Jordin Sparks to Guest Star in Nickelodeon’s “Team UmiZoomi”

Platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated, Jive Records recording artist Jordin Sparks makes waves in the brand-new Team Umizoomi special, “The Legend of the Blue Mermaid,” premiering Friday, May 13, at 11:30 a.m. (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon. Sparks guest stars in her first voiceover role as a blue mermaid trapped in a sand castle by a scheming squid. In addition to voicing the mythical creature, Sparks performs an original Team Umizoomi song entitled, “Song of the Blue Mermaid.”

“This is my first time doing a voiceover role and the fact they asked me to do Team Umizoomi had me bouncing off the walls,” said Jordin Sparks. “I’m so happy to be a part of the show as I love the music on Team Umizoomi and that it gets kids excited about math.”

In the special, Team Umizoomi discovers the statue of the Blue Mermaid (Jordin Sparks) while visiting the beach. According to legend, the mermaid with her sparkly blue scales once lived happily in the water by Umi City. But one day, a scheming squid named Squiddy captured the mermaid so that he could keep her sparkling light all to himself. The team must count, recognize shapes and identify patterns in order to rescue the Blue Mermaid from Squiddy’s secret sand castle. It won’t be an easy task as Squiddy will stop at nothing to keep Team Umizoomi from using their mighty math powers to save the day.

About Team Umizoomi

Team Umizoomi, created by Soo Kim, Michael T. Smith and Jennifer Twomey, is currently in its second season and is one of the top preschool shows on TV. Team Umizoomi features a tiny team of superheroes, Milli, Geo and Bot, who use their mighty math powers to help little kids solve big problems. The series combines action-adventure missions with an interactive math curriculum designed to help kids develop self-confidence in their math abilities and appreciate the many ways in which math shapes their world. The Umi Team is not complete without their Umifriend (home viewer), who helps the team along the way while practicing various math skills.

About Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon, now in its 32nd year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books and feature films. Nickelodeon’s U.S. television network is seen in more than 100 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for 16 consecutive years.

Source: ToonZone

Drake Signs On To “Ice Age” Cast

Toronto-based rapper, Drake, has reportedly joined the voice over cast in the newest entry for the 3D animated franchise “Ice Age.”

Additional newcomers to the all-star lineup are Jeremy Renner, Aziz Ansari and Wanda Sykes. Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez are also rumored to be joining the cast. Returning are cast regulars Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Seann William Scott and Josh Peck.

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Auditioning Adobe’s Digital Audio Workstation For The Mac

Voice actors are constantly searching for the perfect DAW. It’s the software we rely on to record and edit auditions and produce complete voiceover projects. There is much debate about which DAW is best for VO purposes, but Mac users have fewer options than their PC counterparts.

Adobe will soon give Apple fans a new option that PC users have been utilizing for years. It’s called Adobe Audition. Formerly known as Cool Edit Pro (before Adobe bought it), Audition has been the DAW of choice for radio production and newsrooms across the country. I have personally used it as a reporter at two radio stations.

Audition for the Mac has been released to the general public in beta form. Adobe is allowing people to try it out in return for their feedback on its forums. You can download it for free here. I have been using it for three months now – recording all of my VO auditions and projects on it. And it’s been like reacquainting myself with an old friend.

Audition works with just about any digital audio interface you can throw at it. All you have to do is choose your device in the preferences menu under audio hardware. My weapon of choice is the Apogee Duet. Once your hardware is setup you can begin recording.

Recording is almost self-explanatory because Audition’s interface is clean and easy to understand. But you do have to take an extra step to set your levels. It involves clicking on the view dropdown menu, sliding down to metering and clicking on meter input signal. I don’t remember having to do this in the old Cool Edit Pro.

Editing in Audition is a breeze. The intuitive interface allows you to quickly edit waveforms. Once you’re done editing you have to click file then save. This is where you can choose the location of your file and the format (.aiff, .mp3, .mov and .wav).

One feature I miss from the old PC version was its ability to save your recordings when the software crashes. Believe me, it was a necessary feature in Cool Edit Pro. But after several months of intense usage the software hasn’t crashed on me yet. I don’t know if Adobe deserves the credit or if it’s just my trusty ‘ole MacBook Pro.

I have encountered one serious bug, however. I couldn’t record or playback files at one point. But the staff on the Adobe forums site quickly solved my problem by having me delete a preferences folder. This is, of course, to be expected in a beta release. Hopefully, Adobe will rectify this in the final release.

