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How to get your first vo gig on fiverr


aaroncooper0825

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Well - not one single setup or chain will work for everyone. It depends on your voice, your studio, your gear, and the usage for the audio. I’m far from an expert in processing for VO, but I think I’ve found what works best for my personal case.

My chain is:

Noise Gate

EQ (just a tiny bit of treble, as my mic takes care of the bass roll-off)

And just a tiny bit of the tube-modeled compressor in Audition to even out the loudness.

That is for my processed delivery. I always deliver the unprocessed audio as well, as most audio engineers want to do the processing themselves.

When I warn against Mike Russel’s processing in particular, it’s because hi uses some heavy compression with the dynamics processing, normalizes twice, and adds Loudness Maximizer EQ on top of that.

That might work if you want a punchy car sales radio ad, but for a voice-over in general, it hurts my ears to hear his compression ratio and processing.

You can see his chain here:

 

Title should be “how to make your voice sound like an overeager late night DJ eating the microphone” in my opinion.

But anyway - my chain and processing works for my voice in my studio. The less processing you need the better, really. The recording in itself should be good enough to stand on it’s own, and then you can help it with a tiny bit of EQ and compression. But if you overdo it, you end up sounding like a radio presenter on a Hot FM radio station, and that’s not the goal for most voice-overs anymore.

Well - not one single setup or chain will work for everyone. It depends on your voice, your studio, your gear, and the usage for the audio. I’m far from an expert in processing for VO, but I think I’ve found what works best for my personal case.

This is really the key for us too. Everyone is different and it’s all trial and error trying to figure out what works best.

We use Adobe Audition too. For us, it’s by far the best DAW.

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The DBX is great! I absolutely love that piece of hardware. But I find it colors my recordings way too much for VO-work in general, and would think that it’s more useful when you need on-the-fly processing for live streaming/content etc.

One example would be having the compressor working live on the DBX, so if you’re streaming a game, and you all of a sudden scream intensly, the DBX would even out the loudness on-the-fly so it doesn’t hurt the listeners ears.

Absolutely a great piece of hardware, but the included processing in Audition does the same job just as well - only after the recording has been made, and not live.

With that being said, if you want to deliver that warm and pre-processed audio, with no raw alternative, the DBX does the job perfectly. For radio, streamers etc. I would recommend it, but for VO it doesn’t do it for me, because it leaves me with only a processed recording, and I like to work from an as clean as possible audio.

Obviously I meant 286 😃

I don’t ever want to supply a raw file! I love the gate, EQ and expansion it offers!

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Well - not one single setup or chain will work for everyone. It depends on your voice, your studio, your gear, and the usage for the audio. I’m far from an expert in processing for VO, but I think I’ve found what works best for my personal case.

My chain is:

Noise Gate

EQ (just a tiny bit of treble, as my mic takes care of the bass roll-off)

And just a tiny bit of the tube-modeled compressor in Audition to even out the loudness.

That is for my processed delivery. I always deliver the unprocessed audio as well, as most audio engineers want to do the processing themselves.

When I warn against Mike Russel’s processing in particular, it’s because hi uses some heavy compression with the dynamics processing, normalizes twice, and adds Loudness Maximizer EQ on top of that.

That might work if you want a punchy car sales radio ad, but for a voice-over in general, it hurts my ears to hear his compression ratio and processing.

You can see his chain here:

 

Title should be “how to make your voice sound like an overeager late night DJ eating the microphone” in my opinion.

But anyway - my chain and processing works for my voice in my studio. The less processing you need the better, really. The recording in itself should be good enough to stand on it’s own, and then you can help it with a tiny bit of EQ and compression. But if you overdo it, you end up sounding like a radio presenter on a Hot FM radio station, and that’s not the goal for most voice-overs anymore.

Words to live by…

The less processing you need the better

Really the biggest issue for us has been trying to record when the dogs are all riled up about something. Which is too often!

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Obviously I meant 286 😃

I don’t ever want to supply a raw file! I love the gate, EQ and expansion it offers!

What if there’s an audio engineer on the other side? If I have to work with other VO’s to deliver a final product, I expect raw files from everyone, so I can master everything on my end into a finished product. If you deliver your audio with your processing, and another delivers with their processing, it will all become a mess. That is why, as an audio engineer, mixer, or producer, you want to work with raw files. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work towards the perfect processing for our voice though, as most end clients want a product that works out of the box - at least here on Fiverr.

