Things you may not know about Edge Studio

Some people are so enthused with training at Edge Studio that they see no need to learn more about us … or they’re too busy. And some prospective students may be so jaded by some other schools or the world in general that they assume we’re not quite what we claim to be. So here are some interesting things — and some important things — we’d like you to know….

Our Founder David Goldberg is himself a voice-over coach. In fact, he was our first. Did you know Edge Studio has been around for a quarter century? David founded Edge Studio for music recording, and over the years Edge Studio helped capture and shape the sound of many well-known groups and singers. But David also recorded spoken voice, soon being asked by clients to coach them in voice over performance. In 1991, he wrote the first edition of our Voice Over Guidebook, and David still coaches and directs voice-over performers today — in our studio locations, over the phone, and via the Internet (using Skype, etc.). In addition, David is industry-recognized for providing practical guidance on special auditions and demos. To schedule a session with David call 888-321-3343 or email training@edgestudio.com. He works equally enthusiastically with beginners and established voice over pros.

Incidentally, although Edge Studio hasn’t produced a music album since the year 2000, we still produce music for all sorts of clients, including Disney/Pixar, Marvel Comics’ X-Men, and other films, videos, telephony systems, eLearning, and more.

Today Edge Studio has locations in multiple cities and reaches worldwide. But our name is still singular, for good reason. It’s not a matter of how many rooms and booths we have. It’s that Edge Studio is a coherent approach to voice over recording, casting, and training. Our activities are fully coordinated. This helps maintain quality in all aspects of our work, for production clients and for the voice over students we teach. All calls come into our NYC location, and all our rooms and sessions, whatever location, are scheduled from there. It’s one of many reasons why Edge Studio is a singular leader in the voice over industry.

Edge Studio is a full-fledged production studio and training facility. The two aspects of Edge Studio work together, giving us extraordinary capabilities. Over the years, we have expanded our studios and number of locations to help us serve VO clients and VO artists better and better. Click here to hear some projects we’ve worked on. Our headquarters in New York City, are supplemented by satellite studios around he country, plus a network of translators, voice actors, and other voice-over experts of every type, all over the globe. If a production client isn’t able to come to one of our physical locations, we record via Skype, ISDN (in our D.C. studio), and Phone Patch.

We don’t accept everybody for voice over training. Sadly, we’ve heard about some schools and coaches that will. But if you take our Investigate Voice Over class and it appears that you’re not suited for voice over performance, we will politely but candidly tell you. And we’ll tell you why. Approximately 50% of people who take the Investigate Voice Over Class do not get green-lighted to our demo program. We consider this to be one of the most valuable aspects of our policy. The IVO class is interesting and fun and we find that people ultimately appreciate our honesty and candor. They feel it is better to know that this is a career for which they might not be best suited so they can ultimately concentrate on and succeed in another field.

When we say we “hire our students,” that’s not just a come-on. Naturally, we can’t hire every student we train. But we do hire as many as possible, based on our clients’ needs. We support our students by hosting demos on our website, maintaining contact, and referring our graduates whenever we can. The development and use of a continuing stream of new talent is one of the ways the production and training sides of Edge Studio work synergistically, as we’ve noted above. It gives our clients access to new voices, and it gives new voices a chance to be heard and branch out to other opportunities.

Edge Studio is not a talent agency. We do not represent talent; that is, we don’t charge representational fees to voice actors. Rather, we promote voice over demos in our library, drawing from a pool of existing voice over actors and our own students. We encourage our production clients to cast from it!

We have lots of group classes. But no cookie-cutters. You might think that group learning mean everyone learns the same thing, the same way. Not so. Group sessions have important advantages – such as exposing each student to the insights and imagination of their peers. You also gain the combined knowledge and expertise of these top working pros and business experts, giving you vast real-world insight into everyday, practical issues. But which classes to take is entirely up to the student. Early on, and throughout the student’s path to recording a demo, he or she works with one or more coaches to tailor the curriculum to his or her interests, abilities and needs. And private coaching is also available. Edge Studio’s comprehensive range of working-talent coaches, spanning all genres, assures each student has access to whatever expertise they need.

We believe in phone and Skype private training as much as in-person. Working voice actors know this fact and new ones will soon learn. The vast majority of voice over work done today is produced from the voice actor’s home – often times directed by phone, Skype, and ISDN (which is also a technology that is gradually being phased out). These methods may initially take some getting used to, but we think it is much better to get comfortable being directed at home from us, rather than your first production client.

Is there something further you’d like to know about Edge Studio? Ask us at training@EdgeStudio.com, or call (212) 868-3343.