Re: Taking a slightly different tone

[Chris Morton <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I concur with Wendy on all of her suggestions/points.  > Chris

On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 11:15 AM, voxwoman <voxwoman -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

> I have had some tiny experience with VO work, both on the voice talent end
> and the studio engineering and production end. It takes about 1.5 minutes
> to
> read one page of material using 12 point (Times New Roman) type and 1 1/2
> line spacing. That's the finished time - not how long it takes you to
> record
> it.
>
> Your rates should reflect what it is you are actually going to be doing.
> Are
> you "simply" appearing in a studio, and speaking into a microphone? Or are
> they expecting you to be your own recording engineer as well? If the
> latter,
> do you have "decent equipment"? Decent equipment these days is a lot
> cheaper
> than you think - you can do very acceptable VO work with a good MP3-type
> recorder (such as the M-Audio stereo recorder that records on compact flash
> cards) and using your car as the sound booth (the acoustics in a car parked
> in a quiet neighborhood are quite similar to a recording booth).
>
> I did VO for a video game (a "fan module" for the NeverWinter Nights 2
> computer game). There was no pay involved. I recorded maybe 4 pages of
> dialog. It took me probably 8 hours to record something I was happy with
> and
> another 16 to process the sound files.
>
> My husband did some freelance VO work for an answering machine (they needed
> an "American" voice).  He read 3 or 4 paragraphs - literally "phoning it
> in"
> -- it took him less than 30 minutes and he got $75 for the gig.
>
> Other vocal work that I did (recording a Cher imitation vocal for some
> sales
> meeting) took much longer, and I also had to re-write the lyrics so that
> they scanned properly with the song (the version I was handed did not). I
> spent a full day in the studio, doing many takes, and I was paid $300. The
> finished product was three and a half minutes in length.
>
> Good luck with your negotiations
>
> -Wendy
> www.sheridanmultimedia.com
>
> On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 11:21 AM, Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
>
> > This post may be a waste of time but I can't think of anyone better to
> > ask...
> >
> > I've been asked to provide a quote for doing some voice recording work,
> for
> > a company that is fielding some web-distributed training. I'm told it
> would
> > probably be about 8 hours' work.
> >
> > I have gone online and researched the going rates for voice work, and
> they
> > are frightening. Apparently it's normal to charge by the *second* at
> rates
> > like $200 for a 30-second gig. I and the people doing the training
> materials
> > have no experience in this and I'm pretty sure asking for $100 for each
> 15
> > seconds is a good way to scare them off.
> >
> > So, what do you think would be a good rate? This came to me through a
> > friend who is working form that company as a technical writer, and most
> > likely the company is thinking of paying for the voice work in the same
> > manner as her. They're probably thinking of an hourly rate in the same
> > neighborhood. If I got a new gig as a tech writer I certainly wouldn't be
> > making money by the second on it, and I have nothing better to do right
> now.
> >
> > I have to get back to them by 3 this afternoon, so if you open this
> message
> > for the first time after that, you may as well not waste your time
> replying.
> > Unless you just feel like throwing something out on general
> > Friday-whathtebleep principles.
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
> Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
> 2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
> http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
>
> Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
> authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
> once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control!
> http://www.helpandmanual.com/
>
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help  
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

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