensive ads come vomiting out at us over the airwaves. |
| posted by CB @ 9:35 AM |
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| Around the World in a Day |
| Thursday, November 15, 2001 |
In one day, I had recording sessions in San Francisco and Singapore - without ever leaving my Southern California home! I suppose that’s not so remarkable any more, but I’m still amazed at the ability we now have to send high fidelity sound all over the world via ISDN telephone lines. By simply dialing a couple of phone numbers, the Telos Zephyr I have at home can connect to another "Audio Codec" anywhere on Earth, and sound virtually the same as if I was standing right there in their studio. In this way, I got up one day, set up my favorite old RCA microphone, clicked-on the Zephyr, and recorded TV, Radio and In-Store voice-overs for Old Navy in San Francisco; then later that day, narration on 2 full hour documentaries for Live Art Entertainment in Singapore called “Ancient Chinese Inventions” (airing on one of the Discovery Channel networks in 2002). If you catch this program, see if you can tell that I never left home that day.
I should also mention that many voice-overs are sent via mp3 files over the Internet these days, but it’s not the same "virtually in the studio" experience one gets by using these ISDN line systems. Amazing!
UPDATE: 2009
Well, I don't have to tell you all how much Techno-Digital Revolution has transpired over the past 7 years; and sure enough, the ol' ISDN line has reached the point of popularity in the V.O. Industry to have become my primary resource for auditions/demo/"scratch tracks" and solo narrative/announce session recording - as it has for a fair percentage of us in this end of the business. At this point, I'll record in studios way across town, up and down the East Coast, London, Copenhagen, Wales, Houston/Dallas/Austin Texas, Atlanta Georgia, Denver/Colorado Springs, St. Paul Minnesota, Sydney & Melbourne Australia - virtually Anywhere on Earth - on any given workday - with only the accents changing on the other end of the line; and now practically the only type of recording I regularly travel for is "Hollywood-Based" Animation character voice work. It will probably always be best to gather in the same physical space with terrific talents to "bring the funny" to its fullest potential in a cartoon series - especially one that relies heavily on verbal content to tell the story; but even so, several veteran Cartoon Voice Pros (and of course, a great percentage of Celebrities) can and do often work from remote locations these days, without much (if any) noticeable effect on the final "product". So, three cheers for The Telos Zephyr (and The MusiCam Prima) - for making a significant impact on reducing wasted time and resources in the World of Voice Over! |
| posted by CB @ 9:32 AM |
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