VO Weekly Workflow – Don’t Fear “Delete”

Deleting an audition take is a courageous act. It requires a significant amount of gumption to highlight one of our efforts behind the mic and tap that <DELETE> key. The decision may require a considerable amount of mental hand-wringing. How can we know when it’s ok to nix that performance and move on? What if that one we jettisoned was actually the best take?

There are a lot of brutal skirmishes that take place within the confines of our home studio. On one hand, each single take represents a best effort into the microphone. Don’t they all deserve to stick around? On the other hand, every additional take we hang on to makes the choosing exponentially more complex. It’s beneficial to cleanly cut out anything but the single best option.

The “best” take? How to decide.

But, which take is the “single best option”? As with most subjective situations, “it depends…” We never really know exactly what a potential client is looking for. It’s difficult to understand precisely how to stand out enough to catch someone’s attention while also delivering what is expected. We all likely spend a lot of time auditioning, and without a decision framework that time can expand dramatically.

The skill of self-direction helps us navigate that part of the process. Without that skill, it’s difficult to be competitive. Outside perspective can assist in the troubleshooting. When first learning, we’re heavily dependent upon feedback from competent coaches and mentors. While working through the “conscious incompetence” phase of the learning curve, we may begin to recognize when things aren’t working, but aren’t exactly sure of a fix.

I used to save everything…

When first auditioning, I must have saved everything I recorded. Classes, coaching sessions, and especially all those horrifically poor audition takes which didn’t get sent. I probably had some unarticulated plan to go back and listen to those “other” versions. More likely it was from a lack of conviction in my own ability to choose the “right” take and I wanted to maintain all the options as long as possible.

When we aren’t exactly sure where “good” exists, it’s nearly impossible to make a decision. We hang onto everything, afraid to discard what might be a good take. In doing so, we sidestep the actual decision process.

Here’s the thing: we’re going to be pretty bad at self-direction at first. It’s hard. We’ll fail more than a few times while developing the skill. Avoiding that decision undercuts the growth we need to take place. The skill we’re developing is discernment. We will get better at it the more we do it.

One of the most helpful lessons I learned while training came from an instructor who would not let us listen back to anything we’d done in class until the next week’s session. By that point, we had forgotten what we thought we had done. We were able to listen with fresh ears to our performance, and hear with a fresh perspective. It was eye-opening (and often pretty humbling).

Practice this skill

For our purposes in the booth, keep it simple. Go be brilliant on that first take, then listen back. Does it need a second take? If you go again, force yourself to ask which is better. Try deleting the one that didn’t make the cut.

This will be difficult at first. You can ease into it. If you want to hang onto a third take while mulling things over, that’s probably not too confusing. But past that point, apply a “one-in/one-out” rule. If you want to try another take, one of them has to go. Otherwise, you’ll soon be choosing between five different takes, or perhaps 10… or more. That’s an exercise in frustration and likely to ensure a downward spiral where things don’t get better and the audition never gets sent.

Forcing yourself to commit will develop that skill. Sure, you’ll get it wrong. There will be mistakes. But making the choice sharpens the skill. It will become comfortable, then feel more efficient. We’ll end up a little bit better on the next one.

Have you tested your studio’s audio quality to make sure it meets professional standards? For a free review of your vocal recordings, please use the upload tool on my Audio Review page.

Please share! please feel free to share or link to this resource using one of the buttons below. If you would like to receive these weekly posts directly to your email, you can sign up here