The Shortlist Is the CD's Name. Your Audition Quality Matters.

If the client doesn’t connect with the shortlist, nobody blames the talent. They question the person who picked them. Tuesday morning, or really any morning...You open your inbox and there they are. A few hundred voice over auditions for one project, a deadline that was yesterday, and a client waiting to hear who you recommend.

Somewhere in that pile is the right voice. Your job is to find it, then narrow everything down to the handful you’ll actually present.

Here’s the thing...Those auditions go out with your name attached. If the client doesn’t connect with the shortlist, it’s your judgment that gets questioned, not the talent’s abilities.

So you’re not just listening for who sounds good. You’re listening for who you can stand behind in a room full of people who all hear differently. And most reads are perfectly fine. But, fine is exhausting, because fine doesn’t make anyone’s decision easier.

I’m a voice actor, so I sit on the other side of that inbox. But I spent 23 years in telecom production, a lot of it in the director’s and editor’s chairs, and I’ll confess: that history is a double-edged sword. When I audition, part of my brain is already thinking about the edit. Where a breath would get trimmed. How a pickup would match. How it’ll sit in the final mix. It’s surprisingly hard to just act without producing the finished product in my head.

But an audition isn’t the finished product. It’s an introduction. The best thing I’ve learned is to leave the director and the editor outside the booth and give you a real, committed read. The producing can wait until you actually need it.

Here’s what I try to do, and what I hope you see from any talent worth shortlisting.

Answer the brief you were given

You’ve already told us everything you know. Often there’s no chance to ask questions, especially on pay-to-play sites, and we shouldn’t need one. A good voice actor takes what’s on the page, makes a clear choice, and commits. A hedged read that tries to please everyone just makes your job harder.

Give you two audition takes, when the submission allows

One plays the brief straight. The other is a shade different, maybe a touch warmer or a little more direct. A new attitude. It gives you options from a single voice, which means more to work with when you’re presenting. And I follow your file and labeling rules to the letter, so nothing I send creates extra work on your end.

Make the next step easy

If I land on your shortlist, I’ll always offer a live-directed session, at no extra charge. Twenty minutes with you and your decision makers, hearing adjustments in real time, can replace a lot of back-and-forth. It’s the fastest way I know to get everyone hearing the same thing.

Sorting through voice over auditions is one of the heaviest parts of a Creative Director's job, and it mostly happens alone, headphones on, with the clock running. If you’re building a shortlist right now, I’d love for you to hear what I do. You can listen and get in touch at BarbLyon.com.