Voiceover work: What does your home studio need and is it worth it?

by Victoria DeAnda on April 18, 2017

Working from home can be a relaxing and freeing experience, especially for those lucky enough to make a full-time income from it. For voiceover artists, whether freelance or career, this can mean deciding whether or not to invest in a home studio for your voiceover work. While this would most likely require a time and money investment, some experts swear by it. This article will discuss whether you need it and if so, how to make sure it is worth it.

Do You Need It?

Every professional needs a personal space reserved for his or her career needs, whether at an external office or in the home. For a voiceover artist, it is highly recommended that you make the choice to either schedule professional studio time or create your own in-home studio. While it is not mandatory, it is incredibly helpful. If you are trying to make your voiceover career your only career, then yes, you do need it. If this is more of a freelance or passion project, then it is not.

Deciding on Your Studio Space

So, you need a home studio space for your voiceover work and want to figure out the best place to put it. If in a large area with an extra room, this would be perfect. However, if you do not have an extra room available, try to partition off a part of your home to create a feeling of a separate space and to get rid of distractions. For the non-claustrophobics out there, you could even convert a closet into your studio.  Once you have your space, make sure you have good sound quality in it and try to make it as soundproof as possible.

Getting the Right (Affordable) Equipment

Next, you will need to get the proper equipment to finish up your home studio. Thankfully, you can design and stock a high-quality home voice studio for $2K or under. You will just need a good microphone with a stand, a recording interface, a solid pair of headphones, and a computer with recording software.

So, is it worth it? Depending on how much time and energy you put into this home studio, it very well could pay for itself in voiceover jobs ten times over. It all comes down to how much you want to invest.

How to Make Every Week a New Year

by Victoria DeAnda on January 25, 2016

The New Year is always an exciting time. People are fresh, motivated, and ready to take on a new, improved life.

Now, things have settled down. You’re into a routine, and it may be the same one you had last year, or you’re still holding on to the changes you set forth with on New Year’s Day. In any case, 2016 is well on its way.

What I would like to bring forward today is that excitement we feel at the beginning of the year. It is a shame many of us only experience that once a year. What if we could feel those feelings more than once a year? What if we could experience them more often – let us say every week!

How I’m Making Every Week a New Year for a Successful Voiceover Business

In my successful voiceover business, I have often found that weeks start to run into each other. Before I know, a full month has gone by, and I really can’t say what happened during it. I just did my voiceover work, took care of my personal responsibilities, and did the same thing every day. Day in and day out…nothing spectacular or great to report.

However, lately I have taken a different approach. One that I believe will help voiceovers everywhere. I am treating every week as a New Year.

Now, I get excited when a new week is upon us. I come up with some Resolutions for the week, and I think about how I’m going to keep them. I can easily see what I have to do for work and how those Resolutions fit into that work.

Sometimes, I will copy the same Resolutions from one week to the next because I would like to continue working on them to improve my work and personal life. This has helped me keep some Resolutions going longer than they ever have before.

Other times, I find that some Resolutions are not quite what I had in mind. They don’t work into my life. I don’t feel they’re as important any more – I ditch those.

Some Resolutions I set the bar way too high, so I don’t come close to keeping them. For the next week, I bring that bar down, so I can see how I’m more successful with it.

Each week is a new time for me to make changes to help me run a successful voiceover business. Some of those changes I carry on week to week, while others I ditch or change for the next week. Since I can start over every single week, it is okay that I do not keep them because I get to restart the next Monday. What a huge relief!

So my advice to you is this:

Ditch the New Year’s Resolutions. Instead, implement New Week Resolutions.

If you do this every week, you may be able to run a successful voiceover business and personal life. It’ll be much more satisfying than having to worry about how you failed at your Resolutions and must wait an entire year to make new ones.

Voiceover Spotlight: Announcer

by Victoria DeAnda on September 11, 2015

The job of a voiceover announcer is a bit different than that of a voiceover narrator. Narration is the underscoring of a presentation. In the case of a documentary, it is merely words that tell us what we are looking at on the picture. It is not a dramatic read or news read. It is an underscoring-type, flat read with a downward inflection at times.

The voiceover announcer, on the other hand, is presenting something and is very punchy. Whether the announcer is announcing at a local benefit or the Academy Awards, he/she is presenting something that is extremely important or special. His/her voice shows enthusiasm and energy.

Getting into the Voiceover Announcer Niche 

Your Voice

There are many different types of voices needed in the commercial world: gravelly voices, low voices, flat voices, whiny voices and even average voices. Therefore, with a little determination, you can still enter the field even if you do not think you have a classic ‘good voice’.

Come Prepared

There is much more to successful voiceovers than just having a great sounding voice. Although having clear speech is important, you also have to be able to read another person’s words (script) and have them sound sincere and believable like they were coming directly from you. This is more in line with timing and acting ability than voice quality. This skill can be learned with proper training. The ability to persist and a strong desire will be what you need.

Acting/Improvisation

You might be wondering why you should take acting classes. The reason is you will need to be able to ‘speak’ the characters you are doing. An animation class alone will not cut it. You need to begin the process slowly. It’s not about your voice at this particular moment; it’s about the intention behind your voice that will give it shape. After three months of acting class, you will have opened yourself up and can now move into voiceover classes.

Voiceover Class

Voiceover classes should be simple enough to find. You can do a search on Google for classes in your city. Often, performing art centers and universities offer classes. Positive word of mouth referrals are a great way to find good classes, so ask around.

Find your Niche and Range

Now that you have conditioned your voice, it’s time for you to choose your market and decide your range. For instance, are you the stadium announcer person, the classy BMW voice or the Don Pardo game show host? You might be all three! Figuring this out is important before you attempt to get out there and promote yourself.

Ask your coach what type of voice you have. Are you the edgy, hip voice or the everyman’s voice? Do you have a natural announcer voice? Figure out your range and foster it. This is how you’re going to make your money. Stretch your voice even more by trying out character voices, accents and more.

Equipment

Equipment is not a big deal. You can find the simple USB microphone for around $100. You can obtain recording devices from anywhere from $200 to $400; however, chances are your computer is already equipped with this software.

Professional Demo

Finally yet importantly is your professional demo. This is critical to have when out building your niche in voiceover. You can hire a professional production company to add in sound effects and music to make it sound as if you have already done commercials, but you will pay anywhere from $800 to $2,000 for this. In any event, you need your demo.

Does being a voiceover announcer sound like something you would like to do? Get started on your career today.