Choosing the Best Audio Book Player
One of the things that will help you enjoy your audio book to its fullest potential is to invest in a good audio book player. Portable media devices are good tools for listening to your audio books, but audio book players are specifically designed for listening to audio books. An audio book player typically includes features that make listening to your book just as enjoyable as reading your favorite book.
Many people still enjoy the original format of audio books on tape. Even with modern technology, audio books on tape provide conveniences that other players do not provide. Listening to an audio book on cassette eliminates the problems of skipping and losing your place, so people can enjoy listening to their favourite book while jogging or exercising. Others may listen to books on tape in their cars because they are the most convenient option for enjoying a book during those long daily commutes.
Compact discs have also had an impact on the audio book industry. For people who do not have an MP3 player that they can use to take their files with them, CD audio books are the next option. This format allows listeners to easily skip and repeat certain sections of the book. Unlike cassette tapes, you cannot simply stop a CD and resume listening from the place it was stopped. Listeners have the option of “pausing” the book, but if the CD player is running on batteries this will quickly drain its power.
With the innovations of internet technology, the ideal audio book player is an MP3 player or any other portable media device with large memory capabilities. Downloads of audio books in digital format are often large, so it takes a large memory to store even a few of your favorite books. The most popular MP3 players are iPods. Audio book players, specifically made for enjoying audio books, are quickly becoming popular as well. With these devices, you can bookmark particular pages or sections so that you can resume listening at the last place you left off. An audio book player is also compatible with a greater number of the audio books available for download. iPods are typically only compatible with audio books downloaded from the iTunes service.
Audio books are a convenient and popular way to enjoy your favorite books. Their growing popularity has added demand for new advances in technology to appreciate them. While audio books on tape are considered old-fashioned, some people still prefer this method for playing their audio books. Downloads, however, have surpassed both cassettes and CD audio books because of the ease of accessibility. Digital formats are also more cost-effective and space-efficient, which is an important thing to keep in mind. Before investing in a new audio book player, evaluate your specific needs in order to choose the best player for your lifestyle.
Mike Selvon is the owner of various niche portals. Our audio books portal at http://audiobooks.trustprofitableniche.com is a great resource for more information on audio book player.
Finding a Great Audio Book Download
The internet has added a whole new level of success to many industries, including the audio book download industry. Because anybody with an internet connection and a computer can easily get a wide selection of MP3 books, the sales and popularity of this niche has only increased over the years. This industry has been especially useful for business people who travel frequently and families who go on long trips often with their children. The audio book industry has something to suit the needs of any book lover.
With the wide selection available online, the audio book download industry is surely going to have something you will find interesting. Business books make up a considerable part of the audio book industry. You can find a wide array of business categories with a large number of titles in each category just by surfing the internet. When you find one you like, you can get an MP3 download in a matter of minutes. You can even find lectures and motivational materials that you can download and listen to as well as tips for a successful business.
Audio book downloads are available through many companies and websites. One of the most popular places to get your MP3 books is through Audible. Users can download digital recordings of their favorite books for a cost that is less than buying the actual book. With thousands of available titles, users are certain to find something that fits their preferences while expanding their reading perspectives. Internet users can also download their favorite audio book free from popular sites like free-books and freeclassicaudiobooks, as well as other sites that are non-profit.
Besides convenience, the audio book download industry provides other services to customers to encourage them to explore other possibilities. Many websites offer a subscription service where subscribers can buy or rent an audio book the same way others rent videos from their local video store. With a membership, you have unlimited access to thousands of audio books. At simplyaudiobooks, the cost of membership includes the shipping charges and late fees so you just pay a low monthly rate to enjoy your favorite books. You can listen to a wider selection of books to expose yourself to ones you might have otherwise missed by utilizing a low-cost subscription service.
Audio books serve a variety of purposes for today’s busy lifestyle. With the popularity of portable media players combined with easy downloads from a number of websites, seeing people walk around while listening to a favorite book is becoming more common. In addition to renting or buying your favorite book, free ones are also available on a few websites that are more educational and informative in nature. Whatever your preferences, chances are there is an audio book download to satisfy your needs and a website that can provide it.
