Voiceovers are great for driving your story’s narrative and vocalizing your video’s key ideas. There are tons of companies and freelancers out there that have the ability to create a great voiceover for you. Alternatively, there are many people that feel recording voiceovers themselves works best to convey their message. If you decide to record your own voiceover, here are some helpful tips to get the best audio quality.

The first thing to focus on when recording voiceovers is the equipment you will be using:

• A pop filter for your mic is essential. Regardless of how great your voice sounds – pops and hissing noises will make your audio unusable.

• Make sure to listen back to your audio with good quality headphones that will allow you to hear all the imperfections. This will allow you to make sure you’re getting a good, clean edit.

You should also focus on your mic placement:

• Start testing the sound with the mic placed 8-12 inches away from the talent’s mouth and adjust it as needed from there.

• Once you have the mic placement set, put a music stand in front of the speaker. This will help keep the speaker at the same distance from the mic.

• The music stand will also give them the ability to slide their script papers, versus turning or flipping the papers to avoid any rustling.

Location and voice inflection are also important:

• The location you’re recording in should be quiet and echo free.

• Since you are not able to rely on your body language, you have to convey your excitement, seriousness, happiness, or whatever emotion strictly through your voice.

• It’s important to remember that you or your talent will not be talking, but speaking. Think about how vocally animated radio commercials are. This is similar to what you are aiming for.

Having someone else listen to the voiceover and receiving their unbiased opinion will let you know whether or not you’ve successfully achieved that or not. Keep in mind, voiceovers are rarely a one-and-done type of thing.

You may have a lot of trial and error, but with some finessing, you’ll be able to put together a voiceover you’ll be proud of!