To start making money with voice acting, as a teenager, you need surprisingly little:
Yep, that’s it. All you need to start voice acting in a nutshell. It is simple and overwhelming at the same time, isn’t it? Let’s break it down into smaller pieces.
So you are a young teenager and interested to start making money with voice-overs online from the comfort of your home? Congratulations, it is an excellent choice! And it is not that hard of a hustle to start with.
Inexpensive professional level equipment for voice-overs
Honestly, for most of us, it is the only investment we may have to make. Assuming you already own a computer or a laptop, then all you need is a few items to complete the recording setup. I will tell you why and what to pick to configure an inexpensive and quality setup.
A microphone is a core piece of the equipment and crucial to choose the right one for the job. There is a tiny niche of professionally sounding microphones from manufacturers who have used their know-how and patented technologies to build quality audio capturing equipment for compelling cost.
The big names who produce mics that cost thousands of dollars, and I am not lying, see your self on Amazon, also make microphones for an affordable price. Those companies succeeded in the audio recording industry because of the quality products they make.
Many of them also produce a “light” version of microphones, which are great and affordable. Teenagers use them to make voice-over work from home. For most of the people, it is not possible to tell the difference between a few hundred dollars mic and a few thousands of dollars. And this kind of microphone you need.
But why not buy just a simple USB microphone, place it on the table and start doing voice-overs? This question itself is a stand-alone topic and is answered in great detail in this post. The right professional equipment for beginner voice-over explained.
For now, let’s just say the only microphone you will need is Rode NT1 microphone or similar from another brand like Sennheiser or Shure. See how they compare Best microphones for beginner voice talents compared
Shock mount not just holds your mic in place but also protects it from accidental hits and vibrations like a running drier machine in a laundry room, from the spinning drier in the laundry room, maybe even from a working fridge.
Those are all valid examples of sources possibly having destructive effects on sensitive parts of your microphone. Good thing, the shock mounts most of the time included in the package, and you don’t need to shop for it.
A pop filter is also often a part of the package, like in the case of Rode NT1 mic. But for the sake of the occasion, you can use a dual-layered cloth pop filter, a metal pop filter, a foam pop filter, or just a DIY pop filter. That is inexpensive and easy to resolve.
Microphone stand should serve your height and not take a lot of room if you are working from home. My preference is a tripod microphone stand that extends to your height and adjusts the mic holder in different angles. You can find one I recommend in Resources and recommended equipment.
An XLR cable is an invisible guardian of your voice-over work. It protects carefully captured notes of your voice on their way to the computer. It shields audio signals from interferences like electronics, metal parts, wireless waves. See what else essential to consider when choosing the right XLR cable for the studio microphone.
USB audio interface is a required part of interconnecting your microphone XLR connector to a computer USB port, converting the signal from analog to digital. But not only that, With an audio interface like Focusrite Scarlett Solo, you can preamp the signal making it stronger. This part will let you get the most out of your mic.
Headphones you most likely already own headphones, and it may be needless to list them here. However, those are very important when it comes to post-processing your recordings, and you need to hear all anomalies and smallest deviations.
Your client most likely will wear headphones when listening to delivered work. So you get some too, even inexpensive. Over-ear headphones for less than $20 will serve the purpose.
Software for voice recording processing
As I can imagine, your goal is to make money with limited spending. My goal was the same, invest only if necessary, and use the free tools whenever it is reasonable and possible.
There are few software programs for audio editing available on the market. And I’d like to mention two of those. One is paid and subscription-based Adobe Audition for $21 per month. And another is open source and free Audacity.
When I’ve been starting the software of choice was Audacity. It is free and absolutely sufficient for recording and processing voice-overs. I’ve honestly been pleased how it helped us to edit and clean the files, so our customers loved our work.
Audacity is a very powerful program, and like any other technological software requires some learning curve until you are comfortable working with it. But you should not worry about it much, as I have mastered and will share the setup and steps to process voice-over recordings.
I almost forgot to mention, I did it and now encouraging you, once you start making money using Audacity, show your appreciation to the developers and donate them some dollars.
A quiet place or perhaps a walk-in closet
There is one more important component to a quality voice-over left to discuss. The place for recording.
The voice-over professionals work form specially soundproofed rooms called recording booth. To build own or rent, such a booth may require a substantial amount of funds.
But the good news is you can achieve a similar result by utilizing space in your home and invest little to nothing money. The greatest example would be a walk-in closet.
If it is not empty, the clothes in it already function as a soundproofed room. If such a closet is not in your place, you can use the bedroom and hang the blankets on the walls. That will prevent sound from bouncing and serve your needs.
Bottom line, no investments needed with a little creativity. You can find more details and examples on How to soundproof your place for voice recording.
The clients who’d love your voice
Does it surprise you that in order to work in the voice-over industry, you need a voice? Me neither. But what can be surprising that more than often, clients are looking not for a signature voice but for a variety of voices. Casually sounding voices, differently sounding voices, voices of kids, females, voices of a particular color, etc.
Obviously, along with this, they look for professional communication, the ability to understand their needs and reliability. Still, those can be learned. So no worries, your voice is going to get your piece of constantly growing pie of voice-over jobs.
What we should not forget is your belief in success
What is your shiny dream? What pushes you forward to look for a stream of income? The need to provide to your family or treat it as a hobby. Whatever it is, you have a perfectly legitimate reason, and that’s what makes you move in search of the opportunities.
But what if no one notices you and won’t hire? What if you are not sure how to deal with the clients? No need to worry, it is a beaten path for me, and I will lead you from the beginning along the way to your new source of income.
You will gain confidence through experience, and you get the experience by taking action.
My goal is to provide you with an exact, straight, and lean set of actions to get you start making money in the voice-over industry.
If you haven’t yet, check out my guide to voice-over freelancing. If you are already familiar with this guide, you may be ready to get your new income coming!