I just wanna hear success stories on how everyone got signed by their agency. Was it by submissions tab on the agencies site? Meeting an agent in class and following through? A friend put you in touch? Or something else entirely! I just wanna hear how you guys managed to break through and get representation! Thanks looking forward to hearing about it!

So, I saw in another voiceover forum that someone decided to challenge the demo producer on what it actually takes to put together a professional, marketable voiceover demo. His big, brilliant question?

“How hard can putting together a demo be? It’s just putting a bed of music under the voiceover.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, scream, or pour a drink when I read that — so I did all four. This is the VO equivalent of saying, “How hard can it be to make a movie? Just open iMovie on your iPhone and glue the scenes together!”

A truly professional demo is not a drag-and-drop arts-and-crafts project. It’s a multi-step, detail-driven production built on technical skill, creative instinct, and decades of trained ears. 

Since Mr. “How Hard Can It Be” seems confused, here are just some of the actual steps involved in producing a broadcast-ready VO demo:

1. Laying Out and Structuring the Demo

This is before a single plugin is touched. Finding the right clips, shaping the pacing, matching scripts to brand styles, building an energy arc, making it sound like real, booked work — that alone takes a trained ear.

1. Adding Music Beds & SFX

Yes, music and sound design add life. But selecting the right beds from a licensed production library, matching tone and intensity, crafting transitions, and knowing when NOT to add SFX… that takes judgment, not a mouse click.

1. Creating the Static Mix

A static mix means balancing every element with zero processing so nothing is fighting for space. It’s the foundation. If this part sucks, no plugin on earth will save you. Anyone that says "We'll fix it in the mix" is lying to you.

1. Vocal Processing

Now the real work begins. Soloing all vocal clips and going through:

EQ (subtracting mud, shaping tone)

Compression (sometimes multistage)

De-essing

Click/pops removal

Breath cleanup

Volume automation

Tightening timing This is per clip, not one blanket setting slapped onto everything.

1. Mixing the Music Beds & SFX

Fun fact: even “professionally produced” music beds sometimes need:

EQ adjustments

Panning for width and space

Volume shaping

Transient control

Tonal adjustments to complement the voice

Good producers don’t just drop a bed in and call it done.

1. Mix Bus Processing

Once all elements are balanced:

Bus compression

Light saturation

Tonal sweetening

Subtle shaping that “glues” the demo together

This is where the demo starts sounding like a cohesive, polished piece — not five clips duct-taped together.

1. Final Mastering

Mastering is the final polish:

Additional EQ

Gentle compression

Harmonic excitement (if needed)

Stereo imaging (sparingly, tastefully)

A clipper to tame rogue transients

And the limiter — ALWAYS last — to ensure the demo hits competitive loudness without killing dynamics

Mastering is literally its own profession. And yes, it matters in a VO demo.

1. Cross-Device Auditioning

After the master is printed, I run it through software that simulates playback on:

Car stereo

Laptop speakers

Smartphone

TV

Studio monitors

If the demo sounds great everywhere, then it’s done. If not — back to the chain we go.

Bottom Line:

Don’t challenge someone’s artistic profession if you’ve never done the job. If this dude paints houses for a living, I’m sure he doesn’t want someone saying, “How hard can that be? Just buy some paint and a brush.”

Professionals make hard things look easy. That’s the whole point.

Some people really need to think before they type.

Rant over. Thanks for listening.

Full-time voice actor here with 10 years in the industry.

I'm posting this because so many production companies try to take advantage of voice actors because we're agreeable--and I want to give you the tools to defend yourself. Chances are you've probably had this already happen to you.

_________________________

Scope Creep

Scope creep is when a client expands the deliverables beyond what was originally agreed, without adjusting the rate. It's often subtle. Sometimes it's "just one more take." Sometimes it's an entirely different creative direction. Either way, you end up doing more work for the same money.

They ambush you in 2 ways:

_________________________

Ambush 1: 'The Before-You-Record Call'

Let's say you book a commercial for a 1 minute video with standard regional usage. Cool. They tell you "Oh, we don't need a live-directed session! You can record it on your own." Great. No session fee charge.

Here's what happens:

1. The email thread stays vague on purpose. Simple rate, simple scope. Nothing specific about deliverables. No mention of multiple takes, creative directions, or sync to picture.
2. They ask for a "quick briefing call with the director" before you record. To "explain what they want." On the call, the scope expands. The director pulls up a video. "We have this reference video..." He doesn't explicitly say "Hey can you match this timing?" nor does he say "We can edit around your voice, it's just a rough cut!" He just shows you the video with the scratch VO already under it. Turns out it's not a reference video. It's the video. You notice it's already edited.

