Recording your own voice-over 🎤
Want to add in voice-over to your video? You can either hire a professional or even record the voice-over yourself. Here are some tips to sound like a professional:
Read your text in a conversational tone. It will sound a whole lot more friendlier. Speak slow enough you can annunciate every word and quick enough for it to sound dynamic.
Smile big when you record, it will add some warmth to your voice!
Record a few different takes of the same text to give your editor more options in post-production.
The best location to record a voice-over in is a quiet room that doesn't echo. A quick trick to see if your room is going to be a good choice is to clap once and listen close to hear if there is an echo.
You can record your own voice over using the Shootsta Kit or even your phone.
Using your phone
Plug a pair of headphones with a microphone into your phone. If you have access to the Shootsta Kit, use the included lapel mic with your phone for better results. You may need an adapter to plug the mic into your phone. Clamp the lapel mic at chest height, look and speak straight ahead.
⚠️ Don't speak directly into the microphone as it will distort the audio.
Use a voice memo app, or any other recording software that comes pre-loaded on your phone.
Using the Shootsta Kit
When recording a voiceover, simply set up your kit as if you were filming a piece to camera. Check out our 7 Steps to Film on the Shootsta Kit article on how to do that. Our team will be able to isolate the aduio from the video if you only need the voiceover.
It is best practice to film the voiceover as if you are filming a piece to camera. This means standing up, smiling and looking at the camera as you film. This will make things sound more natural and will allow you to use the video footage of your talent speaking in your video if you decide you need it later.
Hiring a voice-over artist
Adding a professional voice to your project will make it stand out.
From corporate communications, tutorial & training or animated explainer videos, setting the tone with properly delivered narration will add the required polish to set your videos apart.
Feel free to browse any of the voice artists we have associated with Shootsta. Choose a style or read such as Conversational, Informative, Upbeat, Authoritative or Empathetic.
Take note of the Artist’s name and associated code, and add this into your brief along with a clear narration script in a Word Doc or PDF.
Make sure to provide the final audio file alongside your video footage to your video project in Shootsta!
What comes first, the video or the voice-over?
If your video is a tutorial demonstrating something onscreen, you can do this at the same time as your screen recording, so that the visuals and audio match up. Then you can upload both files together into the project within Shootsta.
For more complex voiceovers, you can record the visual element and record the voiceover after so you can time the words and visuals together.
Need help or have questions? Contact us. We'd love to help!