How to Start Your Own Business as a Narrator or Voice Over ActorBy Kym Kostos

 

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How to Start Your Own Business as a Narrator or Voice Over ActorBy Kym Kostos

Copyright © 2014 by Kym Kostos

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

ISBN: 978-1-329-19271-3

 

 

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

Have you ever been told that you have a voice for acting? Being a voice actor or actress is very similar to being an actor, but there are some differences. When you are a voice actor, you act with your voice. Meaning, your emotions and fluctuations all are held within your voice as you speak and act your role or narrate a book.

The wonderful news of being a voice actor is that you can do it in your very own home! You can audition from home, record from home, edit from home and submit your recordings from home. Meaning, you can work in your pajamas and never have to leave the house to drive in traffic or go to a boring office! Those are just some of the rewards of voice acting.

So, how do you start your own voice acting business? Everything is almost the same as starting any business. If you haven't had voice training, you need to brush up on your vocal skills; breathing exercises, keeping your voice clear, voice fluctuation, knowing where to pause, etc... You can even take voice acting classes if needed or you can look on the internet and see what books you can order to help you with your voice acting.

Next, get some experience. This can be anywhere from reading a book out loud and recording it. Then listening back and critiquing yourself or have someone else listen and critique. If you have children, practice reading their favorite stories to them and bring the book to life with your voice and see how they react.

Once you are confident about your voice, then you research the business end of the voice acting industry. Remember, voice acing is extremely competitive business. If you want to get into animation and other areas of voice acting and voice overs, keep in mind that they are being sought out by well-known actors and voice actors in the industry and chances are that you may not find work at all. That’s the cold hard truth.

But don’t fret! Just start small. Start with audio book narration. Amazon has a site called ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) where thousands of books are available for audition. You can choose your fee or royalty, your genre, your language, etc... I will go into more later on in the book on how to get set up for voice over audiobook narration.

You will need to set up your own sound recording area and use recording software. But, don't worry, I will also go into that as well in a later chapter.

Setting up a sound recording studio is a whole lot easier these days than it was, say, ten or fifteen or even twenty years ago. With the computer age and many musicians out there setting up home studios, the recording software industry is very competitive and there are even free recording software out there on the internet that you can download and install on your computer or laptop with tutorials on how to use it! This keeps down to minimal costs for setting up your own home recording studio.

Keep in mind, when you are getting started in the voice acting industry, it is going to take a lot of patience, a lot of auditioning and a lot of competition, but if you keep at it and work hard every day, there is a high chance that you will succeed!

When I first got started in the voice acting industry, I had some experience on internet radio and animation voice acting. And even for me, I had to put out at least twenty auditions before I even received a "call back" to do an audio book. If you have no experience, you should practice a lot.

Audition for as many books as you possibly can, the more auditions you get out there, the higher chance of someone picking you to read their book. Voice actors don't just get "discovered", you have to work hard at it. Practicing, auditioning, recording, editing, it's all in a day's work but the rewards are endless, especially when you have your first book recorded!

Also, if you haven't yet, sign up with a social networking site and look for people in the industry who are doing well and see if they offer any tips or techniques. As for getting an agent, you really don't need one to get started in the narration business of audio books. Perhaps, you may need an agent when it comes to voice over animation acting, which is a much more competitive area.

In the upcoming chapters of this book, I will go over; getting started and setting up your home studio, recording demos, finding work, auditioning, recording, editing and submitting your work.

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Chapter 2 - Setting Up Your Home Studio

In this chapter I will be going over on how to get started and how to set up your own home recording studio. You don't need a set up like the big name professional recording studios you are probably thinking about who record albums. Your set up will* be small and easy to do.

Before you begin to set up your studio, you will need a space to set up your studio. Whether it's a spare bedroom, a space in your bedroom, somewhere where it is quiet and there is no echo in the room when you speak. The bathroom is a terrible place to set up your recording space. You want to make sure that there is no background noise. For example, refrigerator humming, fans, toilet bowl running, heater, air conditioner, etc... You want it as quiet as possible.

Places you can set up your recording area; corner of a room, a closet, living room, somewhere where there is a lot of things present to absorb the sound in the room. The best space will have 40% of soft sound absorbent things covering the walls of space. This includes the floors, so carpeted floors works the best. You can always find sound proofing foam for the walls, it’s cheaper if it’s used. Newer ones are usually expensive.

You can also use blankets hung on the walls. This absorbs the noise bouncing off the walls. You also can use a canopy over your head to absorb the noise bouncing off the ceiling as well. Once you set your space up, later on you can test the sound in the room for noise.

Next thing you will need is a computer or laptop with a good internet connection speed. Dial-up will take too long when you are uploading auditions or finished submissions. If you don't have a computer or laptop, you can buy them really cheap these days from anywhere. A PC or Mac works either way.

Once you have your computer or laptop, you will need some recording and editing software. These are usually the one in the same. I use Creative Wave Studio and Audacity for my recording and editing. Both software’s were free to download and both have tutorials out there and forums on the internet you can ask questions. Although, I don’t believe Creative Wave Studio is available for free download any longer.

As mentioned before, recording and editing software are one in the same. You want a software than can both record and edit what you have recorded. Although it is ok to save your file in WAV format, everyone requires the final submission to be in MP3 format. Make sure you get a recording/editing software that outputs MP3 files as a finished product.

Your software needs to record audio from your microphone, you need to be able to hear your recording through your headset, you need to be able to edit your recording and then render the file to an MP3 or WAV file. That's the basic software you need!

Some Free Recording Software and Recording Information Sites:

Audacity - Free download and free tutorials: audacity.sourceforge.net

Kristal - a free multi-track music recording software package. : studioone.presonus.com/free

LMMS Multimedia Studio is a free, modern audio program: lmms.sourceforge.net/home.php

The GarageDoor is an excellent site about home recording for users of both Mac and PC software. It is full of tips about live recording, effects, loops, finding free loops, etc: www.thegaragedoor.com

You will also need a quality microphone with a headset. I use one with a USB plug in from LogiTech. It has a noise canceling microphone with a pop filter to prevent unwanted mouth noises like when you pronounce your P's or other "popplosives" and blocks the wind from your mouth. The microphone quality is crystal clear. I paid about $25 for mine. You can invest in a more expensive microphone if you wish, but, please note, I also bought a professional microphone for about $150 and the sound output quality wasn't as good as the LogiTech one I had purchased for less money.

NOTE: NEVER use the microphone that is built into your computer. The quality is not very good and is not recommended!

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Chapter 3 - Testing, Recording Samples and Demos

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Chapter 5 - How to Take Care of Your Voice

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Chapter 6 - Tips on How to Not Sabotage Your Voice Acting Career

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Chapter 7 - Conclusion

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