It promises to be a very active year for political advertising and, as a voiceover talent for political commercials, I am here for all of it.

I voice commercials for local, regional, state and national elections and issues.

For those who might not know, I voice spots for “Introduce the Candidate” political ads (also known as “Biographical” ads); the “Pro-Candidate” political commercials; the “Attack Ad” political spots (similar to the “Opposition” spots which I also voice);  “Issue” ads (focusing on a single issue surrounding an election – sometimes produced by PACs or Political Action Committees); “Ballot Initiative” ads’ “Political Humor” ads; “Patriotic” political TV & radio commercials; “Testimonial” political reads and many more.

LISTEN TO PETER K. O’CONNELL’S 2024 POLITICAL COMMERCIAL VOICEOVER DEMO (below)

While not aligned with any political party, I voice political commercials solely for candidates who fully support the Pro-Life platform.

For information and rates on political spots, connect with me at all of the usual places or click here.

Tags: Demos, political advertising by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Truth be told, this new commercial character voice demo was a long time in the making.

A loooong time…like 18 years.

You read that right.

Why so long?

I kept getting hired off the 18 year old demo.

LISTEN TO PETER K. O’CONNELL’s 2024 COMMERCIAL CHARACTER VOICE DEMO BELOW:

Then the character voice demo evolved – there were character voice demos, then just animation character voice demos, then video game character demos. Then offshoots and collections mixing all that stuff. Oy!

I wasn’t sure how I should roll with these changes. I can do voices and voice acting for all those genres. Heck, I HAVE done voices in all those genres.

I even worked on one of the early famous video games (with a boatload of audio files) – Bioshock. But when I saw the game, I didn’t really like the story and visuals…they creeped me out, honestly. Clearly there was a huge audience for it but that audience didn’t include me.

Plus, I realized if I played in those video game voice acting waters…I’d likely be faced with that same gut/moral conundrum more than a few times. I don’t mind ceeding artistic control on most projects…but video games could get really weird really fast for my tastes. Not judging others but it was not for me.

I decided I was more of a commercial and animation character voice person. Plus there are a ton more talented than me video game voice actors in the world.

Then there was the paralyzing (for me) question of what to include in a new character voice demo. I can do and have done a ton of unique and familiar characters…I became overwhelmed.

It was a terrible but very real feeling about this inconsequential character voice demo (inconsequential when compared to the big picture of life).

I talked to some character voice producers (smart, talented folks) but I didn’t feel confident enough in my choices and the direction I wanted to go in for my demo to make it a worthwhile partnership to invest my money and their time.

Then a few weeks ago, I spent a Saturday doing a deep dive into the archive of ALL the character stuff I have voiced. I sensed a direction and felt a great confidence to begin assembling, writing, voicing, editing and mixing.

One of the great benefits of working professionally in voiceover for over 40 years is that you become friends with very talented people who opinions you respect and who you know will lend a helpful ear and thoughtful, smart feedback.

I am so grateful for the help of my friends Bruce Miles, Steve Pogatch and most especially Rowell Gormon – who together easily total a century’s worth of professional character voice performance and production – for their insights. If you love the demo, it’s in large part because of them. If you hate, that’s on me.

I hope you love it.

And I hope there was a wonderful reason in God’s big plan that I had to wait 18 years between character voice demos. Cause I’m not sure I still be around if I have to wait ANOTHER 18 years for the next one! 🙂

Tags: character voices, Demos, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Other than an actor’s voice and personality, there is probably no more important marketing tool a voice actor has than his/her voiceover demo.

It’s how all your training and talent manifests itself — shouting to the world that you are a professional voice actor. The well-produced voiceover demo is the audio personification of your performing abilities. Woot!!!

Oh, and nobody really cares about your voiceover demo.

Sure, people who hire you (producers & clients) will listen to it see if you have and can deliver the sound they want.

Of course agents will listen to see if you’re presenting what’s trending in the voiceover world so they can sell your voice with your demo.

But their interactions with your demo is likely very short….seconds rather than minutes. They listen, they make a decision, they move on.

And yet as voiceover talents, don’t we fret, stress and strain over every syllable uttered, every musical note played and every sound effect…effected. Don’t even get me started on the order of demo segments.

We have but brief seconds to make a great lasting impression.

As insurance, many folks reasonably decide that hiring an expert demo producer will make the process more professional and maybe less stressful. Sometimes that works and sometimes not.

All these thoughts came back to me as I completed production of my Commercial Voiceover Demo.

The demo production process is a little slice of purgatory really.

I fretted over voice types and scripts and intonation and pacing and music and industry trends and on and on as I self-produced my little heart out to create what I thought was a pretty great demo.

It was with that “pretty great demo” thought that I knew I must call on every performer’s greatest asset – if he or she will only ask for it and receive it – humility.

For demos, humility is about seeking and listening to honest feedback from trusted peers. This time, I got it and it saved me from myself.

By way of quick example, I had crafted a demo segment that I knew was perfect…from the voice to the inflection to the mix…this was going to be my lead piece. Heck, I’ve been doing this for 40+ years, right?

The unanimous feedback from my pro friends said that what I thought was a symphonic demo segment sounded to them more like variations of nails on a chalkboard. VERY glad I solicited opinions.