In the end, the recording should stand on its own. If you need too much processing, this is an indication of your recording not being up to par.

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Words to live by…

The less processing you need the better

Really the biggest issue for us has been trying to record when the dogs are all riled up about something. Which is too often!

Yeah, outside sounds is a big problem. I live in an area with far too much noise. Constructions, dogs, my own cats ruining my life etc. A proper booth is a must in my opinion, to isolate yourself from the surroundings.

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What if there’s an audio engineer on the other side? If I have to work with other VO’s to deliver a final product, I expect raw files from everyone, so I can master everything on my end into a finished product. If you deliver your audio with your processing, and another delivers with their processing, it will all become a mess. That is why, as an audio engineer, mixer, or producer, you want to work with raw files. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work towards the perfect processing for our voice though, as most end clients want a product that works out of the box - at least here on Fiverr.

In the end, the recording should stand on its own. If you need too much processing, this is an indication of your recording not being up to par.

I’ve sat on both sides of the fence.

As a producer I’d expect flawless recordings that would require no editing.

As a voice over I want my voice to sound as great as possible,

My demos are all processed - and that’s what I expect clients want - not something really flat in comparison.

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The geek in me really enjoyed finding out what everyone else is using!

We’re also Adobe Audition users. We record into a UAD Apollo Twin, with the SSL E Channel strip plugin, which I believe has similar features to the DBX286… A little bit of gate, some EQ and mild compression for us.

For us, the greatest investment in our studio setup (living in a small, 1-bed flat in London) was an IsoVox booth to provide us with a treated space to record in. Made a HUGE difference.

I think the reason why I was curious to hear opinion about Mike Russell was because when we started, I was over-applying compression after seeing some of his videos. We’ve gone more ‘natural’ sounding over the years and I’m so much happier with our sound nowadays.

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I’ve sat on both sides of the fence.

As a producer I’d expect flawless recordings that would require no editing.

As a voice over I want my voice to sound as great as possible,

My demos are all processed - and that’s what I expect clients want - not something really flat in comparison.

Yeah, that is the reason why I always deliver a processed version (ready for use in videos and what-not), and a raw file that has all mistakes, errors, and mouth noise edited out of course.

If a producer or engineer is on the other end, they can just use the raw audio, and process it like they want - and if the client is a business owner who just wants to paste the audio on their video, the processed version is ready to go.

Since I’m going to process the audio anyway, unless specifically asked not to, I’ll just save the take before applying the processing. Not much extra work, and it gives the client the choice. I include a note about what should be used where etc. in the delivery as well, to help out the buyer.

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The geek in me really enjoyed finding out what everyone else is using!

We’re also Adobe Audition users. We record into a UAD Apollo Twin, with the SSL E Channel strip plugin, which I believe has similar features to the DBX286… A little bit of gate, some EQ and mild compression for us.

For us, the greatest investment in our studio setup (living in a small, 1-bed flat in London) was an IsoVox booth to provide us with a treated space to record in. Made a HUGE difference.

I think the reason why I was curious to hear opinion about Mike Russell was because when we started, I was over-applying compression after seeing some of his videos. We’ve gone more ‘natural’ sounding over the years and I’m so much happier with our sound nowadays.

I made the same mistake after watching his videos. I used way too much compression, and looking back, that wasn’t a good thing. I never liked the “sound of Music Radio Creative” which is owned by Mike, unless you want radio imaging. Then I get why they would use heavy effects etc.

But for a regular VO, it’s too much. The worst thing is, they actually charge you extra for the raw audio.

I record using a Røde Broadcaster into Scarlett 2i2 in a DIY booth. I always apply any processing after the recording. But I’m not very happy with my mic these days, so I’m looking into that.

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I made the same mistake after watching his videos. I used way too much compression, and looking back, that wasn’t a good thing. I never liked the “sound of Music Radio Creative” which is owned by Mike, unless you want radio imaging. Then I get why they would use heavy effects etc.

But for a regular VO, it’s too much. The worst thing is, they actually charge you extra for the raw audio.

I record using a Røde Broadcaster into Scarlett 2i2 in a DIY booth. I always apply any processing after the recording. But I’m not very happy with my mic these days, so I’m looking into that.

I’ve never looked back since buying my TLM 102.

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