It’s been a while…

…since February 17 to be precise.

So what’s happened over the past four months?

Not a lot, and there are several reasons why, at least on the work-front.

The prime mover being that thing most people are talking about – “Ai”.

It’s good, it’s bad, and it’s affecting the voice-over industry in ways you wouldn’t believe.

1. Why would you pay a professional voice-over/actor to narrate something, when you can
   just subscribe to any one of the growing number of software programmes which allow you to
   input text (once you’ve learned how to do so with the correct commands, using the right
   punctuation, signs, prompts etc.), and just have some clone/robot speak the words?
2. Who cares if the end result is devoid of many of the subtle nuances, inflections, emphases
   and overall emotion that can only be achieved using a real human narrator?
3. Will it matter if an individual, company or corporate conglomerate is represented by a
   mostly toneless, monotonous voice similar to all the other “Ai” generated toneless, monotonous voices which most such programmes are modelled on (go on, have a listen, they really do all sound much the same)?

Summing up with a two word response to these three key points:

READ THIS:

1. You pay a professional voice-over/actor so you can get exactly what you want, with all the
   emotion you require to bring your words to life and deliver the message, sell the product, inform
   about the services you offer or simply tell a story in the way you need it told.
2. Not only do you have to acquire the necessary skills to re-write the text you want voiced
   by a piece of software in a very specific way to try to convey all the subtleties of the human voice,
   you invariably have to pay a subscription. And the catch is that this subscription, whilst possibly
   starting off not overly expensive, will increase exponentially as time goes by.
3. Anyone wanting something voiced should ‘care’ that they have a decent, quality narration
   representing what they want to tell or inform their audience.

And yes, perhaps most importantly (after engaging a human voice), it should matter that you don’t
want your narration to sound like anyone else’s…