Mike Selvon is the owner of various niche portals. Our audio books portal at http://audiobooks.trustprofitableniche.com is a great resource for more information on audio book dowwnload.
Audio Books CD: Between Cassettes and Downloads
Digital media has helped to make the audio books CD industry a successful venture for many companies. Many people prefer audio libraries composed of music books CD products rather than cassettes because they are more durable and they take up less space. Even though the internet is making digital downloads the most popular form of audio books, CD audio books offer permanence in the aspect that a CD music book is a hard copy.
Other than MP3 downloads of your favorite audio books, CD format is the next best thing. If you are a frequent traveler, you can take an entire music book on CD with you without taking up a lot of space. A CD audio book is also ideal if you want to loan your favorite book to a friend so they can listen to it.
Often, the MP3 files of audio books have copyright protection on them so you can only play them from your computer or personal media device. With an audio book on CD, you do not have to worry about this aspect.
Having your favorite music books CD is ideal because of the convenience in terms of listening to a book whenever you want. You can just pop it into your CD player and let it play in the background while you do what you need to do.
A CD audio book is also great for those long morning commutes. Since most cars do not yet have MP3 capability, an audio book CD provides the next best thing.
One of the best things about music books CD files is that you have an actual hard copy of your audio book to build your library. Often, MP3 players get lost or digital files get wiped out due to viruses or other computer problems.
Having your favorite audio books backed up on CD will prevent you from losing your entire collection due to these types of problems. Although a large music book CD collection will take up a lot of space, it is still a better format to prevent losing all of the time and money you have invested in building your audio books CD library.
Digital media formatting is quickly making the hard copy format of many products obsolete. The audio books CD industry is no exception. Many people are storing their entire music book library on their hard drives or portable media players.
The problem with this, is that they do not have backup copies prepared in case of a virus or computer crash. To prevent the loss of your data, you can order audio books CD files or cassettes. They might take up some space in your home, but it is well worth it in light of the potential time and money spent trying to replace an entire library.
If you are still stuck on the audio book cassette tape format, a completely new world awaits you. The music books CD industry has revolutionized the way people enjoy audio books, but even this medium is becoming obsolete as it is consistently losing ground to the digital format.
An audio book CD does provide conveniences that digital copies can not guarantee, but it also takes up valuable storage space.
Mike Selvon is the owner of various niche portals. Our audio books portal at http://audiobooks.trustprofitableniche.com is a great resource for more information on audio books cd. While you are there don’t forget to claim your free gift.
Expand Your Horizons with Free Audio Books
One of the best things about the online audio books industry is that companies and websites can offer free audio books because they do not have to buy music literature materials for production. With downloadable music books, there are no products to purchase, which in turn gives online companies the opportunity to offer free downloads.
This is not only helpful for the company, but it also opens up a wider selection of books for consumers who are otherwise hesitant about purchasing titles in genres that they are not accustomed to reading.
A great place to get a number of free audio books is free-books. Like other music literature websites, you can log on to their page and download a wide variety of free books for personal and educational purposes.
If you are looking for titles from classical literature, the website provides free MP3 downloads from over 200 titles in their selection. You can also find European history titles and various other selections.
For adults looking for educational books, free-books offers many books that you can listen to and come away with information you may have not had before. “The Autobiography of Charles Darwin” is an example of one of the free audio books offered to people who might find this an interesting listen.
The recently published “1492″ is a book written about the expedition that brought Christopher Columbus to America and is available as a free audio book download on the website. Another notable section of books available for download on free-books include children’s music books. Titles like “Pinocchio”, “Alice in Wonderland” and “Andersen’s Fairy Tales” are just a few of the music books that kids will be sure to enjoy.
For more mature kids, the site also offers free audio download books like “Jane Eyre”, “Huckleberry Finn” and “Robinson Crusoe”. Children music literatures are a wonderful and exciting alternative to the popular video games or television programs that have flooded homes today. They not only help stimulate the imagination, they are more productive and educational than many other forms of entertainment.
