5 Ways to Improve as a Voice Over Talent

 

The goal of any voice over talent should be to continuously work on their craft. Some people are born with a magnificent voice, however, all voice over talent work hard to train their voice to sound better. There is always room to improve and learn so that you are booking the jobs that you really want to have a successful career. Let’s look at the 5 ways you can improve as a voice over talent.


Take Care of Your Voice

The first step in improving is to care for your voice. In order to have the best performance, you need to loosen up the cords and get yourself ready. Incorporate vocal warm-ups as part of your morning routine. With only 10-20 minutes you can wake up your range and be ready to perform. Warming up can also help minimize the occurrence of mistakes, mouth noise, and voice cracks.

Understand Your Voice

Voice acting is a skill. In the past, voiceovers were all about having that “announcer” style, a deep booming voice with a consistent tone and enunciation. That is not so common anymore, a wide variety of styles are now being used. Voice overs now seemed to be more relaxed and conversational in style and tone.

The one thing that has not changed is the importance of speaking clearly and with vocal presence. Be sure that for any style of work that you are performing to the best of your ability. Understanding your individual style and tone will help you decide the best type of jobs you are suited for.

Learn the Material

Some jobs are very specific, and others give room for flexibility. In either case, you should know the material extremely well. The better you know it, the better you can deliver it. Just like an actor who's been over and over his/her lines until they feel second nature.

Once you have read it a few times test out different styles when practicing. This is an excellent way to train your voice. By testing out other styles, you may find that certain words or phrases sound better in one of the reads. Ultimately, it gives you a better read and performance for the client. It also gives you the voice over talent, the opportunity to learn new voiceover tricks.

Equipment Other Than Your Voice

There is more to selling your voice as talent in this business, it is also about editing and technical skills as well. It is crucial to know how your equipment works and be comfortable using it, while investing in a few quality pieces. Star by investing in a quality microphone/preamp/interface and good audio software.

The basic skills that you should understand are how to record, mix, and edit your audio. This will set you apart from the competition, as many voice over actors focus on their voices, not all can put together their own audio. With the movement to working from home studios, now, having the skills to produce your own audio makes the turn around time faster. It also means that you can market yourself as being a one-stop shop.

Learn from Others

Finally, listen to other voices as much as possible. In addition to coaching, this is a skill that can help train your voice. Learn from successful voice over talent and from your competition. You can find out what it was that landed them the gigs that you would have liked for yourself. DO they emphasize certain parts of the script differently. What type of tone do they use? There are multiple places that you can do the research and learn from. Even the best voice over talent learns from coaches, colleagues, and others to improve and continue training in order to improve themselves and be better at their job.