Recording voiceover

It's important to have a good understanding on recording voiceovers if you ever find yourself in a situation requiring you to record an audiobook, or overdub voice for video.

Although we follow most of the same rules as when we record vocals, doing voice-overs needs a different approach.

Whether you are recording overdubs for a film, or recording yourself for a podcast, keep these things in mind when you find yourself talking into the microphone.

We need to record carefully since everything we say must be intelligible and understandable.

Keep your acoustics out of the equation

In professional voice over studios, overdubs are done in acoustically dead rooms. We don't want flutter echo or a boxy sound ruining our dramatic voiceover. We want a completely dead room with the least amount of room sound possible.

In acoustic terms, we want the reverb time of the room to be around 0.3-0.5 seconds, which is very short. In terms of general vocal reverb, a nice sounding plate reverb choice can be around 1.2 seconds or so. So we need an acoustically dead room for maximum performance.

Check out my guide to making a vocal booth in your room and see if you can use the same techniques for doing voiceovers.

Get a good sounding microphone

Although you don't need the same quality mic that you would with recording vocals since we're just recording speech, a low class microphone is still going to give you a low class sound.

We need a nice sounding condenser that captures a nice sound out of your voice. I wouldn't recommend cheap dynamic mics as they don't capture the full quality of your voice, and might give a slightly nasally sound.

That said, USB mics have been getting better and better recently and are a great choice for easy podcasting. This Alesis USB Podcast mic is a great choice for instant podcasting, with both audio software and headphones included.

Get comfortable

It goes without saying. If you are doing a long voiceover, either recording long audio passages for an audio book or doing overdub after overdub for a film, get comfortable in your seat. Make sure you have everything you need. It will make for a better production.

EQ for a better voice.

If your voice still sounds a bit dull after recording, there are still a few ways you can salvage it. For an extra boost in presence try adding a few decibels at 5kHz. If your voice still sounds a bit boxy, even though you've eliminated most of the room sound, try cutting around the 400-500 Hz area.

And don't forget to eliminate all the low end information you don't need by adding a high pass filter cutting around 100Hz or so.

If your voice sounds too nasally try cutting a few dBs around 1Khz. But if your recording lacks intelligibility you might want to boost around that area, or even a few Khz higher.

Keep it simple

Although doing voiceovers is very similar to recording vocals, there are subtle differences involved that change the approach needed. You don't need to think too much about gain riding, effects or reverb when you are doing simple speech work, but don't think of a voiceover as easy work. Just keep it simple, follow these guidelines and use your ears for judgement.

Check out some free recording software to record your voiceover

Check out the 5 frequency areas for EQ'ing the vocal

Make a vocal booth in your bedroom!