Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Talking About Voice Match
57 Plays1 year ago
In this episode of the VO Bar Podcast, Will, Victoria, and Al dive into the intriguing world of voice matching. The trio discusses the nuances of voice match auditions and the various reasons for employing voice matches, from substituting actors in ADR to modifying dialogue for cleaner versions of films. They also share personal anecdotes and insights into the industry, highlighting how voice matching isn't just about mimicking voices but understanding the intent behind voice acting. The conversation is filled with humor, movie references, and a casual deep dive into how voice matching impacts both the listener's experience and the voice actor's craft. Whether you're a voice actor, an enthusiast, or just curious about the behind-the-scenes of voiceover work, this episode offers a mix of entertainment and education.
Chapters:
(00:00:00) - Introduction to Voice Match
(00:01:27) - Voice Matching in Production
(00:03:11) - Voice Matching for Clean Versions
(00:08:04) - Voice Matching in Voiceover Industry
(00:16:28) - Voice Matching in Animation
(00:25:55) - Regional Accents and Voice Match
Visit our websites:
Thanks for listening!
The VO Bar podcast is available everywhere you find quality podcasts. If you're enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving us a review on Apple, Spotify, and as of March 1st; IMDb! Help us spread the word, help grow our listener base by telling a friend! Want to hear something different, have a topic or guest suggestion? We'd love to hear from you!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Voice Matching
00:00:00
Speaker
What are we talking about tonight? Voice match. Voice match. Not body double, voice match. Right, right. I mean, it's the same thing just for voice instead of the body. Voice match. What the hell is that? Voice match? Yeah, voice matching. Is that like a game? It's not a dating app.
00:00:28
Speaker
Today on Voice Match. Can you imagine? Oh my gosh. We will match you with somebody with the perfect voice so you can talk to yourself. Hey lady, how you doing? You want a little of this? It's a lot of no for you. All right? No. Seriously though, hearing somebody's voice is definitely
00:00:48
Speaker
could be turned off or on, depending on, you know, they got a great photo. I mean, the dating game was built on that, right? It was all about what they sound like and how they answer the question. Oh, that's true. Yeah. Anyway, voice matching. Voice matching.
00:01:04
Speaker
should be pointed out that a voice match is not the same as if they give you a sample to listen to for a commercial.
Applications of Voice Matching
00:01:13
Speaker
Or a celebrity touch point or reference. Right. Different thing. A lot of people take that for, oh, they're looking for that kind of delivery. Right. All right, all right, all right. Exactly. Yeah.
00:01:40
Speaker
it indeed. The governor is there. Yeah, it's not that. But yeah, that's different. That's very different versus voice matching, which is there's different reasons for it, right? You can have it because the actor may not be available to do something that didn't film very well. So now you have to go back in and they have to do some looping and ADR and all that fun.
00:01:54
Speaker
And... Get to the chopper! No, wait, what was the super protocol? No, wait, what was the super protocol? No, wait, what was the super protocol? No, wait, what was the super protocol? No, wait, what was the super protocol? No, wait, what was the super protocol?
00:02:03
Speaker
Or they've changed lines. Right. And for scheduling purposes, it's too hard to get the actor to come in to just do that. So they hire someone as a voice match who can replicate the voice. Most famously, probably, is Tom Hanks. His brother does all of his looping. Like all of the Toy Story toys, the figurines that you pull the string and they talk or whatever. That's all Tom Hanks' brother. I think you push buttons now rather than push things. Whatever it is. OK. Yeah.
00:02:33
Speaker
You're welcome. It's a pull string in the show. It is in Toy Story.
Voice Matching in Movies
00:02:39
Speaker
That's true. Now, do they do that when they make the censored version of a movie and instead of saying bleep, bleep, bleep, they say, um, mother, father.
00:02:51
Speaker
So when they... Shut the front door. Yes, shut the front door. So when they do the cleaner versions that they can play on TV, they use voice match for that. Do they do that anymore? We were just talking earlier about streaming. There's no made for TV movies anymore. No, not really. Right? Like you can watch anything like even... I mean, I suppose there still are because, you know, there's still network TV and there's movies on there. They're getting away with a lot of stuff though. I've heard a lot of off-color language.
