Is It Time for a VO Conference in Australia?

This week, it’s just AP and Robbo flying the plane—and they’re kicking around an idea that’s been brewing for a while:
👉 Should we launch a voiceover conference right here in Australia?

We know there are VO events in the US and UK, but barely anything for Aussie or Kiwi talent. So… what would it look like if we ran one? Who would show up? What would we cover?

We chat about:

• The gap in the local VO scene

• Robbo’s Home Studio Rehab webinar (coming up June 12th — $30, and 5 attendees get their audio personally reviewed)

• Remote recording tools like Source Connect and Twisted Wave

• Whether George Whittam and Robert Marshall would make the trek down under

• What agents used to do… and what they don’t anymore

• And some early demo distribution tactics involving mini SD cards (true story)

🎧 Plus, here's that link Robbo promised in the episode—a quick test we did using Twisted Wave on iOS, recorded in the car:
📱 https://youtu.be/cWcLKq215-Q

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📣 Tell us what you think!

Would you be interested in a VO conference in Sydney?

Take 2 minutes to fill out our quick interest form:
📝 https://forms.gle/KQ5YxHkLJyqcrjKK9

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🧰 Robbo’s Webinar – June 12

Home Studio Rehab – $30 for 90 mins of live guidance, plus 5 attendees get their audio reviewed
🔗 www.justaskrobbo.com/home-studio-rehab

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🎙 Presented by:

The Pro Audio Suite – with Darren "Robbo" Robertson & Andrew Peters
Proudly sponsored by Tribooth (use code TRIPAP200 for $200 off)
and Austrian Audio – Making Passion Heard

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Y'all ready to be history?
Get started.
Welcome.
Hi.
Hi.
Hi.
Hello everyone.
To the Pro Audio Suite.
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With Tech the VO stars.
George Witten.
Founder of Source Elements.
Robert Marshall.
International audio engineer.
Darren Robbo Robertson.
And Global Voice.
Andrew Peters.
Thanks to Triboo.
Austrian Audio.
Making passion heard.

(00:20):
Source Elements.
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And Robbo and AP's international demos.
To find out more about us, check theproaudiosuite
.com.
Line up, man.
Here we go.
Sound good to me.
And welcome to another Pro Audio Suite.
Thanks to Tribooth.
And don't forget the new Tribooth.
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You can also use a code for the

(00:41):
Tribooth Classic.
That's T-R-I-P-A-P 200.
To get 200 US dollars off your Tribooth
Classic.
And Austrian Audio.
Making passion heard.
Now, Robbo, you're being heard and seen on
socials.
In fact, I saw a post of yours
about doing a webinar.
Yeah, I thought I'd dip my toe in

(01:01):
the water, you know.
As you know, I started doing demos.
Well, you and I started doing demos a
while ago.
And I'm still going doing them and having
a lot of fun doing that.
And something that sort of occurred to me
as I was doing them with people was
at the same time as we were recording
demos, I was getting asked a bunch of
questions about, you know, what's my room sound
like?

(01:22):
You know, do you think I could do
anything to improve it?
Rah, rah, rah.
And I kind of thought, well, you know,
there's obviously a lot of people who want
that information out there.
So let's slap a nominal fee on it
and sort of see who would like to
see what I've got to say about it.
So, yeah, so for 30 bucks on June
the 12th at 7.30 p.m., you

(01:43):
can jump online and look at my ugly
mug for an hour and a half and
we'll talk about home studios.
And five people who pay a little bit
extra will get their audio cleaned up and
listened to and talked about by me and
they can take all that stuff away and
make the changes for themselves.

(02:04):
Cool.
Because it's like, you know, all these voiceover
events, which we don't have in Australia or
New Zealand for that matter, and they're really
big in the States, of course.
That's the main body.
But I did see there was one just
recently in the UK with Gravy for the
Brain.
They had their one.
I can't think what it's called, though.

