r/VoiceActing

Hi Everyone, 

I'm preparing to look for voice acting work on the side, but I'm not sure if my demo is in a good spot where I can make it public for projects. I recorded this in 2022 during a voice acting class, but I didn't pursue it after that. 

Lately, I've been wanting to explore creative opportunities outside of my full-time job, which brought me back to voice acting. I also ordered the equipment I need for a home setup today so my thought is to record a whole new demo when my equipment comes if this one is not any good. My focus is commercials and maybe audio books.

I would love to have some feedback on the demo, what I can improve on, what you like or dislike, and I can adjust from there. I appreciate any constructive feedback as I start this journey, but please be kind! 😅

Link: https://on.soundcloud.com/yiI9obQ9hG6fmbZQ98

Thanks!

I think I remember hearing somewhere that back in quarantine, some voice actors just used their closets to record, but they had the benefits of living alone and having regular walls. Help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, everyone - over my few years of voicing, on occasion I get a person that doesn't post the entire script to their voice talent. They post only that talent's lines to them. Please always post the entire script. Reading the entire script -- or at least that entire scene -- is absolutely fundamentally essential for getting the context for what is going on. The context is needed when performing lines, to ensure the lines sound as natural as possible. "Good talent" can probably still do alright on the lines, but still not as good without the full context.

Why do people do this on occasion? Here's the reasons I've been given from them:

1. "I didn't want to burden you with the entire script. It's kind of long and just sending you the lines is easier for you." The entire script isn't a burden. It's actually needed. NOT sending the entire script comes across as grossly amateurish, like you have no idea what you're doing.
2. "I wanted the story to be a surprise." Not sorry to say that this is a terrible and dumb reason. Your voice talent need to know the entire story, at least one script at a time. They're not voicing for you to "be surprised" at what the story is, when they watch the finished piece.
3. "I don't want anyone taking my ideas." Then please have your talent sign NDAs. If NDAs are too intimidating for you (this happened, too), then you, perhaps, shouldn't be in this business. Also, if you think talent are going to use or share your ideas, you may be working with unprofessional, immature people that you shouldn't be working with. All decent talent have no interest in using or sharing your ideas. Still, NDAs are free and easy to make; and if talent won't sign, then don't use that talent.

EDIT TO ADD: Also, I'm aware that some "entire scripts" are literally just the lines for that one role. For instance, I have a role in a mobile game currently and it's the type where there's not a "story script". I just have the one-page of one-liner lines. The lines do, however (as a poster said below) give the emotional direction (said calmly, with some snark, for instance), so I get a good idea of the delivery. Also, in these instances, the general story and vibe of the game was provided to all talent.

Thanks for reading.

Okay, so I'm gonna try to be brief:

I've been told constantly throughout my life that I should go into radio, or voice acting, or singing, or audiobooks. Again and again. Every time I enter a new social environment that I spend more than a week in, be it a school, a job, a doctors office I have to go to a few times, etc, people start asking "do you do voice over work?" or "you should do radio," etc. I've gone on five cruises in my life, and by the end of each one I have people coming up to me going "oh you're that guy with the deep voice I heard at trivia" or whatever.

My voice is the first thing people notice about me, and many women I've dated (oddly not including my wife) have commented that they weren't sure if they wanted to go out with me until they heard my voice. At my current job, my boss regularly employs me to gather attention at all-staff meetings, because I can easily reach the volume and deep tone necessary to quiet a room of chatting people easier than anyone else there.

(Reading this all back I feel like it sounds like I'm bragging, but I'm truly just trying to give context - sorry).

Now, I've always appreciated these comments but never really gave them much thought. But I'm at a stage in my life where I'm reaching my last opportunity to switch careers without people interpreting it as a midlife crisis, so I've started to consider it more seriously.

Now I figure, realistically, getting into any kind of voice over work is likely very very very difficult. I abstractly like the idea of it, and in particular I've always LOVED reading novels out loud to anyone who will give me the opportunity. But I don't know whether it's realistic to think that the natural quality of my voice will be any kind of meaningful advantage.

So I guess my ultimate question is this: is it possible for someones natural, untrained voice, to be "good" enough that it warrants getting into voice acting on that alone? Or is it more that regardless of your natural voice quality, you'll be starting at the same place as everyone?

Basically, help me decide whether this is something worth pursuing, or if it's just another dream. Thanks for any help you can give.

Quite literally what the title says lol. I haven’t been trying VA much, but I auditioned for a Yugioh fan rewrite and got cast for the voice of Joey Wheeler! It’s not payed work or some super huge production, but I’m super excited and just felt like sharing a small but meaningful win :).

Hello everyone,

I am currently filming a short movie and am in need of a narrator to read a handful of lines! I am seeking someone with a specific tone so if interested I will provide what I am looking for.

I am in a time crunch so I ideally I would like to have the lines read, recorded, and emailed to me by Tuesday (07/07) 12:00PM EST (I know it's soon).

