Tag Archives: voiceover technique

Talk in Voice Acting as you do in Life

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Teaching the art of VoiceOver is a lesson in observation and therefore psychology. If you pay attention to how people behave you are well on your way to acquiring this skill and harnessing it to make money in this exciting industry. Basically, voice acting means understanding how we talk in REAL LIFE. 

How do we talk in real life?  We share ideas, facts, and feelings. Most of it happens so automatically that we barely notice the tools we use and how they shift based on our motivation. The most common tools we use are variances in our pitch, volume, and pace. We also ALWAYS emphasize the point(s) we are making, which has some words stand out over others. An example would be if you called up a friend and said, “Hey do you wanna go on a hike tomorrow?”  If you think Hike is the key word you are correct!  It’s the newest part of the communication, the main subject. This does not mean the subject is always the key word. If you were ready to start the hike you might say to that friend, “Are you ready yet?”  The key there is Ready. Pronouns are often NOT emphasized because they are a given. They are a given because most of the time we are talking to one person, so it’s obvious who You and I are!  Yes there are exceptions in group talk, of course. But most communication is intended for one person, and although VoiceOver work can have many listeners, you want it to sound Directed at only one person regardless. It will make that person feel that the message is relevant to them. 

Back to those tools.  Our inflection, volume, and pacing changes all the time when we speak. Sometimes it is based on circumstances such as whether it is formal or informal.  Most often, it is based on our emotions. Let’s break down each tool now based on our emotional states. 

Volume:  We get louder when we are excited, angry, addressing a group. We get quieter when we are intimate, warm, caring, introspective. This is so important to why we analyze a script in terms of the emotional perspective. Our volume tells the listener a lot. 

Pacing: We go faster when we are excited, frantic, not thinking straight.  We go slower when we are expressing concern, thoughtfulness, being intentional. 

Inflection: Our pitch naturally gets higher when we are excited, friendly, positive. Also when are uncertain. On the flip side, our register is deeper when we are confident, serious, expressing certainty.

These are all nuances that can change from person to person and also with context, but there is some truth to these expressions as well and we have all grown accustomed to reading people with this understanding. 

In the end, careful analysis of the script tells us everything we need to know about how to sound. 

Best Voiceover Tips 2022

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After casting, coaching, and directing demos for almost thirty years, the awareness around the nuances surrounding a great VoiceOver performance start to add up.  While there are so many techniques in voice acting – that’s the one element right there that counts the most…the acting. So let’s start there. 

What is acting?  It’s make-believe. Yes, it’s the childish way of explaining it, but it is accurate. You must Make yourself Believe.  If you don’t, who will?  So now we get to the script. Breaking down a script on voice over is absolutely essential for nailing the acting. Acting starts with context and then delves into subtext. So you start with the most basic question – “What is this about?”  Make sure you can answer that in your own words and cover as much of the context as you can, whether it’s for a commercial or an audiobook. Knowing the context as fully as possible will also help you connect to your keywords in every single sentence. When we communicate, we have a point to make, which has us emphasizing certain words over others. When you understand the story you are telling you will also be able to connect with those keywords. Your second question is the more challenging one. “What do I feel about this….what is the emotional tone…the mood….my character’s personality?”  This helps you paint the picture of the story with richer color and gives it believability. It has you transcend any possibility of sounding like you’re an “announcer.”  So on assessing context, make sure to never stop with a statement like “It’s just informational.”  If it does feel info-dense, at the very least tell yourself you are interested in it and interested in sharing it with someone. This will have you sounding engaged. This is crucial. You will never sound like you’re just reading if you sound interested and engaged in what you’re saying!  Believe you have these thoughts, these feelings, believe you really want to share this all with someone. This is the acting. Make Believe. 

For you technical-minded thinkers out there we can also add a few other elements to work with. Your tools. These are things that happen when we talk and they happen automatically. They almost always relate to our emotional perspective. These main tools are INFLECTION, PACING, and VOLUME.  We also could classify KEYWORDS as a tool, but assessing these comes from a more intellectual place than an emotional one. Executing the keywords correctly, however, does require putting emotion into them.  Let’s get back to inflection. We all talk in high and low tones, rising and falling inflections, otherwise we would be monotone. Our higher tones often reflect open and positive emotions like excitement, enthusiasm, friendliness, questioning. Our lower tones often exude certainty, confidence, authority, finality. A blend of both is the best of both worlds. But really, they have to reflect the writing and therefore be used accurately. Ending a sentence on a down inflection will give the air of conviction to the listener. It will sound like the speaker has absolute certainty in this fact. Ending a sentence with an up inflection can do many things depending on the context: it could make it sound flimsy, as if it’s not finished.  it could make it sound exciting.  it could make it sound uncertain. Knowing your context and subtext is critical to using the right inflections. 

