Voice hygiene starts in your voice-over studio
Hoarseness is something most people will recognize when they have had to speak a lot. Fortunately, thanks to vocal hygiene, it is possible to speak a lot without sounding hoarse. The main reason for hoarseness in voiceovers is dry air. Good ventilation of the voice-over studio is the solution. If you can't just open a window, you can think of a humidifier, for example. It also helps by not doing a lot of things: turning on the air conditioning and laying a thick carpet or rug on the floor of your recording studio. Measure the air humudity!

Other important speaking factors
There are also some important technical factors to keep your voice over voice in shape. Voice actors who have to record a commercial with an angry person immediately recognize that it is super tiring and taxing on their voice to speak loudly. Strong articulation does not help either, but fortunately strong articulation has also been out of fashion for a while when recording voiceovers.
If, like our voice-overs, you are allowed to record several texts a day, it is wise not to do this in one go. Your vocal cords are made up of muscles that get tired after prolonged exertion. When your voice gets tired, and you continue to record, the voice becomes even more forced and becomes even more tired. Planning voice-over recordings is therefore key.

The best body position for voice overs
Body posture is also often overlooked. We regularly see beautiful voice-over studios where a voice actor armed with a cup of tea can record his voice-overs while sitting, but this is technically a very bad idea. The best body position for voiceovers is with two feet firmly planted on the floor, shoulders low and relaxed. Don't forget to keep your head straight and in line with your back.

Eat healthy and sleep well, also for a top voice!
Many voice-overs work from their own home studio. As a result, they are always a few steps away from their pantry. Attractive, but a healthy diet is also super important for your voice. Some basic things contribute to a better voice, such as chewing well, not eating spicy food, certainly not consuming dairy products and drinking plenty of water.

The above tips are of course also very suitable for other professions that have to work a lot with their voice, such as speakers, presenters, managers and telephone operators. Working from home has also led to more telephone consultations - and therefore speaking - for many other professions, so try to keep your voice fresh and fruity as much as possible.

Familiarity
The biggest advantage of familiar voices is – unsurprisingly – their recognizable voice. Because they can be heard a lot as a well-known Brazilian, popular singer or TV personality, people respond in a positive sense to a more famous voice than an unknown voice. And in an advertising break with expensive airtime, that is of course a big advantage.
The larger campaigns are often broadcast on all platforms, such as online, TV and radio advertising. The audio component is especially important in radio advertising. And because most clients simply choose a warm, low voice-over voice, many radio commercials are very similar. That's actually not what you want. You want to stand out!

Millennial voice overs with their own studio
Turning things around and not always going for the standard sound pays off. That's why BrazilVoices has been offering millennial voice actors who sound more like regular people for some time now. Because of their authentic sound, they stand out even more, and people feel more approached, or so the thought.
The time when well-known voice actors exceptionally had a home studio is fortunatelybehind us. This is not such an issue with a one-off campaign, but especially if you want to be able to adjust online campaigns (and update voice-over texts), a voice actor with your own studio is actually a must. You simply save the cost of an external sound studio and can be live with a new take within 24 hours.

Prepare your quote request
Well-known voices like to seal as many things as possible in a voice-over buy-out agreement. Then everyone knows where they stand, but of course offers much less room for flexibility. It is no longer possible to record a free voice-over because an extra commercial tag-on has to be recorded.
Fortunately, experience also shows that the well-known voice does not like to miss a beautiful voice-over assignment. It pays to think carefully in advance about what you need exactly, plus to include any additional variants (that you don't need yet!) in your quote request. Because negotiating in advance is simply much easier than afterwards.

Conclusion
Well-known voice-overs bring a striking and appealing sound to your commercial. You will have to pay for that familiarity, and you also sacrifice flexibility. Millennial voice-overs are therefore a good alternative: they sound like 'normal' people, which means they also give your campaign that striking and appealing edge.