If anyone is interested, I am compensating fairly due to the urgency. $50-100.

If interested email allezarchive@gmail.com with a recording reading the following.

"Predator: An organism that primarily obtains food by the killing and consuming of other organisms".

"Especially: an animal that preys on other animals".

Thanks in advance!

I'm freshly 18, and have been wanting to start professionally voice acting for quite some time now. I've done fandubbing for almost 3 years, have a good home setup, have taken acting classes, and am ready to record a demo and get onto professional work. Problem is, I don't really know what agencies are good for booking anime/game work. I don't have any connections to the voice acting world, so I'm not quite sure where to go.

Luckily for me, I'm located in DFW (which I'm aware of being a Voice Acting hub), so location is really no problem. I just need a good agency that can help me record a demo and get to working. Do y'all know of any agencies that have track records of getting good roles/training in?

If that's a stupid question, I apologize for bothering you guys! I just don't quite know who to trust on this, seeing as I have no one in my life who has done this work before. Thanks for any and all advice in advance

Hi all - I've been booked for my first paid gig on ACX (yay!) Since joining in June. It's a sci-fi novel, exactly my kind of thing, mostly English and American accents.

However I've just learned that an alien race appears later in the book and are written as having a Jamaican dialect. In sending the manuscript the writer has said -without prompting - "if you can't do that, don't worry about it", meaning we could potentially change the accent.

However I don't want the writer to change their intentions because of me! I'm certain I could do a reasonable accent on a technical level, and if so I want to ensure that it's an earnest attempt at bringing the author's work to life. He seems totally unphased (or he wouldn't have hired me).

Does anyone have advice on kind of guiding themselves through accents or characters that they've felt that concern for, in terms of worrying about caricaturing or coming across as insulting/inappropriate?

This may be a non-issue - "it's in the script, so do it" - but as a relative newbie to audiobooks I would really welcome some experienced advice.

hello! i've read the beginners post, and now i am asking for help.

i actually live in one of the big hubs for voice acting (DFW), and have been in the fandub scene for almost 3 years now. i'm trying to get out of it and onto professional work, but i genuinely don't know who to trust for an agent/source on this stuff, what a employable demo reel looks like, what agencies are even good, and where to break into the professional voice actor world.

i've tried to get involved in bigger fan projects, but they all fizzle out and die :( i'm not expecting monetary compensation either. i genuinely don't know where to go..

i've done all the acting classes, i've done all the practicing, and i feel i'm ready for a demo reel to send to actual agencies, but i don't know who to trust or what it would even look like. there's many youtube videos out there, yes, and many "this is how you make a demo reel!" guides, but i can't tell if they're reputable or not. same with finding an agent.

i apologize if this is a stupid post or question, but i don't know of anyone to ask. i don't have any connections to the professional va world, nor do i know anyone who's had this same pipeline. help?

(also, before anyone asks, yes i have a setup at home. i use an xlr mic, i have an audio interface, i have logic pro as a daw, my room is acoustic treated, etc. i'm a musician on top of this (going to university for music) so i know all about sound quality and good gear!)

Definitely want to start coaching as I've gotten pretty far without it and I feel like I've hit some sort of a ceiling in VO. (Fed up with five r and CCC!)

(Hi Sean if you're reading)

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I've been unsure which is preferred for a quiet VA environment for voice acting and narration. The range would cover from quiet soft speaking and nearly screaming as well as the more emotive neutral voices in between. I'll probably have to work on reducing echo and open room audio but for now I wanted to know which of the two microphones is better for voice acting and narration. Also, my voice tends to just sound like crap whenever I hear it. I have half a suspicion it's because I have never actually used a high quality microphone in my whole life, but also I think part of it is that one's inner voice is different from how it sounds irl. Can I use microphone modifiers to make it sound like how it sounds to me?

For those who started voice acting in the last few years,
What’s one thing you wish someone had told you before you began?

Anyone is using a zoom F series recorders, like F3 or F6 for their voiceovers?

Hello, I've started voicing for someone's project, and they said the project is PG so I didn't really think anything was weird, but they used some lines I recorded out of context for what seeeeems to be like, fetish content...? (I am not going to go into detail lol)

I was a little puzzled by the script when I recorded the audio in the first place, but it might be more obvious now what they wanted it for. -o-'
Maybe I should have been more careful (first time working with somebody for voice acting, I'm a noob) but I'm not a fan of how it happened.

Any advice on like, what I can do about it I guess? Or should I do anything at all, like is this normal? I'm like not even 100% sure it's supposed to be fetish content, it's just sus. I do not want the person I'm voice acting for to feel awkward if I do bring it up, they've been really chill and friendly otherwise. (Also I am an adult, I was just expecting a PG project to not feel so icky)

I'll ask more questions going forward for sure though, lesson learned I guess, I'm glad it wasn't anything worse +_+