Good job! The parts where you really let loose and had fun with the script really came through nicely and were enjoyable to listen to. 

Your audio sounds a little muffled.  If you’re using a “sock” type pop filter on your microphone, try removing it and seeing if your audio is clearer. If you are using a USB or XLR microphone, be sure you are speaking directly into the input diaphragm of the microphone (or ideally just passed the mic at a slight offset to limit plosives) - usually the logo will face the front, but check with your exact model if so. Cardioid patterns will often deaden sound behind the input diaphragm and it’s easy to accidentally speak into the backside and thus have lower volume and clarity.

Your audio is also a little quiet - Try to set your gain so that your normal talking peaks are between -18 dB and -6 dB and your yelling/loud talking peaks fall between -9 dB and -3 dB. 

If you’re willing to share, what is your current recording setup?

0:13 When you misread, stumble a little, or hit an odd pace or breath (happens to everyone and it’s okay!), it’s highly encouraged to start again at the beginning of the sentence or paragraph or a point that would make it easy to remove and replace the mistake during editing. If you just keep going and don’t return to a solid point that makes it easy to edit out the mistake, you may need to come back later and re-record, and it becomes challenging to make it sound the same as the original recording. So, a good rule of thumb is to record so that it’s easy to edit later. At the end of the recording, you want to have recorded enough takes that when it’s all edited together and cleaned up it will sound like you never made a mistake once. 

0:24 mispronounced “Vacanti”. Don’t be afraid to take a few minutes to do some due diligence and research if there are any words or names you are not familiar with. Youglish.com, You Tube, Google Translate, etc. can be excellent resources for pronunciations. You can also google, “How to pronounce [insert name/word]” and will often find many references. When there isn’t an exact match, you can look for similar names/occurrences and take your best educated guess. If you have the luxury of time and a contact person for the project, it doesn’t hurt to reach out and ask for a pronunciation guide for any you are unsure about. This may be less crucial in auditions, but certainly important for actual gigs. Doing your due diligence and taking the initiative may also impress upon the casting director that you care about their project and bringing it to life in the manner they’d like to see it completed in.

0:36 Silvianis felt slurred instead of clearly spoken - be sure to enunciate and articulate your words so they can be easily understood

0:42 I hear some distortion in your audio indicating you may have peaked/clipped. A trick is to “ride the gain” if you expect you might be getting louder, turn your gain down a little bit to accommodate for the extra loudness, and then turn it back up to normal as you return to normal talking. Making these “real time” adjustments to your gain could save you another take or pick-ups potentially. It’s a skill and worth practicing. 

0:56 I hear “Silvianis sad state” instead of “Silvianis’s sad state”. Slow it down a little to make it easier to pronounce all those extra “s” sounds. It’s definitely a challenge when the word ends with “s” and the next one starts with “s”.

1:07 missed word “it”

To take it to the next level, think about how fast things happen in sports in real time. Imagine the scene playing out in your mind - you are seeing all these actions and then you are reacting to them naturally while quickly explaining it to your audience. How would a live event announcer have spoken these words? Think about how you can make your performance feel even more authentic and genuine. 

Keep working on the articulation and enunciation of words. You can use the cork trick Burger showed in Class 2 for practicing over articulating. Really hit all of the sounds and letters in words to clearly pronounce them as you practice. Strong skills and muscle memory in articulation becomes a useful tool in the voice acting toolbox to use as needed for various characters and scenarios.

Lastly, per Burger’s request in the homework: Who was the audience you were speaking to?

Keep up the good work!