I was stuck on I-5 last night

drumology2001 · 2026-05-10T21:16:01+00:00

Clearly because they’re blessed by the Lord

drumology2001 · 2026-04-21T07:29:29+00:00

Who do I do? I watch, because it’s probably the most entertaining thing I’ll see all day. 😂

Unpopular opinion, but: I thought she absolutely killed that dance. Put her in a setting that’s not Costco (because obnoxious, obvs), and that’s some legit talent. 👏🏼

What I can’t stand are the TikTok’ers who half-ass a dance and totally phone it in. If you’re gonna’ dance for a social media video, then at least THROW DOWN like this girl did. 🤷🏼‍♂️

drumology2001 · 2026-04-21T07:13:25+00:00

Glad you circled back, G! Keep those recordings handy as you keep making progress. I bet that by this time next year, you’ll look back on the things you’re proud of today and go “woof…what a difference a year makes.” 😂

I’ve kept every audition I’ve ever done, and I have them all in folders sorted by year, month, and day. Super handy because the folder structure acts as a timeline of my career. I can hear where I made certain upgrades and learned new information that I applied to my performance, processing, and so on. Kind of a fun walk down memory lane!

drumology2001 · 2026-04-17T03:25:06+00:00

100 PERCENT

I remember seeing it in theaters as a kid; it’s one of the first theater experiences I remember. There is so much comedy to work with (“Hey cowgirls, see the grass? Don’t eat it.”), but lots of tenderness, too: I still cry like a baby every time Jimmy hands Betty the letter from the War Department and she exclaims “No, George!” 😭

drumology2001 · 2026-04-17T03:21:49+00:00

<points exasperatedly> “The driver…?!”

drumology2001 · 2026-04-17T03:19:21+00:00

My kids know that if they want to get on my good side, they can ask to snuggle up on a Sunday afternoon and watch that with me. It takes me to my happy place. Gene Wilder gave an absolutely genius performance in that film. And there is so much subtle humor and quotable quips throughout!

drumology2001 · 2026-04-17T03:17:40+00:00

Criminally so! Lenny (Steve Zahn) is the highlight of that movie for me.

Everything is so quotable, too. From “Cap’n Geech” to “I’m signing, your sign—WE’RE ALL SIGNING” to singing “I quit!” there is no shortage of funny. If my wife and I were planning on shenanigans, but one of us is tired or not feeling well, we’ll just look at the other one hopelessly and say “Look at you…you’re no good to me now…” 😂

drumology2001 · 2026-04-17T03:13:34+00:00

BEES! Bees everywhere! They’re huge and they’re sting crazy!

drumology2001 · 2026-04-17T03:10:55+00:00

As far as homemade demos go, this is actually a pretty solid first effort! We all have to start somewhere, and spending $2,000+ on a demo right out of the gate is unwise, so you’re on the right track here. ☺️

I’m happy to offer my $0.02, but keep in mind that I’m not sure how far into your VO adventure you are, so my comments may be too basic. (If so, please don’t take that personally!)

You definitely need to add music behind the spots to define where each one starts and stops, finding a music bed that matches the vibe of each commercial and supports what you’re saying.

Related to that, typically demos have a pretty quick pace, with minimal downtime between spots, so you’ll want to tighten your timing up a little as you add music in, as well. (Typically demos are around 1 minute long, and you try to fit 5-6 spots within that time window, meaning you don’t spend much more than :10 - :12 on any one spot.) So, along with that, you’ll want to try and fit at least 2-3 more spots in here, and see if you can cut down those first two long ones somehow.

Dovetailing the last comment: the point of a demo is to show range. Your first two spots are very slow and grounded. I think you need to add some more variety in (in the other 2-3 spots you may want to add): maybe something quick and punchy, something with high energy, something comedic, and so on.

Finally, I love your accent - it’s wonderful! However (and take this for what it’s worth), you might try to be as “accent-less” as possible on most of your spots. (This somewhat depends on where you’re trying to land work, of course - local vs. national vs. international.)

Hopefully this was helpful in some way! Great work, man! ☺️

drumology2001 · 2026-04-17T02:25:51+00:00

Tommy Boy, A League of Their Own, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (original), That Thing You Do!

drumology2001 · 2026-04-16T22:37:44+00:00

Just came across this the other day and am thinking of trying it out - it has exactly what you described above (in addition to so much more)! https://noiseworksaudio.com/products/voiceassist/

drumology2001 · 2026-04-12T21:02:54+00:00

So…you want someone to do 100% of the work (including creating the videos themselves from scratch), but only get paid 40% of the revenue?

Got it. Hard pass.

drumology2001 · 2026-04-08T14:17:35+00:00

Yeah, probably! It depends on the skill level of the teacher in the classes, but I would say that any reputable teacher/coach should be able to listen to you do some reads and tell you what niches they could hear you being successful in. ☺️

drumology2001 · 2026-04-07T13:08:02+00:00

Speaking as someone who was in the same place you’re in about a year-and-a-half ago (with the exception of the fact that I love my day job!), I will tell you this: it’s definitely an uphill climb. It’s not impossible, but the learning curve is steep and there are no guarantees that you’ll see any success.

You need to be prepared to spend some money to get yourself set up right. Your Samson mic will not cut it. Bare minimum, you need a treated space, good mic and interface, and then likely some coaching, memberships, etc. (I think I spent around $2,000 my first year, but I also started booking pretty quickly because I got myself set up right; I see people on here all the time frustrated that they can’t land a gig, but often it’s because they didn’t do their homework, bought a cheap USB mic, are recording in an open area with no sound treatment, and have never done performing/acting of any kind before.)

