When Volunteering Collides with Work

The balance of business and personal time is changing dramatically for me this past year. And I am trying to figure out if this is a good thing or not. While business has been a bit weird this quarter, it has been steady with repeat customers and some new – but no dramatic up tick.

This could be the economy, or it could be that my marketing efforts have been waylaid by my personal and other volunteer committments. 

I’ve learned the marketing lesson before. You stop marketing yourself and people forget who you are. Well, not everyone, but you know what I mean.

Between my new responsibilities (and frankly new life) with my mom who moved close to me last April, my continuing volunteer work for MCA-I, roles in community theater performances, friends, classes, relationships – there just isn’t the same amount of time to do the […]

2018-02-06T06:48:43+00:00March 28th, 2010|Categories: Business, Musings|

Technical Troubleshooting

Argh! Turned on the system the other day and there was a phased hum/tone thing going on in the background of my recordings. Nothing had changed (well, maybe the weather), but suddenly my output was unacceptable.

I was able to clean up the background noise well enough for auditions (and it didn’t affect my ISDN sessions), but luckily, I didn’t have any paying work that couldn’t be delayed until a fix was found.

Was it the Mackie? Was it the cable to the computer? Was it the mic cable? One thing at a time – one precious minute after minute – I eliminated and pondered. Finally, I packed up the Mackie and the cable to the computer and trundled them down to San Diego Professional Sound and Music.

Turns out the 2nd channel on the Mackie is kaput – or at least has a permanent […]

2018-02-06T06:48:43+00:00March 18th, 2010|Categories: Recording, Technology|Tags: , |

New Toshiba Laptop Arrived

Ah, technology today. My new Toshiba Satellite laptop was on the front porch yesterday.

Open the box. Plug it in. It finds my network. Asks a couple of questions and boom, we are up and running. This one has Windows 7 on it. So far, it seems pretty self-explanatory and user friendly.

Now comes the task of loading all my software on it to see if it is user friendly for the various programs. This will take me until the end of the week probably.

The basics:

  • Adobe Audition (done, not checked yet for recording)
  • Office (at least Excel and Word – maybe Front Page for website updates on the road)
  • Vox Studio
  • Word 2 Wav
  • Paint Shop Pro
  • Miscellaneous enhancements for playing audio, video, etc.
2010-03-10T08:27:18+00:00March 10th, 2010|Categories: Business, Technology|Tags: , , |

Source-Connect Ports are in Order

Forgot to update the Source-Connect saga. Followed the detailed instructions on the Source-Connect website about how to configure the ports and “voila” so simple even a cave man could do it.

Now I am going through the Source-Connect data base to say hello to folks who might be interested in knowing that it is up and running.

Most of the people who have it are either talent or audio studios – neither of which are the best for pin-point marketing, but certainly the contacts are great networking – which ultimately pays off.

2010-03-03T17:07:20+00:00March 3rd, 2010|Categories: Marketing, Technology|Tags: , , |

Fast! Good! Cheap?

You know this adage – Fast, Good, Cheap – Pick any Two? Technological advances are putting this saying to the test – with people wanting (and many times getting) all three. The principal of the “Long Tail” – originally used to describe a retailing concept of selling a large number of unique items in relatively small quantities – is another factor in the evolution of this axiom. Apply the long tail to voiceovers and it means creating lots and lots of product that will be seen or heard by fewer and fewer people. Think about the growing number of niche television, radio, YouTube channels. Fewer eyeball and ears? Maybe. Maybe not – considering the population of the world.

So how is this affecting Fast, Good, Cheap?

Fast

When it comes to the voiceover business, particularly at the first stage – voiceover auditions – Fast reigns supreme. With online casting (either through agents […]

2018-02-06T06:48:43+00:00March 2nd, 2010|Categories: Auditioning, Marketing, Musings, Negotiating|
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