Practical tips for voice talents

A good voice is only the beginning.

Whether a studio regularly proposes a given voice to its clients also depends on something far less glamorous: how predictable the collaboration is.

• Do we know the rate?
• Do we know when the recording will arrive?
• Will the material sound the same as last time?
• If there is a small slip, can we count on a quick retake?

The fewer question marks, the more often a voice talent ends up in castings.

The point is not to always be the cheapest, reply within three minutes and record at midnight. The point is that the studio knows what to expect.

A studio very often prepares a quote for the client before anyone knows which voice will be chosen. If we know a talent's rates, we can include them in the proposal straight away. If every single time we first have to call, describe the project, wait for an answer and only then get back to the client, the whole process slows down.

And the client often will not wait.

That is why it pays to agree at least basic prices with the studio: a recording for the internet, an internal video, a phone system, a radio spot or any other frequently produced format. Not everything fits into a table. Advertising licences, large campaigns and unusual usage always require a separate conversation. A stable price base, however, lets the studio propose a voice without asking every time: “How much this time?”.

It also happens that a project goes beyond earlier arrangements, while the studio has already given the client a specific figure.

In such a case it is best to accept the proposed rate, as long as it stays within reasonable limits, and to point out right away: “For this project we will keep this price, but for similar jobs in the future my rate is…”.

The worst moment to change a price is when the client has already accepted the offer and the studio has no way of raising it.

The client chooses a voice based on a sample. If the demo was recorded many years ago, heavily processed, or shows a reading style the talent no longer uses, disappointment may follow the session. Sometimes it is about the timbre and the perceived age of the voice. Other times about pace, energy or interpretation. The client picked one thing and received something else entirely. That is why samples should be current and as honest as possible. They should show the best side of a voice, but must not promise a sound that cannot be reproduced later. For a studio, repeatability is enormously valuable.

The engineer wants to know that the next recording will sound like the previous one. This matters especially for pick-ups done weeks or months later. A different microphone, changed acoustics, heavier compression or a completely new interpretation can make a short retake impossible to blend with the earlier material. Technology may evolve. So may a voice. But the more predictable the result, the safer the studio feels.

Speed matters.

If the material can be ready the same day, great. If it will only be ready tomorrow at 2 p.m., that is fine too — provided the studio knows from the start. Precise information beats a promise of “I will try in the evening”, after which there is still nothing in the evening. Before naming a deadline it is worth asking a simple question: will I really keep it? It is better to honestly announce a recording for tomorrow and send it today than to declare today and deliver tomorrow without a word of explanation.

The same goes for holidays and longer trips. It is enough to write in advance that recording will not be possible for a week, or that only urgent, short jobs will be available.

If a studio proposes a voice to a client several times and only after the choice learns that the talent has been abroad without equipment for three days, it starts approaching the next castings more cautiously.

Not because a holiday is a problem. The surprise is the problem.

For remote recordings it is good practice to allow one free retake when the script has not changed and the issue is pronunciation, stress, pace or interpretation. Such a rule does not mean agreeing to endless sessions or re-recording a script the client rewrote after the fact. The limits should be reasonable. A studio is simply more willing to propose a voice when it knows a small correction will not turn into a dispute about extra payment.

If the text is difficult, contains foreign names or it is unclear how the client understands a particular note, it is better to ask. You can also record two short variants. Sometimes an extra fifteen seconds of work saves several messages and a whole session restart later on. The situation is different when the talent has to travel to the studio again. Then the additional cost is understandable and the terms should simply be agreed beforehand.

One studio expects a separate invoice for every project. Another settles the whole month at once. One needs the order number, another the client name, the production title or a specific description on the invoice. It is worth noting down how the cooperation with each company works and sticking to their rules.

It is a trifle until someone on the other side has to spend half an hour looking for a project described on an invoice as “voice-over recording”, even though there were twenty of them that month. Smooth invoicing also builds a talent's reputation. Inside a studio, a voice talent works not only with the engineer, but also with the producer, the project manager and accounting.

This is the most delicate point, but I would rather not skip it.

Studios most willingly present voices where the risk of being bypassed later is low. If the client receives the talent's first and last name, they can find their website, phone number and direct e-mail address. On the next production a single message is enough to make the recording happen without the studio — sometimes cheaper, because production handling disappears from the bill.

From the talent's point of view, having a website is a natural way of acquiring clients. From the studio's point of view it can be the reason a given voice is shown in castings less often.

Nobody should forbid anyone from running their own business or building a brand. It is only fair to say, though, that interests can diverge here. It works much like the relationship between an actor and an agent. If the agent invests time and money into winning jobs, they want to be sure the client will not go around them on the next project.

That is why some studios more often promote talents whose contact they handle themselves and where they feel the client relationship they built stays safe. It is not a punishment. It is plain business calculation.

Most studios have a group of people they return to most often.

These are proven, predictable talents the engineers know well. Their voices appear in the first proposals because the studio has repeatedly seen that the collaboration will run smoothly.

A new person rarely gets the same number of jobs straight away. That does not have to mean a weaker voice or a worse demo. Relationships and trust simply take time.

You cannot skip that with a single e-mail.

What you can do is consistently show that your rates are clear, your recordings repeatable, your deadlines kept and contact easy. After a few well-handled projects, a talent stops being one of many names in a database.

They become the person the engineer thinks of right after reading the script.

And that is exactly when a lasting collaboration begins.

Would you like to join our roster? Take a look at the voice bank and get in touch.