Volume is a big topic in VoiceOver. For the most part, avoid raising your volume too much unless the emotion calls for it (anger, over the top excitement…) because otherwise you will sound like an announcer or sound too theatrical. We all want to feel like someone is speaking to us personally, not to a stadium full of people. This means using a lower voice. Not a whisper. Just enough to make it Personal. Your audience will LEAN IN TO YOU, as opposed to cringing and pulling back. Again you must use context and subtext. Is it a one-on-one conversation?  That is most likely in vo. Is it exciting?  Maybe a slight bump in volume. SLIGHT.  Is it a sincere conversation?  Lower your volume a touch. Always err on the lower side when in doubt. 

Pacing. Again we assess the pace based on real life. Excited?  Talk a bit faster. Serious, intellectual, warm?  Little slower. 

Also make sure to pause the right amount between sentences and to adjust this as well based on the emotional energy of the script. Too long or too short a pause between sentences will trigger our ears in an unnatural way and we will hear your performance as “reading.”

Let’s address voice acting technique in terms of musicality. Our ears tune in to music, it grabs our attention and concentration. It is the perfect blend of pattern and unpredictability that is so pleasant. Think about a white noise machine. They are meant to be ignored because of their monotone repetition. So make sure you don’t audition for a voice over script this way!  We have natural musicality to our voices based on emotional tone but also on how words connect to each other. This would be called our leading and key words. Here’s an example of a leading word (which goes up as if to say there’s something important coming) and a key word (which goes down as if to say this is it, this is the important thing right here!). It would be the classic “The end.”  Think about it. We go up on The because it’s not important, it’s leading into what’s important. We go down on End because it tells us the important thing we need to know – that this is over.  You can find these pairs in every sentence but the pair might not be next to each other. Here’s an example – “The best way to do it is to just relax.”  Here we see the word Best is leading into the key word Relax. We can assume by the word “it” that we have already covered the subject matter. Regardless, in this way you can see how words are always leading into other words and therefore guarantee a fluctuating  inflection. 

It’s incredible what a set of codes we have embedded into the way we communicate that is so deeply indoctrinated we don’t ever have to think about it when we talk. Except…when we are reading someone else’s words!  So yeah, now we do have to think about it. We talk perfectly natural in our everyday lives, but there’s nothing natural about reading someone else’s words. This is why understanding those words until they become our own is the way to sound natural in voice acting.  One way to try this would be to first read the script out loud but in a quiet voice, as if you’re reading it out loud to yourself to just understand it.  Another way is to read the script but give yourself creative license to add and subtract words, lead in with an entire sentence even. Share the script in a way that feels more like you would say it. Heck, even just read the script a few times until you understand it and then improvise the entire thing. By the time you want to audition for it, you’ll have emotional ownership of the material and will probably be able to read the script verbatim because you first got there emotionally on your own terms. I have some students who always start with a sentence of their own, maybe even including the name of an actual friend so it feels like a real conversation – they just delete it out later.  Win win!  Still feel like a phony announcer?  Read the script with a phone to your ear.  Triggering yourself to feel the way you do when you’re actually on the phone may control your volume and even more importantly have you sound the natural way you do when talking to someone you’re close with. Another win. Talk with your hands. Talk with your face. Your body filters energy and emotion through your voice. If you’re excited, take your hands out of those pockets!  Make sure to energetically align your body with the tone of the script. In the end, it’s about the text. The deeper you understand the intellectual and emotional components of your text, the more jobs you will win. Let the text be your director. Do what it tells you. It’s the boss. 