00:03:21
Speaker
Yeah, the restrictions seem to have loosened a bit. Just a bit. Just a bit. But yeah, I know what you're saying in terms of when they did used to do that, was that a voice match? I don't know. Sometimes it seemed like they just grabbed the guy from...
00:03:35
Speaker
You know. Coffee guy. The guy bringing in coffee. Hey, you sound about right. Get over here. Can you say shut the front door a couple of times? Do you know how to read? Perfect. Perfect. Right. It never sounded right. Like the... No, you always... I distinctly remember listening to or watching Good Morning Vietnam, the TV version. And there's a scene where it's raining outside and the clean dub, like it stops raining.
00:04:02
Speaker
during those couple words. Or it's like a totally different, lighter rain or something. Like you forgot the holy. Like they put it in, but it's good enough. Yes, it works. You know, instead of rain, it's just like a couple grains of rice.
00:04:18
Speaker
pouring into a bowl or something. It's not right. Oh, man. I gotta find it. Yeah, right? Keep yapping. But I suppose it depends, right? I'm hunting here. In some cases, and I suspect back in the 80s, 90s, when a big blockbuster would go to TV, they probably knew it was going to ahead of time. And so in many cases, I would think that that was just part of the production, was the AER to get the... Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
00:04:44
Speaker
That is something to Google. But I do know that sometimes there's a replacement, right? They've replaced a certain member of the cast. For various reasons. For various reasons. Like sometimes if you've had a younger kid voice and that child has now matured and their voice completely changes,
00:05:04
Speaker
They need to find somebody who can voice match that, that sounds that age and may not have a crack in their voice because they're going through puberty. So that happens. I mean, sometimes there's just artistic disagreements and they are still going on reproduction, but they need to find somebody who sounds similar to that character. So then they look for that.
00:05:30
Speaker
or there's controversy from the actor's private life that's come to the forefront and causes problems for production, so they replace the actor.
Audition Challenges for Iconic Roles
00:05:43
Speaker
The notable recent one would be the Rick and Morty thing. I remember getting that audition last year, and I didn't do it. I tried, but I would have killed my voice if I did it, but I didn't feel right doing it anyway. What's happening, Al?
00:05:57
Speaker
Yeah, Al is laughing. I was pulling up the scene from Big Lebowski, the car scene where John Goodman beats the Corvette up at the crowbar. And there are two versions of this scene.
00:06:11
Speaker
And of course, the one I pulled isn't the... Not the clean version. Clean version. The unclean version. It is the unclean version. Yes, it's definitely unclean. And just listening to the rant, I can't imagine the clean rant. Well, can you imagine if they just, instead of doing voice matching, they would have just put in little beeps. Then that's all it would be. Oh. Right? Just beep, beep, beep. Just like, sounds like somebody flatlined, actually, the scene.
00:06:40
Speaker
It would be a rap song. Or like, my cousin Vinny, they had to. Like, if you're going to make that for a clean version, forget about it. One of the greatest movies ever. The two utes. The two utes, yeah. Let's not forget your biological clock. Yes. And then, blam, your shot is freaking head off. Yeah.
00:07:05
Speaker
I'm going to have to go watch that movie now. I know, right? I also shoot De Niro when
Mimicking Famous Voices
00:07:11
Speaker
he was starting to do comedy. De Niro was doing comedy? Analyze this and analyze that. So good. You're good, you. You're good. You could put two, three bodies in here. As a car salesman. Yeah, that's selling a vehicle.
00:07:32
Speaker
You want to talk to the manager? He is the manager. Yeah. Good times. Good times.
00:07:43
Speaker
So yeah, I get voice match auditions every once in a while. I don't like them. You think they're icky? I do. I find them kind of just a little off-putting. And I don't know why, exactly. I don't know if I can put it into words. Why? It just doesn't feel right. It's like, you know, if you want that actor, just hire that actor.
