Recording voiceover

What clients usually ask for

This page produces 16-bit mono WAV at your hardware's rate. Check what rate your device is running at in your system sound settings if a client specifies one — the recorder follows the hardware rather than resampling.

The take-based workflow

Voiceover is a numbers game. You read the line, it is not quite right, you read it again. Every take here gets its own player and its own Discard button, so the failures never reach your downloads folder.

1. Record a short level check and listen back before committing to a session.
2. Record the line. Stop.
3. Listen. If it works, Download. If not, Discard and go again.
4. For long scripts, record in paragraph-sized chunks rather than one continuous read.
5. Record thirty seconds of room tone at the end and download it separately.

When you fluff a line mid-take, do not stop. Pause, breathe, resume, and read the whole sentence again — the editor keeps the good one and the take stays continuous.

The room matters more than the microphone

This is the thing that separates amateur and professional voiceover, and it is not equipment. A good microphone in a reverberant room sounds worse than a modest one in a treated space, because reverb cannot be removed afterwards — it is baked into the recording.

• Record in the smallest soft room you have. A wardrobe full of clothes is a genuinely good vocal booth and costs nothing.
• Hang a duvet behind you and to the sides. Soft mass absorbs reflections; foam panels are less effective than people assume.
• Avoid rooms with bare parallel walls, hard floors and windows.
• Turn off anything with a fan or a compressor. Air conditioning and fridges produce a constant hum that noise reduction only partially removes.

Level and consistency

Set gain so the meter sits comfortably in the blue with amber peaks, and then do not touch it for the rest of the session. Changing gain mid-session makes takes that will not match when they are edited together. Distance matters equally — stay at a consistent 15–20 cm, since drifting closer and further produces takes that cannot be levelled to match.

• WAV recorderThe general uncompressed recorder.
• Voice acting demosBuilding a demo reel.
• Audio trimmerReviewing and discarding takes.
• Reduce background noiseTreating a room cheaply.

More in use cases

• Recording language practice
• Recording voice for Discord
• Recording narration for Google Slides
• Recording narration for PowerPoint

See all use cases — the right recording setup depends on the job: what you are capturing, and where the file goes afterwards.

Questions