Voices, voices.
Have a man or woman leave your voicemail? Of course, no major scientific studies have been done into the ideal gender as a telephone voice-over. There is, however, the well-known assumption that due to the traditional profession of telephone operator (which was often a woman), people are used to a female voice when they hear a menu of options. It is the safe choice, especially when in doubt.
In commercials, male voice-overs are often used for men's products, and vice versa, women for products aimed at women. Just think of beer commercials that are often voiced by a man, or a cosmetics line that is promoted by a woman's voice. If you're a DIY'er, a man's voice could be a great choice.
If you are a hip and new brand, it can be smart to also use a younger voicemail voice for your brand, which people are more likely to associate with new. Some voice-overs have a cool and tough edge, which could, for example, fit well in the telephone menu of a trendy webshop. And a professional voice over with seniority can give a start-up more authority.

Choosing the right voiceover can promote customer loyalty and strengthen the bond with your brand. Often this is also the first voice a customer hears on your behalf. Then it is important to choose the right voice-over. Fortunately, all our voice-overs are all-round voice actors who can be used for almost any job. But if you're not sure, send us a message and we'll help you find the right voice for your business. Even a short free test is no problem.

How do voice-over agencies work?
Clients of Brazilian voice-over agencies logically require extra service and guarantees. This also means that a voice agency cannot just mess around or add new voiceovers haphazardly. Every voice from an agency must be 'hit'. That is why almost all of our agency's voice-overs have more than proven themselves as freelancers.
Many new voice-overs think of recording voice-overs as jobs for TV and radio commercials. But the daily practice, also for the most popular voice-overs, is the recording of informative web videos for companies. Making a lot of flying hours by recording many company videos is key.

Become a voice over
This is where the pitfall for new voice-overs starts, people quickly think that recording a 'company file' is a piece of cake. In practice, however, you will experience that 4 minutes of conveying important information is a lot more difficult than an average commercial of 20 seconds. Experience in the field of corporate videosis really key.
The most booked corporate video voice-overs are always voice actors with the most experience and flying hours. Now you understand why most voice agencies are so reluctant to add new talents. It is therefore important to provide as many corporate videos as possible with your voice first. But how do you do that without a n agency? Just like most other voiceovers started out: offering your voice to video producers.
First a fun fact. If you search the Chamber of Commerce for video production, you will soon come across almost 40,000 companies. This includes, of course, the major well-known TV producers, but especially smaller production companies and freelancers. This is an advantage and a disadvantage. You have to get yourself on the map with a lot of people, but it is not an all or nothing model, where you only have one chance to break through. So make a lot of attempts first.

Become a famous Brazilian voice actor
Many think that our Brazilian voice actors were simply lucky enough to be represented by a voice agency. In practice, our voice actors have had to work for years for the place where they are now. Certainly in the beginning it is not how good you are that is decisive, but how much you want to become a voice-over. Gradually you also get a better idea of ​​which tone of voice suits you best and is appreciated by video freelancers.
If you want to become a well-known voice-over, it certainly pays to brush up on your marketing skills first. A clear, credible website and getting it to the attention of your target audience is a must. Building a network through Linkedin or Facebook groups (focused on video editors) is also a proven strategy. So it is certainly not easy.

Voice-over course: to do or not to do?
We are often asked whether it helps if people do a voice over 'course'. As we wrote before: all successful voice-overs who have made it their profession got there through their accumulated experience. So not by auditioning for a voiceover course or training that responds to the dream of many people. The best advice if you want to become a voice-over remains: gain a lot of experience behind your microphone (and be patient).

The reason is that the sound has a longer distance to travel before reflecting off the surfaces of the room. Sound travels fast, but it is slow enough that a small difference in room size can make a noticeable difference in duration. So, how do you make a studio that has little to no reverb? It can be as easy as grabbing some carpets or bed sheets and covering the floor, windows, door and walls. Even the common objects in a room like bookshelves or furniture play a part in reverb, so remove everything possible.
But let's take a look at some more professional solutions: Acoustic Foam, and Absorption Panels to make a room more beautiful as well.​

​There are numerous advantages to having a home recording studio — being able to record your own voice, your own way, and on your own time is incredibly liberating. And while the up-front cost can seem a bit high, avoiding a commercial studio’s hourly rates saves money in the long run. And building a home studio is easier than you think if you have a solid plan. It’s not the sort of project that you want to tackle by making on-the-fly decisions, though — that road almost always leads to disaster. What should you take into consideration?