Stepping back further (with that feedback) I then asked one of my peers if he would direct me in a re-recording of the segment. Segment feedback after that said I made the right call. Grateful to all who helped me.

None of the people I solicited feedback from likely gave my demo another thought after we spoke – that’s perfectly fine. They cared but not like I cared about MY demo.

So if the professional feedback on your demo is really good but nobody seems as excited as you about your demo’s release…relax. That’s how it works in the pros. You’re good.

Tags: commentary, Demos, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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The hard reality for voice talents is that almost no one is as excited about the production and release of a new voiceover demo as the voice talent themselves. To us, it’s like a shiny new car.

Well maybe the demo producer – who earns his or her living off of producing voiceover demos – cares a lot…but the rest of the world doesn’t care quite as much as those two care.

Editor’s note: my new Narration demo is totally awesome (he said humbly) and you will totally love it (he noted demurely) and you’ll want to hire me on the spot (he said respectfully). I’m perfectly OK with that.

LISTEN TO PETER K. O’CONNELL’S NARRATION 2020 VOICEOVER DEMO:

It’s fun to listen to new voiceover demos when we come across them…hearing the read, gauging the performance, the script interpretation, the audio production and individually deciding if it all comes together in a finished voiceover sample that makes the voice talent shine.

From the talent and production side of the coin, it’s hard to reconcile the fact that the “shine” I mentioned is purely based on…the subjective opinion of the listener. That’s right, there is generally no right or wrong demo production answer, no perfect voiceover demo formula.

And that’s why even though I produced my last Narration demo about 6 months ago, I have now produced a new Narration demo. The last demo was great and I received work and compliments on it. But I decided to make what I feel was an important change.

On my past Narration demos, I included not only Corporate Narration clips but also E-learning voiceover samples and Explainer video voiceover samples. Maybe it was my stubbornness or my laziness (or something in between) but I believed at the time that one Narration demo with all three (3) genres included would serve the needs of producers.

For no particularly revolutionary reason and without a shocking epiphany, I decided that I might be wrong about that old reasoning.

It seemed to me that I wasn’t actually serving the producers of E-learning and Explainer videos very well with my “one-size-fits-all” Narration demo. So a new focused Narration demo has been produced as has a stand-alone E-learning voiceover demo and Explainer video demo. Each contains more specific examples of the categories, produced with element more appropriate to the production genre. Explainer video narrations sound different than E-learning narrations sound and Corporate Video narrations sound even more different than either of the other two.

Each demo now resides on its own web page as well, one for Narration, one for E-learning and one for Explainer videos.

I invite you to click on any of the links to hear any and all of them.

Tags: Demos, e-learning, explainer videos, narrations by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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OK, ok, I finally did it.

In my past narration voiceover demos, while I always included my corporate voiceover samples, I also included samples of voiceover work I have recorded that are known as e-learning and explainer voiceovers.

At last I have given my explainer voiceover work and my e-learning voiceover work their completely individual voiceover demos.

Now you might not know terms e-learning or explainer…but I am pretty sure you’ve heard these genres of voiceover in your professional lives.

LISTEN TO PETER K. O’CONNELL’S E-LEARNING VOICEOVER DEMO:

E-learning narration refers to the voiceover recording genre, often involving video and/or the internet that that helps students and professionals learn outside the standard classroom. E-learning has been long popular for training employees and teaching students at all levels of education but it’s popularity really spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of distance learning process.

LISTEN TO PETER K. O’CONNELL’S EXPLAINER VOICEOVER DEMO:

Explainer voiceovers are the narrations that tell the story of Explainer Videos. Most often used for businesses, Explainer Videos communicate in a simple ang engaging way how a product or service works and why a user would benefit from that use. Although they can be produced in a variety of graphic styles, Explainer Videos are most often animated – which helps producers convey complex ideas into a more simple form with eye -catching visuals and, of course, ear-catching narration! That’s where I come in.

Producers of E-learning and Explainer videos prefer to hear voiceover samples of their specific genre now, so…that’s what I am gladly offering them. Enjoy!

Tags: Demos, e-learning, explainer videos, narrations, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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WHY DID I PRODUCE my new sport radio imaging demo? Well first off, mine needed updating, so there’s that.

But with the traveling I have done recently, listening to so much radio I was reminded how important the sport radio format has become to listeners like me…and you.

LISTEN TO PETER K. O’CONNELL’S SPORTS RADIO IMAGING DEMO:

There are few radio formats where radio imaging is so important. While many cities are fortunate enough to have national AND local sports radio programs in their markets, my travels tell me many more sports radio stations fill up programs only with national programs – with no local, daily sports radio hosts.

So the audio branding that sports radio imaging provides becomes vital to these radio stations because the radio imaging is the ONLY way outside of the radio station web site that listeners know who what they are listening to…the radio imaging IS the brand.

The audio brand needs to sound like knowledgeable but likeable sports-nut driven to bring all the sports news and action to listeners. As an experienced radio imaging voice talent, I am glad to provide that service to sports radio stations. Please listen to the demo and…if you’re hiring, give me a call and let’s talk.

Tags: Demos, radio, radio imaging by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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