Inside Our Voice Selection Process

By Susan Berkley

The other day I was talking to a guy at a famous bus company. He told me how hard he worked to coach the employee who recorded their IVR. The woman had never done professional recordings before and this was his directorial debut. It took many hours in the studio over several days to get everything sounding right. While he was proud of the results, the company could have saved valuable time and energy if they had outsourced the project.

When we record at the Great Voice Company, we count on our voice talent to step into the studio and get the job done quickly and accurately according to our client's needs. This high quality product begins with our voice talent selection process. Here’s a behind the scenes look at how this selection process works:

First, we review demo CD’s from talent who want to work with us. The CD’s are screened for the obvious: voice quality and clear diction. Foreign voice talent must be native speaking, not just someone who learned the language in school or spoke it at home. Then we bring the talent in for a studio audition. One of the most important qualities we look for is vocal consistency. Talent must be able to modulate their pitch, intonation and inflection in response to the director’s cues. We also test their ability to match pitch to assure that re-take sessions will match the original recording. Acting ability is also tested. The talent should be able to express different emotional nuances on cue from casual and conversational to professional and business-like. Given the dry nature of much of the material that needs to be read, this is not an easy task!

And while voice is important, personality is too. Once we begin working with a talent we continue to use them for months, and even years to come. We want someone who is reliable, pleasant and easy to work with. Prima donnas are quickly given the boot. Finally, we look for talent who is willing to “go the extra prompt, “ who won’t complain if we ask them to record alternate takes and who will be patient and diligent in listening to the play back. At the Great Voice Company all of us work together to assure that our clients receive a top quality, accurately recorded product time after time. While the voice talent is the most visible part of the process, he or she is just one member of a team of experts committed to your success.