Pablo Francisco Interview on Voice Matching

On stage, Pablo Francisco seems anything but tired. Whether he’s acting out the trailer for the faux-Arnold Schwarzenegger action thriller Little Tortilla Boy, pretending to sing his heart out at a gay karaoke bar or letting the audience know what movie voice-over legend Don LaFontaine is like in bed (”Cumming to a theater near you!”), one thing always stays the same: his energy.

Moments after headlining the SEE comedy show Monday night, however, Francisco looks beat. Slouching in a chair, his hair soaking wet and his voice hoarse, the 34-year-old comedian is clearly worn out from giving his all for the university crowd. In an interview with The Diamondback, Francisco discussed everything from how losing his job at Domino’s launched his career in comedy to persevering through Monday’s show despite microphone problems and his less-than-perfect health.

THE DIAMONDBACK: When performing in front of a college audience like this one, how, if at all, do you adjust your performance?

Pablo Francisco: I couldn’t cuss as much because of that f—ing sound guy and the sound going out … But I would just say I don’t talk about politics too much with a college crowd.

DBK: Chris DeCaro opened for you after winning the student comedy competition. What did you think of his performance?

Francisco: I think Chris had a great performance. I think Chris got in a lot of campus jokes, which is good. If he wanted to, he just needs to move around a little more on stage … The crowd loved him, and I would say just work on a good 15 minutes.

DBK: When you’re feeling a bit sick like you are tonight, do you find that you have to work a little harder to reach that wide range of vocal work?

Francisco: The thing is, the mic went out on a few parts where I was focusing on that one thing, so I had to come up with more “the mic failed” jokes. But the hardest voice to do is my [own] voice. The rest like, [impersonating LaFontaine] “Are you ready?” - I could just do that.

DBK: When would you say you really started toward a career in comedy?

Francisco: I got fired from Domino’s pizza, and I owed about $400 on my car, and I had these neighbors who told me to go to a comedy club for amateur night … I saw friends of mine there doing some comedy and they said, “Hey, you should give it a shot.” And I go, “Well, yeah.” So I talked to folks there and they said, “Come in on Tuesday.” So I went in on a Tuesday, and it was already lined up and they had enough people in there, but I watched anyway … and when I did that the owner called out to me real quick and started giving me confidence.

DBK: You’re well-known for your impressions, so what sort of process do you go through to prepare those?

Francisco: Sometimes they come in five minutes, sometimes they come in 10 minutes. It starts off with a few words, like [as LaFontaine] “Coming this summer.” Of course I can always do this voice; I just have the vocal chords.

DBK: I remember seeing you perform alongside LaFontaine on Frank TV, so what was it like actually meeting him, and what did he think of your impression?

Francisco: He called my house after seeing me on [The Tonight Show with Jay Leno] and was like, “Pablo, I saw you on TV, and you know how good it feels when someone is doing you? We should meet up some time.” So about two years went by, and I didn’t talk to him. I went to Frank TV and he was there and … he goes, “Why don’t you come to my house?” So I went to his house for about three hours, and he showed me the whole studio. We went down there, and he did, “On the next 24 with Kiefer Sutherland.”

DBK: Is there anything in your career that you still hope to accomplish that you haven’t yet?

Francisco: I would say, since the Internet came out, I have everything I really need. I wanted a TV show at first, but right now I’m working on a cartoon with Disney - just voice-over work and stuff like that - so I’ll just do that for now. But writing a cartoon would be good. A cartoon would be nice.

For more information on comedian Pablo Francisco, visit www.pablofrancisco.com.

Source: DiamondBackOnline

Voices Echo for a Cure to Alzheimer’s

On April 28, 2008 , Joan Baker, author of Secrets of Voice-Over Success, the Alzheimer’s Association and the organization Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids will present “Voices Remember” — a star-studded charity event in support of a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. The evening will be an intimate musical cabaret and schmooze fest among New York socialites.

Featured will be some of the nation’s top voice-over actors from Joan Baker’s book Secrets of Voice-Over Success: Don LaFontaine (that movie trailer guy!) and Valerie Smaldone (formerly of 106.7 Lite FM) and a cadre of Broadway and record industry celebrities, including the legendary vocalist Phoebe Snow, from the original cast of Rent Daphne Rubin Vega, Emmy nominated actress and singer Bobbie Eakes (ABC’s All My Children) and singing sensation Norm Lewis (Disney’s The Little Mermaid).

