Book Review: 'Sound Advice: Voiceover From an Audio Engineer's Perspective' by Dan Friedman

I don't do a lot of book reviews. Not because I don't like the books written about VO, but usually because most books read more like histories of our craft rather than accurate representations of the challenges we face doing business in this modern era.

Sound Advice, written by Dan Friedman, is an interesting take on the VO advice book. Dan is now a talent, but he got his start as an engineer, and he still produces and engineers sessions. There's a familiarity with his writing style, as I started out as a talent, then became a director. Out of necessity I started engineering and producing, and I occasionally return to being a talent. You get a very unique perspective on this craft by working behind the mixing console. You get to see what works, and what doesn't.

SA:VFaAEP is a ver competent introduction to VO. Dan covers a wide variety of topics that new people tend to ask me about getting into voice acting. The book is only 75 pages long (with a full glossary), so no one topic is comprehensively examined, but his intent is to guide new performers. Frankly discussing business concerns, technical issues, performance, booth etiquette, and including a primer on home recording, Dan delivers an interesting peek behind the production curtain with a comfortable, casual, anecdotal writing style.

Thankfully, images in the book are also full color. It's always disappointing to flip through a book and see tiny, grainy, black and white images of what the author is trying to discuss. Apologies, as I had this book on my coffee table so long I managed to spill coffee on it...

There's not a lot of down-side here. I do have to make fun of Dan's "affection" for calling Neumann mics "industry standard" safe purchasing bets, but that's largely me just being a fellow gear snob.

If you're an advanced voice talent, while you might not learn a whole lot about your craft, it's still an interesting take on the business of VO. It's a voice we often ignore. You know, that piece of studio equipment that's responsible for adjusting microphones and pushing the red "record" button on the computer? Yeah. That's a person.

And that person talks about you when the talk-back is muted...

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