TSVA

First Friday Debut: New Stickers, Bags, and Deals! | TristanStoneva

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Come visit the wife (@Leanekoart) and I at tomorrow’s First Friday event! I’ll have a bunch of new stickers, bag charms, and drawstring bags making their debut at the event. I’ll have some deals exclusive to First Friday as well. I’ll try to make them all available in my shop too for those who aren’t able to make it. Thanks so much for supporting the wife and I in our artistic endeavors, it really does mean the world. Anywho… here are some new things I’ll have at the booth tomorrow or you can head on over to the shop right… MEOW!!!

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We won an award!

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This journey started several years ago as a 2D animation with 10-30 second episodes featured on TikTok. The creator of the series has been hard at work the past few years bringing The Unscarables into full 3D. I’ve had the privilege of voicing the lead, Billy Gibbons, and working closely with the creator who is a FRICKIN’ AWESOME HUMAN.

The Unscarables was submitted to the 2024 Chicago Horror Film Festival and uhhh… WE WON???!!! Everyone is incredibly talented and Michael pours so much love into the project so I’m not surprised that it won… I’m just surprised that something I’m a part of has received such recognition. As a voice actor you’re always in a perpetual state of ‘imposter syndrome’. At least that’s how I feel.

Thank you again to Michael for having me on board, for our continued partnership in the future, and thank you to everyone that took the time to watch The Unscarables!

Subscribe to the blog for updates on my voiceover, audio engineering, & artistic escapades! (Bet you haven’t heard that word in a while)

Role Announcement | Kojot (Coyote) 2017

| TristanStoneVA

Greetings people! It’s about time I get back to the regular blog posts, huh? Well anyway I’m super happy to share that you can hear me in the English Dub of Coyote! I play the handsome lead Misi, as well as several extras sprinkled throughout the film. It’s available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video, and you can see more info and a full cast list over on IMDB here.

Anywho, thanks for checking me out and sharing my excitement with me. Any questions please feel free to reach out, thanks!

My 2022 Voiceover Recap

| TristanStoneVA

2022 is the year I went full time with voiceover thanks to my lovely wife who’s encouraged me and pushed me every step of the way. Now when I say full time, I do still have a day job but VO consumed 90% of my working hours.

Last year I met a ton of awesome new people in the industry, worked with a ton of new clients, and joined a few studio rosters. April marked my first ever official film dub and OH BOY, I was super excited. Any of you that know me know that my #1 goal in VO is to work in anime, so I considered this a step in the right direction. That one film dub opened the door for steady dubbing work and getting one step closer to my dream.

One of my goals for 2022 was to acquire an IMDB credit and I’m so happy to say that I was able to end the year with 18 total IMDB credits and more on the way! A big fat thank you to all of my colleagues, casting directors, and clients from 2022, here’s to an amazing 2023!

Role Announcement | The Price of Crime (2014)

| TristanStoneVA

Greetings to all! Super happy to announce I’ve landed yet another film dub this time for multiple roles in the English dub of The Price of Crime. Thanks so much to the studio and all of my colleagues, it’s an honor and a hoot. Here’s to many many more! I’ll post more info in the future when the dub starts streaming, for now you can find more info over at IMDB here.

As always feel free to ask questions, thanks for tuning in!

I’m Hosting a Panel!

| TristanStoneVA

Greetings peeps! This coming Saturday, August 27th 2022 I’m hosting an intro to voiceover class at PopCult Anime Con in Waltham Massachusetts. I’ll be talking about equipment, software, the audition process, where to find work, and more! Everyone’s voiceover journey looks different, but this panel is designed to answer some of the basics. I’ll be leaving time to answer your questions as well.

As always, thanks so much for tuning in and please don’t be afraid to reach out and ask some questions. Here’s a link to PopCult Anime Con. if you’d like more info. See you soon!

Should You Use Headphones While Recording?

| TristanStoneVA

This is a common topic I see covered and there doesn’t seem to be any right or wrong answer. When I started VO, I didn’t like my voice too much, and I thought hearing myself while trying to perform would be super distracting. A few years ago by and that changed, I could ONLY record which monitoring myself, fast forward to present day and I prefer a mix of both. What changed?

Well, I think monitoring yourself can be helpful for certain performances. Anything not 100% my natural voice I’ll monitor. I can hear pops and do a retake on the spot, same with weird mouth noises or my lovely cats scratching at the door of my booth. It can be wildly helpful for getting the right take the first time, however, you need to ride that fine line of slightly listening for those mistakes while giving your performance 100%. It sounds confusing, but over time becomes natural and you do it without really thinking.

Now what really changed for me, is I stopped focusing so much on character work and more on commercial work which these days, the real person read is HOT. I found that focusing on myself would make me critique how “real” I sounded, so I tried recording with no headphones on and oh man, what a difference it makes. I find I can only do natural, real person reads when I’m not monitoring, closing my eyes and pretending I’m talking to a friend sitting across from me. Sometimes it helps to get a new perspective and in the audio world, removing those headphones is a new perspective if you ask me.

If you do choose to monitor, I recommend hardware monitoring over software monitoring every day of the flippin week. For example, my DAW (recording software) of choice is Reaper. It has software monitoring built in, but it’s not 1 to 1, so there’s a very slight delay which is EXTREMELY off-putting. Hardware monitoring plays back in real time, so you can focus on the nuances and screaming kitties in your life, as they happen.

As always, if you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to ask. Thanks for tuning in and take care!

Is Voices.com Worth it?

| TristanStoneVA

Just as the title says, is Voices.com worth the entry price? Well, it really depends on where you are in your career and the effort you’re willing to put in. I signed up for Voices at the start of my VO career thinking it’s what I needed to do to be “professional”. Oh boy, was I wrong. I wasn’t at a point yet where I really understood the professional side of VO, I was just eager for that next step, so I shelled out something like $500 to sign up. I created a barebones account, not understanding how helpful real demos, samples, and tags were. Then in the course of that year I put in 18 auditions, I was working full-time elsewhere and couldn’t dedicate as much time as I wanted to VO. Out of those 18 auditions, I was shortlisted once (I was so happy) and I booked 0 jobs. Statistically, I think you can expect 2-3 jobs for every 100 auditions. So my numbers just weren’t there.

Fast forward to 2022, I went full time VO in February and once again bit the bullet and spent the money on Voices. This time, I told myself I’d audition for everything sent my way (that I was a decent fit for). With that mindset, I’ve finally found success on Voices. Booking work and getting shortlisted left and right, it’s a fantastic feeling but you HAVE to put in the work. Sure, you may have a dry spell every now and then, but you really get what you give in VO.

In my opinion, YES. I think Voices.com is totally worth it if you have the right sound and can commit to constant auditioning. I do 100+ auditions per week, but honestly I could probably do more. There’s a lot of rejection in VO and it’s helpful to understand that not booking a role doesn’t mean that you’re a terrible actor or your voice sucks. It just means you weren’t the right fit, and that’s totally fine. Your time will come.

As always, thanks so much for tuning in. Any questions about Voices? Drop it in the comments below and I’d be happy to answer. Take care!