r/VoiceActing Jun 17 '24

Mod News Just getting started in VO? Dont know where to begin? READ THIS FIRST

331 Upvotes

Welcome to r/VoiceActing!

First of all, we get asked the question, "how do I get started in VO?" a lot.

Seriously: A lot.

There's a lot of information below that answers that question, but PLEASE read this first.

This subreddit is for established, new and aspiring voice actors to discuss issues, share tips, strategies, critiques and resources related to voice acting.

This is a good community, and rude or obnoxious behavior will not be tolerated. If you cant act like a grown-up and remain civil in your conversations, you'll be removed from the sub. Personal attacks, threats of violence/abusive language, or bigotry in any form will not be tolerated.

THE RULES:

* **No Free Requests**

All requests for voice work must be reasonably compensated. Terms of compensation must be articulated in your request. Acceptable forms of compensation include:

Monetary ($5.00 USD minimum)

Barter (services exchange)

Royalty share (only on currently monetized projects—no prospective payment).

Unpaid requests will be removed. If your project is unpaid, try posting to r/recordthisforfree, VoiceActing Club, or

CastingCall.Club.

* **No Offer Posts**

Do not make posts offering your voice or production services. If you’re looking for work, respond directly to request threads. Simply put, this is not an appropriate community to solicit. Requests for feedback/critique are welcome!

* **No Advertising**

Do not post advertisements for paid products or services. We love articles, blog posts, feedback/critique threads, and other great points of discussion! But if your post includes advertisement for a paid product or service, it will be removed. If you believe a certain product or service would be of genuine interest and benefit to the community, message the moderators about it.

* **Search Before You Ask**

Got a general question about voice acting? How to get started? What gear to buy? How to get better at acting? How to find work? These get asked all the time around here, and plenty of our more experienced community members give graciously detailed answers very frequently. There’s a lot of wisdom to find here if you’re just getting started! Before you post your question, use the search bar and see if others have asked the same thing—they probably have!

Just getting started?

We're happy that you've decided you want to be a voice actor. There are a lot of resources available to learn about voice acting.

The column on the right of this page lists some good sites to check out to begin the process.

It takes a lot of work to become a successful voice actor/ voiceover artist. It takes a considerable amount of time, effort, and yes money to do this. There's just no way around it.

But if you were starting from zero and had no idea what to do to begin the process, here's some steps to follow and the logical order you should follow them in:

  1. Take acting classes.

  2. Take improv classes.

  3. Take business classes.

  4. Take marketing classes.

  5. Then talk to a voiceover coach. Work with them on building your skills.

  6. Practice practice practice.

  7. Get your demo recorded, put together a website that showcases your talents in one place.

  8. Then Start marketing.

  9. While this is going on, continue to develop your skills in voiceover, voice acting and business and marketing. Always keep refining your process of finding, auditioning, recording/ editing and invoicing clients. Continuing education is necessary. Always keep learning. Always keep building your skills.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

We're happy that you're here.

We hope you find this place a great resource on your journey.

Welcome aboard!


r/VoiceActing 3h ago

Booth Related Studiobricks Questions

2 Upvotes

Hi all! I ordered a Studiobricks One Plus VO Edition and it arrived/was partially built last week-- the experience hasn't been stellar (though the booth sounds great!)...

The booth arrived nearly falling over sideways (all 1300 lbs) off the palette and we had to have someone hold it upright as we unpacked because it was tipping over upon delivery. This was to the point that the deliveryman was worried about it falling over and asked us to help him unload it off the truck. Also, several building blocks were lightly damaged, I think due to items shifting during transit.

After building the exterior and giving Studiobricks a head's up about some of the damage, I realized that the desk table and its cable management didn't fit/was miscut (you can still see the pencil marks from where they were supposed to cut the desk) and my Yellowtec mic arm's XLR cable was damaged to the point that the wiring was showing, rendering the arm unusable.

They seemed to take the damage seriously and offered me a bit of money off for the original damages to the booth exterior, which were mostly superficial. They have said they're sending me new desk parts (though the weight of the package sent does not match the weight of the desk, so I'm not sure what specifically is being sent) and, as of now, replacing the mic arm is up in the air because it's through another company. I also believe contractually I have to pay for shipping and customs for these additional parts.

I have a few questions to folks who have bought the booth before:

  1. Is this a typical experience, haha? I've only heard good things about Studiobricks before this!
  2. My booth came with instructions (via email) that were years old and didn't match the current model of booth I had, was that also the case for other folks? The instruction QR code for the booth led to a broken link for me.
  3. Which kind of leads me to this point... was there a space on the wall to place your monitor mount, or did you have to pull off some of the foam paneling? I'm not sure where to put the mount! Thanks :)

I can attach images if that's helpful. Thank you all for your thoughts.


r/VoiceActing 3m ago

Discussion I highly recommend checking out Same Voice Actor BTDubs for anyone on Bluesky!

