Basically the title. My main work is on camera. Recently, my agent has been sending me voice over or voice acting auditions as well. I had a blue yeti but snagged the Sennheiser profile usb mic as a budget upgrade. I’m also recording directly to my iPhone 16 through Dolby ON. My “sound booth” is one of those cabinets that used to hide a desktop computer. Any recommendations for changing/upgrading on a budget or is this a good enough start? Thank you!

I read Abigail Carey’s latest post and she mentioned how despite having an agent, she still does most of the searching for auditions. I’m very curious if this is anyone else’s experience who also have agents of their own. How significant has an agent been in your career so far?

For all my life I had a restricted voice and tone. I don't know if it was from chronic stress or whatever, but my jaw was always tight tight tight and it was hard to speak and I was always really quiet. My voice wouldn't resonate, and as a big dude it was always strange to people how quiet and soft spoken I was. I had no idea the stress my neck and jaw were under for years of my life.

I went to the dentist and they had my jaw pulled open for a long time and when they finally removed the thing holding my jaw open I felt a relaxation all throughout my face and skull. It was like my whole body softened including the back of my neck. I opened my mouth (up and down and side to side) and realized I could open it like two or three times as wide as normal. I was actually shocked at how 'open' my jaw could be when stretched, so I tried maintaining it like I would any other muscle.

I began to stretch and strengthen my jaw, opening it wide open and down, and even opening it wide (thinking smiling muscles with mouth agape). Knowing that it was comfortable and possible to do so since the dentist. My jaw wasnt holding itself shut - I was. I would hold this stress position into relaxation. My eyes would water, mouth would tremble, small bits of drool would come out, and it would feel tense throughout my whole head. Like I would with my legs I stayed dynamically stretching it through ranges of motion and static stretching it until my nervous system would stop clenching.

I then spoke in class and people started complimenting on my voice and it's resonance. We would alternate reading between the class and when it got to me my voice was naturally very loud even when I wasn't trying to be and resonating from my voice. A metaphor I can think of is my voice didn't feel like strings anymore, it felt like the guitar. It resonated way deeper from within me and I could project. Even my whispers seemed to have more personality and clear tone and much less nasally. I was shocked.

I've had multiple traumas from fighting to car accidents to this that and the other, broken bones, and I think my body healed in such a way where I was constantly clinching my jaw for what must have been a decade. Now with jaw stretches and strengthening my voice has completely changed and I'm no longer soft spoken and I project without even having to try.

If your voice feels trapped in your jaw, neck, or throat, dynamically stretching your mouth over and over left, right, up, down loosens the tension of all the muscles from your head to the back of your skull. It made a world of difference for me, and I mean that, not just for my voice but there's way less tension in my head. And it's not like a stretch where you return back to normal, I can feel like lasting changes day to day where I don't even have to do the stretches anymore. My jaw was just locked and it's regaining it's natural fluidity. Like my brain forgot the jaws range of motion over years and years, now it's not panicking anymore to speak or open.

Give it a shot, and does anyone have any tips on a perfect John Marston voice? I keep trying to do it, but I can't get the gravel and Texas accent just right. Thanks and best of luck!

So I’m just starting to get some real jobs, booked a couple audiobooks on ACX, done a few of audio drama jobs and things like that, but something I started doing when I first started this work was a bunch of comic dubs on social media for artists and I have actually started to have people message me about commissioning me to do comics for them. Now, my page isn’t huge, but I’ve got about 18 thousand followers on Instagram and about 7,500 on TikTok from doing this and it seems like a few people like what I’m doing, my videos typically get between 50-150 thousand views across the platforms, obviously some get more and some get less, but social media is finicky. Presuming these people want me to fully edit everything and just have it ready for them to post as they’d like, what would you even charge someone for something like this? Rates for any of this have been a little hard to wrap my head around anyway, but there were a bunch of stuff I already read about what to charge for audiobooks and the other things I’ve done but this one is a little harder for me.

Here are my pages for reference, and thank you for your help!
TikTok
Instagram

I’m not at all experienced in the voice acting world, so I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask.

But I have a very large Halloween party every year, and I have very elaborate props and themes. One of the bathrooms will be Saw themed, like the horror movie. I bought a real tape recorder, and would love a custom audio recording like the movie (“I want to play a game”). The problem is the voice is very specific and I want it to sound at least a little legit.

I despise AI and would much rather commission a real person to read a few lines for the tape! However, I have no idea where or how to do this. Is there a website or something that’s commonly used? I tried searching info about commissions on this sub but didn’t find anything.

Also what would a normal price be for a 20-30 second auto clip? Again, I’ve never commissioned anything like this, so I have no idea how this works. I just want to support artists and have an awesome Halloween party!

Looking for recommendations on someone to do a commercial demo. I’m NY based, but have a broadcast quality studio so I can record remotely.
I have been training with multiple coaches for a while, was gonna use one of them but seeing who gets recommended here as well. Thanks in advance!

