geekyvox

[geekyvox]

Hi there! My name Joseph Letigio. You can call me Joe. And this an AVP of my life. I was born here in Cebu City. The eldest of three siblings. As a kid, I was born at a very awkward time. You see I was living with a lot of my cousins in an apartment complex. But I was too young to play with the older ones and too old to play with the infants and toddlers. So I didn't have anyone to play with. So I resorted to watching cartoons and playing the familycom/ SNES by myself mostly. I was shy young lad but when asked to perform or sing, I didn't think much of it, I just do it.

Fast forward, I'm in school, people of the same age group! I finally had friends! Yay! While not the most popular in class, I did have a circle of friends I could count on. Throughout high school and college, that thing was constant, I had small circle that I could count as friends. What was also constant was that within each circle we all had a lot of things in common. Most of which are geek stuff. Comic books, novels, movies, music, cartoons, anime, video games. We were all into it. Me moreso than others. I wasn't much into the physical stuff like sports and whatnot. But if you asked me about a movie or a tv show, I would have been all into it.

And I carry it with me until I graduated and got a job. A pediatric physical therapist. It was perfect! Kids love a lot of the geek stuff. Cartoons and video games and believe or not, musical! And that's what I used to build a rapport with them. I didn't know it then but all that time I've been doing voice artistry. I had to keep the kids interested in their activities and I did that by singing and imitating cartoon characters.

And this is where my passion lies. Entertaining and creating content that are geeky in nature but are also intellectual and educational. Embrace the geek, I say! Because there's a probably a lonely kid out there right now who's into comic books and reading novels and listening to musicals but his friends think those are kid's stuff or boring or weird. I tell you, kid: you're not alone! I aim to create content that is smart and funny and witty and filled with geek culture in whatever form it may be. Even those not known. Especially those not yet known! I aim to inform. I aim to educate. I have been that, an educator and now I aim to still do that, with JoeFox the GeekyVox!

[geekyvox]

CVAP Week 4. The last but definitely not the least. My thoughts! Here we go!

Sadly, we reached the final point of the program. Well, final point of the academic part of the program I guess. There's still a lot of work to be done especially with our batch recital. Anyway lot of the topics left were very business-centric. Because it talks about service agreements, NDA's, resumes, legalese. All of which are very daunting and intimidating but no less essential. I keep forgetting that we as voice artists are running a business. You're basically selling a service. The service of which is your voice. And if you want to navigate yourself into the minefield that entrepreneurship, branding and marketing, you have to learn these things. I find myself actually interested in listening to it, despite at first glance it being something uninteresting to most people I think. Working in a corporate setting, I'm familiar with some aspects of it. And call me weird, it really was interesting. I guess the thought of having to encounter something like this as a voice artist is an indication that you're on your way to making it. The prospect makes me giddy.

The thing that was most exciting though, was the afternoon session. The live Q&A. I was called first! Oh boy… It's nervewracking to be in the spotlight while they're playing what you think was your magnum opus. My magnum opus so far. Well I thought that was the best of my work. Despite being a nervous wreck, I was excited as well. I was excited to be grilled and dissected and studied. But it was all worth it. I got all the feedback. It was not bad. I think they were mostly good. But I did deserve their common critique. They wanted variety and I should have given that. I was playing it safe. I was playing characters that I was comfortable and confident of doing. I should have picked characters that were outside my range. Tried and played around with it. I'm pretty sure I could have pulled it off but I was really playing safe. More the fool, me! After I was done though, I was sitting back and just enjoyed watching other voicemates and their work. Man, they're good! One or two I didn't expect to shine out adn that was a pleasant surprise.

Which comes to the final part of it all, I am going to miss these people. The four Saturdays spent with them I will remember for the rest of my life. I wish there were more but it has to end. Like all good things. I will keep this page up. And continue to create more content, whatever happens. I'm planning to reach out to my voicemates and maybe do collaborations with some of them. Maybe… Hopefully! And we'll see. More content in the future.

With that, this ends my CVAP Vlog. I'll see if I can do more vlog formats but I really don't know when. But I'll see you guys again. Count on it. Until then, this is JoeFox the GeekyVox telling you to: "Keep on gaming on, gamers!"