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Can Microphones Block Out a Diesel Locomotive’s Roar?

I don’t claim to be any kind of expert in this arena… I’ve recorded on lots of different mics and thought I sounded better on some than others, but a lot of it has to do with what I was reading and how I was reading it.

Yesterday, I posted about a job where I had to voice match myself, replacing audio I recorded two years ago. One of the interesting things about this job was the microphone I used.

The studio where I recorded has no traditional sound booth. In fact, my recording was done sitting at a desk with a bunch of computer and audio equipment on it. About 4 feet behind me was a big window, looking out to a Chicago street, just a few blocks away from one of the biggest train stations in the city.

At one point, I was recording and I stopped as a train was passing nearby. The clack-clack-clack of the train wheels over track seams and the engine roar were pretty loud, so I stopped reading.

A few seconds later, the producer, who was listening from another room where he was actually laying the audio down to a computer, asked “Is something wrong?”“I just figured I’d wait for the train to pass,” I said.“Oh, I didn’t hear it. I’m still rolling… just go on when you’re ready.”

So how is this possible? How could I record “clean” audio in a non-sound treated room with a diesel locomotive passing by just a few blocks away?

The answer is in the microphone we were using. A handheld job from a company called Coles - the 4104 Commentator’s Noice Cancelling Ribbon Microphone.Designed in the 1950s by Dudley Harwood and D.E.L. Shorter of the BBC, the 4104 is a pressure gradient ribbon microphone with a lot of acoustic dampening. What this means is that it’s very good at picking up the speaker but little else.

While the technical aspects of how this is achieved are beyond my knowledge (and, perhaps, understanding), it becomes a little easier to understand once you see the microphone and how it’s used.

The XLR connection for the mic is at the base of the handle, so the mic needs to be hand-held. Notice, though, that the business end of the mic is covered by two screen filters: There’s an oval filter across the front of the mic and a second filter, this one rectangular, that covers the top of the mic and protrudes from the front of the mic by about 1/2″ with a rounded, concave leading edge.

The purpose of this leading edge is that the speaker is supposed to rest this up against his or her upper lip. Yes, the mic is actually designed to touch your face while you’re speaking, which seems odd compared to the use of most mics, but doesn’t really create as much of an issue as it might seem like it would just by reading about it. This funky usage style has led to the 4104 being called “The Lip Mic” by some.

And I have to say, the mic works really well. It seems to have a pretty flat sound, which to me means that it doesn’t add much in the way of presence or brightness… it just reproduces what the speaker sounds like. And it picks up very little, if anything else. The Coles product literature for the 4104 claims that it can be used outdoors in winds up to 20mph with no noticeable decrease in the vocal quality of the user. That is pretty darn cool.

Do a little research on the mic and you’ll see it’s been used to record at sporting events, in big crowds, during hurricanes, in taxi cabs and in plenty of other environments where an ordinary mic would require the voice talent to shout just to be heard.The 4104 sells for about $650 - $700 and would seem to be a good mic to investigate if you frequently find the need to record in loud places or spaces that haven’t been acoustically treated.

The official product page for the 4104 can be found here.

Source: Lou Zucaro’s Blog

CeBIT Enthralled By IVONA’s Voice

The stand of IVO Software, the manufacturer of one of the best text to speech systems in the world, was among those attracting the largest numbers of visitors at this year’s CeBIT. The opportunity to enter texts and listen to IVONA reading them out aroused the biggest interest.

CeBIT is one of the most prestigious IT events in the world, organized in Hannover, Germany. This year it took place from 4 to 9 March. IVO Software’s stand was in the “future parc” which enjoyed an enormous popularity among the visitors. The most frequently tested voice was that of Jennifer - an American English voice generated by the text to speech system IVONA.

“People testing our text to speech system were hugely impressed by the natural sound of the speech and the intonation of questions. IVO’s stand was also frequently visited by the representatives of other companies present at CeBIT, who showed vivid interest in IVONA’s potential” - says Lukasz Osowski, the President of IVO Software.