Voice Over Myths – and why they even started:

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I’d like to discuss the three biggest myths in voiceover, because they really distract from the main focus of a truly successful performance. Before that, I’d like to explain where these myths ALL came from. Understanding this will instantly help you understand why they are no longer relevant.
Much of where voice acting began was in tv and radio advertising. Some film narration. The style back then even in film was similar to the style of voice acting. It all connected. It was all – perfect. Polished. Sterilized. Professional. Announced. Perhaps film acting wasn’t exactly like this, but there was certainly a theatricality to it that we now only really associate with stage acting. Film acting, like voice acting, has transitioned into a much more realistic style of expression and behavior. We are in the age of realism in acting now. And, hallelujah to that! We can finally suspend our disbelief properly!

Myth #1: Always stand up when doing a voice over performance.
This one stems straight from those old-school announcers of course. The goal was the booming strong chest voice read. It was all about the celebrated diaphragm! Once again, we are in the age of realism now, and we don’t talk that way ever in our normal conversations. Another factor to support the dispelling of this myth for good is that in real life we talk standing up, sitting down, lying down. The way we should position our bodies while reading a script and doing an audition should reflect the emotional energy of the text. Is it excited? Stand up! Is it warm and sincere? Try sitting. Position your body to feel what you’re supposed to feel energetically, not for fuller access to your diaphragm. This is called voice ACTING for a reason.

Myth #2: Make sure you articulate really well, and sound professional.
Once again, this is an unfortunate carry-over from the days of announcing. When we talk to friends, even coworkers really, we don’t ‘aim’ to sound professional. Our goal in everyday conversation is to convey our thoughts and emotions, period. We are not focused on what we sound like. Therefore we are relaxed. If you want to sound believable in voice acting, you want to sound like you’re not ‘doing’ voice acting the way we used to know it. Just connect with the message. Be there.

Myth #3: You must warm up your voice before your auditions.
Nope. Once again, we talk all day long and from the moment we get up…or at least from the moment we’ve had a few sips of our coffee. Either way, the point is that we are not aiming for a well-oiled machine from which to operate from. We are aiming to service the WRITING. Warm up by reading the script MANY times in your head first. Understand the message. The keywords that emphasize the message. The emotional perspective you have that supports this message.

Acting certainly makes use of “tools”, but let your real focus be on feelings and you will instantly see a greater connection to every script you audition for.

Script Analysis in Voice Acting – Own the Script

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You MUST OWN your voice-over script. Here’s how to do it:
Here’s how it commonly plays out when beginner voice actors approach the idea of script analysis:They read the script in their head. Once, maybe twice if they really wanna read between the lines. I then ask them to tell me what it’s about. Here’s where things go wrong. Their choice of pronouns. Let’s use an actual script to illustrate how it goes wrong and how it can go right…


Subaru-I love faster. As in I’m faster than you and there’s nothing you can do about it. I love that around every hard corner is another adrenaline rush. That’s why I love the new 2014 Subaru WRX. So, if you want to feel what it’s like to cross the finish line first…step inside the cage. The 2014 Subaru WRX. It’s a whole new animal. 


Ok, so here’s an example of what they say to me when i ask them to tell me about the script.“They’re saying that the Subaru is fast and it’s a rush and you should get one.”Let’s start with the main point here. Pronoun usage. The opportunity any actor has, actually MUST engage in, is ownership of the script.  The main way to do that?  Remember that YOU are saying these words. Period. So let’s correct the response now. “I love speed, and that’s why i love the Subaru. And if you love speed too it’s the car for you.” Which perspective has PRIMED you better for the performance?  

So, never detach from the script by even acknowledging that it was written by someone else. Understand it as if it’s your own idea, and utilize the proper pronoun to further indoctrinate yourself. Acting is brainwashing!  So, wash your brains well before every performance. 

Newest creative voiceover tips

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It’s been a long time since I’ve written on the subject of voiceover technique.  If you feel like skipping this moment while I muse on how I came to write this particular set of voiceover tips, you can go to the next paragraph and you’re forgiven.  What has happened to me over the years of voiceover coaching is that I have learned so much more about coaching, about how to TEACH.  In the beginning of my career it was all about sharing how much knowledge I had about the various ways to book voiceover jobs, about how to use your inflection, your keywords, your volume, your pacing, etc.  What I have added to my resume since then is the even more important ability to teach.  This concept comes through a bit less powerfully in a blog article to a general audience, but when coaching an individual voice actor it is magic.  We all learn differently because we all think differently.  Some of us need a push to let the emotions out, some of us need our right brain to be taught to because our left has gone on vacation…and now I see that this is truly what teaching is about.  It is as much about teaching to the INDIVIDUAL PERSON as it is about teaching the material.  So here are the interesting teaching moments I have experienced through many individuals who have given me the opportunity to teach them and learn from them in less traditional ways.

