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Our Voices in the Smithsonian’s NMAAHC Mobile Audio Tour App!

February 23, 2017 by Rosi Amador

Happy Black History Month!

In September of 2016, the Smithsonian Institution unveiled the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C., an important and overdue addition to the Smithsonian museum system. It’s the only national museum devoted entirely to African American culture, life, and history, and we’re proud to announce that our voices are featured in the Spanish version of the museum’s Audio tour app.

Established by an Act of Congress in 2003, the NMAAHC is an important contribution to the preservation of our national history, and an architectural wonder! As construction of the museum was underway, my family and I were honored to receive a request for our voices for the innovative NMAAHC interactive mobile audio tour app. I’ll never forget the excitement I felt when it was confirmed that we would be “the” voices of the app that brings this extraordinary museum to life. When I first became a full-time voiceover actor, one of my hopes was to record audio tours for significant national museums, so this truly is a dream come true.

Audio Tour App Expands Access to Exhibits

The history of African American innovation in the United States isn’t always adequately represented in the media. Now, thanks to the Spanish mobile app, the vast wealth of information at the museum is now accessible to Spanish-speaking visitors from all over the world. My husband Brian, my daughter Sonia, and I are proud to have lent our voices so that others can learn about the impact of African Americans on the history and culture of our nation. The Smithsonian continues to rely on us for updates for the app and I recently recorded some additions for the 2017 version of the app, so stay tuned to hear more.

You can download the app on your mobile devices or tablet by visiting this link and take a virtual tour even if you’re unable to get to the museum at this time.

We’re deeply grateful to Mary Ann Findlay and Patricia Musariri of Intrinzinc, for choosing our voices for this project and to Clearly Innovative, the designers of this amazingly interactive app that is one of a kind. We hope you enjoy the sample audio tours that we recorded for the app as much as we loved recording them.

Open Source Voiceover

December 15, 2015 by Brian Amador

What do the World Wide Web, LINUX and a voiceover trade association have in common?

open source penguin w:mic I recently heard a very interesting TED Radio Hour (is there any other kind?) about the Open Source concept.

Sharing vs. Hoarding Information

One speaker traced the roots of Open Source back to the publication of the first scientific journal, Philosophical Transactions, created in the mid-1600’s by the precursors of today’s scientists. The revolutionary idea of sharing and discussing scientific methods and discoveries rather than guarding them jealously led to unprecedented scientific advancement.

The World Wide Web is Born

Fast-forward to 1989. Tim Berners-Lee, a programmer at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, figured out another way to expedite the sharing of information, and the World Wide Web was born.

At that time, a similar system was being developed at the University of Minnesota, dubbed Gopher. Never heard of it? Here’s why: The University decided to charge money for access to Gopher, while CERN put the World Wide Web software in the Public Domain, making it available to everyone for free.

LINUX: You May Not Know It, But You Probably Use It

devices Meanwhile, a young programmer named Linus Torvalds was working on his own Open Source project – the LINUX computer operating system. Unlike the feudal model used by commercial software developers – one owner, many workers – LINUX was created collaboratively.

While Torvalds maintains control of which changes are incorporated, the operating system is not “owned” by anyone, and the source code is free to all. As a result, it became the basis for the operating systems of every Android device, Kindle, and Nook, as well as for the Chrome browser and the Cloud. Instead of starting from scratch to build their own OS’s, developers can begin with LINUX, which is good enough, and it’s free.

What Open Source has shown us is that when you create something that’s free and open to everyone, it sometimes leads to results that no one would have thought possible.

World Voices: Open Source VO

A similar phenomenon is happening in the world of voiceover, an industry that has undergone revolutionary changes in the last couple of decades.

Digital recording technology has made high quality audio recording vastly more affordable and accessible than before, and as a result many more aspiring voice actors have gotten into the game. Those with little experience can now compete with seasoned professionals.

Pay-to-play casting sites stepped in to provide producers with a large pool of talent, and voice actors with audition opportunities. Unfortunately, the owners of these sites are sometimes more interested in squeezing money out of both the voice talent and the voice seekers than in cultivating an industry in which professional work is compensated professionally.

