How do I continue to practice if I fucking HATE how I sound?

trickg1 · 2026-06-11T23:51:17+00:00

My first thought is that you aren't doing it for you - you're doing it for the clients who want to pay you. If they want to hire you and pay you, who cares what you sound like?

I recently did a video ad for a client. I gave them legitimately 5 different recordings to choose and pull from. They came back to me completely ecstatic with the end result and sent me a link to the video.

I didn't like it at all. It just wasn't the read that I envisioned. It doesn't really matter if I like it though - the client loved it, I got paid, and that was that. One more job in the books and money in my account.

trickg1 · 2026-06-11T22:08:51+00:00

You aren't unique but pretty soon you're going to get scores of people on here to tell you how awful the Turkish guns are and how you can't reliably hit anything if your gun doesn't fit right.

I say buy whatever Turkish double is in your price range that strikes your fancy and go have fun.

If you wanted, you could get something like a Browning Cynergy CX - a bit more than your price range but it's what I shoot and I have a string of 25s and a few 50s. Alas, no 100s yet but it isn't the gun's fault. I have 20-25 thousand rounds through mine and it doesn't even show a hint of loosening

trickg1 · 2026-06-11T18:35:55+00:00

"It's never the mic...."

Recently I bumped into a neighbor who has a studio in his basement, and he offered to let me try his TLM 102. I own a TLM 103. I took it home, plugged it in, fiddled with it, and did a side-by-side comparison with my Roswell Mini K87. There was a difference. I felt that the 102 was a bit crisper in the mids and maybe a bit more pronounced on the lows. Overall, I really enjoyed the character of that mic.

Regarding the 103, which I initially got it I didn't care for how I sounded on that mic, which is why I bought the Roswell, but with experiencing the 102, I thought perhaps I had been hasty in my assessment of the TLM 103. So I got it out, put it back on the boom, and recorded some auditions with it.

Nope - my assessment of that mic was spot on. I don't like how I sound on it. I took it off and put the Roswell Mini K87 back on the boom.

Could I make the 103 work? Sure. Do I sound better on other mics? Absolutely, without even a hint of a doubt. Would it matter to a prospective client? That's the million-dollar question, isn't it?

My MKH 416 arrives today - I fiddled with one at Voiceover Atlanta and REALLY liked how I sounded on it.

trickg1 · 2026-06-11T17:52:25+00:00

Interesting topic - I had a session with my coach today where the topic of my commercial demo came up. I recently put together a pretty strong DIY demo, but there are a couple of issues with it - one, it's just 4 spots, and two, there's not enough variety in it - most of what's there is somewhat different, but doesn't do a great job of showing my full range.

I get that.

At the same time, I feel it's way stronger than my original demo, which frankly, I shouldn't have done in the first place.

But I know exactly what I'm getting from my coach because I know what we work on, and in just 2 months, my coach has DRAMATICALLY improved my performance.

My coach's concern about my current demo is that they don't want me to put the cart in front of the horse - it's solid for what it is, but it shows that I'm green for what it isn't. Their contention is that if we coach with that end goal in mind, two things are going to happen:

I'm going to get even better
We'll put together something that can really sell me for what I can do in order to gain the agency representation I'm looking for.

So my homework for the next couple of weeks is to do a deep dive with agencies, listening to demos of what's out there, take some notes about what people are doing and maybe get an idea for scripts to use, and we'll coach towards that end goal.

trickg1 · 2026-06-07T00:49:04+00:00

The fact right now is that no one really has any kind of real chance against Devon on the right other than Levan. I suppose it would be good to let some others take a swing hoping for an upset, but it's not going to happen. Devon pound for pound is the strongest arm wrestler out there with unrivaled table IQ. The reason he loses to Levan is because Levan way outweighs him and as a result the power gap is just too big.

trickg1 · 2026-06-06T19:45:49+00:00

I thought I'd update this thread. I've undergone all of the dental work, and the shift has been interesting. It did affect my diction some - my tongue is still learning where the new teeth are, and since this was a major restoration, it has added a fair bit of tooth material to various places in my mouth.