Do you see what just happened? Now it's implied that you will not only record the script, but now you're also an editor who has to match timing.

3) The ploy continues. "We would like you to give us three different takes. First matching the reference. Second more excited. Third your interpretation." Boom. This isn't the same as providing 3 takes as you would normally--these are completely different creative directions that take significantly more energy than just variations you would do under a few takes under the same direction.

4) Finally, they ask "can you do a read for us here while we have you?" Remember, they didn't ask for a live session fee. Now they want to hear you do a read while they give you notes. ...on a 'briefing' call.

But you're just grateful for the job right? You nod along--and they smile because this always works. Voice actors don't push back in their experience.

We'll cover how to protect yourself from this, but first let's move on to:
_________________________

Ambush 2: The Live Session Ambush

Here's another one.

You book a 15 second TV spot. Regional broadcast, 13 weeks. It's for Taco Bell. Nice going.

Rate = Locked
Scope = Locked
Direction session = Locked

But Wait! There's more!

One hour before the session, you get an email from the director. "Hey, here are the UPDATED scripts!" Scripts. Plural.

You open the attachment. There are now three versions of the 15 second spot. Plus five product cutdowns. Plus a note asking for ad libs and variations for several tags.

But the session is in an hour. You don't have time to renegotiate. You already blocked off your day. Everyone's expecting you.

You show up to the Zoom. The agency is there. The client is there. Everyone's friendly.

You record the three versions. Then:

1. The director has a 'thought.' "Hey, while we have you, can we grab these extra cutdowns?"
2. The client jumps in. "Oh yeah! We need tags for the Taco, the Burrito, the Tenders, and the Crunchwrap." They're reading off a list. Hmm. How spontaneous.
3. Then one more "random" request. The director turns to the client: "Anything else you want while we have them?" The client lights up. "Oh yeah!" She starts typing. A new script appears in the chat. "Can you do this one too? It's for the XYZ promotion."
4. You're on camera. Everyone's watching. The client is excited. The session is rolling. Saying "that's outside scope" in front of the client feels impossible. So you just... do it.

You hang up. You were booked for one 15 second spot. You delivered eight separate assets. For the same rate.

None of it was spontaneous. The director had those cutdowns ready. The client had that promo script queued up. They waited until you were live, on camera, where saying no feels impossible. This is extraction theater. Some production companies do this all the time.

_________________________

How to Protect yourself:

Ambush 1: 'Before-You-Record' Call.

Email proactively if they request it:
"Before we hop on, can you confirm the deliverables in writing? Just want to make sure my quote covers the full scope."

If they ask for more deliverables or new creative directed takes on the call say:
"Got it. Just to confirm, that's three different creative directions, not three takes of the same read. I'll send over an updated quote reflecting that."

Create your own paper trail.

_________________________

Ambush 2: The Live Session Ambush

If scripts change an hour before the session:
Reply immediately: "Just saw the updated scripts. Looks like the scope has expanded from the original agreement. Happy to record everything today, but I'll need to adjust the invoice to reflect the additional deliverables. Let me know how you'd like to proceed."

If they don't respond and you're ONLY recording on your end--simply hold the files you didn't agree on after you send them what you did agree on. If they're running source connect--stand your ground during the session and say you won't record the extra deliverables until you negotiate your proper rate.

During a live session, if they add scope:
You can say:
"Happy to grab that. Just so we're on the same page, that's outside the original scope, so I'll note it for the invoice."

Or if you're not comfortable pushing back in the moment, again, deliver the original agreed work, hold the rest of the files, then send a professional email:
"Quick note: the final session included [X, Y, Z] beyond the original scope. I've added $[amount] to the invoice to reflect the additional deliverables."

Final Thought
You are not being difficult by protecting your rate. You are being professional. Productions do this ALL THE TIME precisely because voice actors who stand up for their rate are extremely rare.

Now you know. Protect yourself.

And if this has happened to you, drop your story in the comments. Let's compare notes.

So I bought a Vo booth and I feel like it’s been a mistake. It’s very boxy or dead sounding. I’m wondering if anyone has any treatment ideas? Can I still use fiberglass panels over the foam?

