Edge Studio

I attended the 4 hour introductory workshop at Edge Studio last week and was very impressed with the facility as well as with the young woman who ran the workshop. She was extremely knowledgeable of the voice over business and made the 8 of us feel very welcomed and comfortable. I especially like the fact that we were given time in the recording booth and given critical analysis of our voice over potential. As a result, I signed up for the full training and look forward to the classes.

It’s tricky to get good coaching if you’re an aspiring, or working professional, voiceover artist. Unless you go to Edge, where they treat you wonderfully and have a gigantic staff of experts in every area, on every level.
David Goldberg literally reinvented the way voiceover is taught, and with his help and that of the wonderful Jay Snyder, Graeme Spicer, George Whittam and many others, I’m getting more work, and having more fun, than I ever dreamed of — and I’ve been a VO artist since the (first) Clinton administration!

I attended the 1-​day Evaluation Workshop at Edge Studio back in 2012 and subsequently signed up for their Training Program. No pressure involved. I had several sessions with various instructors, all of whom I found to be very competent. The training was very solid, as well as competitively priced. However, my attitude was nonchalant, for reasons I shall not go into, which ultimately, not surprisingly, put my instructors’ patience to the test.
As the final, pre-​demo, session was approaching, they informed me that I wasn’t obliged to press on. I agreed that I wasn’t ready for it. To my surprise, the studio readily refunded the pre-​paid amount for the demo production. I hadn’t even asked for it; assuming that that money was lost. Doesn’t sound like a company purely interested in profit, does it? Dearie me, they must’ve been REALLY fed up with me :-)
As for the studio’s claim that (prospective) students can expect a candidly expressed assessment of their performance or potential, I can personally attest to the veracity of that statement. I’ve been praised as well as (harshly) criticized by them. Incidentally, I’ve recently returned. THIS TIME determined to give it my best shot! Doesn’t sound like a dissatisfied customer, does it?
In recent months I’ve been coached exclusively by David Goldberg, CEO of Edge Studio. Of course, «exclusively» doesn’t mean I’m his only student, but rather that he is my only coach :-).He is considered a leading authority in the voice-​over industry, and quite deservedly so. I read that he’s known for his «uncanny ability to provide super-​quick yet precise direction». It is exactly this extraordinary ability that struck me instantly, and is certainly a powerful reason why he is my «fave» coach.
My accent is more British than American (AE), but, naturally, that’s not a problem; on the contrary, Americans tend to love ‘English’ accents. British English differs from AE preponderantly with regard to spelling and vocabulary, the grammar is essentially the same. Both are equally «proper» provided the speaker adheres to «Standard» English.

I work for a prominent television company in LA that schedules VO sessions for talent all over the country. While Anne was pleasant during booking, that’s the only nice thing I can say about this studio. She confused the day that I had scheduled the session, sending me a frantic email in the morning of the wrong day causing me to panic that I had incorrectly booked the session. Then when our talent could no longer make the session (completely out of our control) and we cancelled 20 hours in advance, they insisted on charging us for the full price (almost $ 400!) even though no services were rendered. Entertainment is all about the unpredictable, the inflexible do not survive! When she was following up on the charge, Anne was extremely rude on the phone. DO NOT book with these people. Virtually a horrible experience from start to finish.

i took the 4 hr evaluation class and loved it, i was happy when they told me i had potential, one of my dreams is to be a voice over artist and with this I’m hopping to soon go back and continue classes here, their really nice and a lot of interesting people come in, even though at that class i was the youngest and a rookie i felt comfortable in the booth frankly i was really happy. i do better when its just me but letting other people hear me was a rush ^ ^

(My first review as an Elite Unilocaler!)
I’ve heard from friends enough times that I have a good voice and should look into voice acting, so after googling a few places, I decided to give Edge Studio a try.
It’s located on the 10^th floor and it’s very clean and quiet when I walked in. The staff is extremely friendly and makes you feel welcomed as soon walk in.
They have a 4 hour voice-​over evaluation workshop that costs $ 127 (but I got it during a sale for $ 99), and you’re with 9 other people. You go through techniques with your evaluator and ask them any questions you may have about the industry. My evaluator/​instructor was Kristin Price. She was very nice, funny and very insightful. Any questions the group had she answered them no matter how insignificant they might have seemed, even encouraged us to not be shy to ask.
Voice acting may SEEM easy, but trust– it’s a LOT of hard work.
After going through some mouth exercises that felt pretty damn silly (opening mouths WIDE and saying YAW YAW YAW YAW!!!) but were effective in loosing up the vocal pathways, we each read some practice scripts from commercials in different voices, diction & speed then took turns inside the recording booth. Mind you, in the booth we did a cold reading, so we had NO idea what voice to put on until she told us. I had to read a public service script about cutting funding from schools in an slightly miffed/​angry parent voice. Used my «angry black woman» voice for that one.
Then we each got to hear out finished product. I thought mine was pretty good. When everyone was done recording, we asked more questions and then set up a time for someone to call us so that we can go forward with setting up lessons if we wanted to pursue voice acting.
You also get a personalized evaluation via email to let you know if they think you can actually make it in the industry. They’re really honest with you and let you know what did well with & what you need to work on. Sample of mine:
The Good:
«The fact that you take direction well and were able to apply it to your reads will make directors love you! You had good cold readings, which is great because cold readings could be tough.»
The Not So Good:
«You seemed too careful, so work on trusting yourself and your instincts. There was some mouth noise. This can be caused by a dry mouth so make sure you are hydrated. It was clear you were over-​thinking. Allow yourself to trust your own instincts and relax into the copy.»
If you decide to pursue lessons, they take the money you paid for the evaluation and apply it to your first lesson. Cool right?
It was a LOT of fun and those 4 hours went by so quickly. Before I realized it, we were all finished and it was time to go.
I think this is something I’m going to pursue. I give 4.5 stars b/​c I wish we could’ve gotten a copy of our practice read in the booth. That would’ve been great.