(02:24):
But we don't have one here.
And I'm wondering whether it would work in
Australia or New Zealand if we did a
voiceover conference event.
I reckon it would be good to have
one, wouldn't it?
I mean, you know, I know we're not
the United States, right?
And I remember some statistic George came out
with.

(02:44):
This was years ago.
But they did some census in California or
something.
And I wish George was here, he could
tell us.
But they did some census.
I know it.
I actually told you.
I think I told you this one.
Oh, was it you?
It was like just in California alone there
was some ridiculous amount of people who identified
as a voiceover artist.
250,000.

(03:05):
Yes, there you go.
Just in California.
Right.
But if we were to do one, I
know we've talked about this and we actually
talked to George and Robert about would they
be interested in coming to Australia, for instance,
as part of an event.
And they seem pretty keen to do it.
So I guess we should just put it
out there.

(03:26):
I think so.
The Just Ask Robbo thing that I do
as well, which is like a home studio
help thing, I mean that's slowly getting a
bit of momentum.
And there's certainly plenty of people out there
who may already have a home studio and
they move and they'll sort of jump online,
you know, make a booking with me and
jump online and we'll have a listen and

(03:46):
make some changes and stuff.
And I think I've saved a few people
from embarrassment along the way because there's some
that you sort of go, yeah, you need
to have a bit of a better listen
to that.
Maybe put some headphones on and have a
listen back to that one.
Yeah, exactly.
And stuff like that.
So, yeah.
So, look, I mean I guess what I'm

(04:06):
saying is I think there's definitely a taste
out there that people will want to make
their audio sound as good as they can.
And let's be honest, I mean the home
studios aren't going away, you know.
We're only going to go the way of
the States where, you know, you may not
have to leave home.
Well, I don't.
No, that's right.
You're a hermit.
Yeah, I look like a hermit and I
act like a hermit now.

(04:28):
Yeah, so I mean someone asked me how
often I travel into Melbourne and I had
to really scratch my head.
I was there once probably in three years
and that was earlier this year.
I think I went in for a session.
But that was the first time in years.

(04:50):
Yeah.
What kind of things do you reckon?
I mean you'd have to talk about Source
Connect and all that sort of stuff given
the conversation we've just had, you know, about
how it's not going to be that long
and you won't be leaving home.
So Source Connect would have to be there.
Source Connect, I think also if you're talking
about working remotely, I would definitely talk about

(05:12):
Twisted Wave because the good thing about Twisted
Wave, it works on iOS and so if
you're, you know, out of, away from the
studio and you get a job or someone
wants you to audition for something, I just
use iOS on my phone and sit in
the back of the car.
And remember we did that as a test

(05:32):
a few months back.
Yeah.
And it sounded pretty good.
It was more than a few months ago.
It was about a year or so ago
or even longer.
But yeah, it was great.
Actually, I'll stick the link in the notes
for this episode because that's great.
So we've got Twisted Wave, we've got Source
Connect.
Got to talk about home studios clearly.
Yeah, definitely.
Obviously, getting those set up.

(05:53):
So maybe, you know, George will have to
be, if you were going to do it,
George might have to come out.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I mean, I wonder, it's got me thinking,
you know, whether there's a taste for that
sort of thing here.
And I kind of feel like there is.
I kind of feel like that people would
sort of put their hand up, you know.
Let's face it, if you did it, where

(06:14):
would you do it?
Sydney probably.
That's the most central.
Yeah, you'd do it in Sydney.
Well, it's just easier, I think, Sydney.
Yeah.
So if you did it here, there's a
good excuse for a weekend away.
Do it over a couple of days.
Yeah.
And if you're not from Australia and you
can write it off on tax, if you're
US-based, you get yourself a bit of
a vacation.
That would be good.
That would be another good reason to do

(06:35):
it.
All these listeners from the States that you
and I keep talking to on email and
Facebook and stuff, actually meet them face-to
-face.
There's a good enough reason to do it
in the first place.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
So I reckon it would be like you
do breakout rooms as well.
So you'd do home studios.
You'd do gear.
You would do Source Connect.
And just, you know, maybe you have agents