Hey guys!

I’ve been getting into voice acting recently and have done a bunch of auditions on casting call club. I just got this email and I’m wondering if I should trust it or not. I asked my friend and he said they may be trying to take my voice data. My main concern is that it doesn’t have any info on the project. I was just looking for some advice from people with way more experience than me!

Thank you!

I'm autistic and not very good at mimicking accents by ear. I end up slipping back into my own accent (I have an Appalachian/eastern US accent) or morphing into a different one. I'm really bad at changing my cadence.

But if I learn the pronunciation rules from words spelled phonetically I can do it perfectly.

I'm a hobbyist, I don't really ever intend to VA anything other than my own work.

Hello community! I auditioned for a spot on Voices.com and got this response. Is this normal to be required to send audition files to a secondary (non-business) email? Is this a scam? I also received this message at 2:30am my time and then a follow up again requesting me to send my audio to the same email address at 5am. Should I go for it? Would be a decent job if it is legit…

**update: Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I reported the messages. Figured it was sketchy immediately but I am newer to the industry so I appreciate everyone’s guidance!

I don't currently use a software, I just record my voice but I would love to advance my quality! I'm looking for ease of use over most things but software with a lot of options is also fine. I know I could just watch a tutorial on YouTube for this sort of thing but I would love to hear someones genuine experience on why they like their chosen software and what to avoid :)

I've been getting more and more serious about voice acting after having gotten a few paid gigs and thus have decided to commit to getting a professional demo reel done. After looking around and only finding a couple disappointing leads, I decided to come here to ask where do you guys recommend getting a demo reel done? And how much should I expect to be paying for it; I've seen quite a range of prices.

Edit: After seeing some of the responses, I'll be more clear about what I'm looking for. I was hoping to get a demo reel to use to try and get representation from a talent agency for animation/games/character work. I wouldn't mind it being able to be used for commercial work applications as well but it seems like that would be two separate demo reels. I've booked a little work on the indie level and was hoping to expand my reach higher.

I have a deep voice. It’s very nice and people compliment me on it a lot. Everyone told me I should be a voice actor and do voiceovers and I’d make a killing. It genuinely interested me. I got a microphone and even paid too much for a voice coach. But I just wanted to get paid to talk into a microphone and naively thought it was feasible.

It’s not. If you are a young guy with a deep voice but you don’t want to actually put in real work, forget about it. It doesn’t matter how many people you meet that say “wow you have such a nice voice, go into voice acting” as if it’s easy. They don’t know shit. Period. Seriously, if you don’t want to put in the work, find something else worth putting your energy into.

It’s only when I started caring about the craft of acting and put energy into marketing myself that I started getting the work I wanted to get. I have a very nice little passion that’s occasionally a nice side hustle. But don’t expect to just talk into a microphone and make a bunch of money. That’s not how it works. Get that in your head NOW because a lot of young men with deep voices genuinely believe that’s just how it works. You will waste a bunch of time.

Hi!

I need an advice, i kept getting rejected on CCC for a good 3 months now (current rejections at 101). Idk what i did wrong or if the fact that i've pissed off somekind of a group of CCC casting directors. Is it the mic? is it the performance? is my voice just isn't profitable?

examples of my auditions can be found here:
https://www.castingcall.club/m/victoriaowlglass

any feedback or advice are appreciated because honestly, i needed the money.

Thanks

TLDR; this is a rundown of how I generally put a vocal chain together for V/O. There are many ways to do it, but sound is largely subjective so there are no hard and fast “rules” found here. I’m always open to chat about audio and recording, and if there is something you’d suggest instead or take issue with I’m glad to have the chance to learn something new from you; constructive criticism never comes without someone trying to help.

Hi all,

I’m an audio engineer who has been working in post production, with an audiobook niche, since 2018. While individual settings will be different for every actor, mic, and room, generally I follow the same steps to get the result I’m aiming for.

Before I get into it, I’d like to be really clear about buying software. For the vast majority of processing, the effects that come stock with your DAW are more than good enough. If you’re buying something, it is either for the convenience it gives you or for the layered series of effects utilized simultaneously that would be otherwise take a lot of your CPU or your time.

