‘Remote work is the future of work.’
Alexis Ohanian
It used to be the case that to be a voiceover artist you had to travel from studio to studio to work. An audio engineer would set up the equipment, record the session, and edit the resulting sound file. All the voiceover artist had to do was turn up and talk….
Not so these days.
Nowadays – and especially since March 2020 – if you haven’t got a home studio you’re going to miss out on a lot of work. I’ve had a home studio since I started my voice over career and I wouldn’t have got as far as I have without it!
However, it is still the case that sometimes clients want to be able to hear you while you’re recording so they can give direction, and make sure they’re getting what they want. They also sometimes want an audio engineer to do the recording and editing, rather than the voice over artist themselves.
This is all perfectly possible thanks to modern technology, and there are a few options:
All of the above can be used for remote direction and recording. The paid for services are the most reliable when it comes to remote recording, but if you have a stable internet connection then the free ones work fine, and there are several others in addition to the two I have mentioned.
I have actually used the free version of Cleanfeed to record a whole radio play with my drama group, and we had 6 or 7 people on the line at once. It worked surprisingly well!
If a client wants to listen in, but is happy for the voiceover artist to record locally (which to be honest I always do anyway just for safety), there are some simple solutions including:
Skype
Zoom
Facetime
Or just a phone with the speaker on!
In all cases, the client needs to mute themselves during recording, to keep the recording clean.
Some clients will probably always insist on recordings taking place in a London studio, but most work can easily be recorded from home these days – which is one of the things I love about my job!