Placement, Tempo, Rhythm and Body Work!

One of the newer voiceover guys on the VO-BB is quite a talented impressionist. Craig Crumpton is his name. He is also  the publisher of Voice Actors in the News. And while impressions is not the key to the gravy train – it can be a wonderful tool to help you find characters that you CAN use to broaden your capabilities.

He did a single pass at the poem “Casey at Bat” with a bunch of different “famous” voices – men and women. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i4DgnZw4fo

And watch what happens to his face and body as he changes from voice to voice. Also listen to how his voice moves around inside his mouth – from his throat to his nose to the front to the back and everywhere in between.

http://www.usemyaccent.com/

UseMyAccent.com provides an opportunity for people to register as “Readers” – and to be paid, to read specific lines in their native accent. Actors receive mp3 files with their own lines read in the authentic accent they need to use. Membership is free for both Actors and Readers.

Accents and Dialects

Want to listen to authentic accents and dialects as you polish your own? Try these links. Many thanks to my friend Joe T. Thomas for compiling these resources…

Speech Accent Archive
Speech Accent Archive
Audio samples from around the world using a standardized paragraph

IDEA – International Dialects of English
IDEA – The International Dialects Of English Archive
Audio samples from around the world

UCLA Phonetics Lab
UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive
Archive of audio samples from around the world

UCLA Phonetics Lab – Audio Samples
http://hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departme…andConsonants/
Additional recordings from UCLA

Sounds Familiar
Sounds Familiar?
Audio samples from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, England

Colin and Cumberland
BBC Wales – Colin and Cumberland
Learn Welsh and hear native speakers

BBC Voices
BBC – Voices
Samples from speakers in the UK, Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man

Phonological Atlas of North America
Phonological Atlas of North America
Audio Samples from North America

Inogolo
inogolo : Name Pronunciation Guide — Pronounce the Names of People, Places, and Stuff in English
Pronunciation guide for names and places

VOA Pronunciation guide
VOA Pronunciation Guide
Voice of America pronunciation guide for international names

Yiddish Dictionary
Yiddish Dictionary
So Nu? Gib a kick!

AT&T Labs Text to Speech
AT&T Labs Text-to-Speech: Demo
Pronounces typed text in a variety of accents

International Phonetic Association
IPA: Homepage
Phonetic guide to accents… great for the technically inclined