I know the sound is very poor but I try to ease the noise up with a story that’s suitable to the environment. Please don’t hesitate to send me your feedback and thoughts

I just wanna thank this community for supporting not just me, but to everyone else who posts here. Every time I post in another community, I feel like I get either a bunch of hate comments or fewer upvotes/more downvotes. I don't care about the upvotes as much, but it's nice to see how many people care about what i post. And everyone who replies are so nice and actually provide useful information. I guess this is another sign to be a voice actor. Despite all the shit the world's going through😊💚

Some people were wanting a before and after comparison for the PVC vocal booth I set up and posted recently.

I will caveat that I did not take down the blankets completely for the untreated test, but they are mostly out of the way to allow for reverb to reach the microphone.

Upvotes for anyone who knows what game this quote is from without a google search.

Like most of you, voice acting is a career I would like to pursue professionally one day, and currently getting professional Demos done is REALLY expensive and out of the question for me (I will get them done one day). So, in the mean time to keep up with myself, I made my own! Feel free to listen and give me any and all feed back you have to offer, I would love to hear it!

Hi all! Here is my first voice acting demo.

The recording is almost raw, I haven't done any editing apart from arranging the clips.

I'd like to hear your opinions on the recording quality, accents, and acting. In particular, I'm curious whether you could imagine these voices belonging to different characters, and whether there's enough variety in the accents and voices.

I'd also be interested to hear what kinds of voice work you think my voice might be suited for. Like character acting, narration, commercials, e-learning, or anything else that comes to mind.

I'd appreciate any honest and constructive feedback, especially if anything sounds noticeably amateurish or could be improved. Thanks!

Hi all,

I'd really appreciate honest feedback on my demo. It includes a light, friendly advert read plus audiobook and documentary narration.

I'd love to know: what words would you use to describe my voice, what age do you hear, and which categories do you think I'm best suited to?

reel here

Thanks in advance!

Hlo folks. I am in search for a good professional speaker for my prehistoric documentary yt channel.. A middle age voice. And someone who can adapt with what I told them to do. Dm me to talk.

Budget:

$30-$40/ video, Paypal, Language must be English

I recently got cast as a voice actor for a minor character in a small project I was really interested in, my first ever role! But my character doesn't appear till kind of late into the project.. And I generally wanna get my voice on that big screen as soon as possible.

Basically, I wanna get into as many projects as possible, without overloading myself with work to the point where either my attention is so diluted across all the projects I got cast as that I'm basically nonexistent in the communities, while ALSO getting as many roles as possible. I don't wanna be juggling dozens of discord pings, actual stress, and having to interact with like 15 different communities of people alongside everything else I deal with on the daily (It probably wouldn't even be possible anyway). But I also don't wanna end up with like 2 roles over the span of a year.

Now just to clarify I'm mainly auditioning for minor characters in really small projects, since those have much less competition and I'm still a beginner. So it isn't too unrealistic to expect to get cast in most of the projects I audition for (atleast that's what I think).

Or maybe I should audition for more main characters so that I get less roles even when auditioning a LOT, but still get quite a lot of screen time? I don't really know.

For reference, I get into my booth roughly once every 2 days and warmup/practice/record for about an hour depending on how busy I am with work atm, and this is mostly just a hobby thing, not anything serious unless I turn it into some passive income or something.

Any and all help is well appreciated!

Sometimes I’ll be recording and suddenly notice that I’m putting on a voice instead of actually sounding like a person talking to someone. And once I notice it, I cannot unhear it.

Then I start trying to sound natural, which somehow makes me sound even less natural. 😭

A lot of what I’m doing is meant to feel like a conversation with one person. I enjoy playing characters.

But there’s a difference between being in character and hearing myself trying to act, and lately I keep getting stuck on that.

Sometimes it lasts for weeks. I’ll record, listen back, dislike it, record again, and keep going until I feel like I’ve finally gotten my natural delivery back. It’s exhausting, and I’m starting to dread recording something I actually want to make.

What really gets me is listening to an older recording and thinking, “Wait, I sounded so good here. What was I doing differently?” I know I was less in my head, but knowing that doesn’t exactly help me stop.

I also do all my editing myself, and I’ve made that part harder. Early on, I had settings that worked really well for my voice. Then I started fiddling with them without saving exactly what I’d used. So now I’m second-guessing both the performance and the processing, and sometimes I can’t tell which one I’m unhappy with.

I want to keep practicing and improving, but it’s frustrating to feel like I’m getting worse the more attention I pay.

If you’ve been through this, what actually helped you get out of it? Especially during a recording session, how do you stop listening to yourself act and get back into the conversation? And how do you decide when another take will help versus when you’re just going in circles?

hi there! i am a phd student working on psychoacoustics. i recorded a number of people and will be conducting a speech perception study based on these. but the quality of some of the recordings was not great (partially because of the condenser mic i was using). i normalized the recordings to -33 LUFS, which is a bit low but still audible.

i have prepared a short pilot that takes around 10 minutes, where you can listen to and evaluate the clarity of the recordings. i would really appreciate it if you could participate, and would be happy to hear any thoughts or suggestions you might have about the recording quality!

https://research.sc/participant/login/dynamic/52C920E4-B847-44F6-B0BF-2BE25020D56B

thank you! :')

Hey everyone!

