Video Transcription
In this video you will learn everything you need to know to record the perfect voiceover for your video.
Finding the right voiceover artist and getting a stellar performance from them isn’t easy. To help you along, I’m going to show you how to find the right voice, how to record it, and I’ll even give you some tips on how to record your own voiceover if you fancy yourself the next Morgan Freeman.
Hi, I’m Jess. Before we get started, make sure to click the subscribe button so that you get notified every time we upload a new video to help you with your video marketing.
So, let’s kick things off with the first and most important step in recording a voice over:
* Choosing the right voice *
When producing a voiceover you have the option to either do it yourself, or outsource it to a professional voiceover artist. Recording your voiceover yourself is great if you are building a personal brand or if your voiceover script conveys your personal opinions.
On the other hand, a professional voiceover artist may cost a little more than doing it yourself, but it can be less time consuming and it also gives you access to a diverse range of voices to find the perfect one that matches the demographic of your audience.
If you do decide on hiring a professional, choosing the right voiceover artist to represent your brand is essential. They need to both speak to your audience’s demographic, and accurately illustrate who you are as a business.
That may seem like a very weighty decision to make, but don’t worry! There are really only two major questions you need to answer for yourself before starting your search: who and how.
First, think about your target audience: who are you speaking to? With your viewers in mind, decide what gender, age, and accent your voiceover artist should have.
For example: if you’re selling a women’s skincare product, chances are you’ll want a female artist, not a burly man with a deep voice. As stunning as James Earl Jones’s voice is, it wouldn’t really make much sense for him to be talking about women’s facial moisturizers!
Second, decide what tone your voice over needs to have: do you want it to be authoritative, comedic, or inspiring? If you’re a law firm, chances are you’d want your voice over to be authoritative, but if you’re a family restaurant, you’ll likely have better luck with something a bit more on the lighthearted side.
Overall, the key here is to find a voiceover artist who can provide a performance your viewers can empathize with, both through the sound of their voice and tone of their delivery. People tend to buy from people they can relate to, so your goal should be to forge a personal connection with your audience through your voiceover.
Once you’ve nailed down those two points, you can start putting your plans in motion and move onto the next step:
* Finding a great voiceover artist *
So, you’ve got a vision for your voice over, but how do you find an artist to record it?
There are two ways I recommend looking for voiceover artists online: going through a voiceover website or looking for a freelancer on your own.
Voiceover websites make it easier to find someone well-suited for your project, but they also charge project management fees. A great website where you can find professional voiceover artists is voices.com. The site has a search function, so you can type in exactly what you’re looking for, say, “health care”, for example, and find artists who have specific experience doing voiceovers on your search topic.
If voices.com doesn’t fit the bill for you, take a look at voicecastinghub.com, mandy.com, soho voices to find even more artists.
When it comes to looking for freelancers, I recommend using platforms like Fiverr or Upwork. These are two of the biggest online freelance marketplaces, and you’re bound to find someone who’s a great fit for your project on there. You can even try using Linkedin, but this is becoming a bit harder lately due to newly implemented restrictions on messaging.
When you’ve finally found someone you vibe with, it’s time for the fun part:
* Recording Your Voiceover *
Most freelance voiceover artists have their own studio setup at home, so you won’t have to worry about the nitty gritty of actually recording a voiceover. You’ll just send your artist your script, give some notes, and receive a finished and polished product that should only need a couple revisions, if any.
If you do need to give direction to a voiceover artist, try to be as specific as possible. I appreciate sometimes it’s quite hard to know what exactly isn’t working, but I find it helps to look at these 4 factors to help me be a bit more specific: Tone, Pacing, Inflection, Accent, Pronunciation or audio quality.
If, however you want to take up the microphone yourself, here are some tips to set you in the right direction.
To start, find a quiet area without any echoes — that means no traffic noises, no refrigerator hums, or anything else that could distract your viewers. Ideally, you’d be able to record in a soundproof booth, but if you’re on a really low budget that’s probably not an option.
Next, make sure you’ve got a high-quality microphone to record on. We’ve got a video on this topic already, and you can find the link in the description down below.
I can’t stress this next one enough: use a pop filter! Plosive sounds like “p”s and “b”s can make very unpleasant sounds if you don’t put a filter between you and your mic, so make sure you pick one up before recording. You can find some for just £5, and if you really want to be frugal, you can even put a sock around your mic to achieve the same effect. Just bear in mind that you’ll lose a bit of quality if you do go the sock route.
And that’s it! If you follow these steps, you should get a great, professional sounding voiceover for your video.
We hope this video has been helpful. If so, make sure to like the video as well as subscribe to our channel. As always, if you need any help with your video production, you can get in touch with us here at Spiel.
Goodbye for now, and happy recording!
