Crap, missed the edit window. I’ve never had the inclination but now it sounds like an interesting gig. Thanks again for starting this thread.
In case anyone is interested, here is my friend’s demo page. I didn’t know she was working on German in addition to the French, Hebrew and Russian.
You say you can make yourself sound younger or older, as the script requires. Can you make yourself sound convincingly elderly?
How old are you really?
LOL!! Well, I don’t know about an octave lower 
I have a few voices from young teen to more mature woman and they are all pleasant in their own ways. I think whatever a person has, they should work with it. For instance, Kara Edwards. She’s in her 30’s but voices very young kids and babies. She could never, ever be believable as the voice of a 30-year-old. Her voice is child-like, light, and happy. She has no lower register. Still, she is an amazing talent who books like crazy.
I will say that most woman can have a lower, more throaty voice if they practice and it’s usually quite something to hear!! 
Older isn’t my forte. I can barely scrape out a 35 year old voice:D I am 32
So, what do you do to make a voice sound taller?
Do you ever read to playback, or is everything done with just a script? When I edited promos at the WB, the announcer would listen to the audio and read along with it so the recordings could be checked for time. You could tell Hal Douglas “read the line 10 frames shorter” and he would.
Have you seen Five Men in a Limo?
After Don LaFontaine died, a sound engineer told a story about how they would talk about the new Viper coming out during their monthly VO sessions-
My favorite story is back at Aspect Ratio in the mid-90’s when Don used to come in and Rubin, the sound person, would banter with him about a particular car that was coming out they both liked…
Rubin ” Don… the new (Viper) is coming out. they say it’s 35k.”
Don “I’m getting that for sure”
Next month
Rubin “Don, you hear the car is now 40k?”
Don “I’m still getting it.”
Next Month
Rubin “Don, they say it’s gonna be 50k now, but it’s gonna be sweet. You still in?”
Don thinks for a moment…
“Nah, f*** it. No car is worth a day’s pay.”
The no drinking or smoking thing is certainly a must for a voice like yours, but men might consider taking it up. When I worked in Kansas City, the main VO guy was Jim Birdsall. He credited his success to the fact that when he returned from Vietnam he spent 9 years doing little more than smoking cigarettes and drinking vodka.
I’ve always liked watching old trailers and other “ephemeral” media from past decades and hearing the changing fashion in voices. Sometimes it seems like just as everything in the world was black and white before the ‘60s, all mens’ voices from each generation must have sounded a different way.
But on the other hand, is any job worth the risk of cancer, emphysema and cirrhosis?
depends on the trailer But I assume you mean the deep voice, ominous trailer. Mostly, you try to feel it deep in your chest. Think about drawing your voice from there rather than your throat. Make it rumble!
Great story!!! 
Don was THE MAN!
I do read along with playback from time to time. I time everything though. But once you’ve done it long enough, like Hal, you get a feeling for how long a 15 or 30 or 60 second spot is. You can look at copy and know in an instant if it will fit, what you’ll need to do it make it fit and just how badly you’ll need to hurt the writer for making you sound like the Micro Machines Man.
As for the drinking and smoking…well, it might do me some good. 
In fact, I love it when I get a cold! I sound all sexy raspy, If only I could get a cold on cue…
Oh, and since a few of you hadn’t heard my voice yet, you can over here: http://www.septembervoice.com
How long have you been doing big-time gigs like the MTV awards or anything else that plays on a national level?
Did you do anything for Loveline? One of the voices on your site reminds me of that.
I missed this one I think like a giraffe
I landed MTV about a year in the game. That was my first thing bigger than a regional TV commercial. I was extremely blessed that the casting guy took a chance on me and really pushed me with the execs. I will always be grateful for what he did for me.
Nothing for Loveline that I can recall.
I have a couple of questions:
Q1 : If you don’t mind me asking, what is the annual pay like for a full-time voice over talent? Not Joe Cipriani or Don LaFontaine, but just a regular middle-of-the road guy? I saw your bit about how much something like the Fuji gig would pay- how many of those do you do per month?
Q2: What do you do for insurance and things like that? Is there an industry association that you can go through?
The reason I’m curious about that stuff is because apparently I have some sort of stereotypical “radio” or “commercial guy” voice- people come up to me when they hear me talking in the grocery, or at restaurants, or wherever and tell me this. As you might imagine, I’m curious about this line of work, since everyone tells me I should do it. I’m not exactly ready to make any kind of jump without knowing what to expect should I become reasonably successful, since I’m already a successful IT professional and make in the mid-high five figure range with a good job. On the other hand, if I could make the same money I make now and work half as much doing something like talking, then I’m all for it.
Annual pay is hard to say. It varied wildly. It will definitely coincide with your abilty to market and pound the pavement. If you try to do it all at your computer, it will take longer and you wont make as much. Most VOs are part time and I’d guess they make $6,000-$15,000 a year. Then there are middle of the road VOs $25K-$55K. Yo can always do it on the nights and see where you go from there. If nothing else, you might make some good pocket money! As for insurance, well, most of us LLC at some point. I have not because I just can’t picture my voice hurting someone If you’re talking medical insurance, almost all plans have one you can sign up for as self-employed. It’s a little expensive though
What gear/software do you use?
I’m curious because I’m an electronic musician with a small home studio, and I recently helped out a friend record her voice for the IVR of a start-up company she’s involved with. It was pretty basic - a Shure SM-57 (yeah, I know, but it’s all I have!) run through a compressor, and then saved to the somewhat lousy format that the software guys required. If I ever get voice work again, a better mic and pop filter will be my next purchase.
Why is there so much badly-done ethnic voiceovers in radio commercials?
Many radio commercials want to have a certain ethnicity in their commercials. But it almost always sounds like someone doing a poor imitation of the accent. For example, an Italian restaurant might want Italian sounding guys doing the voiceover. So it starts out with “Hey Guido, let’s get some pasta” in a plausible accent. But by the end of the commercial the accent has completely fallen apart and it sounds like a French guy doing a Mexican accent.
I’m from the southwest and I’m surprised at how many commercials can’t even get a Mexican accent right. “Hey Juan, let’s get some fajitas” where fajitas is pronounced fa-ghi-tas.
I would think for radio, they would get a guy who could at least do the right voice. It doesn’t matter what he looks like.
My set-up is very basic. I don’t go in for all the processing and everything. I run an AKG C2000B through an M-Audio Fast Track Pro into my comp and I edit with Adobe Audition. The one thing that I paid the high-end price for was my windscreen. I pop plosives really badly and needed a good screen!
Well, mostly, because the people with the real accents are working talents. African-American talents are EXTREMELY rare. Spanish talents too. And sometimes, the client doesn’t want to pay for a pro. They use a friend or employee who can kinda do it and will do it for the thrill of being on the radio.