You can find free music books online to satisfy any of your listening needs. If you like history, you can find historical works on websites that offer free music literatures. If you enjoy Charles Dickens or Emily Bronte, you can find free audio books of their writings as well.
You can add a large number of audio literatures to your audio book library just through websites that provide free audio downloads. You can expand your library even further if you are willing to buy music literatures because many of the newer best sellers are available for a discounted price.
Mike Selvon is the owner of various niche portals. Our audio books portal at http://audiobooks.trustprofitableniche.com is a great resource for more information on free audio books. While you are there don’t forget to claim your free gift.
Advanced Audio Recording Techniques
Hard Disk / Computer-Based Recording
One of the biggest trends in recent audio production has been to merge digital audio with computer technology to create a samplebased approach to sound recording. The encoding of audio data into digital memory or onto a storage medium provides us with a means for storing or manipulating defined blocks of digital data. This data can be stored as a soundfile such as .wav, .aiff or SDII.
Perhaps the most important difference that can be distinguished between a tape-based system (digital or analogue) and samplebased recording system is random access. Random access production refers to the fact that digital audio can be stored within a random access memory (RAM), or a disk based memory medium in such a way that the data can - virtually instantaneously - be accessed, processed, or reproduced in any order at any point in time.
Once developers began to design updated sample editor software, it was discovered that through additional processing hardware, digital audio editors were capable of recording digitized audio directly to a computer’s hard disk. These devices, sometimes known as digital audio workstations (DAW), serve as computer based hardware and software packages that are intended specifically for the recording, manipulation, and reproduction of digital audio that resides on hard disk.
Commonly, such devices are designed around and controlled by a standard personal computer with the addition of a sound card which provides the input and output interaction with the computer.
There are multiple advantages to using digital audio workstations in an audio production environment.
- The capability to handle longer sound files. Hard disk recording is limited only by the size of the hard disk itself (commonly one minute of stereo recording at 44.1 kHz occupies 10.5 MB of hard disk memory or 5MB / track minute).
- Random Access editing. As audio is recorded on the hard disk, any point within the program can be accessed at any time, regardless of the order in which it was recorded.
- Nondestructive editing allows audio segments (often called regions) to be placed in any order, manipulated in any fashion without changing the originally recorded sound file in any way.
- DSP. Digital signal processing can be performed on a segment or entire sound file in either real time or non-real time in a nondestructive fashion.
- In addition to these advantages, computer-based digital audio devices serve to integrate many of the tasks related to both digital audio and MIDI production. Many DAW’s are capable of importing, processing, and exporting sound files into formats such as mp3 or Real Players G2.
Recording Techniques
FILTERS
Also known as equalization or EQ, filters are used to increase or decrease the level in a specific range of audio frequencies. The most common filters are the simple bass and treble controls found on inexpensive stereo systems, which act on a broad range of frequencies. But other filters are designed to surgically boost or cut very narrow bands of the audio spectrum.
SHELVING FILTERS
As the simplest form of filter, shelving EQ boosts or cuts all frequencies above or below a fixed frequency. A bass shelving filter, also called a low-pass filter, boosts or cuts everything below its fixed center frequency. Likewise a treble shelving filter, also called a high-pass filter, boosts or cuts everything above its fixed center. A single control typically adjusts the amount of boost or cut.
These filters are useful for making broad changes like reducing boomy bass and wind noise. But encoders can easily be overloaded by too much bass or treble, so it’s often wisest to use these filters to cut high and low frequencies to prevent artifacts.
BANDPASS FILTERS
These filters can be used to boost or cut audio on both sides of a center frequency. Bandpass filters are commonly used as midrange filters, because they have little effect on either high or low frequencies. The familiar graphic equalizer is just a set of bandpass filters tuned to different center frequencies.