00:08:03
Speaker
Well, there's... You know, I don't... Why should I want to recreate somebody else's performance and their voice and pretend to be them when I'd really rather just be me? Because production wants to pay you less. Well, some people make a living off of it. That's your thing. Yeah, well, I don't want to get paid less. Instead of them having to pay double scale or whatever it is, they are like, you know what? We can find somebody else that sounds like you, so...
00:08:29
Speaker
Well, it's all laid out in the contractual agreement. Yeah. Well, and sometimes it's not clear if, you know, they'll send sample material and say, okay, do you want me to sound exactly like that? Or are you replacing this person and you want me to give my interpretation of it or something? Because I had one like that recently where it was like, they sent a lot.
00:08:51
Speaker
I don't, I don't understand why do you want me to sound like him, but you're sending me like, you know, eight pages of stuff. It was like five minutes of stuff to listen to. Wow. And a song and like, yeah, like you're replacing his voice in all this stuff, but like you still want it to sound like his voice. I didn't make sense. I didn't, I didn't understand. I know that for some ad agencies, because I've had that request.
00:09:15
Speaker
is to sound for something for their scratch track to just be internal, but they're trying to show it to their client who may not have that. They just do it so that the client can also hear it.
00:09:31
Speaker
and not like, hey, you know, we're going to hire, it'll really be Jennifer Coolidge, right? But someone's going, who's that? Oh, she's the one who's- You look like the fourth in July. Oh, come on, let's do it. Yeah. So you find somebody who can do that in her voice and then present that to the client. So it doesn't go out.
00:09:52
Speaker
to any place, right? It's really just for an internal show, if you will, for a pitch. And I can agree, and I've actually had those, and I remember I had one, I'm like, I don't sound like Jennifer Aniston. I can't sound like, I mean, I shouldn't be able to pull that one off, but I can. Jennifer Coolidge I can do, I can do Cher, there's some others that I can do, but not all of them.
00:10:18
Speaker
And... You probably could. No, but my agent even wrote back. He's like, well, you tried.
Complexities of Voice Acting
00:10:23
Speaker
Wow, well, thank you for the effort. Well, I told him I said I I'd rather that than they send it in Yeah, because then it's like what the hell is that? That's not good, right? I knew it wasn't good, but I wanted to say hey, I'm not feeling this I haven't had enough time to really study this one. But here's what I had. It's like well you tried. Thanks Yeah, and I was happy with that, you know, it's like no you're being honest So I knew that was just for an internal pitch deck, you know that being an internal demo I'm not getting a lot of money for that anyway. So why right?
00:10:53
Speaker
you know, over overwork that just to sound like. Well, I give I give both of you the 80s movie slow clap because I don't do voices and I applaud anyone who can. I just I I don't know what it is, whether I don't like the sound of my own voice or I just don't think I can get into that. People that do invitations or impressions, I I find it amazing.
00:11:18
Speaker
I grew up watching and listening to Rich Little, so I'm really dating myself by saying that. But he was so impressive to me.
00:11:31
Speaker
That way you're not sure the way back. Sure, sure, sure. But I was so impressed by his ability to kind of go through all those different characters. Which it is, it's an art, but I just don't, I don't know if my voice, I mean, one voice can't do everything. Unless you're Mel Blanc.
00:11:48
Speaker
Yeah, but you have to be able to be on that plane that you can adjust certain things. Frank Caliendo does it good. He can emerge from one and then he says, well, then if you use this guy's voice and you go a little nasally, now you're doing this guy. Right. And he gets the face too. Yeah, you just have to be in the right spot. Jim Carrey can do that as well. His whole face morphs and he's somebody different. You're like, holy, what's happening?
00:12:16
Speaker
But that makes a lot of sense, though, because your face shape and your mouth movement and shape, that affects what you sound like. So if you can morph your head into somebody else's head, in theory, you should sound like them. I just look like a gourd. So I don't sound like anybody. Although I can't do that. But you know who you look like? Oh, here we go. Tell me. Here we go. You look like Jim Cummings a little bit. So you should practice your Winnie the Pooh.
