Demo Engineering

Master The Mix Process Behind Demo Reel Spots
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Hosted by

Tony Wijs
Laneth Sffarlenn

Course Overview

Every Good Demo Reel Starts With A Single Spot...

This course is designed to assist you through technical production of individual voice over spots that showcase the brand and skills of a voice over artist.

This voice-specific audio engineering course takes you behind the scenes to lay out step-by-step instructions for producing a quality, great sounding spot. Follow along a seasoned producer as he live streams his editing process, and gives industry tips and tricks. By the end of this course, you will have gained knowledge and experience by producing your own voice over spot(s) under the direction of an instructor and TA, and with valuable peer feedback.

The material will be applicable in a variety of genres such as commercial, narration, animation, or video games. Learn the art of storytelling and advertising with creative ways to entice your listener, and stand out!

Course Outcomes

  • Genre-Specific Trends:

    Each different genre of voiceover performance has its own unique trends; learn to observe and adapt with changes in performance and mix styles.

  • Strength Through Subtlety:

    Learn tricks to mix music & sound effects with voiceovers so that the actors' performance is enhanced and supported, and not drowned out or overshadowed.

  • Building Blocks For Better Spots:

    Learn how to mix a 'finished spot', and then learn some tricks for arranging several together and creating transitions between them; the building blocks of a cohesive, entertaining demo reel.

Hosted By

  • Tony Wijs

    Tony is a seasoned audio producer with over 10 years of experience. After getting his bachelors in audio production, he began to freelance on many productions including sound design, video production, and documentaries. He has extensive knowledge in the voice acting field and can be heard in video games such as Overload and Empire of Sin, has voiced Spider-Man and other characers in electronic reader books for Marvel, and has voiced many commercials on major networks including ABC.

    He is the co-founder and CEO of Immersed Productions which specializes in voiceover demo production, casting, podcast editing, and sound design for video games.

    If he’s not out recording new and original sounds for a project, he’s hanging out with his son gaming and playing music.

  • Laneth Sffarlenn

    Neth joined Tony as his regular TA and off-sider in the Audio Engineering department of Closing Credits almost immediately after taking the original Audio Engineering 101 class, and went on to assist in writing accompanying course notes as well as helping to write and develop the Demo Engineering and Advanced Audio Engineering classes.

    A part-time actor with over a decade of experience across stage, screen, and voiceovers, Neth also brings a lifetime of administrative experience and near-obsessive organisational skills to the school, thriving in their ever-evolving role that supports both Closing Credits staff and the student community. 

    When not tumbling farther down the rabbit hole that is audio engineering and sound design, Neth can be found helping folks learn to use REAPER or lost in the far away worlds of story driven games or fantasy novels.

Course Outline

01

All about Voice Over Demos

Examination and discussion about demo reels, their history and current trends, various genres, and the overall outline of the next six weeks.

02

Animation & Video Game Demos

Examination of these two similar genres and performance styles, explaining obvious and subtle differences that commonly appear in these demo styles, and learning some tricks behind crafting believable sound beds for spots in both genres.

03

Commercial Demos

Similar structure to Week 2, only oriented towards the commercial / narrative-style of voiceover demo spots, and how one can create engaging-yet-appropriate sound beds for your spots.

04

Other Common VO Genres

This week we'll talk about some other "niche" genres that you might find some voice over talent will have a demo reel made for. This can range from audiobook and longer-form narration, to medical narration, IVR or "on hold" demos for automated phone systems, and more.

05

Mixing Your Spots + Final Project Reminder

A reminder that next week is the final week, and we'll be having a 'showcase' of any-and-all finished demo spots that students want to share with us and each other. 

We'll also spend as much time answering questions and providing practical demonstrations for mixing techniques and tips that can help students work on their own mixes.

06

Final Project Showcase + Final Thoughts & Tips + Q&A

Listen to those spots that YOU all mixed! Well done! Once we've listened to and provided feedback for those that shared their work, we'll continue to demonstrate practical mix examples and answer any questions that folks may have.

Course Schedule

2-4 hours per week

  • Tuesdays

    7PM-8PM EST

    Our live sessions happen every Tuesday evening.

  • Homework

    ~ Varies

    We don't set specific homework to be turned it weekly, but instead provide guideance for students to create at least one finished voiceover spot. For all students that want to share their work, we have a 'listen party' in the final week where we listen and provide feedback on the go.

  • Pre-requirements

    Soft Recommendation

    Previous audio production knowledge and experience strongly recommended. 

    Consider taking our Audio Engineering for Voice Actors course to learn the fundamental skills prior to this course.

Course Benefits

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  • Interactive Weekly Classes

    This class has an instructor, a TA, and dedicated discord channels for current and Alumni students for peer networking, assistance, and feedback.

  • Recorded Class Videos & Extra Downloadable Content

    If you need to review a class or want to learn more, the content will always be ready for you via your student dashboard.

  • Ongoing Feedback & Support

    Keep in touch with your classmates, as well as the instructor and TA, well beyond the end of the course; keep growing your skills and passion!

Frequency Asked Questions

What happens if I miss a class?
All our lessons are recorded and uploaded to the weekly class session pages, and will be available to you to come back and watch at any time in the future, so long as you have an active student membership.
What is your refund policy?
No refunds. Please be sure you want to take the course before you purchase it.
Do I have to turn on my video during sessions?
If you are uncomfortable showing your face on video, you don’t have to. You can use the "raise hand" function in Zoom to speak with the instructor and ask a question, or even type your question in the Zoom chat area and the Instructor or TA will answer it either as a direct reply in the chat, out loud as a spoken response, or both!
Do I need to learn REAPER to take this course?

Absolutely not! We use REAPER as the main DAW* to demonstrate our practical explanations and examples of the concepts that we are teaching - which can be applied in almost any other DAW of your choice or preference; the main goal is for you to learn about sound, how it works, and how to manipulate it in a way that makes sense to you. (* DAW = Digital Audio Workstation)

We've had students that use all sorts of programs, like: Ableton Live; Adobe Audition; Logic Pro by Apple; Avid Pro Tools; PreSonus Studio One; etc.

But the main reason we chose REAPER is because it has a 60 day unrestricted evaluation period, and the cost to register the software is only $60 USD - this is nothing compared to many other DAWs on the market which often cost hundreds to purchase with possible version upgrade fees, or can only be bought on a subscription basis (which is an expense we would never expect or advise beginners to pay!)

What about Audacity?

Even though Audacity had some major updates made in late 2022, allowing users to perform some more advanced audio editing work, we still do not recommend it for people learning or wanting to work in audio engineering / post production fields where a more versatile and optimised software design is required for the fiddly edits that just aren't that easily achieved in Audacity.

That being said, Audacity IS great for recording voiceovers and making some basic clean-up edits - such as normalizing and noise reduction - but it simply isn't designed for more complex engineering tasks.

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