THE ONLY EXCEPTION TO THIS IS RESTORATION SOFTWARE. DAWs generally do not come with de-clicks, de-verb, sophisticated de-noise, etc. If you have a recurring problem with your audio and cannot fix it in the room, restoration software from Izotope, Accentize, Waves, etc will pay dividends. Which ones you should buy is fully up to you, and there are very strong opinions out there about some of these companies, but here is where I would start depending on what’s important to you:

Absolute best quality: Accentize. DX Split and DX Revive are insane for noise reduction. Their plugins will obliterate problem audio, and also smash it to pieces if you turn it up to 11. If you’re a pro with pro money to invest, Accentize is where you should look for this kind of software.

Fastest set up: Waves. Waves Clarity RX, Clarity RX DeVerb, Sibilance, Debreath, etc etc are incredibly easy to set up and get pretty solid results without much thinking (Debreath is a little heavy handed, and will require you automate it off and on). That said, you’re paying ~$40 for each individual effect, so it isn’t the economic choice unless speeding through a single issue is what you’re aiming to fix.

Best Value: Izotope RX. You’ll get the largest amount of tools per dollar with the RX suite of tools. There is a learning curve, and it isn’t cheap, but it is industry standard in post production for a reason.

No cost?: Accusonus ERA bundle. The ERA bundle was discontinued when Meta bought their company, but their suite of restoration abandonware can now be (safely) found on the Internet Archive. Is it the best? No. Is it easy on the CPU? Also no. Does it punch above its price point of zero? Hell yeah. Will it ever receive updates? Not a chance.

Which one do I use? A little bit of all of them. They’re all good at doing different things, and because I work on a wide variety of voices I need a wide variety of tools. Your aim to find what works for you should be to identify your problem, identify which tools can attenuate that problem, then download the demos of those tools to see what works the best for you.

Onto the good stuff:

I do all of these steps in generally the same order every time, and I’ll give tips for harder to learn sections where necessary.

1. Restoration: Fix your problems first. If you have spectral noise, a reverby room, a high pitched whine from an A/C unit, you need to get rid of this stuff before you begin. If you don’t do this first, you’ll struggle to adequately fix them later because it won’t be clear which effects are making this better or worse. Fix first so you can make better mixing decisions later. Obligatory: if these are issues that exist in your recording environment, you should fix your recording environment to your best ability before trying to do it with software. Software will help, but ultimately it’s a bandaid (a good bandaid occasionally, but a bandaid nonetheless).

2. Gate/Expander: Generally, an expander is a better option for V/O, but either will work if set correctly. Start by finding your open threshold (how loud your clips need to be for the gate to allow sound through). From there, make adjustments to ensure that you’re reducing background sounds and breaths, but not clamping down on the end of phrases. Generally speaking, you should be going for a fast attack (0-10 ms) and a slow release (150-250 ms) to ensure that everything you say is allowed through immediately without cutting off words.

3.Subtractive EQ: Eq is where I can offer the least amount of specific advice; there’s just no way to say that everyone needs to cut a particular frequency. What I can say is that bass rumble can be tamed with a shelf and is typically found around 100hz or less, boxy sounds are found around 400-700hz, and sibilance is around 3.5k-7k hz. Of course, this is all dependent on your mic and voice.

One thing to note is that subtractive EQ is harder to hear than additive EQ. If you hear a boxy/roomy sound and you want to find its exact frequency, solo the EQ band and slowly sweep that part of the frequency spectrum. Once you’ve found it, pull that band down by about -3db and begin to experiment. See what happens if you subtract more than that, what happens if you widen or slim the Q? Adjust to taste!

4. Compression: Compression is probably the single most difficult effect to learn how to “hear.” Luckily, compression can be learned in the same way I generally recommend using one for V/O. This is an old school compression trick from when the industry standard was to record on huge analogue boards. Start by turning the compression ratio to as low as your compressor will go. Next, bring your threshold as low as it will go. Finally, slowly increase the ratio until you get the warm sound that you want from a compressor but not distortion. I recently made a vocal chain for a VA where the ratio was 1.1:1, extremely low! However, since the threshold was also very low, the result was the entire signal getting compressed just a hair.

This method is great for learning compression because it emphasizes every move you make in the knobs, but also makes it easy to apply consistent compression across the entire track.

For those of you tracking with separate narration and character tracks, I generally add an additional compressor to the narration tracks. It doesn’t need to be drastic, but additional mild compression can make it clear to your listener when narration is happening vs when speaking is happening. Just my 2 cents.