More sophisticated versions, called sweepable bandpass filters, have an additional control allowing you to change the center frequency. Bandpass filters are useful for increasing the intelligibility of a speaker without increasing hiss or background noise. A variation of the bandpass filter is the notch filter, which boosts or cuts all frequencies except those around the center frequency.
PARAMETRIC FILTERS
A parametric filter is a bandpass filter with an additional control to adjust the width of the frequency band being effected (fig. 3). These are the surgical tools of audio editing. They can be used to eliminate just the noise from an air conditioner, while having a minimal effect on the rest of the audio.
With all filters it’s important to follow the audio engineer’s first rule of EQ — cut rather than boost wherever possible. Cutting undesired sounds is always less obtrusive, and boosting too much can make a track too loud and lead to distortion and artifacts when encoding.
COMPRESSORS
A compressor’s basic function is to reduce the dynamic range of an audio recording, which is the difference between the loudest and softest sounds that pass through the recording chain. Simply put, a compressor is a processor whose output level increases at a slower rate as its input level increases.
By reducing the volume of the loudest sounds, a compressor lets you raise the level of the entire audio track, making it all sound louder than it actually is. Compression can be a big help in achieving intelligible audio tracks with a more uniform volume that will survive the encoding process.
A compressor consists of a level detector that measures the incoming signal, and an an amplifier whose gain is controlled by the level detector.
A Threshold control sets the level at which compression begins. Below the threshold, the compressor acts like a straight piece of wire. But when the input level reaches the Threshold, then the compressor begins reducing its output level by an amount determined by the Ratio control.
The Ratio control establishes the proportion of change between the input and output levels. If you set the compression Ratio to 2:1, then when the input signal gets twice as loud, the output signal will increase by only half.
If you set the Ratio to its maximum (10:1 or more), the the compressor becomes a “limiter” that locks the maximum level at the Threshold.
While a compressor can level out a recording, high levels of compression can also introduce artifacts including “pumping”, in which there is an audible up and down change in volume of a track, or “breathing”, which sounds like someone breathing as the background noise level goes up and
down.
EXPANDERS
An expander is the opposite of a compressor. As the level of the audio signal gets louder, the expander’s amplifier turns up further making loud signals even louder. An expander can be used to reduce noise in a process called downward expansion. In this case you set the Threshold just above the level of background noise. The expander will then raise the volume of everything above the Threshold, but won’t change anything below the Threshold, thereby lowering the perceived background noise.
NORMALIZING
Normalizing increases the gain of the audio file until its loudest point (or sample) is at maximum level. The overall signal level is now higher, which makes for clearer audio, and also gives the encoder more bits of data to work with and reduces encoding artifacts. The only downside of normalizing is that it increases the noise as well as the audio signal so it should be used carefully. It should be your last step before encoding, and you may not need it at all.
Stephanie Ciccarelli is the Vice President of Marketing with http://www.Voices.com, an online marketplace hosting more than 10,000 professional voice talents from around the world. Stephanie is the author of The Definitive Guide To Voice-Over Success, and The Voice-Over Script Collection.
This Is An Exciting Time To Consider Mp3 Portable Players
Today you can purchase Mp3 portable players in many different styles that can play many hours of music all stored in a small compact package much smaller and more portable than the Walkman. These portable players use digital technology to shrink down the size of the music file so you can store more songs in less space. When you own an Mp3 portable player you can literally carry around your entire music collection wherever you go. A modern day portable Mp3 player continues its evolution from being a plain audio player into a fantastic modern day device.
It is still somewhat amazing that you can take all of your music everywhere you go in something so small. Some Mp3 players are about the size of a matchbook while the larger sizes may be about the size of a pack of cigarettes. With so many songs stored in something so small you may think you will have a hard time finding the music you want to play. Most of the players have a very simple clear way to find your song you want to play and as a bonus some of the popular brands include FM radio and a voice recorder.
The development of tiny hard-disk drives allows these Mp3 portable players to store a lot of music making it possible to save entire music collections onto a digital audio player at a reasonable cost. The other type of storage is flash memory, which is usually smaller and often does have as much storage capacity as the models with hard drives. For the more active type of person often a flash type storage device is a better fit because it is smaller and sometimes more robust.
