Demo Critique Warmly Welcomed!

[jdscms]

I've just finished my first partial multi-version voiceover demo and would appreciate any comments or suggestions you may offer. Thanks in advance! Jerry.

[jay_webb]

Jerry,

I'm sure there will be lots of opinions out there, but I'll give you my take. I REALLY LIKE how this demo is not overly-produced with effects and fast paced music. It fits your vocal style well. To me, a voice-over demo is for the simple purpose of allowing potential clients to hear what you sound like, and this simple, short demo does just that. Good length in my opinion too. Many times, a producer listens to just a few seconds of a performers demo. It doesn't take long to decide whether or not a voice fits a particular project. So I think you've got a good product here. The rest is up to the decision-maker to decide whether or not you have they sound they want.

--Jay

[JoeActor]

Hi Jerry, and welcome to the forum.

If you have a chance, please post an introduction in the "Welcome" area. It's much easier to give feedback if we know a bit about your experience and goals in the industry.

That being said, here's some generic feedback based on your audio posting...

I hear some "mouth noise", as well as some muddy pronunciation throughout. The demo should also be a bit longer (around a minute is standard), have a wider variety of commercial spots (if it is a commercial demo), and the slate at the beginning should be shortened to as little as possible. You may also want to have a female voice slate for you instead.

Since I know very little about you, I'd like to suggest that you head over to www.voicebank.net and listen to some of the demos there. It may give you a better example of how a finished demo should be constructed, as well as some insights on what your competition has out there.

Hope this helps,
Joe J Thomas
www.JoeActor.com

[Scott Pollak]

Hi, Jerry, and welcome!

Before I start out, you need to know that I developed a reputation over on the old VoiceOverSavvy forums as being direct and honest. If you're good, I'm gonna tell ya. If you need work, I'm gonna tell ya. I'd also suggest you take a look at the piece that I posted under the General Chit Chat forum labeled "Message to Up and Comers, Pt 2"

There were a number of things in this demo that screamed "NEWBIE!" to me. For starters the "Hi, I'm..." intro. NO ONE does that in a professional demo. Just get right into the meat of the matter. You'll be lucky to get :07 of listen from a potential client and you waste about half of it there introducing yourself.

Next, this demo is too short and lacks variety, but much more importantly is you're not ready for a demo yet. Your voice is warm and smooth, but the reads are all flat reads. There's no believability in this. Again, to be painfully honest, what I was thinking was "Okay, this guy can read copy" but I wasn't even thinking that it was being read that well. I know this is pretty harsh critique, but false accolades ain't gonna help you land some jobs.

Joe Actor was dead-on about listening to some sample demos at VoiceBank.net. You need to learn how to massage life out of a piece of copy and display some range and versatility, none of which I heard here. Don't be relying solely on your admittedly mellow and soothing voice to get the jobs for you, because that alone isn't enough.

Best wishes and I hope I wasn't too blunt.

[spartacus]

Scott, love your feedback ...... straight ... tothe point ... honest ..... I usually get suspicious when people just tell me good things about my work. It makes me think they are just being nice instead of telling me what I need to hear to get better.

Great feedback.