VO Weekly Workflow – Studio Foundations

Many people come into voice acting with an aversion to the technical details of recording their voice. The studio side of things may be uninteresting to them, or they may have genuine dislike for working with screens and technology.

Compounding this, a lot of recommended VO studio solutions involve fairly complicated software or a more-expensive-is-better attitude towards gear. There’s often a “recipe” provided with no explanation of why a certain step is necessary.

The good news is that we can set things up simply. Then, our studio should behave in a reliable and understandable manner. A robust and direct setup can provide a solid foundation to solve inevitable issues that crop up late at night under deadline when there’s no one to ask.

Each of us have different approaches to performance on the microphone. That means there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to capturing those efforts and delivering our audio. If we take a little time to understand why we do the tasks in our recording process, that lets us trust our instrument.

One of the big changes I’ve appreciated over the years is the current lack of coaxing necessary to keep a home studio running smoothly. The stuff we used when I first wandered into a studio was fidgety, had generally opaque user interfaces, exceptionally poor documentation, and tended to age rather poorly. The tools we have these days are generally high quality and rock solid in terms of performance.

That’s a huge benefit for all of us, and particularly for anyone who doesn’t really like going “under the hood” to fix things. The fact is that we don’t have to spend a huge sum to get professional results. However, it does help if we can invest enough to create a solid foundation for our work. It’s never about “just the right microphone” or “industry standard software” (spoiler alert: neither of those things actually exist).

The aspects that do matter are a bit unspectacular: isolation from environmental sounds, treatment of the recording space, how the microphone is positioned. If we can get those things right, then everything else works much better. 

In addition to working one-on-one to dial in a personalized and reliable workflow in your home studio, I also teach two voiceover studio-focused online workshops through Voice One:

VO Recording At Home – The Basics

Get started right! If you have nothing or aren’t sure what you need, start here. This two week workshop covers voiceover recording gear, how to create a solid recording space, recording software options and how to establish a solid VO workflow. Recording equipment NOT REQUIRED for this class. Lots of resources, handouts and demos, covering all the basics you need to set up a home voiceover studio and begin recording. This is a two session workshop with 6 hours of instruction. More information and current dates available on the Voice One site.
Note – there is a recorded version of this workshop available here.

Audition Ready Audio for Voiceover

You may have a quality studio and gear, but simply owning decent equipment provides no guarantee that your sound is competitive. How do you know if it is any good? Poor quality audio gets deleted, and generally, no one will tell you if it sounds bad. In this 2-week workshop, you’ll receive detailed evaluations of your recordings, specific feedback and areas to address, and will gain a clear understanding of what makes your recordings “audition ready” so you can book more work. This is where you put that hardware to work for you. More information and current dates on the Voice One site.

Posted 3/3/26

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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.