Yo Cats.....you sound pretty good.....the only advice that I've learned so far that I can give ya is truly emerse yourself in the moment, do as many takes as it takes until your satisfied, love every minute of it, and honestly, don't worry about editing sound for hours to make it perfect the first few times. Enjoy the process of figuring it out and getting better every time! Focus on your creativity. We're not getting paid here, so just have fun, no stress. Seems like everyone here is pretty cool and supportive, so use your new community for help. Hone your skills, research your craft, and learn to like listening to yourself. It starts with you saying to yourself.....I'm good at this...cause you are....keep rocking bro!

Well, in preparing for my potential participation in this year's Act Your Voice Out contest, I decided to submit my first Voice This clip to the site.

Let me tell you, doing the actual voice acting the first time was nerve-wracking enough, but it must've taken me like around five minutes before I brought myself to press the play button and listen to my own voice. Now I fully understand why Johnny Depp and the like don't watch their own movies; watching or listening to actors is fun and all, but when it's you up there or your own voice, it's just too uncomfortable to sit through calmly. Even Scott McNeil once admitted that fighting himself in Dead Rising 2 was "trippy".

After the first recording, I spent the next two recordings some distance away from the computer to better the voice quality to a degree. I also made sure to use Audacity's Noise Removal feature to get rid of the background static throughout the raw recording. I know the final sound isn't perfect, but I don't really know how (if it is possible) to adjust the sensitivity of the sound mapper, and I certainly can't afford those big compressor mikes that the pros use.

The voice for Hermey is alright, but my Rudolph is really iffy. That role definitely is better fit for a female actor as it was originally played. You could say I learned that from experience :P

So I say that my first real attempt at voice acting turned out okay. If anything, I'm definitely on the road to getting over the major performance anxiety issues I've had before doing this.

I........mighta been drunk on this one, never could figure out how to undo....lmao....Doh!