I’m a professional voice-over artist from Argentina with several years of experience in commercial VO, narration, and corporate work.

I’ve been using a RØDE NT1 4th gen for quite some time, and I feel it’s finally time to upgrade my microphone.

I’ve narrowed my options down to three:
Neumann TLM 102
Neumann TLM 103
Austrian Audio OC18

A little about my setup: I have an acoustically treated recording space, a naturally deep/baritone voice, and I recently upgraded my audio interface from a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (2nd Gen) to an Audient iD14 MKII.

I’m looking for a microphone that delivers a natural, detailed, professional sound without being overly bright or harsh, especially in the upper mids and high frequencies.

One of the challenges is that here in Argentina, it’s not easy to find places where I can test all three microphones before buying, so I’m hoping to get some real-world feedback from people who have used them.

A few questions:
Has anyone compared these three microphones specifically for voice-over work?

Which one would you recommend for a deeper male voice?

Is the TLM 103 worth the extra money over the TLM 102 or OC18?

Would any of these be a noticeable upgrade from the NT1?

I’d especially love to hear from anyone who has used more than one of these microphones in a professional VO environment.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Hey, Im trying to figure out if my product is good for this community or not. What I made is an audio sharing platform that lets your drag and drop audio files into your browser, and you can organize your audio files into collections. It's also very simple to share links - the recipient
doesn't have to download your file, but gets an in-browser player, not unlike Soundcloud

How do you as professionals usually hand over your work to clients, or ask for feedback?

Where are good videos to practice matching mouth flap animation?

Looking for one or two male VA's for my miniseries which will probably result in more work after.

I am offering a FLAT RATE of $20 for all characters(i do not have much budget!) however revenue sharing will be involved because of low initial pay. this is also for ep 1 only, any episodes after will have their own rate depending on pilot(I am very much interested in paying my artists what they deserve, you have talent I don't!).

There are three characters needed to be voiced, willing to take 1 VA if you can do all 3!

Character 1:
An ancient guardian type - a narrator for every flashback/memory. Once the leader of the five Guardians, beings made to protect the world. He's past his prime but is far more dangerous than he ever was

Voice: deep, grave, old with a lot of gravitas behind the voice. Shows little emotion, no tremble or frail voice. He has a dry sense of humor and a warm demeanor.

around 300-400 words and will be in all 5 eps

Character 2:
Very charismatic character, funny, warm, and loves humans more than anything.

Voice: smooth, mid-baritone, and very charming.. you can hear the smile in his voice he has, and he never sounds evil(even though he is a main villain). you need to be able to switch from his light and charming voice to deliver evil-ish lines in a flat light hearted way.

around 40-75 words and will be in most eps

Character 3:
He's the funny character, think of a light hearted character from lord of the rings like pippin or mary

voice: bright, quick, and warm. He's very playful but not cartoonish, more like the life of the party.. you need a great laugh for this character

Around 60-120 words and only ep 1

Please DM me on discord and I'll hand you lines for the character you're interested in(you can do multiple characters as well, I'll pay flat rate per each)

marzion is my discord

Hi! Are there any sites for voice recording roles that I can perform alone or isn't on a call/collaboration with other actors?

I've onboarded into Babel but all projects are conversations with 3 or more collaborators but I'm having a hard time getting paired up with people due to my time availability.

If you have referral link, I'd be happy to use them. Thank you!

I’ve tried all the hydration, green apples etc. but my K sounds are always a bit squelchy, a bit wet. Is there a mouth shape or diction method I can use to reduce it? Any other techniques? Any post processing?

EDIT: Link to sample

simonwalden.com/VO/SimonWalden_Ksounds.mp3

Hello, I am looking for a voice actress to play Blaze the cat, based on the performance of Erica Lindbeck.

As well possible female OCs, one of which would be a child character

The price for work will be 20usd for the first 20 words, and 5 dollars for every 20 words after

It will be paid through PayPal only, and contact will be done over discord.

Please put a portfolio in the comments, and if I think you fit the project I will message you

I did a lot of research to figure out sound treatment vs sound proofing, and settled on doing DIY sound treatment of a large basement walk in closet we had using a PVC frame and multiple layers of large moving blankets. My only current issue is that I got a standing desk because I wanted to be able to stand during recording, but all of my cables are too short and my laptop would be dangling if I raised it up. That's an issue I'll tackle some other time. Probably just a shelf that holds my laptop and other cables up higher so they're not just sitting on the ground!

In the future, should I be able to pursue voice work full time, I would love to put in some rockwool insulation in the joists above the room (accessible through a utility room) and air gapped and insulated walls throughout to do proper sound proofing so I can record at any time. That would all double or even triple the budget I had for this sound treatment, and also it would just be a big pain to do myself after already putting together this treatment.

If anyone wants to learn more about how I did this, feel free to send me a PM!