00:12:40
Speaker
Oh, I should. Oh. Oh. I don't think I know what he looks like. I met Jim. Looks a lot like Al. He is a great guy. And he made my wife cry.
00:12:53
Speaker
Yeah, he's good at that. Well, I met him at Sova's three years ago or so. And I was- And did he go, wow, I'm looking in the mirror? No, he didn't. But we spoke. He was in a panel, and I asked him a question. And he responded in the Winnie the Pooh voice. And it's so pure. Yeah. And she just broke down. It was amazing.
00:13:20
Speaker
I cried in the movie theater when that when Christopher Robin like just I got the yeah, I got the whole chills just saying that because I just remember how it's just it's so endearing. That voice is just beautiful. It's it's childlike. It's just so pure. It's it's he's amazing.
00:13:39
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, you could probably, you know, you'd have to cut your hair short, but you could, you could cosplay as Jim. The last femur. Or you could, you know, trick or treat as Jim Cummings. Maybe. Just don't talk. Yeah, that's it. Because that's what voice actors like to do, not talk. Yes. Walk around with like a Winnie the Pooh puppet. Sure. Voice arts today.
00:14:02
Speaker
What else do we voice match? I guess for toys. Toys and animation and ADR. Think about toys. Video games. True? Yes. Video games as well. Really, any voiceover, I suppose. Because it could be a commercial campaign, too. In fact, now you were talking earlier about somebody doing the scratch track as the celebrity that was going to ultimately do the commercial, right? Yes. Yes, they needed something very similar to what Victoria was speaking about. They needed something to present.
00:14:32
Speaker
And I can use his name, Joe Gaudet. He did the scratch track or presentation of the Arnold voice for the State Farm commercial for the Super Bowl.
00:14:46
Speaker
to present to Arnold what it was going to be. And he does an amazing Arnold. That'd be weird. That would be weird, but so much fun. That's what I was saying. Imagine hearing someone else doing your voice and you're going, I don't remember doing this. Like Victoria is the A-list star.
00:15:06
Speaker
and gets a call from our agent. Okay, we're going to have you go in and record this ad for the Super Bowl. And we've got some scratch track we want you to listen to. I know, right? And it sounds just like you. That would be the weirdest thing ever. So weird. So weird. I can't do better than that. Right? That's really good. Why don't you just use this? Why don't you just hire that person? Pay me and use this guy. Yeah, totally. Exactly.
00:15:29
Speaker
Well, for what it's worth, I was in a workshop, I think, but it was Nancy Cartwright was talking about how often she's the, for those who don't know, she's the voice of Bart Simpson for years and decades now, I think. But 30 years. How often people approach her trying to be Bart Simpson. And she takes it with so much grace.
00:15:55
Speaker
If you ask me, I don't know if I would be as graceful. I think maybe because she's done it for so long, but folks are always trying to kind of show off 34 years. Wow. But people want to like let her know I can do, you know, and they'll do a Bart Simpson and
00:16:15
Speaker
What's really, really impressive with her ability with it, she can play Bart at all different ages. Not just that, you know, is he 10 or 12? He's 12, right?
00:16:28
Speaker
Every day Bart is like 12ish. But she can do young Bart and she can do old Bart and it's, you know, she can do an age range. And I never thought about that when you're talking about character development and things like that. But she's played, you know, younger versions of Bart and older versions and you're like, wow, OK. Well, across 34 seasons. Yeah, you don't ever think it's going to last that long, but you kind of have to develop the character over the time. Well, but you know, the thing is that the characters don't age.