​Establish Your Budget
Building a studio isn’t cheap. Not only do you need equipment such as a computer, interface, software, microphones, monitors,  etc., but you’ll also need to invest in acoustic treatment, cables, furniture, lighting, building materials, and more. It’s important to make a list of everything you need so you can establish a realistic budget. Don’t buy as you go, that’s an easy way to exceed your budget; you’ll end up with a $2,000 microphone and a $250 preamp, or an awful-sounding room because you couldn’t afford proper acoustic treatment. Create a well-thought-out plan and stick to it!

Decide on Your Focus
So you’ve got a budget — now you need to establish what you’re going to be doing in your studio.  Recording voice-overs?  Electronic musicians can get by in a modestly treated room with little isolation and a decent monitoring chain. Voice-over artists need to invest in a quality mic and preamp and need enough isolation to keep outside noise at bay. Full band sessions require an array of mics, preamps, and processors; maximum acoustic treatment; and a large, soundproof tracking room (unless you live in the middle of nowhere). Beyond that — and this is important — it’s wise to think ahead about what your needs will be in the future. The last thing you want to do is run out of space or realize that your current room and gear have become inadequate due to a lack of forethought.

Determine Your Space Requirements
Once you understand what you’re going to be doing in your studio, you need to figure out how much space you’ll need to work. For example, if you’re a mix engineer, you can get by with a modest amount of space — as long as you can achieve accurate monitoring, then you can work within a wide range of spaces. Recording vocals and acoustic instruments requires a bit more space — a medium-sized room with an iso-booth will get the job done. Tracking full bands requires a great deal of space in order to accommodate all the musicians and their instruments (not to mention cases) with an appropriate amount of sonic isolation.

Acoustics
So once you’ve determined how much space you need, it’s time to choose a room. Avoid spaces that are close to traffic, airports, trains, etc. — keeping these unwanted sounds out of your recordings will be an exercise in frustration. You’ll also want to be cognizant of others (not only family members but neighbors too). Setting up shop next to the baby’s room? Bad idea. Near the adjoining wall of a duplex? Not recommended. Of course, there are ways to get around these issues. But why go through that much hassle if you can just choose the right room to begin with?
Nothing beats the sound of a room with great natural acoustics. If you’ve got the luxury of choosing between a spacious room with asymmetrical walls and a high ceiling or a small, boxy room, take the larger, better-sounding room. 

Make the Space Quiet
Once you’ve found your space — before you start piling your gear into the room — you need to make it sound good. I guarantee that your expensive Neumann mic will pick up every nasty sonic detail of your room. So where do you start? First, seal all the seams, cracks, and crevices in the room with an acoustic sealant like Auralex StopGap — you’d be shocked at how much sound can leak in and out of small spaces. Next, you’ll want to treat all the room’s parallel surfaces with acoustic treatment, such as broadband absorbers, diffusors, and bass traps. This will minimize flutter echoes, room modes, and standing waves — all of which make critical listening difficult. Beyond that, well-placed soft furniture and bookshelves are great for absorption and diffraction — tightening up the sound of your room. Large windows can also be problematic, but they can be easily covered with heavy curtains. Check out our article on reverb as well.

Determine Your Wiring Needs
You need lots of power outlets in your studio — it’s unavoidable. The last thing you want to do is daisy-chain all your gear from a single outlet. So take stock of how many outlets you need (and where you need them), and install outlets as required. As for audio cables, if your studio involves more than one room, you’ll want to install wall plates in each room to accommodate mic cables. Otherwise, you’ll need to leave a door open to run the cables (bye, bye isolation). Also, try to keep electrical and audio cables clear of each another to avoid electromagnetic interference.

Make the Room Comfortable
Your studio is a creative space, and you’ll (hopefully) spend a lot of time in there, so it’s important to make it relaxing and ergonomic. Start by placing your gear at a comfortable height — you should be able to use your mixer or control surface, as well as your computer keyboard and mouse, with your wrists in a neutral position. Place your rackmount gear so that it’s easily accessible — if you have to bend over or crane your body to reach something, it’s not positioned properly. Ensure proper lighting to minimize eyestrain. Keep often-used items within easy reach to maximize your workflow. Beyond that, decorate the room so that it inspires you — have a look at our custom made Brazilian acustic panels!