Deciding which type of Mp3 player to purchase is often a hard choice because there are so many different makes and models. You need to do your homework before making a decision on the right model for you. It would be wise to read as many different reviews as you can. Compare prices and features and get in your head what features you want and need. Check out as many web sites as you can and possibly read something like Consumer Reports to get information you can rely on.
The simple Mp3 portable players continue to grow every month. It has gone from something to listen to music on into a full-blown media center. As time goes on you can expect this evolution to thrive. With modern technology growing every day the compression rates of audio and video is sure to improve. This is an exciting time to make the move into digital technology.
For more information on how to find the MP3 player that is right for you try visiting http://www.streamingaudio101.com where you will find tips, advice and resources about topics such as the the top ten ipod stereo accessories.
Avoid Conference Calls That Waste Everybody’s Time
It is quite easy to have a conference call go awry. All it needs is a lack of adequate planning. Sure, Conference calls are easy to make, involve less physical effort (through traveling), and save time. However, on the flip side, a conference call that is badly managed will surely be a disaster. Just as in a regular meeting, everybody has to be informed, and everybody must come on time. If you thought reaching a meeting late was bad business etiquette, so is being late for a conference call. After all, it is simply a meeting in a different incarnation.
Moreover, the fact that a conference call does not require the physical presence of every participant in a single room is at once a disadvantage. If you thought controlling people within your reach was a handful, just try doing it from a country away. After all, there is no need for the people to pay attention, and they are likely to get bored because the element of personal touch is not as strong.
It is easy to call this one of the major disadvantages of a conference call and leave it at that. But then, what is the point of a meeting that does not get the participants enthused at all? There are several ways in which one can pep up a conference call. For instance, it helps to give clear instructions to participants before the conference begins. Then, it is necessary not to confuse them by making too many people act as host. It would be a better idea to choose a single host and let him do most of the talking.
Of course, there is no point in having a conference call if it is going to be one-sided. A conference necessitates the participation of the various delegates. The purpose of any conference is to seek some kind of a consensus even among different groups of people. So, it is essential to get each of the delegates to pitch in once the basic presentation has been made.
One way to do this is to have a clear-cut agenda and to communicate this to the conference call delegates beforehand. This would give the delegates some time to prepare, collect their thoughts, form opinions, and enrich the conference call. The fact that it is a call, makes it all the more difficult to grab the attention of the participants. If you happen to be hosting a conference call, make sure that you know exactly how you can make the conference richer and livelier.
Ajeet Khurana recommends Conference Calls at http://www.saveonconferences.com/ Conference Call at http://www.saveonconferences.com/conference-call/ International Conference Call at http://www.saveonconferences.com/conference-call/international_conference-call.jsp
How To Pick a Great Voice Over Coach
Your voice is your instrument and is also the main component of your business.
That being said, it is crucial that you find the right teacher for you to study with as the decision made will directly impact the outcome of your goals.
For our purposes, I am going to assume that you are a working professional or are on the brink of starting out as a novice voice actor who wants to study with a teacher to aid in the preparation of recording a voice over demo.
While a great deal of your success is reliant upon your actions and level of dedication a significant amount of weight is held where private study with a teacher of voice over is concerned.
We’ve all had teachers along the way, whether in public school or through private lessons, who have had left an imprint on our perspectives, goals, and potentially the directions taken in our lives.
Teachers have the ability to inspire or to deter depending on how you interpret their methodology, or bedside manner if you will.
This is why you need to select the best fit for you as a student of voice over to succeed.
For every person, there is most definitely an instructor who can open you up, develop, and refine your skills. The challenge is finding these individuals and having the ambition and humility to become a student of voice over.
Depending on your needs and aspirations, you will discover that certain coaches will make a better fit for you than others, particularly if you are working within a niche of voice over. The narrower your niche, the fewer qualified coaches there will be that meet your needs.
What do I mean by that?
Let’s say you are specifically interested in studying with a teacher of audiobook narration.