(06:55):
turn up and they can talk about what
they want, casting directors, that kind of thing.
And then you can get down into the
weeds with a lot of audio stuff, which
if Robert came up with Source Connect, he
can get right down in the weeds with
audio engineers if they're from studios around the
country.
Imagine what he'd – those poor voiceover artists,

(07:16):
you'd have to give them a stiff scotch
before they go into the session.
Get their head around it.
But I reckon, you know, we talk about
voiceover artists, but I also think, you know,
like audio engineers could be interested as well.
Yeah, I would think so, especially that sort
of stuff.
Yeah, totally.
Yeah.
I mean, just thinking about it, you could
also do business stuff.
I mean, you know, there's plenty of Australians

(07:36):
who are doing well in the States at
the moment and overseas in certain places.
It would be good if you could get
a guest speaker like that maybe to come
and have a bit of a chat.
Just talk about business.
Yeah, absolutely.
Because that's a big side of things these
days, isn't it?
I mean, let's be honest, agents aren't exactly
proactive in getting out there and promoting people
on their books.
You've kind of still got to get out

(07:56):
there and do it yourself.
So if you're a bit like me, you
might be scratching your head about how you
do that.
Well, it's certainly a mix.
It's a mix of your agent promoting you
and you promoting – because you've got to
feed your agent as well.
I mean, they're not going to – you
know, they literally don't have time to be
digging around trying to find stuff.
So like for me and – But do
you know what, AP?
I was talking about this the other day.

(08:18):
I remember – and this is a while
ago now.
So this was when I was at George
Pat.
So we're talking late 90s, early 2000s, or
at Take-Two even.
It used to happen.
You know, if an agent got a new
person on their books, they'd do like the
record company thing.
They'd do the rounds of the studios.
Oh, can we make a time to come
and see you, Robbo?
You know, blah, blah, blah.

(08:38):
And they'd turn up and, G'day, Robbo, this
is Andrew.
He's new on our books.
You know, he's really versatile.
Here's his demo.
Let's have a listen.
You know, blah, blah, blah.
And they don't do that stuff anymore.
No, it's funny, isn't it?
We used to do the rounds.
I remember doing the rounds myself, you know,
not necessarily with an agent.
I'd just go, you know, contact people and
hit all the ad agencies and studios and

(09:01):
stuff.
And that was, oh, God, that was like
nearly 30 years ago when I used to
go door knocking.
That was in the days of cassettes.
In fact, I remember I was probably one
of the first guys to do a CD
demo.
I remember I did demos when those little,
what do you call it, the little micro

(09:22):
SD card things, just as a bit of
a gimmick, I chucked my demos on those
and I dropped them around places when I
was looking for a job once, just to
do something a little bit different, make you
stand out in their heads.
So maybe what we should do, if anybody
is slightly interested in us putting together an
event, a conference in Sydney at some point

(09:42):
in the future, next year or maybe, maybe
just shoot us a note.
I'll tell you what I'll do.
I'll build a quick little form that'll take
you two seconds to fill out, maybe just
a couple of quick questions and a few
multi-choice yes or no's and I'll stick
a link.
I'll stick it everywhere.
I'll stick it on the website and I'll

(10:04):
stick it on our socials and I'll stick
it in the show notes if they're here
and jump on there and tell us what
you think if you've got any ideas.
Yeah, cool.
I love it.
There you go.
All right, we'd better go and start preparing
for our conference.
There's no business like show business.
Well, that was fun.
Is it over?
It's over with me.
The Pro Audio Suite.
With thanks to Triboo.

(10:25):
And Austrian Audio.
Recorded using Source Connect.
Edited by Andrew Peters.
And mixed by Robbo.
Got your own audio issues?
Just ask Robbo.com.
With tech support from George the Tech Whittam.
Don't forget to subscribe to the show and
join in the conversation on our Facebook group.
To leave a comment, suggest a topic, or
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our website.

(10:46):
The Pro Audio Suite.