Set up a studio for a voice actor

If you’re going to be a successful voice actor, you need to have a broadcast-quality studio, or else your files will be returned to you and your reputation will plummet. Buy the best microphone he can afford, but it should be right for his voice. You should go to a well-stocked audio or music store in a city, try a few in your price range, and record your voice using a high-end “pop” filter ring on each…essential for every broadcaster. Request playback through decent HiFi speakers in a quiet room. Don’t just listen through headphones live, that won’t give you any useful information about the quality of the microphones you’re testing.

So what are you listening to on playback? Well, a broadcaster needs a microphone that picks up all the “nice” harmonics in his voice and diminishes the “bad” elements. I personally use a Neumann U87 and a Neumann TLM 103 as they seem to suit my deep bass voice. It gives my voice resonance and authority while keeping the treble clear. Years ago, when testing microphones, I found that the Electovoice mics made my voice muffled for some reason, and the AKG mics were thin and lifeless when recording my voice. However, I know voice actors who love these other mics, so you need to see which one is right for your own voice and the way you use the mic.

You’ll find USB microphones at great prices (such as the Rode NT or the Audio Technica AT2020), but I’d suggest avoiding them. A professional broadcaster really needs a traditional large condenser microphone with an XLR audio jack, not a USB digital jack. As a general rule of thumb, you’d be looking to spend at least $500 on a mic, and you might get lucky and find a used one online at a deep discount off the new price. At the mic store I’d also buy a good quality pop filter (dual filters are usually best) and a quality anglepoise type mic stand so you can position the mic in exactly the right position, plus a cage or a spring-loaded microphone mount so it doesn’t pick up vibrations from the desk.

So how does the whole voice actor connect? The mic needs to be connected with a thick quality shielded XLR cable to a very good quality preamp such as a Focusrite Scarlett or Steinberg UR 22 (which I have), which is then plugged into a USB port on a computer. Aim for complete silence both at the microphone and in the recording chain and also in the room or voice booth you are recording in. Unless you just want to record hard-selling “screaming” scripts, there will be times when the slightest interference or hum will ruin what is called the “noise floor” of a voice actor’s recording. Once you have found a quiet room, the walls and ceiling should be treated with acoustic foam tiles. This must be done to create a “dead” recording zone without acoustic reflections.

You may not want to record your audio on your computer. Not me, actually. I prefer to connect my microphone to a stand-alone solid-state recorder, my trusty old Marantz PMD 661. It gives me more flexibility to pop out the SD card to edit audio on train rides, and I like the confidence that just the recorder is doing its job 100% of the time and that no computer programs are interfering.

So what about where you’re going to record as a voice actor? At home, the ideal would be to have a large room or even a garage with a professional voice booth built in, but they are very expensive, at least $4,000. These cabins are very heavy and are delivered in a huge kit box. They are basically a large box that you enter through a door and there is usually a window. Inside there will be a desk and chair, plus your screen microphone, keyboard, and mouse.

If you can’t afford or don’t have the space for a voice booth, you’ll probably start with a small room that you can fit. Remember you want the nasty, noisy computer with its fans OUTSIDE the room you’re in, next door with proper USB cables and amps leading to your keyboard, mouse, and screen in front of your microphone setup. Or if you have a soundproof cabinet that offers ventilation for the computer, that might work too. The audio output cables should also go to your amplifier and speakers and audio meters (ideally sensitive professional PPM meters) in your studio which will have a headphone jack for sessions run over the phone or Skype, or any of the systems like ipDTL that they are very high quality “record on your end” setups.

On the computer you’ll need audio editing software, (I use Adobe Audition) Skype, Word, PDF reader and that’s about it, plus the email system you’ll use to receive jobs. It won’t cost you a fortune to set up a good home studio, but a fortune is what you could earn as a successful voice actor. Good luck for you!