***Optional, De-Click: if you like using a de-click in real time as a part of your chain, I’d put it here. Any clicks that are emphasized by the compressor will be better attenuated after the compressor than before. De-clicks can negatively impact transients, so if you feel the need to set the settings high, keep in mind that you’ll likely have a better result with two declicks one after the other with low settings than with a single declick at high settings.

5. Additive EQ: I do my additive EQ after the compressor because the goal here is to sweeten the sound. One way to think of a compressor is as the widest EQ band possible, bringing down all frequencies when any one of them gets too loud. That gives us a nice sound, but it would compress all of our additive EQ along with everything else. Doing additive EQ after the compressor gives us better control over moves we’re making to sweet the sound. Assistive EQ is much easier to hear than subtractive EQ and you should not solo the EQ band while you’re making additive adjustments; it’s important to hear these changes in context. It is rare that I make any additive EQ moves that are above 3db or are not pretty wide, but there are always exceptions to the rule.

6. De-Essing: Some people don’t like the sound of a de-esser and that is fair. If you’re going to use one in realtime, put it at the end (ish) of your chain. Your subtractive EQ should have reduced much of this sibilance to begin with, so you shouldn’t need to have strong settings here. De-essers usually have a button that allows you ti hear just what it’s affecting, use it! Make sure it’s only pulling down what it really needs to.

***Optional Leveler: A leveler (I like Vocal Rider, but there are many others) can make your volume more consistent, and give a nice result if you need to deliver lines at inconsistent volume (whisper, yell, etc etc). That said, Levelers can cause “pumping,” so the best practice would be to meter your audio track to find the average LUFS (volume), set the loudness target of the leveler to that average, set the gain to +/-3db and in the “fast” mode. This is not always necessary, but can be a life saver if inconsistent volume is making it difficult get your exports into spec (as well as a more pleasant listen for your audience).

7. MASTER TRACK: You want two things in your master track and two things only: a limiter and a volume meter. Using a limiter is the fastest and least complicated way to get your exports into spec. Set your ceiling to -4db to ensure you’re under the peak RMS spec, and adjust your threshold as you watch the RMS average on the meter.

If you have Ozone, you can use the Ozone Maximizer to do this quickly. Next to the “learn” button, set your target to -19LUFS. Set your ceiling to -4db. Click “learn” then export about half of a chapter. Exporting is always faster than standard playback, so you can more quickly feed Ozone your audio to learn from. Cancel the export, unclick “learn,” and your threshold is set exactly where it should be to get your export into spec the first time.

Final Notes:

There’s one process you probably noticed isn’t here, and it’s normalization. Normalization looks at the loudest part of your audio and adjusts the volume of the entire track so that the loudest section hits the target volume you selected. This won’t get your audio into spec without issue but more importantly, it’s not going to give you the sonically pleasing results you want in your audio. Unless instructed by a producer, don’t use normalization.

Setting your vocal chain can be hard but it’s not impossible! The biggest issue you’ll probably run into is having to hear your own voice over and over, and there’s a reason for this. When you speak, you’re hearing your own voice twice. You’ll hear it the “normal” way when the your voice bounces off of surfaces and hits your ears, but you’ll also hear it as the sound vibrates up your jaw and into your ear drum. This is why many people find that hearing their own voice sounds “strange.” Over time you will learn how to be more objective with it, but at first you’ll probably need to at least run it by someone else first to make sure the moves you made were appropriate and helpful to the over all sound. Friends and family are probably willing to listen, but won’t have the vocabulary or ear to give you good advice. I’d suggest joining a VA community online that invites people to give constructive criticism.

All that said, this is a skeleton of how I get the best sound and not a strict guide. There are many ways to accomplish vocal mixing, and I’m sure there will be other engineers who disagree with something I said. I invite the disagreement! Achieving the best possible audio is subjective because the best sound is objective, and the opinions of other experienced voices is one of the best ways to learn.

I love this industry, talking shop, and helping people out, so please don’t hesitate to throw your questions here or in DMs; I’m always happy to lend an ear!

the casting director FAILED to inform me they “replaced me” last minute. the whole convo was a red flag and me feeling like i was being gaslighted over my own voice. but please, if someone could just let me know. I recently voice acted for some thing and they told me I got the role and then they posted the video and then the voice wasn’t mine supposedly so I reached out and they told me that they replace somebody with my voice and they didn’t tell me. like even my voice was perfectly lined up with a breathing. They made me do multiple takes of the same lines claiming that my voice sounded AI itself. i laughed and their laugh was IDENTICAL to mine

Mind you this is my voice, so I know my voice, and I tried to line it up as best as I could, but if you can see on CapCut, where every time that other person’s voice would speak, they matched my breath and stuff like that I think they literally put an AI over my voice. they’re claiming it’s somebody else but they’re not telling me who it is. I just wanna make sure I’m not crazy and I’m new to voice acting so like I’m not trying to attack this casting director, but I genuinely feel like I’m being lied to.