At the fair IVO presented its IVONA text to speech system and products based on it: IVONA Telecom - for telecommunications applications such as Call Center or for IVR systems; IVONA SDK - for hardware and software manufacturers who want to implement the text to speech system in their products (e.g. mobile devices, GPS, etc.); IVONA Professional - for enterprises, e.g. allowing to prepare text to speech voice overs (for applications such as presentations, audiobooks, announcement systems, voice prompts in elevators) or for converting texts into audio files; IVONA Desktop - for individual users and for small business (SOHO).

“Anybody who wants to test IVONA and find out more about its applications should visit our new website - www.ivona.com. We also invite private computer users to visit www.expressivo.com - a website presenting software reading books, documents, news and notices with IVONA’s natural human voices” - encourages Mr. Osowski.

The speech generation technology developed by IVO Software is regarded as one of the best in the world. This is confirmed by the numerous honors and awards it has won. IVONA’s voice quality was also recognized at the prestigious international Blizzard Challenge. Two times in a row, in 2006 and 2007, it was considered one of the closest to a natural voice. IVO Software was established in 2001 and since then it has been involved only in creation and development of speech synthesis products.

To find out more about IVO Software visit: http://www.ivosoftware.com.

Source: NewsBlaze.com

Monsters VS. Aliens Voice Cast Announced

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS, which is slated for a domestic release date of March 27, 2009, reinvents the classic ’50s monster movie into an irreverent modern day action comedy.

The cast of MONSTERS VS. ALIENS includes:

*Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon (WALK THE LINE, RENDITION) as Susan Murphy, a.k.a. Ginormica;

*Golden Globe winner Hugh Laurie (TV’s HOUSE, STUART LITTLE) as Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.;

*Will Arnett (TV’s ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, BLADES OF GLORY) as The Missing Link;

*Seth Rogen (KNOCKED UP, SUPERBAD) as B.O.B.;

*Rainn Wilson (JUNO, TV’s THE OFFICE) as Gallaxhar;

*Emmy winner Stephen Colbert (TV’s THE COLBERT REPORT, BEWITCHED) as The President of the United States;

*Golden Globe winner Kiefer Sutherland (TV’s 24, PHONE BOOTH) as General W.R. Monger; and

*Paul Rudd (KNOCKED UP, NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM) as Susan’s boyfriend, Derek.

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS is directed by Rob Letterman (SHARK TALE) and Conrad Vernon (SHREK 2), produced by Lisa Stewart (I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE) and co-produced by Jill Hopper and Latifa Ouaou.

The film marks the theatrical debut of DreamWorks Animation’s Ultimate 3D, the studio’s proprietary production process of authoring its animated films in 3D from start to finish.

To read the full story, click on the source link below:

Source: AWN

Voice Acting “Brawl” to Break Out at PortConMaine

PortConMaine, New England’s longest running convention for Japanese animation, gaming, and pop culture, has proudly announced that stars of the hit new Nintendo Wii game, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Michele Knotz and Bill Rogers, will be appearing at this year’s convention along with Daniel Kevin Harrison, a voice acting Maine native and regular guest of the convention.

Daniel Kevin Harrison is best known as the voice of Hiro in Gravitation. A Maine native, his anime credits include Gokudo, Madara, KO Beast, and Shingu. He has also appeared in movies including The Langoliers, Bird, and Wake. This will be Daniel’s seventh consecutive appearance at PortConMaine.

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Being Comfortable With One’s Own Voice Good For Non VO Folk, Too

Giving voice to Jessica Lange or Winona Ryder and Nicole Kidman is just one aspect of Carole Wyand’s experience as a voice-over actress.

She has also, over time, become a medical narration specialist because she has a talent with words.

“I can say words like ‘trimethoprimsulfamethoxide,’” Wyand said. “And I can sound like I know what I’m talking about when I don’t. And I can do it in an interesting manner. My bread and butter is in the medical field.”

Wyand will be sharing her talent and helping participants find their own during a voice-over workshop held during the upcoming White Sands International Film Festival.

“Voice-overs are not only for actors but also for regular people too,” she said.

Voice-overs are used for numerous things, Wyand said. The talent is needed for commercials, animation, on computer programs, audio books, corporations, the medical field and the much dreaded phone menus heard when calling a business.

Learning about voice-overs also is a great benefit in the area of public speaking, Wyand said.

