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Archives for November 2010

Power of Human Voice – Chanticleer

November 23, 2010 by George 1 Comment

I think I’m going to add this as a semi regular feature of this blog: The Power of the Human Voice. I tried it out with the previous post on the death of Henryk Górecki, and I like it some much, I’m going back to it, hopefully on a weekly basis. It won’t all be about music, but this one is too good to pass up.

Chanticleer is a musical group that has sung together since 1978, specializing in a capella (unaccompanied) vocals of classical works. Over the years, they have commissioned a number of works by contemporary composers as well. But this is a step out even for them: a music video for an “indie pop” song.

“Cells Planets” is by Erika Lloyd, and the video was shot by the group on the road with cameraphones and webcams, and is an outstanding showcase for the lead countertenor. If you are unfamiliar with the term, a countertenor is a male voice whose range ranges well into the mezzo, or lower woman’s range.  It is a haunting, lovely rendition, so please click and have a listen. Thanks to Kevin Turner for sharing this video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl12ZXZeqa4&hd=1]

Filed Under: Music, Power of Human Voice

iAudition iPhone app – for voice artists on the go

November 19, 2010 by George 3 Comments

A couple of days ago, I got a call asking for an audition to do a narration bit. Unfortunately, I was out of pocket for the rest of the afternoon, and wouldn’t be able to get back to my home studio to record it. I was not thrilled with the idea of leaving that opportunity on the table. Fortunately, I had seen the chatter about iAudition, an iPhone app developed by Everyday Giants specifically to record and lightly edit auditions for voice artists, and deliver them via multiple paths. Considering my situation, I thought I would give it a try, even though I was dubious about the quality of the iPhone’s internal mic. At $4.99, what did I have to lose except some business?

A quick purchase, and I was able to record, quickly edit, and send the audition from my iPhone 3GS, sending the file over the 3G network since wi-fi was unavailable at the moment. Later in the evening, I got the thumbs up, and I got the gig. The positive result demands a full review of iAudition, don’t you think?

iAudition Home Screen
iAudition Home Screen

After installation, iAudition opens with a very simple user interface: a large red “record” button in the center of your screen. Tapping the button starts the recording, and it switches to a large pause button. You will likely have to try a few times to find out what the ideal mic placement is if you are only using the iPhone like I was yesterday. You can stop and start the recording as many times as you like before beginning editing. The application warns you as you enter the edit phase that you will no longer be able to record into the file. Keep that in mind before hitting the edit phase, and you should be just fine.

Of course, editing on such a small screen could be quite a chore. Everyday Giants has done an admirable job of making the edit process as simple as possible given the constraints of the device.You can scroll back and forth along the wave form, zooming in and out by familiar pinch and squeeze gestures. Zoom levels go down to 3 seconds, so you won’t be able to select and eliminate every click and pop you have, but you can come close. Selecting an area to cut is done with the partial clock icons on the bottom. Tap the timeline above to position the cursor, then tap the left partial clock face icon to select all the wavefrom after the cursor, the right partial clock face icon to select all of the wavefrom before the cursor, and the whole clock face in the center to

iAudition Edit Screen
iAudition Edit Screen

eliminate all selections. Once an area is selected, it can be cut and pasted with ease via two more buttons. Copy, Undo and Redo  are available from the “More” button. No, this editor isn’t going to make you forget about Pro Tools, Audition, or Audacity, but given the limitations of a touch screen interface in this particular application type, you have to tip your hat for the effort.

Once you are happy with you edit, you tap the File button, and you are given the option to Close without saving, Save, Save and Close, or Save As. Once have saved the file, you need to tap File and Close without Saving to exit the edit process. You will be taken to the file management screen, where you can choose to edit, delete, play back, or send the finished file. Playback defaults to headphones, so you have to tap the Speaker button to hear it play on the iPhone’s speakers. It was on this screen that I had a few issues with the iPhone going dark very quickly, before the default timeout period for battery saving. A minor difficulty, but one you should be aware of.

iAudition File Management
iAudition File Management

If you choose to send the file, you can choose between email and an FTP server. However, you must set up the FTP server in question in the application settings first before being able to access it. One other option for transferring files is via an HTTP Share. Select this option, and iAudition gives you back a URL. Input that URL into your browser, and you can grab the file over your wifi connection as if it were another web server on the net. Note that when the program saves files, they are in WAV form, but sending them via email transfer sends an MP3, which is especially handy when sending over your 3G connection instead of wifi. Pulling them across via HTTP Share gives you the actual WAV.

As I stated before, the weakest link in this chain is the iPhone’s microphone. The resulting recording certainly won’t match what you do with your in studio gear. But it is good enough to get your audition through. You can listen to a sample recording here. However, if you are one of those so blessed with an iPad, you can connect some USB microphones to it via the iPad Camera Connection Kit. It is verified that the Blue Microphone Yeti does function in this setup, though I am not certain if it is something that works with iAudition or only with the Blue FiRe app. I’d love to hear from someone who tries this kind of setup.

Could iAudition do more? I am certain that some processing and/or EQ could be added to the app in the iPad environment, since it sports a much more muscular processor. But again, this isn’t designed for very delicate editing and recording, and neither is the platform, at least not yet.

iAudition enters a field that is crowded with non-voiceover specific recording apps for iOS. But for $5, the functionality is hard to beat, and it is easy enough to use that if you are an iOS device owner, it belongs in your traveling kit right now. The creators of iAudition, voice actors Marc Aflalo and Mitchell Whitfield, have worked to create a product specifically with our market in mind. In my estimation, they have been successful.

Revised 11/22/10 for inclusion of iAudition creators.