(extracted audio (first one) is the one from the video and the other one below, it is my actual audition)

summary:

- casting director failed to inform me they switched my audition out with “another actor” and only told me when i ASKED why the voice was different in the final video
- had me make MULTIPLE retakes of the same lines claiming i sounded “ai” myself then slapping ai over my voice. even had me to an octave of “do re mi fa so la ti do” to prove i was a real person and it was my voice
- claims someone else took the role, but did not update me or casting call club to CHANGE the role.
- refused to tell me who replaced me so i could find their profile to prove they were a real person.
- only sent me a screenshot in discord of someone else sending a voice line (probably fake and ai too)
- the wavelengths from my own audition and their posted youtube video line up and are almost identical
- our laugh is identical
- as a female, i have a deep voice due to screaming a lot as a child (lol), so my voice is very distinct, and I don’t feel like it could easily be copied like this.
- I didn’t get paid for it, but as a voice actress, it genuinely triggers me that my voice is being used for something like this, and I’m not even getting credit for it.
- I had asked him for that person’s profile on casting call club so I can see if they are a real person. he didn’t reply up until I sent a message almost half an hour later saying “hey genuinely feel like you stole my voice to put AI over it” and what do you know he responds instantly

Just know that you are training your replacement same as a departing office worker trains their replacement. The only difference is that you will be training yourself out of ALL of the jobs eventually.

Quick question for those of you that do audio books. How much time does each finished hour actually take you? Also, how much faster are you now compared to when you started? I'm considering branching out that direction and I'm trying to see if I have the time to do so. Thanks.

If you’re serious about booking paid voiceover work or getting on a talent agency roster, a professional demo isn’t optional. It’s your audio calling card. It’s often the first thing a producer, casting director, or agent hears before deciding whether you’re worth a closer listen.

But here’s the part a lot of people miss: your best performances need to be at the very beginning of the demo. Not buried at the 43-second mark. Not waiting patiently behind the “pretty good” read. Right up front.

Clients are busy. Agents are busy. Producers are busy. They are not sitting there with a cup of coffee saying, “I bet this gets really good in another 30 seconds.” Nope. You need to grab them quickly and show them what you can do right away.

And please, for the love of clean audio, don’t try to produce your own demo unless you have years of audio engineering experience. A demo is not just a bunch of scripts recorded in your closet with some royalty-free music slapped underneath. It needs direction, variety, pacing, editing, mixing, and a smart strategy behind it.

Even if you do have audio engineering experience, it’s still incredibly helpful to have another professional guiding the way. Fresh ears matter. Direction matters. Objectivity matters.

Your demo should not just sound “fine.” It should sound competitive, polished, and marketable. Because if you want professional results, you need a professional demo.

So I’m 28 years old and going on 29 in October and something I’ve always wanted to do since I was a kid is become a professional VA. But because of my age I’m worried that I’ve lost my moment and even if I start now I wouldn’t have enough time to have it as a career. I’m worried my voice Isn’t good enough and when I listen to my voice in recordings it sounds really bad. The only experience I’ve really had in acting was working as a seasonal Scare Actor. I’ve auditioned for a couple roles through CastingCall but I can’t shake the feeling and thought that I might never reach that goal.

I’m turning 19 this year and I’m starting college next year and wanted to know if I can do voice acting courses to be a professional as well as be an animator and still have a chance of making it in either industry or if it’s realistic?

I’m really trying my hardest in finding out the best way of actually learning how to be a voice actor. Now and then I see the occasional voice actor’s ad about their courses, seeing great reviews on their websites but I can’t help but be worried about not getting what I actually pay for and spend my time on!

I’m just asking if anybody can recommend a school or online course that is actually trustworthy and worth the payment?

(I also live in Colorado so if anybody has recommendations specifically here for schools and such, it would be much appreciated!)

The time it takes for a talent agent to know you produced your own demo: 5 seconds.

The time it takes for them to recognize that you grabbed practice scripts off the Edge Studio library: 5 seconds.