Impact of Streaming on TV Production
00:16:58
Speaker
Right? Right. They've had a couple episodes where it was way in the future. Sure. So they had to come up with the future old Vart voice, right? But for the most part, she's been 10, I think. I think, yeah, I think it's 10. 34 years. That is nuts. Because Lisa's eight, I believe. But can you imagine someone constantly coming up going, hey, oh, you're the voice of that? I can do cowabunga. I was like, yeah, that's really good. I love all the clips that you see where
00:17:24
Speaker
people meet her and have no clue that she's Bart. And they're like, oh my God. Yeah, right? And that's what I mean. She handles it with so much grace and she's fun and she's funny and like, wow, that's pretty cool. But what a privilege to play that character for so long. Yeah, for sure. But you know, I don't know if she does all the toys and stuff too. Maybe she does or maybe it's voice matched.
00:17:49
Speaker
Well, she did the Bartman album, so she has a gold album for that. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Do the Bartman back in 79, 80? No, no. Maybe in the early 80s. 89, 90, yeah. 89, 90. Yeah, Do the Bartman was a full album, and she's got a gold. It's amazing. Amazing. I forgot about that.
00:18:17
Speaker
And they all do multiple voices on that show. Oh, yeah. Hank Azaria. Oh, my goodness. And there's so many characters. And it's just like, for the most part, what, seven of them that do most of the voices, except for famous guest voices that show up as themselves, of course. Same thing on SpongeBob. I mean, that's children's animation, but it's just
00:18:43
Speaker
I think it's five of them, four or five of them. Same guy, same thing. Yep, exactly. Except all those are Seth. Yeah, most of them are Seth. Yeah, exactly. But it's the idea that, you know, I think it would be difficult. Can you imagine, how wonderful, but how difficult would it be to come into one of those programs now and you're being asked to voice match for someone who's been on that forever? Yeah. That'd be tough. Yeah, what happens, you know, God forbid one of them dies. Yeah.
00:19:13
Speaker
But the show must go on, so they have to voice match it. Who replaces, or they're sick. Exactly. Now you've got five guys. Or they're sick, that's right. Who replaces whoever. And I know some of them do each other's for that case, like if somebody's sick. But Jack, can you imagine having the one guy that does seven voices on the show, and now someone has to be replaced, so now you've got five guys on payroll instead of one guy? Right. Well, that's why they are supposed to pay you per character, but, you know,
00:19:43
Speaker
Depends on if it's a network show or if it's an indie game. Okay, but what's that now? Network. You mean a streamer? Well, sure. All good. Sure. The network still exists. Fox still
Use of Doubles in Movies
00:20:00
Speaker
exists. That's where the Simpsons are. They do. They do.
00:20:15
Speaker
Good times. Very good times. And the crazy thing is streaming is a little bit different because they get the streaming fee, but all of this stuff is driven by ads. When you stop and think about the size of productions, especially HBO and Showtime and stuff, the size of these productions is vast. Look at Band of Brothers or the Pacific or something. Huge, huge budget, basically a movie budget that's spread across a miniseries just from ads.
00:20:22
Speaker
But even that's an app now. But even that's an app now. But even that's an app now. But even that's an app now. But even that's an app now. But even that's an app now. But even that's an app now. But even that's an app now.
00:20:46
Speaker
I saw the new Roadhouse. Mildly entertaining. Mildly? Mm-hmm. It was entertaining. It wasn't the original, of course. Yeah, right. Different, yet same story. You knew who the characters were based on. Do you suppose they had any voice match in that? No. No. No. There's probably body doubles. Oh, yeah, usually. Because you got to see Conor McGregor's ass if you're into that. You don't think it was his? You think it was somebody else's?
00:21:17
Speaker
Is it Joey Tribbiani? Yes. Oh, God. He comes out of the shower, and I'm his ass. There you go. What are we talking about tonight? Voice match. Voice match. That body double voice match. Right, right. I mean, it's the same thing just for voice instead of the body, right? Voice call.
00:21:47
Speaker
I think it's a wonderful job if you can get it personally. Yeah. It's definitely not here to turn down jobs. No, not necessarily. It's not for me. It's not my thing. Correct. I see those auditions come in. I go, I don't want to. You got to be a confident person to just jump out there and try that. I am confident that I don't like it.
