Voice Acting Submission Guidelines

[Pawn007]

I have read quite a few of the posts on the rules for submission into the audio portal.

As I understand it a voice acting clip / demo follows the same set of legal rules as any other audio submission.

As previously stated in other rules threads, no copywritten background music could be used. The requirement for music to be original, on the other hand, is odd.

A further question.. sound effects. Are only royalty free sound effects allowed? How about commonly available? Or are you limited to what you can generate.

I ask these question because in the Monthly Voice Acting contest it states that background music and sound effects are allowed... but I'm worried that using them would result in a ban.

I don't want a ban.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. :D

[loansindi]

I'm going to suggest that you be 100% sure that any music you use is original. Just because that's the way it is.

Sound effects enter an... interesting territory. I'm going to go ahead and throw it out there that as long as you're not pulling stuff from movies/popular television, no one (mod or not) will happen to recognize that you're using an effect that falls under a particular license.

That is not to say you should blatantly violate license agreements, certainly. I (and most people here) would definitely encourage you to find effects released under the CC license, or even to go record your own.

[ForNoReason]

Use music from the audio portal! It is free and there is a crap load of it.

thats what I do

ALSO, you can find public domain sound effects.

[Pawn007]

At 6/13/09 06:29 AM, ForNoReason wrote: Use music from the audio portal! It is free and there is a crap load of it.

thats what I do

ALSO, you can find public domain sound effects.

I don't think you understand the problem... by submitting something through the audio portal you are stating that it is your own creative work and that others may use it for non-profit purposes.

If I use somebody else's song from the portal and then submit it to the portal... someone else can come and use my submission to gain access to the original writers / submitters music.

If I was a dick / ignorant I could tell a third party, 'hey sure you can sample this'... thinking they are sampling my voice, when they are really sampling the music.

It has been made clear by many of the mods that using music which is not completely original results in a ban.

[ForNoReason]

Then PM a mod specifically for this question. Obviously the standard user will not have the answer you seek.

[Pawn007]

I'm kinda hoping that a mod will stick their nose in here at some point... what with the Voice Acting constest going right now I figured more people than just I had this question.

Sorry if I offended.

[ForNoReason]

At 6/13/09 07:03 AM, Pawn007 wrote: I'm kinda hoping that a mod will stick their nose in here at some point... what with the Voice Acting constest going right now I figured more people than just I had this question.

Sorry if I offended.

No offense taken. All I can tell you is I know people who have used audio portal music for their VA demos, they just gave credit to the artist in their info and got permission for the artist. I am not 100% if that is deemed "OK", but I don't see any harm from it seeing as no one is making money. Also, sound effects aren't to difficult to make yourself. You can get a program or just find fun and interesting ways to use your mic.

[loansindi]

At 6/13/09 06:41 AM, Pawn007 wrote:

At 6/13/09 06:29 AM, ForNoReason wrote: Use music from the audio portal! It is free and there is a crap load of it.

thats what I do

ALSO, you can find public domain sound effects.

I don't think you understand the problem... by submitting something through the audio portal you are stating that it is your own creative work and that others may use it for non-profit purposes.

Music on the portal is under a CC license that allows you to use it for derivative works as long as you cite the original creator, and release it under an identical license (which you will be). There are no legal issues of using NG music in an NG submission(in the audio portal anyway), that's why the portal is here.

[Khuskan]

At 6/13/09 05:44 AM, Pawn007 wrote: I have read quite a few of the posts on the rules for submission into the audio portal.

Good for you! Thank god somebody does.

As I understand it a voice acting clip / demo follows the same set of legal rules as any other audio submission.

Yup.

As previously stated in other rules threads, no copywritten background music could be used. The requirement for music to be original, on the other hand, is odd.

The copyright of being original is not that difficult to explain, to be blunt, nobody on the audio portal is 100% original. I cannot think of a single electronically produced track that -doesn't- use samples or otherwise that the artist did not create, but has indirect permission to use. Generally the safest bet is, if you want music in your voice acting demo, you should use something from the audio portal and credit accordingly.

A further question.. sound effects. Are only royalty free sound effects allowed? How about commonly available? Or are you limited to what you can generate.

The short of it is, if you can find a sound effect on the internet on a website designed for giving you sound effects, it's more than likely that they are either royalty-free (you can do what you want with them) or you can use them under fair use. The long of it is, if you are particuarly cautious, you can never really be sure what is safe to use, and even big record companies have that problem - they often use what are supposedly free samples until somebody challenges that assertion. As your first NG audio submission is moderated, it is possible that a mod could identify a sound and question its usage rights, however I doubt you would get banned unless they can specifically prove that you do not have the rights over that sound. Fair use is especially flakey for that, but as what you're making is not for profit, if you state what you used and what is not directly your own work, it should be fine.

If you've already submitted before though, I hope the mods don't shoot me for saying this, but you do have somewhat more benefit-of-the-doubt, nothing will happen unless somebody claiming they own and made the sound makes a legal challenge on your right to use it. I cannot foresee that happening, especially in a voice acting competition.

The best bet if you want sound effects is to get an account on the free sound project and use them, but remember that you have to link to the page you got the sound from in your description! That is part of the Creative Commons Attribution license, which also applies to all NG work.