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Upvotes

r/VoiceActing 1h ago

PAID work need some advise related to sound

Upvotes

Hello sound engineer guys , I need your advice about something.
While filming, my English isn’t always strong enough, so I sometimes end up using the wrong words during the conversation.
Imagine this scene: Someone XYZ and I are walking along the beach, talking about history. I’m asking questions, and he’s answering.
I have a few questions:
During editing, is it possible to replace some of my dialogue with a voice-over and remove the original lines where I spoke incorrectly?
Will it still feel natural? Since the original recording has background sounds from the beach, I’m wondering if adding a voice-over later will sound different or unnatural because the ambient sound won’t match.
Even if the voice-over is done well, the lip movement won’t match exactly, right? I’m okay if the mismatch isn’t too noticeable. I was also thinking that, during those moments, I could cut away to B-roll footage of the beach or the surroundings while the corrected voice-over plays. Do you think that would work?


r/VoiceActing 1h ago

Advice What kinds of edits I need to do to have similar voice as Nyarlathotep from Dusk and Apocalypse from X-Men 97?

Upvotes

I do know that that the voice editing is not going to magically make a voice good, but I just want to know how they did it with Nyarlathotep and Apocalypse.

They are not 1:1, but they just sound so badass and mighty.

I tried to search around the internet about this, but so far all I got was "How to make a demonic voice!!" videos, and they are just voices with lower pitch.

Also, sorry if this isn't the right place to ask this question. If there's any subreddit meant for this, please just tell me!


r/VoiceActing 5h ago

PAID work CASTING CALL (HISPANIC MOTHER) PAID

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0 Upvotes

We are looking for high quality, natural sounding voices for this animated pilot! The pilot is aimed to be rated TV-14, for young adults with slightly mature subject matter and slightly mature language. 

This pilot is about a boy named Stan, a boy who lives in a world of hellish creatures who want him and the people he loves to cease to exist. And he'll do anything he has to do to keep his loved ones safe. YOU will be auditioning as the main characters MOTHER!!!

PAYMENT RATES - $60 ($20 per line/3 lines)

AUDITIONS FORM IS IN THE COMMENTS!


r/VoiceActing 20h ago

Discussion For video games and anime, how much time does a voice actor have in the booth to analyze and mark up a script before recording lines?

14 Upvotes

I know that film, tv, and theatre actors will take their scripts home and really pore over them. But I've heard you don't really have the time for that when you're voice acting in a studio with an engineer and a director.


r/VoiceActing 6h ago

Microphones Which XLR mic & Audio interface should I get for 200$

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1 Upvotes

I'm looking to upgrade my setup for voice acting for 200$

For mics I was thinking about getting the AKG P120 or the Maono PM320 with the Fifine SC-1 what Microphone should I pick and do you have any other options


r/VoiceActing 3h ago

Advice this sub looks like it has many professionals so

0 Upvotes

Hello there everyone! I've been planning and practicing how to do Kaedehara Kazuha's voice from Genshin Impact.

As a beginner, my range of voice is low or narrow whatever..

I think I'm on the same voice range as him. I'm having a problem with my voice is raspier than him, the way he pronounces his words, and so on.

My main questions here are, will understanding his character help me? And with enough practice, will I eventually get rid or just reduce raspy voice.


r/VoiceActing 3h ago

Advice Amateur voice actor here. How do I keep my family from hearing me?

0 Upvotes

I live with my sister and my mom and dad in the same house. I usually do voice acting in my room. however, 99% of the day, my parents and sister are upstairs almost right next to my room. if I want to voice acting for a character when they’re screaming, how can I do so without annoying my family or humiliating myself?


r/VoiceActing 11h ago

Discussion When is it right for you to send?

0 Upvotes

When do you feel ready to send your audition tape?


r/VoiceActing 19h ago

Microphones Yo, have any of you guys ever hear a metal sound when using a mic

2 Upvotes

I was practicing my voice acting with my newest microphone I bought, a Fifine Mic with Boomarm, and each time that I try to voice act with it, such as when I get to a loud scene where I have to be like slightly above normal volume, it makes this like metallic ringing after each word. I never had this issue with other mics but I'm wondering if anyone else has ever had this issue before with some microphones


r/VoiceActing 23h ago

PAID work CASTING CALL (HISPANIC MOTHER) PAID

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4 Upvotes

We are looking for high quality, natural sounding voices for this animated pilot! The pilot is aimed to be rated TV-14, for young adults with slightly mature subject matter and slightly mature language. 

This pilot is about a boy named Stan, a boy who lives in a world of hellish creatures who want him and the people he loves to cease to exist. And he'll do anything he has to do to keep his loved ones safe. YOU will be auditioning as the main characters MOTHER!!!