All in all I have enjoyed recording and editing inside Adobe Audition because it is a familiar tool. But for newcomers the learning curve shouldn’t be very steep at all. It’s definitely worth giving it a shot. After all, you can’t beat its current free status. Happy editing!

New Voice Of Aflac Duck Announced

Daniel McKeague, a radio sales manager from Minnesota, was awarded the gig as the new voice of the Aflac duck.

His first television commercial debut as the Aflac duck will air during Tuesday’s premiere of NBC’s new singing competition show “The Voice.”

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Thanks To Text-To-Talk Roger Ebert Still Has A Voice

Roger Ebert lost his lower jaw, the ability to eat and speak but he is not without a voice.

At TED2011 Ebert, along with the help of his wife and a few close friends, told the moving story of how he is triumphing over adversity and is getting his voice back through his computer. Text-to-talk services come with most computers these days and are used widely by the seeing impaired and those who cannot speak.

Text-to-talk allow users to type words into their computers which a computerized voice then reads aloud. Voice talent are hired to record hours of audio for these services but the result is artificial sounding, leaving room for improvement.

Ebert explained that after trying several services he finally settled on Apple’s synthetic voice “Alex” which was released as part of the 2007 Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

“These are my words, but this is not my voice. This is Alex, the best computer voice I’ve been able to find, which comes as standard equipment on every Macintosh.” Ebert explains at the recorded conference, “For most of my life, I never gave a second thought to my ability to speak. It was like breathing. In those days, I was living in a fool’s paradise. After surgeries for cancer took away my ability to speak, eat or drink, I was forced to enter this virtual world in which a computer does some of my living for me.”

Impatient with the slow speed of text-to-talk, Ebert sites social technologies such as Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, and email for giving him the ability to contribute to everyday conversations because online everyone speaks at the same speed.

Ebert ads, “Because of the rush of human knowledge, because of the digital revolution, I have a voice, and I do not need to scream.”

Ebert is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer for his work reviewing films for the The Chicago Sun Times and he is best known for his twenty-three year reign as co-host for the televised program originally named Sneak Previews.

Source: TED2011

Voice Artist George Washington III Voices ROOT Sports Northwest Television Promotions

Passion, connection, and quality is what ROOT Sports is all about. These were the qualities they sought for the voice of their new television network ad campaigns.

Root Sports, the nation’s premier regional sports network, selected voice actor, George Washington III, to provide liners and promotional spots for the television network’s programming.

DJ Hammond, Promotions Manager at ROOT Sports Northwest, said “We listened to many voiceover talents, but George really stood out. He took the time to understand the project and deliver exactly what we were looking for. His response time and communication throughout the process is also top-notch.” Throughout the year, you’ll hear Washington’s strong passionate voice when you tune into ROOT Sports Northwest’s broadcasts of teams in the region.

In their Northwest region, ROOT Sports’ programming includes the Seattle Mariners (MLB), Seattle Seahawks (NFL), Seattle Sounders FC and Portland Timbers (MLS), University of Washington Huskies, Washington State University Cougars, University of Oregon Ducks, and Oregon State University Beavers (Pac 12), Gonzaga Bulldogs (West Coast Conference) and Seattle University Redhawks as well as The Dan Patrick Show.

A professional voice actor since 2003, some of George Washington III’s voiceover credits include CarMax, ESPN, McDonalds, Hewlett Packard, the Louisiana, North Carolina and Tennessee Lotteries, Hooters, EA Sports, Ikea, the Tennessee Valley Authority, ADP, Opera Carolina, the Charlotte Bobcats, IBM, Capital One, Whole Foods, Cox Cable and Mass Health.

Source: VO Evolution

Animation Voice Overs With Stevie Vallance

When it comes to voice overs for animation there are few as experienced and knowledgeable as Stevie Vallance.

A performer since childhood, her dynamic personality easily lead into a decades long career voicing animated characters. She offers up some useful tips for those considering a career in voice-over animation:

MYTH: Animation Voice-over is limited to actors who are already working.

FACT: They are looking for new voices that are brilliant. It’s easy to be ‘brilliant’.

FACT: You make $50,000+ a year for 4 hours work a week, in a 52-episode, ‘union’, animation series.

FACT: Double that if you play multiple characters, so you need to develop a multi-character repertoire.

