What kind of equipment do you use and any tips for Voiceovers and Videos?

[freelancemm]

I know I am very capable of recording a quality voiceover, however. I am not 100% sure as to what the recommend equipment would be. Rather than just take a guess and do trial and error I figure I would ask you guys/girls. I am also interested in getting better video quality so any recommended equipment for that as I may consider some “video-related” gigs I had in mind. Thanks in advance to those that help that currently already do this kind of stuff. 🙂



Also curious on any tips, tricks, suggestions, etc. that may make the process go smoother.

[freelancemm]

Ha, oh? That’s always good to know. I figured at most around $100, but I kind of like the quality in the sound on your gig, so maybe I shouldn’t spend nearly as much. I actually got a mic a while back I was going to use, but apparently it was too old for my computer. I guess I should invest a bit bigger and see what happens. Is there any headset you would recommend avoiding? haha

[superfunart]

Well i own a youtube channel so I might be able to help you out.

for the mic i prefer if you buy a good professional one if you are doing voice acting.

for my videos I use a dslr, so buy a dslr. if you don’t have the money you can buy second hand ones, they work as good as new ones. I use a canon 1100d, it’s for beginners but i prefere if you buy a better version with a screen that flips out to see yourself.

as for lighting just use table lamos and place a tissue over them to make a nice soft light.



make sure that when you get on camera to be confidence and have lots of practice. you can start your own youtube channel to practice on.



hope this had helped 🙂

[freelancemm]

Reply to @superfunart: I didn’t want to over-spend unless I feel I got a following and people actually want to order my gig for voice acting. I do product demos in person, so I have a very practiced marketing voice so I think it would be popular, but I don’t want to “break the bank” so to speak if it’s not needed.



I actually wasn’t familiar with the whole “place a tissue” thing, does that work well? I never tried anything like that but maybe it will help for some of my upcoming videos I have to make for some other new gigs I wanted to launch.



Yeah, I am not too uncomfortable in front of a camera or people.



Thanks for the input! If it goes well with those gigs, I will definitely consider your suggestions.



@ksblynx I will check it out, I think the quality is near perfect for what you spent. I am very familiar with audacity as well so it should work out pretty well for me. Thanks!



If anyone else has any further input, I am definitely for hearing it 🙂

[ellenwright]

Hi, I’m new waves I do Internet radio and I use a Nady mic which I LOVE and only costs about $10. It is XLR so you would need a mixer or an XLR to USB adapter cord to connect it to your computer.

[solow13]

I offer voiceover services too, I use a USB condenser mic Samson C01u you can find good USB microphones from $50 to 200$ and more, using a condenser microphone you’ll get a full sound using a large range of frequencies.

Usb are easy as plug and play and you don’t need a sound card , all you need is a sequencer like Audacity.

[freelancemm]

Reply to @ellenwright: What’s an XLR to USb adapter usually run, a few bucks? Yours seems like the most inexpensive solution so I may consider that. I don’t want to have to over-spend if no-one is really interested. I like it when the gigs pay for themselves first so if I get enough orders for some generalized voiceovers, I can then make a much more comprehensive voiceover gig for clients in the future using those earnings to buy higher quality equipment. I will definitely check it out 🙂



@solow13 I appreciate your input and will definitely consider it if when I have time to create the gig it takes off enough to warrant higher quality equipment. I actually have Audacity already on my computer as I used to offer background noise removal services on here and did audio editing previously but it got to be a hassle so I had to pause it.

[ellenwright]

The adapter is around $30 I think, I never bought one since I use a mixer. You said audio editing became a hassle, if you don’ t mind can you tell me how? I was thinking about offering some editing services.

[freelancemm]

@ellenwright



Thanks for the info. Well, I offered audio editing to help remove background noise, and other things as well. The biggest issue was people expected too much to be done, or had an impossible to edit audio file. In other word’s, they had so much noise on top of their actual noise that it made it near impossible to edit and I ended up spending way more time than I should have for an individual gig order. I suppose for me it could just be that my audio editing skills were too limited to handle what they wanted me to do but I think it was more on the side of editing audio that was impossible to edit.



If you’re going to offer something like that, try to get them to send the audio file to you first to see if you’re capable of editing it. Some clients were really easy to work with, while others had some pretty ridiculous expectations and long audio files. If you’re going to do it, try to deal with as short of audio files as possible. I got a lot of orders on it but it just to me, turned out to be more effort than it was worth to keep clients happy. Also make sure you have a really clear policy in place in relation to the size of the audio file, how extensive of audio editing, and audio editing that you may not be able to accomplish. It’s worth a shot, I have pretty limited knowledge in the area so for my case it could have just been me getting in over my head to the point where I actually completely pitched the audio gig and went back to sticking with my SEO stuff.

[ellenwright]

Reply to @freelancemm: Thanks for sharing! I was thinking more of putting stuff in like music and SFX or editing out large portions of audio where something may be running too long. For now however, I will stick with my current gig, proofreading and editing. Good luck on your gigs!

[freelancemm]

Reply to @ellenwright: Oh, for that kind of stuff I don’t think you should need to worry all too much. Just be clear on what you want to offer in the gig as to not confuse anyone. I have had pretty good luck so far and I have been around a long time and learned a lot since I started. I can’t wait to get some of my new gigs up off the ground like my voiceover and additional SEO services I can offer people.