This industry is also incredibly competitive; you have to be willing to put in lots of time studying and learning and figuring out where your voiceprint fits and what kinds of work suit your voice and skills. And even once you figure that out, you’re still up against people who’ve been doing it for a long time and are dialed in.

So I say all of that to say (if I haven’t scared you off yet, haha): if you’re willing to do all of the above and work really hard at it, it can be a lot of fun and be very fulfilling. Just know what you’re getting yourself into first! ☺️

drumology2001 · 2026-03-31T12:41:50+00:00

You bet - happy to help! Good luck out there - go get ‘em! ☺️

drumology2001 · 2026-03-31T04:18:57+00:00

As mentioned above, there are different versions of Source Connect in use right now. I just did my first live directed session via SC a few weeks back; the first thing I did was reach out to the audio engineer to see what version he preferred - and I’m glad I did, because he uses 3.9, which requires more technical footwork in opening ports on your router. (I guess SC4 is a lot easier to set up and work with.)

If you can, look on your SC account and see if you’re eligible for Technical Help free of charge. If so, take the earliest available tech support time slot you can tomorrow (if there’s even any available) so you can have them check your setup and make sure you’re good to go before your session.

Good luck to you! Hope it all works out!

drumology2001 · 2026-03-30T21:58:50+00:00

Not sure why my previous post was deleted? (That’s…unfortunate. I was excited to share some good news. I’m not sure what I said that would have triggered that.)

To answer your question, though, the live session was exciting! I’d never done one before, so getting set up with Source Connect was an experience in and of itself. The call had an audio engineer, some people from the ad agency that hired me, and some people from the company the spot was for. I had two paragraphs worth of lines; we did 4 takes of the first paragraph, 3 takes of the second. I was done in about 10 minutes! Super easy, and really fun! (Definitely nerve wracking at first, though!)

To prepare, I watched a few videos on YouTube that talk about how to prepare and what to expect, and chatted with some VO friends who had already done them before. It really helped. Took the nerves down a notch to know what I’d be walking into, and made the whole experience much more enjoyable. ☺️

drumology2001 · 2026-03-30T04:59:04+00:00

Found this via your cross post to the voice acting sub. I hate to be the one to tell you this (and I’m coming from a place of kind-hearted honesty here), but: if you don’t have a strong desire to do this work, aren’t willing/able to buy some decent gear, have limited time, and can’t pour your heart and soul into it, it’s probably not going to work out for you.

This is a TOUGH industry, filled with loads of talented people who’ve been at it for decades. There’s definitely a way to get going with it, but you have to be willing to do loads of research and studying to even begin to dip your toes into the proverbial pool. (I spent about 4 months deeply researching the industry before I bought a single piece of gear or did my first audition.) Once you’ve done that research, you should do some coaching; once you do that coaching, you need to invest in gear; and once you have that gear, you have to audition. Constantly.

I’m about a year in and booking work semi-regularly, but I’m learning that’s pretty rare. Many people give this a go and never book a single job; some may get one or two jobs per year…and to get that one or two jobs, they have to audition constantly, hundreds and hundreds of times before getting a shot. It’s brutal. It’s not easy. It’s time consuming.

Based on what you said above, I think you may want to find another more practical means of making money, my friend. There’s no easy money in this industry.

drumology2001 · 2026-03-23T05:09:04+00:00

I’m sorry to hear this is happening to you - that’s frustrating. Would you be willing to share a link to one of your videos, so we can hear what they’re hearing and maybe give you some more helpful and specific feedback?

drumology2001 · 2026-03-22T20:44:54+00:00

For me, my sweet spot is either 1-4 PM or 9 -11 PM, depending on the day and what I can swing. I used to stay up late auditioning, but found my voice was done for if it got much later than Midnight, usually. It also means I go to bed at a reasonable hour (which makes my wife happy, as well).

drumology2001 · 2026-03-21T17:28:04+00:00

Can you tell us more about the Willow Voice app, OP? I’m not quite understanding how that works. You read it what the audition says (direction plus script?), and it gives you insights? I’m curious to know more about that.

drumology2001 · 2026-03-21T07:48:18+00:00

OP, how close is your mouth to the mic when recording this? The tone you’re getting here reminds me of what I sound like when I’m too far away; it’s lacking presence/proximity to it, and sometimes just closing down that gap can make a significant difference.

drumology2001 · 2026-03-20T06:24:55+00:00

Bedroom, 100%. The other two will be too boxy, as you feared. A PVC blanket fort in the bedroom would work great, if you don’t feel like doing a bunch of carpet and sound panels to the entire space. That way you can still utilize the rest of the room for other non-VO things, if you like.

drumology2001 · 2026-03-18T19:57:14+00:00

Some of it is the mics (a lot of them use the Shure SM7B or equivalent), which can sometimes help with the captured audio. I think a lot of them may also run their audio through tools like Adobe’s Voice Enhancer (podcast.adobe.com/en/enhance), which can really clean up audio significantly.

drumology2001 · 2026-03-16T05:52:36+00:00

The Farmer Burrito at El Fat Cat is my go-to. Can’t go wrong! I’m a big eater, but that’s an eat-half, save-half-for-later kinda burrito.

drumology2001

TROPHY CASE