[geekyvox]

CVAP WEEK 3 BLOG

Great day, one and all!

CVAP Week 3. My thoughts and everything about it. One word: Awesome!

So Practice, Practice, Practice! Now, since this is my vlog, here we go again, we'll be talking more about me! Well, aside from the obvious which is talking about CVAP. And this topic of constant practice hits home because I am also a martial artist. I practice Japanese Sword Art called Kendo. And there's a thing in Kendo that we call suburi. Which is the act of repeated cutting or doing the cuts over and over and over and over and over and I cant emphasize this enough, OVER AGAIN, until your Sensei tells you to stop or you get tired. The point of the exercise is to do the act until you perfect the form. The path to one perfect strike is through a thousand cuts. I dont know if that's an actual Samurai adage, or I thought that up. I am wise beyond my years! Which I immediately correlate to this CVAP topic. Of course, it's much more complex than doing the cutting motion but the principle remains. It's not a popular principle especially in this time and age where attention span is so short and the thought of doing something over and over again is seen as tiring and boring but this is the reality of mastering and perfecting a craft, whatever it may be. You have to do the work. You have to get used to hearing your voice, you have to exercise those tongue muscles, and also practice as if you have a project by recording samples. Constantly. And I love it because it reflects so much with how Japanese do things. The art of perfecting a craft.

Then there's dubbing! Miss Janeane and Miss Donnah got everyone deeper into the world of dubbing. To be honest, I haven't given dubbing much thought but because of their discussion, it was intriguing. That much I can say. It certainly was very engaging, especially miss Donnah's exercise. Again, I had fun. Which is the whole point. Just have fun.

Then hearing Miss Cham's journey on CVAP actually gave me hope and reassurance. Inspiration as well. Both Miss Janeane's and Miss Cham's story were both inspiring. Miss Cham most especially I can relate. A Cebuano myself, I went through the typhoon Odette, I went through the BM 800 phase. Good Lord! I look back with a tinge of both cringe and nostalgia. I had so many both fond and frustrating memories of BM 800. Frustrating because of the hours I put in trying to make it sound like an expensive, professional microphone. Ugh! I'm also an introvert. And this speaks to me as well, what she was saying, to build up some sort of persona online that is against my nature. And I did that as well.

Lastly, voice care! As a medical professional, I'm very familiar with almost everything put in for voice care. But as a person, who indulges on the finer things in life, it's hard to follow one or two of these tips. But I'll try! I need to! So goodbye cold drinks and sweets. For now at least.

Anyway, that's my thoughts for this weeks vlog. I'll see you guys again, next week! The final week of CVAP classes. Not the final week of CVAP though. Tons still to do after week 4. Oooh boy… I'll see you guys then!

[geekyvox]

Great day one and all! And welcome once again to another vlog of this here JoeFox the GeekyVox! And we're going to talk about the 2nd week of CVAP.

What can I say? Well to start with, I'd like to quote the famous Captain Shang, Fa Mulan's commander in that Disney movie: "Let's get down to business!".

And down to business we did go with the second week. Talking about microphones and DAWs and audio editing software in the morning. It was fascinating because I was really into this thing. I myself have had a small collection of condenser microphones over the years (3 microphones). And listening to coach Bryan talk shop was fun. Now granted, most of the equipment that was talked about are way beyond my budget but it was nice to see that I was on the right track because most of the equipment I've seen were something I plan on getting… someday. I wouldn't know when though. Since it's way beyond what I can afford, let's just say to put it in my wishlist. That Rode Procaster? Aw, man! That's the dream. Personally I am using a Fifine K678 USB Condenser Microphone. It's compact, quality's not bad especially if you tweak with a software like Voicemeeter, it's nice. My best one is an XLR BOYA BY M1000. That one has really good quality and Im still a big fan but because I'm using a laptop now, I'm working on maybe getting an Audio Interface. Anyway, the point is, it's nice! I was geeking out, the GeekyVox way.