FACT: A Voice-over Demo will seldom ‘get you a job’ but you must have a Voice demo in order to get an agent.

FACT: You must have an agent in order to audition for union work.

FACT: Non-union actors become ‘union’ when they are cast in a union show.

FACT: It doesn’t matter what you look like!

Stevie Vallance operates ToonedIn, a voice over animation workshop in Toronto, Ontario and has become one of North America’s most sought-after cartoon voice-over coaches.

For more info on upcoming workshops in your area, go to www.toonedin.ca

Source: Stevie Vallance

Could This Be The ONE?

You have probably collected more than a few pieces of audio hardware as a voice actor. After all, we are always looking for that special something that will make our voices sing! Apogee is hoping the ONE is the single piece of kit you will use in your Mac-based recording studio.

The ONE is a compact USB microphone and digital audio interface. And with a 2.25” x 4.75” footprint it is actually small enough to fit in your pocket. But you probably would not want to do that with a sensitive piece of audio equipment.

A USB 2.0 cable powers and connects the ONE to your Apple computer. Other connections include a breakout port and cable that sports one balanced XLR microphone preamp input and one unbalanced ¼” instrument input for all you musicians out there. There is also an ⅛” stereo headphone jack that doubles as an output to powered monitor.

At the heart of the ONE is the encoder knob. Just like its big brother, the Duet, a simple click and twist of the knob can select and adjust most of the ONE’s features. You do have to use the included Maestro software to switch between the internal mic, external mic and instrument input.

Apogee is known for the quality of its analog to digital and digital to analog conversion. That is the process that converts sound into a digital signal on your computer and then back into an analog signal you can hear. When using an external microphone, the ONE actually lives up to the company’s stellar reputation. But there is some room for improvement.

When testing the product, the ONE worked with my power-hungry Shure SM7B dynamic mic, but the input was very low. I could not get it to record at the optimum levels even with the knob turned up to its maximum input. But when I connected a Rode NT1-A condenser mic it reached proper levels with little to no noise.

But the ONE has something that most other interfaces in its class do not, a built-in condenser microphone. The mic records some respectable audio. But as expected, it cannot stand up to a full-size condenser mic with a 1” capsule. Plus there is no real pop filter to stop the puffs of air that come from hard consonant sounds.

If you like traveling light, I could see using this neat little unit to set up a portable studio with just the ONE and a MacBook. The sound quality from the internal mic is not perfect, but it is good enough to record auditions. You get a lot of value here for the MSRP of $249.

Source: Apogee

SunSetter Retains Popular Voice Talent for 2nd Year

SunSetter Products, based in Malden, Massachusetts, has secured audio’connell as the voice for the company’s SunSetter Awnings, the #1 best-selling retractable awnings in America. SunSetter Awnings are enjoyed by over half a million American customers.

“The SunSetter Awnings national television campaign has been great to work on because SunSetter Products and the producers did such a great job on the first spot, so now to be a part of it for a second year is really awesome and a special privilege for me,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell’s professional voiceover credits include national and regional voiceover productions for companies such as PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), Shell Oil, Starz Cable Channel, Time Warner Cable, New Jersey Tourism, J. Walter Thompson Advertising, Cleveland Browns, Harlequin Enterprises, and Pathmark Supermarkets.

Headquartered in Buffalo, NY, O’Connell owns audio’connell Voice Over Talent, a worldwide, English language-based voice talent business. The company provides voice talent for commercials, animation, corporate narrations, documentaries, broadcast voice imaging, audio books and messaging on-hold. Founded in 1982, audio’connell has served worldwide industries including advertising agencies, media and broadcast production companies as well as both large and small businesses. audio’connell Voice Over Talent is part of O’Connell Communications, LLC.

Source: audio’connell

Al Yankovic Voices His New Book

Funny man Weird Al Yankovic has gotten serious about books – well, sort of. Dropping the monicker “Weird,” Al Yankovic has released his first children’s picture book. The book is written with his trade-mark humor and enthusiasm with whimsical illustrations by Wes Hargis.

Published by HarperCollins Children’s Division, Yankovic also narrated his book and published his latest work ” When I Grow Up” via HarperAudio. A trailer for the audiobook can be viewed on YouTube, giving the listening audience an excerpt of the story’s exuberant eight-year-old protagonist as he catalogs his dream jobs.

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