So, you’ve decided to get into Chicago voice over work. Well, the first thing you’ll need is a good (or great) demo, but how should you proceed and how should it sound?

Upfront, you must realize this –– make sure your voice over (Chicago) demo is around 60 seconds. Countless studies and years of experience tell us that most humans won’t remember when listening to anything over about 1 minute. Anything else is a waste of time ... usually (some demos will reach up to 2 minutes, but try to keep them around 60). Also remember this –– most people listening to an announcer or a narrator demo will decide within the first 5-15 seconds whether they want you or not. Therefore, put your best-sounding pieces right up front. Go big and trickle down to small. You can always listen to other Chicago voice talents and get a good idea of how theirs is produced.

If you already have experience doing voiceovers (i.e., if you’ve worked in the Chicago media industry as an announcer or as a narrator and have some old voice over Chicago recordings of yours), then making a demo won’t be too hard ... at least, finding the material won’t. Review your old Chicago voice talent material and pick out the best-sounding snippets. These snippets should be no more than 10-15 seconds each. Lay them down on your editing station, and add a few transitional effects between each snippet.

If you don’t have much experience in being a Chicago voice talent, you can still make a great demo. Go online and snag some old written copy for commercials and such. Practice voicing them. Then, find yourself a studio –– there’s usually a dozen in each area. Next, use the same steps as above. Extract a few snippets of your “manufactured” voice-overs, enough for about 60 seconds worth, acquire some sound effects and/or music and go to town!

And one more thing ... update, update, update! Just like a puddle of water, your Chicago voice over demo can stagnate after awhile. A good rule of thumb is to update your demo about once every 6 months. Take old stuff out and put new (hopefully better-sounding) stuff in.