And then talking about audio editing software has me considering getting Audition. It's just way too expensive bruh. Because the alternative is a freeware, Audacity. But I've been using Audacity a long time, and that demo between the two, it's night and day. The ease of editing from Audition compared to Audacity, the comparison is just… it's not fair for Audacity, let's just say.

Then after talking shop. We talked about niche. That was fun! Because I knew exactly what I wanted for my niche, doing character voices. But it wouldn't hurt to dabble into voiceover. It was fun listening to voicemates, finally getting to hear their voice and hear them do character voices and do voiceovers. And when it was my turn, that was fun! I was going for anime hero protagonist before he does his special power attack. I hope I conveyed it well. Otherwise, it probably sounded like an angry old man having an argument with his neighbor.

Overall, I am still having so much fun with the program. I can't wait for more. There's only a few more weeks left. I hope I can make it.

[geekyvox]

Great Day one and all and welcome to my first ever vlog not just for this page but the first time ever.

Which is funny enough because content creating is not something new for me. I've been creating content online since 2020 and Ive never done a vlog. Ive streamed, edited clips of my stream, made short videos on facebook and tiktok but never sat down and talk about things.

Now before we get to the focus of this here vlog. And i wanna add something about myself that i didnt put in to my intro video which i feel should have been there but if i added it then it would have been a 5 to 7 minute video instead of the 2 minutes that they were asking. I am a huge geek. Im into gaming, i mean there's not a day that I dont sit here and play any of the games I have in my Steam library. Im also into movies, animation, shows, comicbooks and books. I read a lot of fantasy/scifi books, well I dont read them anymore instead I listen to audiobooks. Now there's a point to this I swear and we'll get to it later on. But first we need to get to the very reason of this first vlog in the first place.

CVAP! My week on CVAP. It has been surreal! I still can't believe I did it. I took that first step. And I'm still pinching myself for being there and here we are now. And you would think that being a voice artist program you would immediately getting down to the nitty gritty business of it all and discuss about the technical aspects on the first day. I was pleasantly wrong. Because what they were teaching instead was getting yourself in that right mindset and heartset. Heartset. That was the first time I've heard of the word. And let me say, it fits. I like it. Because in business and work, you always need to have the right mindset. And as a professional, some of the things taught here, I already practiced in how I carry myself at work. But as an aspiring voice artist, it makes sense to not only be in the right state of mind but also be in the right state of heart. Because getting in touch with your emotions is where creativity and imagination thrives. I feel like this industry demands that you have the right mental approach and passion put in constantly. Otherwise, you'd get burned out or even worse, get in it for the wrong reasons. And this was discussed heavily. It was enlightening and I feel like the lessons imparted not only would have been applied in this industry but in life as well.

Which leads us to another topic, voice branding. This is very helpful. Like I said earlier, I'm no stranger to content creating. But I feel like what failed ultimately with what I was doing with my page the last time was that I never really had an audience in mind. Never gave branding any thought. I wanted to play games with my friends and just have fun. And I still want to do that! But the voice branding topic had me asking questions I've never asked before in regards to my presence online. And the more I ask those questions (why am I here? Who are you as a brand? Who are you talking to? etc.) the more I've formed up an idea of what this new page is going to be.

Hence, the reason I introduced myself earlier in this video. Because while I want this page primarily be about my journey into CVAP and voice artistry. But I also want this page to be a platform to introducing to Filipinos about geek culture. Now, now here me out. I know most of geek culture is already mainstream. Everybody know, spiderman, the avengers, and a whole lot more. But not a lot of people know about a lot of the geek subculture that's struggling to the surface. Not a lot people know of Dungeons and Dragons. I've never done tabletop D&D in person before, now would be a good time to try. Not a lot people know miniature painting and Warhammer. Or audiobooks. Or some of the videogames that are out right now. Let's all bring that to the surface. It's funny because a lot of this geek stuff rides in tandem most of the time with voice artistry. Speaking of artistry, we could use this page to highlight creative writers, digital and traditional artists, voice artists and all sorts of creative folks out there since they are what drives the geek culture in the first place.

So yeah… this is funny since this vlog is supposed to be my reaction video to my first week in CVAP but now it serves as my intro to my page as well. So welcome one and all, to JoeFox The GeekyVox!