VO Studio Efficiency: Deconstructing Workflow

Before I became involved with voiceover, “workflow” for a voice actor included showing up at your agency, grabbing any scripts that were handed to you, and then finding a quiet corner of the waiting room to begin analyzing them before your turn in the booth. In that environment, being surrounded by other, more experienced voice actors provided an opportunity to absorb valuable tricks and insights directly. 

These days, most of us are working solo in our home setups, perhaps pouncing upon auditions through online marketplace sites, or responding to email-delivered opportunities from agents or existing clients. On any given day, we’re isolated and disconnected from others who are going through the same process, dealing with the challenges of getting work out the door efficiently. This is compounded by the increase in projects asking that we do more than simply provide our vocal skills.

Projects may require that we meet Loudness/Peak specs for deliverables, chop out flubs and edit in corrections, or split hours of instructional audio into separate sentences. Even in the simplest remote directed session, we’re asked to send files which are hundreds of megabytes in size. There’s just a whole bunch of other stuff which may not have been clearly listed on the job description.

As basically creative individuals, we have likely figured out particular solutions to those specific challenges. But even when those solutions generate acceptable results, they are often not the most effective way of addressing the issues. When I consult with someone who has work under their belt, it’s always instructive to review all the steps that exist in their process. Sometimes there are redundant tasks or inefficiencies. Other times, a procedure may have a high risk of causing catastrophic issues if a process was to fail midway.

Making the effort to organize folders, create backups of key files, or maintain clear naming protocols all seem kind of boring at the time. However when things hiccup (as they do from time to time), being able to easily grab a clean copy or find the proper backup file pays clear dividends.

Of course, it’s just as easy to overcomplicate things. I often encounter other voice actors and narrators with complex processing procedures that generate rather “meh” sounding results. Digging into the specifics, there are often multiple cycles of EQ, Compression, Limiting, DeClicking passes and more – typically a mashup of several videos found online or “something a friend set up…” The result is often a recipe with all the right ingredients, but in all the wrong proportions. As I mentioned last week, there’s really no “One Size Fits All” for recorded audio.

The best workflows strike a balance between something we easily understand, and a process which has recognized the potential issues. Fewer required steps means less chance of a workflow going wrong. Knowing what each step does lets us continue to refine and optimize things as our needs change or our audio quality improves.

Have you tested your studio’s audio quality to make sure it meets professional standards? For a free review of your vocal recordings, please use the upload tool on my Audio Review page.

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