“You know how you come across to an audience,” Wyand said. “That’s what you are learning. It’s being comfortable with your voice.”

The workshop is about being comfortable with one’s own voice, experience and being comfortable in front of a microphone. Wyand will work with people to help them be aware of their own voices, pace their delivery and not to be afraid.

Wyand thinks people are afraid of speaking publicly or on tape. She said voice-overs are not about vocal qualities, they are about attitudes.

“The voice doesn’t lie,” she said. “It communicates if you are excited or worried. Putting a smile in your voice can be as simple as putting a smile on your face.”

The workshop will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 22 at the First National Bank Atrium. Tickets are $40 to participate and $20 to audit the class without participating.

There is room in the class for 10 participants, but if it fills up, Wyand said she is willing to hold a second workshop later in the day.

“For an actor (the workshop) is for really voice acting, and it’s for the average person who wants to improve their public speaking,” She said. “People should not worry about regional accents. You can learn to annunciate better, but don’t hesitate because of a regional accent.”

Wyand also said voice-over can be done anywhere, not just New York and California. “Technology can send your voice anywhere,” she said.

“If you keep the essence of who you are, you can acquire a delivery you can use in meetings, auditions and acting roles,” Wyand said.

Source: Alamogordo Daily News

Broadcasters Honor Reading Services for The Blind

The Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired and its Reading Services won two awards at the Ohio Public Broadcasting Awards ceremony in Columbus last month.

The agency won for its public-service announcement about its One on One volunteer program in the Public Information, Short Promotions category.

The Radio Reading Service also received honorable mention in the Program of the Year category for its community-connecting program called “Titanic.”

The public-service announcement was written by Jennifer Holladay, One on One volunteer coordinator, and Jen LaFramboise, volunteer. It was produced by LaFramboise.

The voice talents were Holladay and Doug Cooper, volunteer.

Titanic was produced by Mark DeWitt, CABVI broadcast manager. The voice talent was Brigette Waldmann-Thomas, volunteer, and Sharon Linde, CABVI manager of volunteer services.

Radio Reading Services makes local and world news accessible.

Source: The Enquirer

Broadcasting School with a Sports Journalism Twist

Jim Van Horne sits behind the desk, papers in front of him, his familiar baritone delivering every word with authority.

But this is not the television sports anchor desk that Van Horne sat at for two decades and the papers do not contain hockey scores. This is a classroom at Canada’s newest college and the first private school to offer an exclusive sports broadcasting course.

Van Horne is officially television coordinator at the College of Sports Media, a rather untraditional school housed in the basement of an old ad agency on George St.

It looks more like, well, an ad agency than a school and with only 16 students enrolled in its inaugural semester, the atmosphere is a lot more casual and familiar than the average school.

“I just love this,” says the former TSN and Rogers Sportsnet anchor, who spends the day critiquing and praising the writing and announcing skills of a handful of young hopefuls. “The enthusiasm of the students, their desire to learn is invigorating.”

The college is part of a growing trend towards specialization in sports broadcasting and journalism. As the sports media world experiences an explosion of digital television channels, online streaming and podcasting, new skills are required and the world of education is trying to keep pace.

Scarborough’s Centennial College and Loyalist College in Belleville will soon be offering one-year programs aimed specifically at sports journalism.

“There’s a general belief in journalism schools that if you can do news, you can do sports,” says Centennial journalism program co-ordinator Malcolm Kelly, whose print-electronic course will launch next January. “It’s just not true.

“They just don’t teach sports in journalism schools. There’s so much that’s specific about sports journalism, both in print and electronic.”

The first to tap into that need, at least electronically, was former Score reporter David Lanys, who has turned a daydream into reality in five short years.

Lanys says he got his inspiration while exchanging elbows with other reporters in a scrum following a Maple Leafs playoff game, which gives you an idea how long ago that was.

“One of the reporters in the scrum was asking some of the most ridiculous questions I’d ever heard,” Lanys recalls. “I thought, this person obviously didn’t get the fundamental training in sports journalism.”

That got him to thinking that there was a need for a school to train young broadcasters specifically interested in sports. It also got him thinking about his future.

“I knew I didn’t want to be a field reporter going to a Leafs’ game on a Saturday night when I was 55 years old,” he says. “I wanted something different in my future and even though I loved broadcasting, I always had an interest in business.”

