Voice Over Talent

The Latest Newsletter from the The Immediate Edge included a great article on Outsourcing Voice Talent by Lisa Hartwell http://audiblemarketing.com.

Hiring someone for you voice over work can be difficult if you don’t know where to go. Luckily Lisa explains it all for us. Here is her helpful advice for finding a voice over for your internet project.
First let’s look at what a voice over person does. Let’s look at an example of making an audio for an ebook. Lisa says, It “isn’t just a matter of sitting behind a microphone and recording from page 1 to page 50 all in one go, without any mistakes, then saving it into files and uploading it to the client. For every one hour of finished audio, there is usually 3 to 4 hours of work involved.”
Here is what is involved for you to get a good quality product from the voice over talent you hire.

Mark up the script This is simply familiarizing themselves with the script or ebook in this case. Can you read something straight off with no mistakes? I doubt it so the voice over person has to be familiar with what they are reading.

Recording it may take a few attempts. No Academy Award winner actor gets everything right on the first take. They might change the way they say something for better effect or pause for a drink of water. It takes longer to read something out loud.

Editing All audio should be edited after recording. Just as you edited your ebook, the voice over will edit their recording. This is time a consuming task.

Mixing Music or sound effects will take additional time to get the mix sounding right. If your project is recording interviews, “a good voiceover/interviewer will take the time to familiarize themselves with a subject beforehand,” and put the interviewee at ease.

Difference in voice artists costs
“Some sell their voice while others sell a voice.” Lisa sells her voice because people request her for their project and will pay more to get her. If you want a certain style or voice, accent or preference for male or female voice then you will pay more than if you just want a good voice for your project with no preference.

Many voice artists work from a home studio, and can continue to keep their fees low compared to someone who worked out of a shared studio. It is interesting to note that Lisa says a British or European voiceover is going to cost you more than an American or Australian mainly due to currency exchange rate.

Where to Look for a Voice over

http://www.Voice123.com showcases voice artists from around the world and allows you to contact them individually or to post your project and request auditions, quotes etc. Voice123 will send audition requests to the most suitable voices based on your criteria, so be as detailed as possible in your descriptions include budget, purpose, language/accent requirement, etc.

http://www.Voiceovers.co.uk Lisa gets her best work from here. These are mainly UK voices but you will also find US, Australian and non-English language voices too.

http://www.elance.com – One of the most well known and biggest outsourcing sites. Lisa’s advice for looking for voice talent here is, make sure you listen to the voiceover’s portfolio and ask for relevant samples or a short audition.

http://www.Guru.com –You post a project and seek quotes. Lisa believes the quality and variety of voices on Guru to be better than Elance. On Guru use keywords to find a provider who is most likely to have the skills you require.

What to look for in a voice over and more importantly listen for?

Make sure your project description is comprehensive.
Let’s look at the example of an ebook recording.
What is the target audience for your audio book/interview?
Is a male or female voice better, a relaxed natural voice or business-like, corporate voice?
Do you want music or sound effects for the introduction, or throughout?
Include the size of the project, timescale, style, do you need the audio edited,
What is your budget?
Ask for a custom demo to be recorded. Supply a demo script or this purpose.
Request that the demo audio be recorded in the same way the final project will be.

Here is Lisa’s helpful point to keep in mind when selecting a voice over talent.
Does this voice match the style and sound you want for your project?
are they making it clear and understandable?
are they pacing it well?
do they sound like they understand the material?
are they giving the script “light and shade” the right pace and tone.

The quality of the recording:
is the audio clear and at a good volume level?
would you be happy listening to 30mins or an hour of this?
can you hear background noise?
For an ebook think about individual chapter titles and sub-heads to be read or not and other parts of the book that can’t be read like diagrams,index and glossary?

Most important you have a written agreement and do not pay until satisfied.

Outsourcing voice talent from the Internet Marketer’s Point of View
Would your time be better spent doing more profitable activities in your business then trying to do it yourself? Then check out the sites listed to find your voice talents.
Thanks to Lisa Hartwell for allowing me to write this summary of her article. If you have any questions or would like to know more about audio marketing, please go to her blog at
http://audiblemarketing.com or email lisaaudiblemarketing.com">lisaaudiblemarketing.com