Now let’s add a few variables:
This teacher also needs to have at least 20 years experience, lives within a two to three hour drive of your home, and is a voice acting specialist in the field of audiobooks.
That’s not even hitting on personality, teaching style, or educational facility.
To be certain you will have your own set of criteria that will need to be met that may be completely different from the example I’ve used above.
More options are opened up to you if you are interested in studying over the phone, Internet, or through reading books, so keep those avenues in mind if you cannot locate someone within a 200 mile radius of your home.
After you’ve settled on what your criteria is for studying with a voice over coach, it’s time to start doing some research.
My advice is to ask your colleagues about their experiences with a particular coach (one with whom they train with on a regular basis) and get the inside scoop from them on why they love studying with their teacher.
They’ll have specific reasons why they chose and continue to work with the coach they are presently training with.
Don’t just ask one of their students, though, ask several.
Each person will have their own unique reasons for studying with that coach and you may also find that students in a given studio share similar thoughts on why studying with them has improved their performance.
What to look for in a voice over coach?
- Honesty and Integrity
- A Genuine Interest in You
- Positive Referrals from Past and Current Students
- Recognized by their Peers
- Education and Degrees
- Practical Experience
- National or International Credits for Voice Work
- Awards Won
- Community Involvement
- Good Business Ethics
One of the ways that the team at Voices is assisting you to find voice over coaches is by offering the Voice Over Experts Podcast.
Each week, you’ll have the opportunity to freely sample the teaching style and expertise of a different voice over expert, helping you to learn more about the instructor before making a commitment to study with them.
You’ll also find that each coach has provided a biography for you to review and a link has been provided to their websites directly from the Voice Over Experts website making it easy for you to peruse a variety of voice over experts and acquire more information.
Now that you have the tools to find a voice over coach, you can start your quest to voice over excellence.
Stephanie Ciccarelli is the Vice President of Marketing with http://www.Voices.com, an online marketplace hosting more than 10,000 professional voice talents from around the world. Stephanie is the author of The Definitive Guide To Voice-Over Success, and The Voice-Over Script Collection.
Using Legal Music Download Sites For Your Mp3 Player
Modern technology makes music more accessible than ever, with a huge percentage of people now downloading music from the internet onto their MP3 player. Many people use file sharing sites to obtain their MP3 player files, but these sites do not have copyright ownership. This alters the stability and quality of the product, and can also lead to legal proceedings being brought against the user. Therefore, the best way to download music to your audio player is to find a legitimate site.
Online MP3 player downloads from a legitimate site have the benefit of being licensed by either the record company or the artist. This means that there is no infringement of copyright laws and so enables many benefits for the user. Approximately 35% of all MP3 player owners now use this method to download music files. Of course, licensed MP3 file downloads come with a price tag but this is minimal when compared with the cost of CDs and minidisks.
There are two ways of paying for MP3 player downloads. The first is one off fee or monthly payment that acts as a subscription. This method enables subscribers to download unlimited music files to their audio devices, and is cost effective for any consumer who requires regular use of the services. The second method of payment entails a pay per download or burn scenario. This is more cost effective for those who will use file downloads less frequently. Either payment method will enable the user to reap the benefits of legitimate MP3 file downloads.
The main benefits of using a legitimate MP3 player download site is that the sound quality is the best possible as state of the art digital recording equipment is used. The download speed is also excellent, and many download sites have great additional extras such as MP3 ripping and MP3 tagging services. Licensed MP3 player files will not corrupt part of the way through, and so you can be confident in the service received. The licensing means that the download site will not be closed due to copyright infringement, which is common amongst file sharing sites. One of the main benefits of using a legitimate site is that there is little risk of encountering and picking up a virus. Licensed MP3 player download sites have advanced security measures which are updated frequently to ensure the best possible product is received by customers. There is also better privacy guaranteed, with spyware detected and removed, keeping customers safe from risk.