Voiceover.biz: a Win-Win for Voice Actors and Clients

In the midst of this democratic and somewhat chaotic scenario, World Voices (WoVo) www.world-voices.org was born, an international trade association dedicated to representing the interests of voiceover professionals. These include maintaining high performance and technical standards, as well as establishing an audition platform where vetted, professional voice actors can connect with producers willing to pay fair rates for quality work. In keeping with the Open Source model, this platform, hosted at www.voiceover.biz, is free to both voice seekers and WoVo members, and is an invaluable new resource for producers seeking seasoned voice talent.

The voiceover community includes a lot of entrepreneurial, collaborative and practical people. It was only a matter of time before they created something together that they couldn’t have separately. Our Open Source project belongs to all its members, it’s open and transparent, and while it’s still quite new, it may well produce results that no one would have thought possible!

Bilingual Voice Actor Trapped in the Internet

September 3, 2015 by Brian Amador

B in bowl Help! I’ve fallen into the Internet and I can’t get out!

My wife and business partner Rosi will tell you I’m addicted to my devices. And much as I recoil from that accusation, I have to admit there’s a grain of truth to it. Maybe a big grain. Maybe that’s why I’ve resisted every new step into “connectedness”. I resisted getting a cell phone. I resisted getting a smart phone. I resisted texting. I resisted social media.

Until I didn’t.

It’s so easy for me to fall right through whatever screen I’m looking at, just like Alice into the looking glass, into a magical world where anything is possible, where mutually-exclusive absolutes can both be true, where you can “like” someone without liking them, and where people feel joyfully free to say disgusting, hateful things to each other that they would never say in person. It’s all so interesting!

Especially during our interminable election season, when we have around 54 people competing for America’s Biggest Demagogue. And because the outcome matters to me, because I care what happens to my country and to the world, I get sucked in, whirling around in a vortex of procrastination, and to what end? No matter how much I learn about politicians ignoring real problems, devising solutions to make-believe problems, and creating altogether new problems, there’s precious little I can do about it!

The problem for me is that all that temptation exists in a medium that we need to use to do business. The Internet is like a huge, open-air market. As a voice actor, I have to go to that market to connect to potential and actual clients, to contract jobs, and to deliver the goods. But hanging around all the entrances to the market are a bunch of ne’er-do-wells, sniffing glue, talking too loudly, making rude comments, and insisting I look at pictures of their pets. I’m not saying I suffer from ADD, but…Hey, look! a big truck just drove by!

I get distracted.

More than distracted. I get dismayed. I see the vitriol being spewed at immigrants, especially Hispanics, as has happened so many times before, and I can’t help but feel deeply disappointed that people are still falling for that stuff. Especially given that the people most vilified are often those who work the hardest.

Finally, a solution comes to me. The dog needs a walk, and I can’t walk him online! I put his leash on him and we go out into the real world. My head starts to clear immediately. I look around. No red-faced bloviators. No repuglicans, libtards or Mexican murderers and rapists anywhere to be seen. Just people. When I look at them, I don’t see my most negative prejudices. If we talk, we don’t scream at each other in capital letters.

When we get home, the dog’s happy, I’m relaxed, I’m no longer a voice actor trapped in the Internet, and I can focus on the task at hand. It’s ironic: I always knew the Internet was a great way of escaping from real life. What I didn’t realize is that real life is a great way of escaping from the Internet.

Our Best Business Tool Ever? – Batchbook, our CRM!

July 15, 2015 by Rosi Amador

The Best Business Tool We’ve Ever Adopted? Batchbook, Our CRM!

Several years ago, after many years of touring the country with our Latin band, Sol y Canto and then officially launching Amador Bilingual Voiceovers, we just couldn’t keep our growing contact list and details for each job organized efficiently. It was nuts! We struggled along until we learned about CRM’s, or “Customer Relationship Management”.

We began our research of all the CRM’s available at that time and chose BATCHBOOK. We are SO glad we did. It was a game changer for us.

Here’s a snippet of their explainer video (click below) which I’m thrilled to have voiced. I was so tickled their super friendly staff asked me to do this. Hope you like it.

“We’re stepping up our marketing efforts and really needed a professional, quality voiceover… A deep part of our philosophy is authenticity, so we needed our voice to convey real warmth from a person we know to have a strong character. Rosi to the rescue! We are so happy with and grateful for her artful work. Apparently our customers are too, as we’re seeing remarkable engagement from the video. The impression it leaves with our customers is priceless.”

– Pamela O’Hara, CEO Batchbook

Gracias to Pamela O’Hara for this kind testimonial. I’m telling you *everyone* they are incredibly nice! They all feel like friends to us.

