As a working mom, there are only so many hours in a day. In order to maximize my time, whether I’m in the studio recording or in my office space doing client out reach and marketing, efficiency matters. Over my years as a voice over professional, I can tell you that these tips have made a difference for me in terms of my work flow. While every voice actor has to find their own flow, my hope is that some of this helps you too:
1. Choose the DAW the Works for You
Depending on which voice actor you ask, you’ll get a different answer to the questions “What’s the best DAW for VO?” I have used Audacity, Adobe Audition, and Twisted Wave. I may be proficient in all of them, but I LOVE Twisted Wave. To be clear this does not mean that other DAWs, from Reeper to Pro Tools don’t have immense value, but for me, I am quick and good on Twisted Wave. It serves my purposes well. And when I have a client who needs total production with music, I hire a professional engineer to mix it down anyway, so I really can do all that I need to do on Twisted Wave. Some of my favorite features are the shortcuts, multiple effects stacks, and ease of file splitting.
2. Put Phone in Airplane Mode
When I am in my booth, I turn my iPhone and Apple Watch to airplane mode. I do this because when I develop a good flow, I do not want the phone ringing to interrupt me. I do offer one word of caution: if you are doing a live session and you coincidentally cannot connect with your client, and have all your devices in airplane mode, it can be quite frustrating if they are unable to reach you. So, while you may not want your phone in the studio for a directed session, perhaps before you silence everything you should make certain that you connect.
3. Do All Recording Then All Editing at Once
This is a wonderful tip that I got from he amazing Kim Handysides. Before I learned this, I used to record an audition, edit an audition, and submit an audition. Upon Kim’s suggestion, I started recording my auditions the same way I record and edit eLearning. I record all of the auditions I’m doing in a given block of time. I drop markers in them, edit them en masse, split the files, and then submit. It really does go much faster this way. If you have shortcuts in your computer for things like your name and your email, then naming your files will go even faster. If you do not know how to use markers and split files, learn today, it will change your life.
4. Plan Your Week With Your Goals in Mind
Like many in voiceover, I am constantly revising my business plan, shifting my focus from commercials to explainers to elearning to targeting specific industries. As I revise my plan, my goals change. While I have a planner or agenda that I love, I find that mapping out my strategy for the week helps me to keep my mind on the big picture. As auditions and work pours in, it’s easy to get caught up in the little things and push off the tasks that we think can wait, but in doing so, in pushing off those marketing emails and that LinkedIn outreach, we are pushing off the pursuit of our longterm goals. It is so important to always have an eye on your “why.” If you lose site of that, and you are just buys submitting audition after audition, you can easily get stuck in a rut.
5. Arrange Your Equipment for Efficiency
If your fan makes noise, only have a monitor in the booth, and put your computer outside the booth. After years of running to get ice packs, I got out my drill, made a hole in the wall to the desk, and hooked up a monitor. This has saved me so much time over the years. - You may a need dedicated printer for your booth, so that you are not constantly running to other parts of your house when you need to print work related items.
- I have two pairs of cans, in and out of booth, so that I can edit or direct where I’d like.
- Place hooks in thoughtful places. I have a hook for my cans on the wall which has been the biggest life saver. I also have a hook under my desk for cables. This has been useful as well.
- Shelving can be quite strategic. I built a custom shelf for my preamp. It is perfect.
The point is that my equipment is arranged in a way that supports my work flow. From the angle of the monitor to the placement of the electrical outlets, it has all been done with efficiency in mind. It all matters.
After years in the business, I can say that I am constantly learning from my peers and improving my set up and choices. Be willing to try new things, you might be shocked at how it revolutionizes your work day!
Late Friday afternoon I was in my booth recoding a bunch of agent auditions that had come in. Initially I felt fine. I had completed all of my booked work and I wanted to submit a few more reads before I called it a day. I typically don’t have a lot of mouth clicks when I record. I do run Izotope RX7 as part of my effects stack, which takes care of whatever clicks there are, but I tend to stay hydrated and am not so clicky, especially since I gave up caffeine. I noticed that even though my noise floor was the same as it always is, I had a crazy amount of spikes and clicks present that I do not typically see. This was 3 to 5 minutes before I became violently ill and had to run from the booth, I could see what I had no idea was about the be a horrible case of food poisoning, in my audio!
As a small business owner, I work all the time. Typically on the weekends I work less, but I still work at points every day. This food poisoning forced me to pause. I was not even sure on Saturday if I would be ok for my like sessions on Monday, but I know realize I will be. Talking is hard, sitting up is hard. Sometimes the forced rest is essential to get back to where we were. I guess it is an opportunity to reset- to restart. In truth I have no other option, when one is so dizzy that going up and down the stairs feels unsafe, the rest is the only option. In lieu of any work, I laid on the sofa in my den surrounded by my dogs and tried not o move at all.
On Thursday I got the email that a professional voice over actor never wants to get from an agent. One of my most attentive agents took the time to email me that something was wonky with my audio. She said it sounded off, and in addition she could hear clicks and plosives that she could not normally hear. This is odd because I used isotope RX7 in my effects stack, so that never happens. She also said that my “Fs” did not sound like they usually do. While I was profoundly thankful for the feedback, my heart sank. In voice over, we are only as good as we sound, and I had recently made a ton of studio upgrades. So my mind was racing. When did these issues start? What had I submitted that sounded this way? I knew I had to fix it, and fast. I had a live commercial session the next morning with a producer I work with regularly but the client was new, and this had to be fixed prior to the session. I only had a few hours and the clock was ticking.
I immediately reached out to Tim Tippets, aka the 
Tim and I had a zoom session. I gave Tim control of my computer. Tim right away determined I was having a UAD software issue with my Apollo MK II Thunderbolt preamp. Somehow, at some point, I had checked a box that for my settings should never be checked. In this case, it is the preamp box. Once that box was checked, it changed all of the settings, the gain, the input, basically all the levels were completely different. We quickly realized that the baseline for the Manley Voxbox that I use was not saved on my iMac. Rather, it was still on my MacBook Air that I had used before my recent upgrade. So, I needed to send it to my new computer. Tim was amazing. He was patient and confident and in very little time he had my preamp settings restored. Further, he made sure that I was now able to restore them on my own in the future. He also took the time to tell me how to do audio play back in zoom to make my live sessions with clients better.
Put simply, in voice over, we are only as good as we sound. If we want our base of clients to keep coming back, we must offer nothing less than consistently pristine audio. If my agent could hear sibilance and plosive, then it is likely it was heard in auditions and work submitted around that time as well. Part of being a professional working voice actor means having broadcast ready audio, and broadcast ready audio is perfect. Broadcast 
It should not come to that. On the two way street, if we provide the audio, we should be paid, regardless of whether or not it ultimately makes its way to where it is supposed to, that is not part of our deal. We record. We deliver. We are an absolute delight to work with. That makes a voiceover talent a good client. The rest is up to our client to do right by us, and most of the time they do:)
As with so many other changes I have faced in life, the anticipation of the change is worse than the change itself! I am thankful every day for the guidance that I got from my cousin and from George that pushed me in the right direction. I am thankful that the fan on my computer is so quiet. I am thankful that there is an apple store at my mall so I could get started so easily. I also LOVE using Twisted Wave. For me, the shift from Audacity and Audition to Twisted Wave was a huge productivity improvement. It is both my hope and intention that through conferences I will continue my tech education and will stay current with all of the new tech trends in voiceover so that I can best serve my clients.