00:22:17
Speaker
Yeah, I'm with you. I think it depends on the thing. If they're trying to replace a voice that has aged out. Sure, but they're not going to hire me for that. No. If they're trying to replace a teen boy who's aged out of his role. A known voice. A voice that everyone's familiar with. You might be able to do that voice. True. Bruh, seriously, I know. I mean, I could use the slang, but I'm going to sound like an old dude using the slang. Come on, bruh. Okay.
00:22:48
Speaker
You're doing too much. You went through puberty overnight, man. Take several seats. What's up, fellow kids? Steve Buscemi. Yes.
Humorous Anecdotes and Dialects
00:23:01
Speaker
Oh, God. Tell us about the guy on your plane talking about voice match. Oh, man. That was so bad. Yes. Come on. Come on. It was very difficult.
00:23:12
Speaker
He was, you know, he's like from Staten Island and he's over there like anytime somebody sneezing, which on a plane, everybody's getting nervous, right? We're on like a five and a half hour flight from New York. And it's 2024. Why are you getting nervous? People sneeze. Get over it. He sneezes. It's like, my husband's like, we're all going to get sick. Yeah. It's just like, dude, just cover your mouth. But he's like, hey, salute over there. Like, oh my God.
00:23:38
Speaker
who is this he was a complete caricature just the whole thing at one point I thought maybe this guy has a mental illness maybe or he's just really vocal and
00:23:49
Speaker
That's just who he is. I mean, either or. It was funny. Maybe he was just nervous and that was his way to cope. He was just so loud about it. Like even somebody would, hey, we're going to get some Coca-Cola around here. Well, you don't serve nothing, no chicken, no beef, nothing. You don't have like, you know, like a charcuterie with the pursuit. Come on.
00:24:16
Speaker
Most real command. Have you turned to Andrew Dice Clay? He did, totally. It was just insane. It was absolutely insane. Yeah, if he started doing like nursery rhymes, I would have just, I would have died. Little Miss Muffet said I'm a thumpet.
00:24:32
Speaker
He was seeing flight entertainment. The whole thing was just insane. I was like, wow, this is a character that I would love to play because it was just so, I was like, wow. Then all of a sudden we landed. As planes do. As planes do. Hopefully, yeah. Suddenly, well, I know it wasn't sudden, it's like after five and a half hours of in the air.
00:24:56
Speaker
Suddenly, after five and a half hours... We land, and it did... It was just all by himself. Whoa, what the hell is that smell? The brakes or what? What's happening over here? You sure that wasn't the pilot's mic? I know. Can you imagine the hot mic and the pilot? It was just insane. Whoa, what the hell is that smell of here? What do I gotta do to get a Coke up here?
00:25:24
Speaker
this guy, you know what I'm saying? He was very vocal the entire time. And I love the fact that having lived as long as I did in the New York State area, because I grew up in Upstate and
00:25:43
Speaker
living in Manhattan, you can tell where they're from, the boroughs. I saw specs come out for a recent casting where they were looking for somebody. It distinctly said New York accent that they were looking for, but the language that they chose was Bostonian. Yeah. If you know your stuff and you can pick that out, yeah, it's definitely going to make it hard for you.
00:26:09
Speaker
Yeah, but I was like, well, I guess I won't be doing that because I wouldn't say that with a New York accent. It's just not, you know, if you're talking about chowder. Chowder. New Yorkers, I mean, yeah, we got the, you know, we got the Manhattan version of clam chowder, which is nasty. I don't even think, I think people from New York are disgusted by that version as well.
Conclusion and Wrap-up
00:26:29
Speaker
Maybe we get this for when people from Boston come up here.
00:26:32
Speaker
Yeah, just to piss them off. We got some chowder. No, no, the Manhattan version is where it's like tomato sauce and corn. I think you'd just like to say sauce and corn. Sauce and corn. Sauce and corn. Thanks for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. This is an episode on Voice Match, if you don't know. Oh, that's what we were talking about.
00:27:00
Speaker
Aw, dang. I had a whole different take ready for that. Oh. Well, too late now. Gonna go get another beverage, folks. See you later.