Male or female voice over?
Fun fact: in no less than 90% of all voicemail assignments, the chosen voice is a voice-over woman. We ourselves think that this is something from the past, when the operator was a woman by default. Would we then expect a woman even sooner for voicemail and telephone messages? It's our best guess.

Company film voice-overs in our practice
We see much more variation with regard to corporate videos voice-overs. Although we often hear that people have chosen a certain voice because the client thought it sounded nice. Still, here's a research-based answer. For example, receivers appear to respond better to a male voice-over for male products, and vice versa for female products to a female voice.

Age vs. sound age of voice overs
Voice-overs are of course much less affected by age than fashion models, but there is of course a difference between a voice over of 20 years and 50 years. Yet we know voice-overs of over 50 who still have the voice of a thirty-something. So don't rely on the beautiful pictures of voice actors, but listen carefully to see whether the sound age suits the target group of your video.
If you find it difficult to choose the right voice-over yourself, you can of course ask our voice over agency for some voice proposals. Based on your briefing, someone from our team will present you the best three voices. Good to know that in addition to our online voice file, we also maintain a large database with hundreds of specific voice actors who have worked with us  in the past.

Free Voice Over Demo from BrazilVoices
Most voice-overs from Brazil Voices don't mind at all to record a free voice-over for a serious client. For example, our voice actor takes 2 sentences from your voice-over script to record them for you as well as possible. You will then get an even better picture of our voice, so that you are virtually certain of a successful project.​

Making a podcast: Why exactly?
Here at Brazil Voices, we embrace new marketing tools, something we definitely include in making podcasts. And when something is new, the competition is simply less. Of course, there are countless podcasts about marketing, but in many markets or niches you can certainly still be the first, with all the growth benefits that entails. Let's take a look at the two most important reasons to create a podcast, and especially our guide on how to make podcasts yourself.

Reason 1: Podcasts build a community
A podcast connects you with your customers, whether these are your current relationships or new customers. Good consistent podcast engagement can help develop a loyal and highly committed community around your business. In addition, with podcasting you benefit from the advantages of traditional radio. People feel very personally addressed.

Reason 2: Podcasts confirm your authority
This part is a bit like influencers, because influencers understand that nothing is easier than creating content about things you know well. And probably no one knows your product or service better than you do. This simple fact allows you to affirm yourself as an authority. You can also invite important suppliers and partners as guests in your podcast, a knife that cuts both ways.

How do you make a podcast?
The two most important ingredients for a podcast are technology and content. To start with content: choose topics that you know a lot about yourself (this is why people listen!) and ensure good editing (read: preparation). Always be smart about this. Keep in mind that the ideal length of a podcast is as long as the average net travel time of your listener: about 30 minutes.
An important radio wisdom that also applies to the podcast is that the presenter sounds like a friend of the listener. A good podcast sounds like you're listening to a conversation between two of your friends. So make sure you make your first podcasts with someone you know you can easily have a conversation with.

How do you record a podcast?
Recording a podcast is not much different from recording a voiceover. The big difference between podcasts and a voice-over is that a podcast often needs multiple microphones. A podcast with a guest is also easier for many people to make. Having multiple guests often gets messy for novice podcasters.  Then choose one of the popular podcast platforms to upload your broadcast, and you have a new marketing channel!

Don't forget the acoustics!
With podcasts, it's not about which room you are most comfortable in for your recording, but above all which room sounds best. A bad room is a room that sounds like an empty  hollow space. If you have laminate under your feet, it often already sounds bad. You usually have better acoustics in a room with a lot of stuff, thick carpeting and lower ceilings. 
​
The great thing about podcasting is that you can start today. Invest in the technology and create an interesting podcast for your target audience. Uploading your podcast is also super simple thanks to various platforms such as Spotify. Optionally, you can even outsource the post-production of podcasting. Many influentials are naturally good at communicating,

Good Mic Technique Is Harder Than You Might Think
The human speaking voice is the most difficult instrument to record correctly. Good mic technique is essential in any recording situation, but especially when recording voice over.
This article will help you improving your microphone technique.
You can get away with a lot in the music industry that could be considered intentional if it has an interesting sound, but bad mic technique in spoken word productions is going to stand out like a crying baby in a bank.
Being able to record at home is a great advantage in the world of voice over, but it opens the door to a lot of problems that you hopefully won’t find in professional recording studios. If you don’t have a very quiet room those problems could be more than you bargained for.
​
Have you ever thought, “I’ll just get closer to the mic and you won’t hear the room so much.”
And then what?
Is that how you really sound? 

