I forgot to mention that my audience here is towards a group of people at a memorial — definitely tried going for a more solemn, contemplative tone.

Lovely read! As you progress in your voice acting journey (when you’re ready to), you’ll want to treat your recording space to reduce background noise (such as an a/c unit or a computer fan) and reverb/reflections. (There was also a little bit of a bell that showed up here and there in your recording - perhaps on a cat or bird? For actual auditions and gigs you will want to be aware of any background noise and try to remove or reduce it where possible for the cleanest recording you can produce.) Though I don’t hear much reflection in this recording with the quieter tones, just FYI - treating your recording space with acoustic foam (we recommend 4” thick) and/or blankets will help reduce the reflections and reverb in the space in addition to reducing background noise potentially. Basically covering any hard, reflective surfaces that sound bounces off of with soft materials like blankets or towels, etc. Many voice actors will turn off the a/c when recording to remove it from the audio recordings. If it’s a computer fan, ideally, move the computer as far away from the microphone as possible - preferably outside your recording booth. Some will use a noise reducer and as long as the a/c or fan runs consistently the whole recording, it is possible to train a noise reducer to remove just that sound from the recording. These things are not necessary for this class however as we are just focusing on the basics of voice acting, but something to think about as you progress in your journey.

Staying well hydrated will help to reduce mouth clicks during recording. A good rule of thumb is to hydrate well a couple of hours before recording and drink water in between as you’re recording to stay hydrated. 

As you progress with voice acting, investing in the RX series mouth declick plug-in is a very useful and worthwhile tool to have at your disposal to help keep the recording as clean as possible. 

0:08 Nice humanism with a little laugh in the words.

0:14 “though the time” was kind of run together

0:59 Nice change-up with the volume, coming in softer to make the point.

Great start with your audience. As you approach thinking about your audience, think about more details and context you can add in your mind’s eye. The who, what, where, when, why and how. What do they look like? How do they respond as you say certain points in the script? Are they paying attention or distracted? Where are you? What time of day is it? What are you holding, or doing as you move through the script? Are you making eye contact or just reading a letter you wrote? The more we bring the scene to life in our mind, the more it will lift it off the page and make your read stand out. I though you did great with the read honestly, so I suspect you are already applying some of these points even though they weren’t all spelled out in your notes.

Friendly advice to bear in mind too - many casting directors will not accept auditions beyond the deadline (some will so it’s not an “always” thing), but do try to be aware of deadlines and try to meet them. 

Overall, fantastic read! Keep up the great work!!