Presenting my voice over demos

The voice over demo. It is the voice actor’s resume. A calling card. The audio portfolio. But what is the best way to present a vocal body of work?

The options are endless with enough variations to do your head in. Trust me, this is something I think about. A lot. Unfortunately as a Libran, I am prone to seeing the benefits of every option—so my demos are constantly evolving.

However, the objectives of my voice over demos are always the same:

• make it quick and easy for you to work out if I am the right voice for your project
• present my work in the most authentic way possible.

So here’s my current VO MO:

Real work

I have always opted for real work examples. This demonstrates I am, in fact, a working voice actor and have loads of experience.

It also shows the types of work I am currently booking—how producers and agencies are using my voice at the moment.

It gives you a feel for how I interpret some else’s words and bring them to life.

 

No bells and whistles

I haven’t called in the professional production big guns. I don’t add any music. My voice isn’t hidden behind any filters or effects. It’s the audio equivalent of that dream where you go to work naked and there’s no strategically-placed tree to hide behind. Just like that, but hopefully minus the awkward.

This is what I sound like in my studio, using my equipment (with the exception of my promo demo).

This is what you receive from me in the audio format of your choice to do with what you will (within the scope of our agreed terms of course).

But it is always nice to know how a voice can be tarted up, so I have also included a YouTube playlist of produced stuff so you can see my voice with visuals and hear it with effects and music.

 

Regular updates

Using my own, unproduced work for my demos means I can update them quickly and create new demos for new purposes.

What you hear is a current, true representation of me and how I can deliver a read that’s on-trend.

 

Straight to the point

I know you are busy and don’t need to hear all of everything my voice has ever been attached to. I include a diverse selection—not just more of the same. And each demo is under two minutes.

I have used MP3 versions of my work so I don’t break Soundcloud or use up all your data the first time we come into contact. That’s just plain rude.

 

Genre-specific

Corporate, telephony and commercial are my big three currently, although for a good few years I moonlighted as a network promo and character voice too.

This is traditionally how I have been booked and how I have presented my demos.

However, I am actually re-assessing this approach because more and more I am seeing voice selection based on style of read regardless of the purpose of the read.

For example, more and more commercials, eLearning, explainer and corporate scripts are seeking a conversational style.

So I am working on re-cutting some demos based on read styles or personas. First up I have created a conversational demo:

You can have a listen to the rest of my demos in the hear me section.

If you select and book voice talent, I’d love your thoughts on how I can make your demo-listening life easier—please leave a comment below.