Of course there are some disadvantages to be had. Licensed MP3 player download sites have a much smaller selection of music available than the file sharing sites. There are also very few licensed mp3 download sites available, so there is little choice in terms of which service provider you can use. However, the quality of the sites available is very good, so this should not be a problem. The cost involved with licensed MP3 player sites is off putting to many, but overall the advantages of subscribing outweigh the disadvantages. The licensed site guarantees a quality product for your audio player, which is safe for your computer and which follows laws and regulations. It is fast, accessible and cost effective.
Many MP3 player download sites offer free trials of its product and services so that you can test the site thoroughly before committing to any purchase. This involves being able to download a specified number of MP3 files or being able to use the services for a set length of time before a payment is required. To be more informed, read reviews of the sites before trialling their product as this will save you time.
This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any previous authorization from the author. However the author’s name and all the URLs (links) mentioned in the article and biography must be kept.
This article can be accessed in portuguese from the Article section of page http://www.polomercantil.com.br/mp3-player.php
Roberto Sedycias works for http://www.polomercantil.com.br
A Closer Look at Radio Drama
Similarities do abound of course between radio drama and pieces performed on the stage, film and television, however, the ability to move, inspire, and create solely through the collaboration of the human voice and the mind is a magnificent feat that requires the utmost discipline, insight and flawless interpretation of a voice actor.
To recognize the obvious, radio drama lacks a visual component and therefore is subject to the interpretation of the listener through sound and speech. Theatre, film, and particularly, live performances, are all visual experiences that generously communicate to their audiences through additional senses such as sight, smell, and touch while incorporating sound and speech.
As radio drama caters specifically to sound and speech, the most universally heightened of the senses, opportunities arise for a richer listening experience free from external distraction while enabling an audience member to conjure up their own visual version of the radio drama.
In radio drama, the script needs to be expertly written, accommodating the intellectual needs a listener. The voice actors role is to breathe life into the script and the producers role is to observe all Foley elements as are required to enhance the performance while providing additional mental stimulation for the audience. I liken this parallel to the intellectual experience and satisfaction that reading quality literature brings.
Performers of radio dramas are indeed actors. There is no question about it. It is simply a different application that provides its own unique set of challenges and adventures. In order to perform a voice-acting role, a person needs to be first and foremost an actor at heart.
In fact, many people use physical gestures and dialog with each other in sessions similarly to how actors feed off of each others energy on stage, film or television. There is a real chemistry that comes across when voice actors have synergy with their cast mates, quite comparable to the same electricity that face-to-face acting brings.
Now that we’ve looked at radio dramas in general, let’s explore marketing audio dramas and increasing the number of listeners for a radio drama.
Independent producers and groups have an enormous opportunity to reach new listeners on a global scale by means of podcasting. Using podcasting as a means to attract new listeners is fundamental to the success and continued discovery of this art form through popular and new media.
There are several independent radio theatre troupes around the globe that have sought to expand their listener base through podcasting and have affiliated themselves with websites that facilitate the spreading of their message, including organizations such as LibriVox, a group of people dedicated to recording audiobooks and making audio dramas more accessible to the public.
Submitting an established radio drama to podcast directories is also a brilliant way to increase the circulation, mind-share (and ear-share) as well as awareness for the craft. One popular radio drama I discovered this year, The Radio Adventures of Doctor Floyd, leveraged the celebrity status of one of their cast members, June Foray, to boost its appeal and gain a larger audience.
Voice actors who perform audio dramas ally themselves with Voices to help promote their work and gain a wider reach concerning new listeners and even new members of their radio drama clubs. For instance, there is the Amateur Voice Acting Group (AVAG) in San Diego, California established by David Johnson.
When he launched his voice-acting group, the VOX Daily voice actor blog was there to help with promoting David’s organization to other talent in the San Diego area through Voices.
A membership to an online voiceover marketplace is without question one of the best investments and outlets for voice professionals in the radio drama field. Each voice actor is encouraged to upload a sample of their voice and list their work or voluntary experience. Many voice talent have started out as narrators for audiobooks produced for the blind as a steppingstone in their careers.
Steph