I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween! I have already had the chance to wear my home made costume to a party so I wanted to post a picture. I couldn’t resist poking a little fun at a politician during an election year. Can you guess what I am? 
I love when fans of characters I’ve voiced send me their fan art! Here is one of Phoebe from “Hey Arnold.” How adorable is this? Please send me your fan art and I will post it (if you are ok with that).
I LOVE getting fan mail. I am more than happy to sign any picture a fan either draws themselves or prints out of a character I have voiced. I will even sign my own picture if that is requested. But please, if you want something signed, whether you write to me or any other voice over artist you enjoy, PLEASE…..send a self addressed stamped envelope along in your letter!! Lately I have been getting some great fan letters with some amazing artwork with requests to autograph it, but no return envelope. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to keep track of addresses and letters and go to the post office and get everything addressed and stamped, especially for out of country fans. So please, keep the fan letters coming but make it easy for me (and anyone else you write to)! Send a self addressed stamped envelope! I want to be able to send every person who takes the time to write to me a response.
I was happy to participate in an interview with Pure Gear, a great company that makes cell phone accessories. They were looking to interview people with unique lifestyles that use their products and I fit the bill! A voice over artist has to be available and ready to record at a moment’s notice so my phone is incredibly important to me. I have to admit, I like all the cool more “sporty” gadgets Pure Gear makes since I TRY to hike or walk as much as possible and I always take my phone with me. Anyway, if you’re interested in checking out the interview (or you need accessories for your cell when you work out) here is the interview:
I have been neglecting my blog. I know. The reason is that I have been working very very hard on a business of my own. I LOVE being a voice over artist. I wake up every day excited for what opportunities may come my way, what challenges I will face, and the potential new people I may meet or work for. I have passion for voice over. But I also want to take that passion and turn it into something that is just mine. Something where I hire people, where I make tough decisions, and where I am responsible for every aspect of the business from conception through execution. So for the past year, I have been working incredibly hard on a business plan and prototype for a concept of my very own. It’s a concept I also have an extreme passion for but I need funding to execute my vision. I have never taken a business course of any kind so I have been teaching myself (with some much appreciated guidance from a few friends who have experience in business) how to create a detailed map of my concept from start to finish. I have always wondered how people who have these great ideas actually turn them into real products or services. I can tell you it takes a LOT of PASSION. There have been times when I was so mentally exhausted from the process that I started to doubt myself and my idea. I have learned that you just have to take things a day at a time, a goal at a time, and allow yourself to mess things up and LEARN from those mistakes. Most importantly, always remember to believe in yourself. I have no idea if anyone will fund my project once I start sending out my business plan and I have no idea if my idea will one day be experienced by the masses. But I HAVE TO TRY. I have to give it everything I possibly can (and then squeeze out a little more). I want to encourage ANYONE who is passionate about an idea to follow your instincts and your heart and use every possible resource at your disposal to make that dream a reality. I encourage and support you!
So thesouptv.com posted a link to a video all about the super great host of The Soup (and my boss) Joel McHale. Not only is it fun to watch a day in the life of Joel, but my voice pops up in it at around 7minutes. Just thought it was kind of neat so I’m sharing!
A day in the life of Joel McHale (with Anndi! hahahaha)
I reprise the role of Lebreau in this amazing game! I have always loved the Final Fantasy franchise and I am thrilled to voice a sexy badass woman for this installment! Now I just have to get my hands on her costume. I’ve seen some AMAZING handmade replicas on some cosplay websites.
SO there is one song in the Land Before Time series of DVDs I did that was actually never in any of the movies. Aria Curzon (ducky) and I sang “If We Hold On Together” (which was originally sung by Dianna Ross during the end credits of the very first Land Before Time movie) for a limited plush toy that was released of Ducky and Cera hugging each other. The version of the song that Aria and I recorded was embedded in the toy so that when you pushed a part of the toy, the song played. It was also released on the Land Before Time sing-a-long songs DVD. Luckily it is now on YouTube, so if you are a Land Before Time fan, and want to hear this rare version of “If We Hold On Together,”check out this link:
I am SO excited! I have been super busy building a state of the art voice over studio in my home and it is finally up and running! A lot of voice over artists debate with themselves over the pros and cons of building a home studio, and I have been one of those for years now. But two months ago I decided that if I was still thinking about it after 5 years, then it was time to GO FOR IT! I got a telos zephyr ISDN, A 4X6 whisper booth with a primeacoustic booth inside of THAT, hooked up my Neumann TLM 103, and the sennheiser 416 and Safe Sound Audio Tracking toolbox pre-amp are on the way! I feel SO official now (even though I have been a VO artist for almost my entire life!!) I am so excited to be able to work from home now. Take a look at my new studio:
Wow! I have been so busy that I have neglected my blog. I was in Europe for a bit, then it was my birthday, and THEN I started remodeling my house. One thing I am concentrating on is dedicating one of the bedrooms in my house to a home studio. Up until now I have been able to record myself for auditions and send the files as a WAV or mp3 just by recording on a mic sitting on my computer desk, but I didn’t have a real isolation booth or ISDN line. Plus, my “office” was really just a collection of hand me down furniture that really didn’t belong in an office. Now that’s all changing!!
If you are someone who is just starting to play around with the idea of getting into voice over, a mic on your desk, one that plugs right into your USB like a “Snowball” is all you need. I really like “Adobe Audition” as the software I record my auditions with. It’s SUPER easy to use. I own protools, but even a year after purchasing it, I find it SO much more involved and confusing that the easy to use “Adobe Audition.”
If you are a working VO artist who is looking to expand your availability for potential clients, ISDN is the way to go. It requires an ISDN box and a dedicated specialized phone line, and it’s NOT exactly cheap. I recommend investing ONLY if you know you’ll get your money back, and ONLY if you are very certain you will be working for clients that require you to use one. I won an ISDN box on ebay (yay!) and got a pretty recording booth from primeacoustics. I also bought furniture that makes my room look like an actual recording studio so you can imagine how excited I am, after 2 decades in the business, to FINALLY have a respectable looking, dedicated studio. Now I can work from my house. But that does not mean I will stop buying cute shoes.
