PEDs for Voice Over Pros?

Either I'm getting old(er) or we might need to start checking my fellow professionals for PEDs (performance enhancement drugs).

I belong to a few Voice sites where clients post a job, provide some direction and sample copy.  Doing this full-time, I'm pretty much at my computer all day long.  So I'm pretty aware when a new "job" email hits my inbox.  If I'm not in the middle of recording something, I'll open the email to see what the potential job might be.  Or, sometimes I'm already on the site when a new job is posted.  But, not matter how quickly I open the job offering, there is already at least a half-dozen "submissions".

First, I thought, I'm in Pacific Time and the site is based in the Eastern time zone.  Or, my email is just slow.  Or there are some "insider" deals going on. No matter what, how do these people record a custom demo so fast?  When I see a new job, I'll spend the time to read what the client wants (well, actually I look at the budget first.  If they're offering $100 for a 30 minute read, pass!).  Next, I'll read the copy a time or two to get comfortable with it and try to match my read with the client's direction.  Now onto firing up Audition and recording a few takes.  Next, clean up the recording in Audition then add my slate.  Finally, I upload the file, use my proposal template (making adjustments as warranted) and type in my fee.  I listen to the upload to insure it "took" and hit submit.  Depending on the copy, that whole process might be 20 to 30 minutes.  OK, a tag might be less, but that's my average. 

So how do these speed demons get a demo up in maybe a minute; two minutes tops?  For them to do a quality audition they gotta be on some sort of voice over PED.  Heck, for them to do any kind of audition, they have to be on the voice juice.  Besides that, what's the rush?  Is there a prize for finishing first I missed reading about? 

I read on article recently on Voice.com regarding the does and don'ts of auditioning. One of them was "do a custom audition".  Aha!  That's what my suspected juicers are doing.  Job gets posted, they just submit their "best" demo.  As a professional, that t's me off.  Not because they're short-changing themselves, but that they're making a bad impression to clients about the industry.  If I'm a client asking for a custom read of copy I worked hard to write and get a submission of some dude doing a horrible "in a world...." impression....well, you see what I mean.  (Of course, what would really trip my trigger would be if they got the gig and my 20-minute effort got flushed down the toilet).

So thank goodness we don't have to call in the Commissioner of Voice Overs  for some PED suspensions.  But we need to call in quality control about these folks that clog up the audition process submitting generic demos.