I have a student, let’s call him Joe, who struggled with his pacing/pausing.  This is one of the many ways we can communicate  (or fail to) authenticity in a performance.  When we’re excited we talk a little faster, when we are being serious or sincere we go a little slower, etc.  This is what we do in real life and therefore it becomes critical that we use the appropriate pace required of the emotional subtext of the writing.  Pausing is a part of this as well.  We really only pause in real life if it is grammatically necessary (to separate points in communication).  We also pause for dramatic effect, but not that often in everyday conversation.  But oh do you voice actors loooove to pause! It’s fun, indulgent, and dramatic!  It helps you breathe through longer sentences!  But it’s not what you do in real life, so it is going to sound theatrical.  Joe was reading a sentence – “Sometimes you just want a great latte.”  We decided that the main keyword was latte, but great was an important leading word too.  Joe read the sentence and paused after the word Sometimes.  Another time he paused after the word Want.  It was unnecessary, unnatural, and too dramatic for the subject.  I told Joe to think about his keyword “latte” as a restaurant that he was meeting a friend at.  I asked him if he would normally make any stops along the way when driving to the restaurant.  He said “probably not.”  Then guess what Joe?  Don’t make any unnecessary stops on the way to “latte!”  Pausing:  do less of it 🙂

I had another student, Mary, who taught me a great way to think about the process of experimenting and seeing what you can do with a voiceover script and how you can express yourself properly but also creatively through it.  Mary likened it to a child playing in the sandbox.  There’s no way to experience that type of play and discovery without making a mess.  And that’s to be expected.  Recognize that when you are training to be a voice actor, and even if you are already auditioning, that self-censorship destroys the magic.  So many people try to read “perfectly.”  All this does is create tight boundaries around the delivery that leave it flat, colorless, and often without a smile.  Let go, have fun, make a mess, and see how much brighter you sound!  I add to Mary’s analogy that it is like a woman trying to find one tiny thing in her huge purse.  She can’t find it because it’s lost in the cavernous folds of the fabric, shuffling around with a myriad of other objects.  Sometimes you have to turn the purse upside down and dump EVERYTHING out on the table to find what you were looking for.  Back to making a mess.  Shake out your shoulders, smile a bit more, take a risk.  Let it ALL out.  (You can always put back a few things that you didn’t need on take 2.)

My new favorite is from Matthew.  He asked me if it was “ok” to listen to music while recording his voiceover auditions.  OK?  It’s a fantastic idea Matthew, and I’m telling everyone!  So thank you!  The word “ok” also reminded me that there are no HARD rules in this creative world, only “ish” concepts.  Basically, whatever works for you is not only OK, it’s fantastic!  As long as the outcome is authentic.  That’s really the crux of it – there’s nothing natural about saying someone ELSE’s words, so pull whatever tricks you want.  My student Wayne says he grew up in a household full of Scandinavian intellectuals and there was absolutely no emoting.  Wayne could certainly benefit from some music.  Don’t the tears come hardest in the sad scene in the movie when the sad song starts in?

Lastly I want to cover a session I had where my student Liv was just holing back emotionally as well…more so out of inhibitions.  Society tells us to be one thing and then the best voice acting technique asks us to defy that and be everything sometimes.  First I just told Liv it was okay to be expressive, that this was not about sounding perfect in any way, in fact that is what will fail in a performance.  Real life is not perfect so neither is communication.  Get wild, have fun, color outside the lines, stop taking it so seriously – because then you sound SERIOUS!  UPTIGHT!  Nooo!  So Liv, you have permission to do this on your terms.  That was the key for her, just knowing she had permission.  Hmm.  Connected to that idea would be censorship.  She stopped and started a lot during a script.  I reminded her that was her censor-self getting in the way and judging everything and that is a big no for any artistic expression.  BE first, censor later….but I bet you won’t have to at that point – because you gave yourself permission to shine.