I’ve heard of people having the voice of God, but the breath of God?
That’s a problem.
With the growing number of talent recording their voice at home, the problem of improper mic technique is exploding into the voice over gene pool.
When you are working from home you can get into some bad habits and without guidance and feedback from someone else, you may not even know when or how things could be better.
Let’s talk about what is happening when it comes to mic technique, the good and the bad, so that you will know the difference as well as the full story.
I say “the full story” because most people think of it as how they approach and interact with the microphone. But that may not even be half the story.
Let’s begin where most people think mic technique starts.

How To Approach The Mic
Most spoken word productions start out on the right foot from using a side address, large diaphragm microphone. There are exceptions to this rule, most notably when using the modified Sennheiser 416. (model MKH416T-F) This is an altered version of the standard television shotgun mic that does not have the steep low-frequency roll-off, making it more suitable for closer voice work. The same principles that follow will apply to either side or front address mics, to some extent.
“You Don’t Spit Into The Wind”
Suppose your 5-year-old daughter is having a birthday party. She loves bubbles.
She loves bubbles so much that she wants a constant stream of bubbles throughout the party.
This somehow becomes your job. You certainly don’t want to disappoint her.
So you have an idea, something about a fan… blowing a constant stream of air all the time?
So you get a couple flasks of bubbles and you get the fan out of the closet and plug it in. The party is going on, the children are screaming for bubbles, so you dip the wand into the jug and then you hold the wand out in front of your chest and stand right in front of the fan.
Can you picture what’s happening here?
I think we can agree that this is not going to work well. Of course, you’re blocking the bubbles by addressing the fan head on. A better solution would be to stand a bit to the side of the fan and guide the bubble wand into the path of the fan’s wind.
It is good practice to approach a microphone in the same manner. Addressing the mic straight on can create all kinds of problems with sibilance, plosives, and proximity effect, even with a pop filter.
Rather, you want to throw your voice across the path of the polar pattern, not directly into the capsule, keeping your head at about a 45-degree angle to the microphone.
When the mic is plugged in and phantom power is feeding it, the polar pattern is constantly active. Constantly waiting for audio to cross its path. It is very similar to a fan in that the fan is continuously moving air for a fixed distance.
There comes a point where the farther away from the fan you are, the less air movement you feel until you don’t feel it anymore.
The polar pattern acts much in the same way, yet kind of in the opposite direction. Think of a microphone as gently drawing the area of the polar pattern toward the capsule and all you have to do is toss your voice into the area where it “hears” best.
Your voice gets gently sucked into the mic. Gently.
Even with a hard sell spot you should let the mic do its job without forcing your voice directly into the capsule’s diaphragm.
[Jim]

How many words does a voice-over speak in 1 minute?
Talking about voice actor: Brazilian voices speak at an average speed of 141 words per minute. Many corporate film makers try to keep a maximum length of 1 to 1.30 minutes, so that most scripts will contain less than 200 words.

Writing words per minute
It is of course not easy for everyone to write a limited number of words per minute for your voice-over. Especially if you want to stay under 90 seconds. But luckily there are a number of tricks to keep up the speed, and the most important is: don't put too much emphasis on every word.
We often see voice-over scripts in which many words per sentence are underlined, with the intention of putting extra emphasis on this because these words are considered important by the company. But did you know that you should never emphasize more than 1 or 2 words per sentence? And rather emphasize 1 than 2 words per sentence, so really only emphasize 2 words in a sentence if there really is no other option.

Be careful with breaks & use them wisely!
Certainly with corporate films and training videos we often see scripts in which a new item is always shown, and then there is silence for a few seconds. This brings the tempo of the voice-over down enormously, and therefore also of your film. It is better to only use a short silence at the beginning of your film. For example, by asking a question (short silence) and then giving the answer. Then try to keep the voiceover below 140 words per minute for the rest of your movie. Good luck!