So, getting started in voiceover is kind of like getting started in acting. There’s SO MUCH information, it’s impossible for me to give you any more than a roadmap on what you’ll need, and tell you to practice, practice, practice. Actors that are familiar with self taping auditions will find some of it familiar (Get script, record audition, send in, hear nothing, repeat), but all the technology required is different. It’s a LOT of work to be even remotely competitive, so make sure that you’re truly committed before wasting your own (and your agent’s) time. NOBODY just records a few auditions on their cell phone, and starts booking work. Many new voice actors find some luck booking a few unpaid jobs early on, then end up auditioning literally hundreds of times before either giving up, or starting to book paid work after months and months of tuning, tweaking, and taking classes.
Due to the lockdowns in 2020, there has been an additional surge of new talent into the voiceover world as well, making things even more competitive than pre-2019. Anyone with an internet connection can buy some gear on Amazon, and start recording, so the only way to be effective is to get your sound AND performance quality above the “average newbie” as quickly as possible. The best way to do that is training.
The importance of training isn’t just gaining basic knowledge that you could read on the internet. It offers equally (more?) important time having someone with a trained ear listening to your work, and giving you direct feedback. This is far more important than just being told how to do VO, and feedback is not your agent’s job. 😉 So here’s the basic steps that I recommend, in specific order:
First get a Mic, headphones, and software, and learn the basics of recording and editing. I recommend a Blue Yeti Mic (good quality “starter” mic), Sony MDR 7506 headphones, and Audacity software (Free online). Google it. This will cost you about $200 total on Amazon.
Everyone thinks they can skip the high quality over-ear headphones because they’ve got some airpods, or skullcandy headphones for music. DONT DO IT. Having the right headphones is one of the most important pieces of equipment. It is much MORE important than the mic, at the beginning of your journey. You cannot make high quality recordings if you cannot hear the sound in high quality. If, by chance, you’re an audiophile and already have some expensive Sennheisers, or Bose, or Beats phones, that’s fine, as long as they are analog, and over-ear. You don’t want fancy digital noise canceling software messing with your sound, and you need to block out sounds generated in the room with a physical, “cover-your-ears” barrier. 90% of the time that I hear problems with a read, it turns out that the talent wasn’t listening to their read in proper headphones, so they didn’t hear the sound quality problems.
Once you get your gear & software, get it set up, and start recording. Use google and youtube to answer any questions, or tech issues you have. There are literally thousands of pages of “tech support” information online to help you solve almost any issue.
Record the first few pages of any book, one or two sentences at a time, then learn to edit them together, and cut out anything you don’t want. Do it again. Then, do it again. Get used to listening to the sound of your own voice.
2nd, Read this entire website: https://iwanttobeavoiceactor.com/
3rd, Practice. Read and record paragraphs from books at least 50 times. Edit them together, remove noise, and replace sections, so editing is like 2nd nature. Doing this BEFORE taking a VO class will allow you to focus on the performance aspect of what you’re learning in class, instead of wasting class time learning to record and edit with your gear, while you’re supposed to be learning how to perform.
4th, Take a couple voiceover classes. https://seattlevoiceacademy.com/start-at-the-beginning-scroll-down/ or anywhere else. You need to get at least a dozen hours of someone else’s ears listening to your reads, and giving you feedback.
5th, Go back and work on your STUDIO (the room around your mic). Using the same gear, you need to make your recordings sound great, which is all about the room (not the gear). Sound absorption, echo, reverb, etc. You need to sound as good as the voices you hear on the radio. There are three main aspects of building a studio, and your focus will be different, depending on where your space is.
Noise reduction – Getting rid of anything that’s making sound. This includes refrigerators, AC/Furnace, fans, computer fans (even laptops make noise), kids and pets, etc. Turn it off, unplug it, turn the thermostat up/down, and put kids and pets to bed.
Sound blocking – Keeping sounds from outside your space from entering. Nothing is worse than trying to build a studio in an urban area with lots of outside noise. Cars, sidewalks, construction. Find a space away from outside walls (closet?) and do the best you can do to cover and fill any air gaps, like under doors, etc. If you have a basement, that’s a great place for an audio studio. The smaller the room, the easier it is to isolate it.
Sound absorption – Keeping the sounds you make from bouncing around inside of your space, and back into your mic. This is where all those fun foam blocks come in. You goal is to absorb as much sound as possible in the room. Blankets, Pillows, and curtains are a start. The harder and smoother the surface, like glass windows, the more important that it is covered. Budget suggestion – Use moving blankets to cover walls and windows. These are a tiny fraction of the cost of acoustic blankets and panels, and almost as effective (just not as pretty). Try Harbour Freight for great deals on moving blankets.
Remember, getting a “better” mic does not fix these sound issues. The better your mic is (ie. more expensive) the more these issues will be recorded with your voice, so don’t even think about buying a $500 mic until the studio around your mic is perfect.
As you work your way through these items, set up your gear, record 30 seconds of “silence”, then listen to it in your headphones with the volume on MAX. Start and stop the playback, and when you get to the point where you cannot tell if you are playing or stopped, you’ve got it dialed in.
The process of getting your studio set up is not something that people do in an hour. It often takes weeks of moving things around, covering surfaces, changing your mic placement to get a great sounding studio. There’s a reason that audio engineers get paid huge money to build professional grade studios. It’s hard.
6th. Assuming you’re already rep’d by ZTA as an actor, let me know that you’re ready to go, and I’ll send you a test script to record and send in. If it passes the Quality Control test (my ears), I’ll add you to the ZT VO Roster. From this point forward, you MUST keep your sound quality at this level. I do not have time to listen and quality control every read that comes in, and if I happen to listen to your read and it’s not “up to par”, I will delete it. ZT has a reputation to maintain, and I will not submit low quality reads that make the agency look amateur. **If you do not have an agent at all, and are looking to get one, skip this section and move on to #7.
7th. Voiceover Demos… This is LAST, not first. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. If you’re going to make a permanent recording of the best of the best of what you are capable of, don’t do it until you are an absolute pro at voiceover. If you want to book work in VO, it’s all about what you can record today, on short notice…. NOT what you recorded in a studio, last year.
If you are unrepresented, and want to start looking for an agent, now is the time to do that. If you’ve followed this list, you’ve probably spent a year working through #1 through #7, which means you’re still a newbie in industry terms, but you’ve got a studio, can record great work on short notice, have demos ready, and have taken some classes. Do your research, and you’ve got everything you need to start applying to agencies. If you’ve spent less than a year to get here, you probably need to go back to #2, and start again because you skipped some important things along the way. Good Luck!