Batchbook promises “organized bliss” and you know what? It’s TRUE! New clients send us inquiries that pop right into their record, as do our “Letters of Agreement” and we now easily keep track of our voiceover jobs no matter how many come in. Plus it’s integrated with social media and so much more.

And it’s so easy to generate reports to help us know if we’re making progress or to contact folks. It’s rather miraculous to be honest. It helps our team to work together better than ever.

The best part is their customer service! The folks at Batchbook really care about us and have come to know us personally, after helping us with our slow learning curve. We’ve been running smoothly for years now. It’s a joy to use Batchbook for both of our businesses and I couldn’t recommend it more highly to anyone reading this.

Brian and I and our fabulous staff all LOVE working with Batchbook. Check out what they have to say:

“Batchbook streamlines every job so we can go to one place to meet our clients’ wishes and it enables us to work as a team seamlessly.”

– Brian Amador, Bilingual Voice Actor/ Principal/ Guitarist/ Composer & Chef Extraordinaire

CRM Batchbook Testimonial “I like how the list functionality allows me to analyze and sort data about our clients and allows me to easily generate reports.”

– Camilo Gómez, Senior Engineer/ Mr. Analytics/ Granola-lover

“Batchbook is able to keep track of all my communication with our clients with a click of the send button!”

– Leslie Rivera, Operations/ Studio Manager/ Ms. Organization/Ms. Friendly to the Max

By the way, after you click on their 2-minute tour you can sign up FREE for a 30 day trial. Incidentally, I am not getting any commissions on this. I just like sharing a good thing with fellow entrepreneurs who could be reading this. It ain’t easy. This helps!

– Me, Rosi Amador, Bilingual Voice Actor/ Principal/ Latin Vocalist & Percussionist/ Idea Lady /Twin Mami

Let me know what great business tool you’ve implemented if you’re so moved in the comments section! I’d love to hear from you. And of course, if you’d be so kind as to share this post I’d be very grateful. Have a great summer!

Voice Actors for Congress!

April 15, 2015 by Brian Amador

I’ve often said that one of the most pleasant surprises for Rosi and me when we shifted from full-time music to full-time voiceover was the amazingly supportive community we discovered. Largely as a result of the Faffcon un-conferences we’ve attended almost yearly for several years, we’ve been welcomed into a tribe of professional voice actors who constantly go out of their way to help each other.

We’ve also seen how friendships seem to transcend differences of background and political orientation. In fact, our community of people who work with their voices is one of the only places I’ve seen that kind of comity lately. Of course one of the reasons for this is that we don’t talk politics much! But I can’t help but feel that I could have a vigorous political discussion with any number of my colleagues whose views differ drastically from my own without us screaming, cursing, insulting or yelling at each other, the types of political “communication” that seem to be most common these days on the Internet and in our culture at large. And unlike our government, this community is actually capable of coming together to work toward common goals. We’ve seen the birth and growth of networks such as World Voices, Voxy Ladies, and Faffcon itself, which promote the development of their members and uphold the standards and recognition of the value of professional voice work, while also giving back to their communities in the form of generous support and promotion of the work of charitable organizations.

I know this conviviality is not universal in the voiceover world. I’ve been told that in the world of commercial voiceover, especially at the national level, there’s plenty of backstabbing, and colleagues in other countries have expressed envy of how supportive our community is. Nor do I want to paint too rosy a picture of our slice of the VO world. We have disagreements, sometimes heated ones. There are jealousies and animosities. But we can talk to each other, and that’s a big deal.

Very recently I had the honor of voicing the Spanish version of the introductory video for Boston’s Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate. The Institute’s inauguration early this month featured a “Who’s who” of Democratic politicians: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Elizabeth Warren, to name a few; but John McCain and Trent Lott were also there to pay tribute to their old adversary and friend. And that tribute was heartfelt. When John McCain said “I miss my friend,” it was clear that he meant it. The contrast with today’s Congress could hardly have been more stark. There used to be politicians on both sides of the aisle capable of putting aside deep differences to work toward common goals. Today they don’t seem to be interested in finding any common goals.

Perhaps someday our politics will move away from fear, blame, hatred, resentment, and putting up obstacles to anything that could allow the other side to claim an achievement. In the meantime, I take inspiration from my VO colleagues. Maybe we CAN reach out and try to understand those who disagree with us. And maybe we can lead from the bottom up.