25 tips for recording voiceovers with practical examples

Voiceovers are an acquired skill. If you’ve never done them before, they’re not that easy to just jump into and do. Your first few aren’t going to be great, but you’ll get better at them the more you do.

The more you do, the more tips and tricks you’ll pick up, too. Kevin, the Basic Filmmaker has picked up more than a couple of tricks over the years to help him with voiceovers. In this video, he goes through 25 of them to help you with yours. He also shows practical demonstrations for many of them to illustrate why they’re a good idea.

1. Find a quiet space to record in
2. Use a good mic and recorder
3. Format the audio card
4. Use an iPad or computer for your script
5. Say what each section is
6. Read, scroll and continue
7. Add some life to it
8. No chair, stand up
9. Breath so oxygen gets to the brain
10. Be animated – be energetic
11. Don’t split sentences
12. Use interest when speaking
13. Don’t slur words together
14. No alcohol prior to recording
15. Pronounce words clearly
16. Give your voice a break
17. Keep yourself hydrated
18. Suck the juicy bits out
19. Keep mic close to the mouth
20. Set the recorder levels
21. When repeating, leave space
22. Use a good pacing throughout
23. Pause so they can do the thing
24. Don’t get bored – they’ll hear it
25. HAVE FUN! They will hear it!

There’s a lot of other little nuggets of information in the video, too. And you’ll want to watch it anyway to get a little more of an explanation on some of the tips above.

Like I said, voiceovers are a challenge, but there are plenty of ways you can push yourself to improve. These tips should definitely help you to get started pushing your voiceover abilities. I use many of these tips and tricks myself when I need to record them.