Indeed he did. Lanys has always had an entrepreneurial bent. While in high school, he hired his friends to work for his Streak-Free Window Washers company in the Finch-Bayview area. That venture financed a new car and two European vacations and led to him opening his own consulting company in university.

“I’d go into small mom-and-pop businesses and advise them on what they were doing wrong,” he recalls. “I’d charge $400 or $500 and I didn’t have many clients.

“I hope those companies are still around,” he adds with a laugh.

But an entrepreneurial flair is one thing. Financing a project this big was another.

Lanys came up with a business plan, figuring he needed $1.25 million to open the school’s doors. Television pays well, but not that well, so he hit the banks shortly after leaving The Score two years ago.

The banks weren’t interested, so he started asking around. On a recommendation from an acquaintance, he contacted a tax accounting firm and they hit it off almost instantly.

A deal was struck, but now came the hard part: getting approval from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities so he could grant diplomas and use the term “college” in the school’s name.

Part of that laborious process was enlisting an advisory board that included some of the biggest names in the business including TSN president Phil King, CBC executive producer Joel Darling and FAN 590 general manger Nelson Millman.

“The industry is changing rapidly and schools need to change all the time,” says King. “The more talented people that go into sports broadcasting, the better it is for the industry.”

Lanys says that board gives his school a leg up on others.

“With our instructors and advisory board, the network that our students will have when they graduate will be the one it took me 10 years to develop,” he says.

Lanys hired veteran broadcasters as instructors, adding the likes of former CFRB sports announcer Ray Williams, ex-Raptors reporter Norma Wick and CBC reporter Elliotte Friedman.

But a staff and a proposed curriculum, which included everything from radio to television to new media, weren’t enough to get final ministry approval. The school had to be ready to open its doors.

After a long search, Lanys found an empty ad office near Jarvis and Adelaide. He wanted the ground floor, but price sent him downstairs.

Still, it was a good fit.

“The layout required very few changes,” he says. There was even a sound-proof studio for voice-overs.

Other studios were built, recording equipment, cameras and computers purchased and ministry approval was granted. A sparsely attended press conference was held Nov. 19.

Four days later, the first inquiry came in for the two-year course. Within six weeks, 35 had applied even though no classes had been taught and tuition was a hefty $17,000 a year – Centennial’s is $4,200 by comparison.

Students showed up for their first class on Feb. 4.

They’re a mixed group, including those who’ve graduated university and those just out of high school.

One doesn’t fit the mould, though.

At 45, Patrick Brown looks a little out of place but doesn’t feel that way. A former project manager at Air Miles who took a buy-out package, Brown decided the time was right to follow his dream.

“I’d always wanted to get into broadcasting,” he says. “But I got on another track and suddenly I’m 45 and I figured it’s time to do something different with the rest of my life.”

Brown heard about the new college last fall and placed a call.

“I figured I’d get an answering machine or a secretary,” he recalls. “But Dave Lanys picked up the phone. I kind of liked that.”

Source: TheStar.com

iXMF File Format Available for Public Preview, Sony onboard to Adopt for PS3 Tools

The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG) has announced the release of a public preview draft for its Interactive XMF File Format Specification (iXMF), hoping to ease cross-platform development, with Sony onboard to adopt the format in its PS3 tools.

The iXMF specification is an open, non-proprietary file format for interactive audio content, created with the input of composers and designers of interactive systems and content. It combines audio and MIDI data with scripting that describes intelligent or adaptive playback behaviors.

Previously, IASIG explains, audio development for interactive entertainment platforms has relied on proprietary tools and middleware, each of which requires a specialized knowledge base not transferable among the different platforms.

iXMF aims to resolve this by supporting typical interactive audio system functions and representing them in a standardized way, to the exchange of data among other tools and platforms. The standardized file format, adds IASIG, also makes iXMF suitable for game audio production.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s Michael Kelly pledged his company’s support for the format: “We’re supporting iXMF in our new audio tools so sound designers can take advantage of the incredible audio processing power of the PS3,” he said.

Interested parties may download the draft document with reviewers’ instructions at http://www.iasig.org/pubs/ixmf_draft-v091a.pdf.

Source: Gamasutra.com

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