One job lead wanted a Mae West voice for museum video narrations; another audition asked for the copy delivered like Madonna’s sound in Justify My Love. A lot of voice actors have the ability to impersonate some great voices. They just need to prime the pump. Like other voice artists, I can mimic a couple old standards, like Kate Hepburn. (Who can’t?) I can generally attempt her cold. Certainly voice actors who have specific character voices in their repertoire can call those voices up in a pinch.

For other voices, every now and then, I need a key phrase or audio clip to get that particular sound in my head. Then, I can attempt to reproduce it. And for that, there’s YouTube, a great online video archive that was doing so well Google bought it up. It’s free to browse and free to join if you have something you want to download: like a quick animation with your terrific voiceover.

If you’ve never checked out YouTube, definitely give it a try. Go head. Run a quick search for Mae West . . . or Madonna’s Justify My Love.

Of course, voice acting isn’t about impersonating voices; it’s about interpreting copy, providing a particular spin that enhances without upstaging the message; and it’s hugely subjective and incredibly fun.

Some clients want “red book specs” and dry recordings (just your voice; no music or sound effects). Red book specs are standard for CD quality audio files: 2 channel, 44k, 16 bit. Although you can record good audio at red book specs, you can generally record cleaner audio at 24 bit and then adjust the sampling to the client’s specifications.

The Internet is full of resources for quick definitions among other things. When in doubt, I click over to Wikipedia, an ever-growing wiki site full of articles on everything. It’s community operated and created through online collaboration. Like everything we encounter on the Internet, wiki articles have to be evaluated, not taken as gospel; but I’ve found it to be a reliable resource for most searches I’ve run over there.

Wikipedia has this article on the Red Book audio standard. Short and sweet. If you don’t find it on Wiki, there’s always Google.

In my attempts to fix computer issues, learn web development, PHP coding, and do a little comparison shopping, online forums (discussion boards) have been a solid source of information — not all of it good, and that’s probably my fault as much as anyone else’s. Obviously, like with any information from any source, you have to analyze it and determine whether there’s any value in it. It may all be good, or some or none. The point is other people have publicly asked the same questions I need answers to. How cool is that!

The other bonus of online forums is the sense of community available to you if it’s a forum you frequent enough (is that redundant?). The only forum I regularly visit, and contribute to, is VoiceOverSavvy.com, an online community for voiceover people sponsored by Voice123.com — a voiceover job marketplace for voice talent and talent seekers. The discussion board is a great place to share information on the voice industry. The people who hang around there are very supportive, routinely polite, and definitely talented if a bit frustrated by changes in the industry. You’ll see. Whether you’re a voice actor or a talent seeker, I think it’s worth a visit. In general, online forums can be a terrific resource. For voice talent, talent seekers, and especially Voice123 members, VoiceOverSavvy.com definitely is.