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Shifting from Commercial Voice Over to Audiobooks {video}

Barbara Rosenblat Steve Barker audiobook classRegistration will close soon for Barbara Rosenblat’s Audiobook Master Class.

Recently I shared a video clip of Barbara coaching an excellent, well-established Canadian voice actor.

Last year, Australian voice talent Steve Barker made the journey to Los Angeles to be coached by Barbara.

Watch Steve come to grips with the fact that some of the tools he employs so successfully as a commercial voice actor — e.g., using his voice to “warm up the copy” — need to stay in the toolbox when recording audiobooks.

For only the second (and final) time, Rosenblat is teaching an exclusive, intimate 2-day workshop for just a dozen audiobook narrators in November. Here are all the workshop details.

If you really want to see what you’ve got as a voice actor for audio books, join us.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Jennifer Dixon September 29, 2015, 8:38 am

    brilliant!

  • Jennifer Dixon September 29, 2015, 11:34 am

    brilliant!

  • jill goldman September 29, 2015, 5:49 am

    last read was spot on. it was the only read i that felt connected to me, and made me hang on every word. great insights by barbara to get him there! thanks for sharing!

  • Richard Rieman September 29, 2015, 6:28 am

    Wow. Just wow. One of the best acting lessons I have witnessed. SO important for us former radio folks to “pull back” on trying to use our “great voice” instead of just telling the story. Thanks so much, Dan, for posting Barbara’s exceptional instruction.

  • Dan O'Day September 29, 2015, 11:36 am

    @Jill Goldman: I reacted the same way to Steve’s final read. When he deliberately refrained from “helping” the drama of that audiobook excerpt, it was overpowering.

  • Dan O'Day September 29, 2015, 11:38 am

    @Richard Rieman: “One of the best acting lessons I have witnessed.” I’m so glad to hear you say that. We see so many voice acting lessons that focus on “tricks” without ever coming close to the actual stories that are trying to be told.

  • Howard Ellison September 29, 2015, 1:05 pm

    Less is more. Well, not really less in this case – but subtle. Rivetting.

  • Deb Stamp September 30, 2015, 8:53 am

    Fascinating. For me, this was a lesson in listening.