Cool Sites for VO-heads

OK--forgot to get an entry in last night. This is the tendency that may end up being the downfall of this blog, but I'll try not to let that happen.

Today I thought I'd take a break from the "Then and Now" stuff. Don't worry--we'll get back to that thread soon enough. But there's a much more interesting topic up right now: cool sites for VO-heads.

As with most any topic, there are a ton of resources on the net for those of us who like to make noise and try to sell it to other people. There are forums, sound resources, job boards, etc. So here are a few I like to tinker with.

First, one of my favorite online hangouts: RadioDaddy.com. RadioDaddy is one of those places that ought to be too good to be true. It's a message board, but it's a whole lot more than that. RD's primary purpose is to provide custom voiceovers to low-budget concerns like internet radio, college stations, LPFM, and so on. It works like this: you join the board, post a request, and wait for someone to voice it for you. The best part is that the voiceover costs you NOTHING! There are some truly great talents over there, too. You might get your request voiced by a national radio personality, or the kid next door, or a voice you heard on MTV. That's the fun of it--you never know what you're going to get, but you get it for free! The only thing you have to do is click a little "Thank This Member" button after you download their work. How cool is that?

Another site I like a lot is FindSounds.com. This site is basically a search engine for sound files. It's very useful for finding little incidentals, Foley tidbits, etc. It's essentially a draw for selling their desktop sound searcing and manipulation software, but whether to buy is entirely up to you.

Finally, I'll mention a site that is designed for film buffs, but has great resources for audiophiles, too. It's the Moving Image Archive, part of the Internet Archive project. This site has thousands of clips of footage from various eras and types of film. It's a great place to go if you're trying to get the feel for a particular style or period of audio production in film.

That's enough for now. I'm sure we'll visit more sites in future posts. After all, if I told you about them all now, you'd spend all your time on those sites, and miss all the fun here! Drop me a comment and tell me about your favorite sound-related sites.

'Til next time...