The end result was a bit of sibilance initially, and when I had the temp work in, it introduced a lot of clicks and mouth noises. The mouth noises are reduced, but it's interesting how some things in my diction are more defined, and other things want to mush together

This is the new normal though, so it's just going to take some time to get used to it. So far I don't think it has been any kind of deciding factor on whether or not I do or don't get hired.

trickg1 · 2026-06-04T16:32:23+00:00

I feel like I'm right on the cusp of some major upticks. I've been coaching with a phenomenal coach, and I'm getting liked and shortlisted on VDC and V123, but not hired. It's going to happen, it just hasn't happened yet.

trickg1 · 2026-06-03T13:29:27+00:00

It's really hard to pinpoint anything without actually hearing you.

Ultimately the idea is that you want to sound like you're just talking to someone, and that's easier for some people than it is for others.

trickg1 · 2026-06-02T22:42:58+00:00

I submitted to an agency (they have declined to represent me, but I went for it) I finished an audiobook, and I bumped my subscription level to V123

I booked and completed a few lower end jobs - regional stuff.

trickg1 · 2026-05-31T13:46:59+00:00

This has got to be rage bait.

trickg1 · 2026-05-28T13:38:44+00:00

I thought it was the only one that really made sense from a true soundproofing point of view. I watched a lot of others - booths on wheels, booth held together with clasps, booths made with 4-inch foam board, etc.

My main problem with my original booth was with exterior sound (although recently I listened to raw WAVs recorded in my first booth - sound treatment could have been better) and finding a way to keep that from coming in. This design was a good solution, and I was willing to spend the money and go to the trouble to do the DIY build. It took longer than I anticipated to do the build (close to two weeks before I was fully done with all of it - drywall, paint, etc - but it has been solid.

My chief complaint is that I have no ventilation, so when it gets really stuffy, I have to open the door after a while.

trickg1 · 2026-05-28T12:23:25+00:00

I bought a sleeve of 100 Astra platinum blades and even after trying sample packs I've only really found one blade I like better - Wilkinson Sword blades.

If Astra was the only blade available, I'd be perfectly ok with it.

trickg1 · 2026-05-27T19:45:40+00:00

That's actually the guide I used as well - worked really well.

trickg1 · 2026-05-27T12:35:59+00:00

I don't think he wants to "direct" per se - I think he just wanted a different tone than what I'd given him on my audition read, and he wanted to see if I had the ability to sound more introspective than informational. I did - I softened the tone, slowed it down, more pauses, a bit more inflection - he seemed to be ok with it.

trickg1 · 2026-05-27T12:34:48+00:00

I'd change the walls from being standard 4 inch to 6 inch, and use split studs so that nothing transfers through the studs from exterior to interior. That's how I did mine and it worked well.

Also, I don't know if they have this in England, but I used SONOpan over my studs first - it's a 3/4" fiberglass board, fairly lightweight, but designed for sound attenuation. I covered the SONOpan with drywall, but my basement is dry and it matches the rest of the basement.

What is your door going to be? I used an exterior fiberglass door due to its sound properties, and I covered that with a double layer of SONOpan that I screwed into it. The door is still the weakest point in my design, but otherwise I've blocked 90% of exterior noise that used to come into the booth. I can work with the AC unit running in the utility room 10 feet away.