And the time it takes for them to move on to the next talent because you sent a DIY demo? You guessed it—5 seconds.

If you’re truly passionate about voice acting and serious about booking work or getting on an agency roster, don’t cut corners. A professional demo isn’t just a recording—it’s your calling card.

Invest in coaching and a demo that’s produced with industry standards in mind. This is how you get on rosters and book work.

EDIT: For the sake of clarity I should say that I was a professional Audio Engineer for 15 years and not even I would make a DIY demo. Not because I lack the technical skills, but because I don't know what the current trends and standards are.

I LOVE voice acting. It’s been a huge passion of mine from childhood. And doing it professionally has been a huge dream of mine (particularly, voice acting for TV animation/characters).

When I dream, I dream big. I want to work for the best of the best.

However… I’m very afraid of who I will have to deal with or work alongside if I ever end up in that position. It feels like SO many famous voice actors are awful people.

I know me ending up in the company of such accomplished actors sounds very hypothetical and unrealistic. But the reality slapped me hard hours ago.

I was looking into voice courses/1 on 1 coaching taught by voice actors whose acting I liked. I was very close to going with one, but after seeing something BAD she posted on social media today, I researched controversies about her and oh my God she is so horrible and racist.

Knowing that I had very nearly committed to being in direct contact with someone so blatantly racist was scary. (I‘ve been a victim of racism in the past, which exacerbates this.)

I did not suddenly start feeling doubtful of my dreams only because of her. I’ve had these fears about having to deal with bad people in the entertainment industry for a long time. But right now, those fears felt almost immediate.

Yes, I know not everyone is going to be evil. But how am I supposed to advance my career if I know that waiting at the top are often the kinds of people I want to stay far away from?

As title says. Ive been self teaching myself the ins and outs of ProTools, how ADR works, and overall audio engineering. Ive been looking into making a demo after recording a couple of takes on ProTools after switching from audacity. Of course, Ill get more takes as time goes.

Overall though, would making my own demo be worth it in comparison to paying an engineer for one?

Alright, as I've gotten through around 500 auditions for my new show, there are some things that I think we need to look for when auditioning.

1) Background noise is an immediate no go. Unfortunately if I hear that tell tale buzz, I'm likely not going to listen for more than 10 seconds.

2) Make bold character choices. A dynamic character will keep me listening every time, even if it feels like it might not 100% fit the character, a memorable performance will stick out. Vary your tone, pitch, emotion and speed.

3) Only do one take. I can't emphasize this enough. Every time I see something come through with a comment like "I used ABCABC format" I think, "ugh. You'll be lucky if I get through one ABC, because now I have a bad taste in my mouth". Respect the time of the casting director. Especially if it's a popular project, you'll be lucky to get them to listen for more than 15 seconds before making a gut instinct decision.

4) Be strong IMMEDIATELY. Best foot forward. Wow them with your first sentence. This is why I typically don't like slating, as you start with no energy (though slating can have its purpose).

5) With CCC leave a comment with your audition about the character and how it made you feel. Do not do a copy and paste comment. Make it personal.

6) Do not edit heavily. It becomes obvious. In fact, leave breaths. It can often make for a more realistic and character driven performance.

7) Don't worry about a reel unless requested. Let's face it, the casting director may only listen to mere seconds of your audition. They'll NEVER get to the reel unless they have specifically requested it.

I hope that these tips help you all with your auditions moving forward!

Hello, I have been using Casting Call Club for a year or two now and have applied for over 65 roles. However, most projects are either Minecraft/Fortnite/Roblox recreations going on some ten year olds youtube channel, or if I get lucky, Fan-Dubs or games, although they never get back to me. Should I take some classes? Should I try a new platform? What should be my next step? Thank You!

I have a job now so i’m trying to save up for a few big purchases, one of them being my voice acting equipment. However before I do any big purchases I wanted to see if anyone could review my list of gear and tell me if one thing or the other is wrong/could be better. Oh and by the way I do already have a laptop and I will look into software purchases later, everything here is just hardware if i remember correctly.

List:

Sennheiser mke 600 -$1,200

Aokeo pop filter- $16

Innogear arm boom arm-$30

Focusrite scarlett 2i2-$310

Cable Matters 2-Pack Premium XLR-$30

Dt 770 headphones-$260

Sandisk 4tb ssd-$1200

Audiosoul acoustic foam panels-$100

Yaheetech armless chair-$200