[polldaddy poll=4111565]

Filed Under: Sound Resources

A great musical loss and the power of the human voice

November 12, 2010 by George 1 Comment

You may not know who Henryk Górecki was. A Polish composer, he passed away today at the age of 76.

Most people may have never known who he was if it were not for the issuance of his Symphony Number 3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. It was composed in 1977, and it sort of languished until it was recorded and released in 1992, with the soprano performed by the incomparable Dawn Upshaw. It sold over a million copies, a figure unheard of for a 20th century composer.

I remember hearing this for the first time, and being so moved by the utter sadness of the piece.  From the Wikipedia entry:

The libretto for the first movement is taken from a 15th century lament, while second movement uses the words of a teenage girl, Helena Błażusiak, which she wrote on the wall of a Gestapo prison cell in Zakopane to invoke the protection of the Virgin Mary.[35]
The third uses the text of a Silesian folk song which describes the pain of a mother searching for a son killed in the Silesian uprisings.[36] The dominant themes of the symphony are motherhood and separation through war. While the first and third movements are written from the perspective of a parent who has lost a child, the second movement is from that of a child separated from a parent.

If you have an opportunity, I strongly suggest you listen to this piece. Górecki was for a portion of his career a minimalist, so many figures are repeated for long stretches in each movement. But I think that minimalism is what lends weight to the despair of the piece. Here’s the third movement, “Lento e largo.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miLV0o4AhE4&feature=related]

No, this isn’t strictly voiceover related. But this music speaks both to the power of music and the power of the human voice. It doesn’t matter that you cannot understand the words: you can feel it. So go have a listen. And remember that spoken or sung, our voices can move people, when put in the hands of transcendent talent.

Thank you Maestro Górecki for all of your work, especially this soul shaking piece.

Filed Under: Music, Power of Human Voice

An artist you should know on camera

November 11, 2010 by George 1 Comment

One of my “Artists You Should Know,” Lauren McCullough, stars in a new ad for the Lincoln MKS. The music is “The Future is Where We Belong” by The Hot Pipes. Lauren knocks this one out….click and watch!

 

Filed Under: Tip o' the Hat, Voice Artists

E-Learning resources we all can use

November 9, 2010 by George Leave a Comment

Glasses sitting on Keyboard

Kat Keesling is a voiceover friend of mine, and one of the minds behind the Hear The Bill project, a volunteer effort by voiceartists to make the health care bills passed by Congress accessible to everyone by reading and recording them. It was a brilliant effort organized by her and Diane Havens that I was proud to be a part of.

Earlier today, Kat posted a very cool article listing a number of resources aimed at e-learning professionals, but with many links and tools that would be helpful to bloggers, voice artists, small business owners, anyone with a need for some creative resources. I am already using one of the links, Stock.xchng, for the stock photo at the top of this post. I was just wondering what I would do now that PicApp is abandoning the WordPress platform; thanks to Kat, I don’t have to worry. Plus, the links offer a chance to explore some cool tools like Screenr. Thanks, Kat!

Edited @ 10:39 PM to include the actual link!

Filed Under: Marketing, Sales and Contacts

Handling rejection with grace – up close and personal

November 3, 2010 by George 1 Comment

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=anger&iid=279991″ src=”http://view2.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/279991/young-man-frowning/young-man-frowning.jpg?size=500&imageId=279991″ width=”500″ height=”332″ /]

I posted this little story on the VO-BB, but I thought I would share it here as well.

Early in October, I auditioned to sing the National Anthem at a Charlotte Bobcats game. Not a money gig, but exposure, fun, something I’m good at, and tickets to an NBA game. Hard to lose in that situation in my opinion.

Well, until I got the email the following week that I didn’t make the cut. I still find it very very difficult to believe they could find 40 or so people better than me at singing the anthem. It sounds very self absorbed, but I know what I can do.

I let it go. Until last week, when I received an all hands email, looking for chorus members to sing at the Bobcats opener on Friday. I was steamed when I saw it. But still….let it go. It was just an audition like any of the ones we do.

Then, Wednesday. The Opera Carolina office calls me and asks me to do the anthem, since they couldn’t pull enough choristers together on such short notice. An email was sent to the Bobcats with my contact information, and I was ready to go. Woot!

I try to contact the team to make sure I can get tickets for the family. No answer. Call again. No response. We get to Friday. 4 calls, no response. I have to assume that no one is going to get back to me, so I get dressed, and head down to the stadium.

After sitting in the season ticket holders’ entrance for 45 minutes. I am finally whisked to court level, and handed off to the person running production. She goes off to speak to someone, and comes back.

“We’re so sorry. There was a mix up. We don’t need you to sing tonight. We can offer you two tickets?”

Anger. Embarrassment. Humiliation.

I love NBA basketball. I have been a supporter of this team since they came to Charlotte in 2004. And I am still livid. I don’t think I have ever been put in such a position as a performer.

And honestly, it took all I had not to blow up at the production lead. But I took a moment to think that it clearly was not her doing. It wasn’t her fault the communication dropped. But I was seething with anger anyway, and I left the building without pausing, and drove home. Not my finest moment.

This is a slightly different kind of “rejection” than that we face on a daily basis as a voice artist, but still, the lesson is the same: maybe not this time, but possibly next time. It isn’t always your call. You have a right to be disappointed and angry. But you can’t live on that.

There is still a little knot of anger and frustration with the situation. But I am striving to find another success, another positive to fill the gap that momentary lapse of reason left me with. It’s coming, don’t you worry.

Thank you to all of the VO-BB.com denizens who offered me kind words and support. You guys are the best. Again, if you are a voice artist or aspire to be one, you should go there right now, sign up, and see what these helpful, insightful people have to say.

Filed Under: Career Development, Music, Tip o' the Hat

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