PAYMENT RATES - $60 ($20 per line/3 lines)

AUDITION:
https://forms.gle/zZakJNviDvgf661D7


r/VoiceActing 1d ago

PAID work Seeking American Male Voice for 10 line script + small editing

10 Upvotes

Hi r/VoiceActing,

I'm developing a murder mystery game in my spare time and I'm adding a voicemail as a piece of evidence. I'm looking for a voice actor to record the lines and also edit the audio to sound like its coming from a phone speaker, similar to the "Phone Guy" calls in Five Nights at Freddy's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egYTAXLRsqM

Voice: American Male, 30's-40's
Background: A police officer leaves a voicemail to another police officer in a different county with some bad news.
Script: About 10 lines long
Additional Editing: Please edit your voice to sound like its coming from a phone speaker.
Pay: $50

If you're interested, please reply or DM me with some kind of portfolio or sample of your work. Thanks!


r/VoiceActing 1d ago

Advice Part Time to Full Time - How did you do it?

4 Upvotes

Hi all! Wondering if any of you would be willing to share stories of successfully beginning VA whilst working a full time job, and it eventually becoming your main job?

Juggling VA and full time work is a necessity at the moment as I’m in no position to quit my day job, but I would love to hear any advice or tips for how you managed without burning yourself out, tips for recording and doing VA admin when you have a main job, and eventually how you managed to get to full time.

With the auditioning, querying, marketing etc all on top of a day job, it feels quite overwhelming sometimes (but worth it). Thanks so much for reading ✨


r/VoiceActing 22h ago

Advice Røde NT1 Signature - muffled S sounds?

0 Upvotes

Looking for some advice! Recently got a Røde NT1 Signature, paired with a Scarlett 2i2 4th Generation interface. Problem is, when I listen to recordings back, the 's' sounds are awfully muffled and makes the overall quality sound really bad. Does anyone have any advice as to how to sort this issue? Maybe I have the wrong settings on my interface, but I'm really new to the professional set up. Any advice would be much appreciated, as I'm due to record for a series soon, and the S sounds were an issue picked up by production. I'd ideally like to sort it out before recording the pilot!


r/VoiceActing 1d ago

Advice How do you organize your voice files??

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26 Upvotes

Still new to the VO scene, but this is roughly what my organization looks like. In the edited files folder I keep edited audacity files for each voice line and their corresponding .mp3 files, and in the backup files folder I keep just the raw audacity files. I don't know if keeping the audacity files is worth it or if I should change the file format?


r/VoiceActing 1d ago

Advice Voiceover in Orlando

0 Upvotes

I know it’s not the biggest thing over here but man it’s seriously hard to find anything voiceover related outside of sunspot studios. I’m not yet ready for an agency though so does anyone know of ways to connect with others or should I just stick to online workshops?


r/VoiceActing 2d ago

Discussion Tara Tips from Open Gym

37 Upvotes

Tara Strong ran an open gym last Saturday, about 3 hours coaching volunteers through cold reads from previous audition scripts she read. One note she kept giving people stuck with us.

When someone did three takes of the same line, she’d tell them to read them in a way that was completely different from the other but not too different that it was a completely different character.

The skill is finding the gap in between. Same person, same voice, but one take runs differently. Maybe they’re more hurt or angry vs nervous. Pacing works too, slower and deliberate vs quicker and reactive, without touching the voice itself.

That’s really what casting directors are checking for when they ask for three takes. Are you guys already doing this for your auditions?


r/VoiceActing 1d ago

Advice Voice Cracks

0 Upvotes

If any of you have problems with your voice cracking, how do you deal with it? Is there a way to get rid of it?


r/VoiceActing 1d ago

Discussion Can't get Work

0 Upvotes

I am not getting any kind of Voice Acting project I auditioned literally hundreds of them on casting call. It's really demotivating.


r/VoiceActing 2d ago

Discussion Thoughts on my Elderly Male take?

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17 Upvotes

First time posting here but long time lurker lol. Been doing VA work for fan projects/friends for a few years now (mainly for fun through CCC). It seems a lot of people like my take on an elderly voice, usually one that gets picked more often then I'd have expected.

Recently submitted one for this character https://castingcall.club/s/5703728 and figured I'd share to see what you all think. If there's any tweaks or tips you think I could have made to this voice or performance lemme know!


r/VoiceActing 2d ago

Advice Too broke for a studio? Check your library.

17 Upvotes

I just learned that, with podcasts becoming more popular, some libraries have recording spaces.

This is a nearby library for example (link purposely broken.) This particular setup is pretty sweet!

https: * //youtu.be/NML2fLK_WJo?si=XJTPNTHoq1Zegqr4


r/VoiceActing 1d ago

Advice Does anyone have tips on how to do the first voice by Susan Blu?

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0 Upvotes

I want to learn how to do it, so if you have any tips lmk