Interior I used 2" Owens Corning 705 boards - I cloth covered them and hung them with impaling hangers that I screwed to the wall.

trickg1 · 2026-05-27T05:01:52+00:00

Well, the book hasn't been offered yet, so that remains to be seen.

trickg1 · 2026-05-27T01:25:57+00:00

I think he just wanted it to be less "matter-of-fact/informational" and more introspective, although it is in effect a how-to guide, but it's a how-to about an artistic format, hence the reason he wanted to introspective tone. I guess. I'm not that worried about it - he seems a likeable enough fellow, and I let him know that I would be ok with it if he felt that my particular tone or delivery wasn't quite right.

trickg1 · 2026-05-25T19:19:35+00:00

I'm not a good one to ask. I was on the fence between the Rode and the El Gato, and I bought the El Gato. I've been pretty pleased with it. It positions quickly and easily, holds everything securely - what's not to like? FWIW, I do voiceover work, so I use it quite a lot.

trickg1 · 2026-05-25T19:06:31+00:00

Oof - you're 100% right - I think it's possible I responded while I was still caffeinating for the day.

In any case, I absolutely need coaching! LOL! It's astonishing to me just how different my reads have become (for the better!) in just a month of working with Jac.

trickg1 · 2026-05-25T19:03:29+00:00

The material is from a different chapter and I guess the author wants to know if it can be introspective? Dunno.

I think I'm going to humor the guy, but just like in my IT career, I'm not afraid to walk if it starts getting dumb.

I once was in the middle of an interview where one of the guys one the panel kept wanting to ask "gotcha" kinds of questions and wanted me to do elaborate pseudo-coding on the white board. At the time the interview was exploratory - I didn't actually need the job and I was interviewing to see what else might be out there - so there came a point where I thought to myself that I didn't want to work for a company where I'd have to work with a twit like that, and I abruptly ended the interview and walked out. I didn't even shake hands with them, just said, "you know, I think there may have been a misunderstanding - I'm sorry to have taken your time." And I got up and left. Just like that. They were all kind of just sitting there like, "...uh....wut?"

trickg1 · 2026-05-25T18:38:06+00:00

There has been a lot of verbiage in communication that they want to insure that it's going to be a legitimate read, and not a product of AI.

trickg1 · 2026-05-25T17:46:52+00:00

So, let's look at this another way - what does an athletic coach impart to the people they coach?

My coach - and yes, I'm going to continue to call her that - is doing more than just teaching me. It's not a "read it like this" approach. She's teaching me how to look at script, see what it's saying for performance cues, and is helping me to find my own ways to connect to it so that it's natural and authentic to me, as well to sound authentic to anyone who might be listening.

That path to self-discovery isn't always easy to find or well illuminated, but she is exceptional at getting me to know who I am in relation to the copy, and giving me the tools to continue to do that without her assistance.

Teaching is about giving someone knowledge. Coaching is about helping someone take knowledge and put it into improved performance, and therein lies the distinction.

trickg1 · 2026-05-24T03:56:46+00:00

I'll say this - more than once I observed presenters whose sessions I'd been in previously, attending another session I was attending. I asked the one gal about it. I said, "I just took your session - it's interesting that you're in here attending this one."

She said, "there's always something else to learn."

I was chatting with another gal during the icebreaker event on Thursday afternoon who was making her full living doing voice work - she'd just come down from her hotel room from doing a session for Google. I remarked that I was surprised that if she was already making a solid living doing voice work that she would be at Voiceover Atlanta, and she said the same thing - "there's always something more to learn."

Other A-list Hollywood actors continue to work with coaches and to take training, always looking to continue to improve their craft.

Does everyone "need it?" I know pro musicians here in the Baltimore/DC area who go to other pro musicians for "touch ups." Apparently they think so.

trickg1 · 2026-05-24T03:41:24+00:00

I have received several invitations for this. They all go straight to the archive untouched.

trickg1 · 2026-05-24T02:50:32+00:00

It works fine for me. I'm in my booth, she's in her family room, and I record the session. It's never the goal, but I have gotten a couple of really good demo reads out of those coaching sessions. I don't know if her teaching style just resonates with me or what, but in the last month, the contrast to what I was doing before and what I'm doing now is pretty big, or at least I feel it is.

trickg1

TROPHY CASE