Voice-over production involves a series of strategic and technical processes including planning, scriptwriting, talent acquisition, recording, editing and many others. If you are considering producing a voice-over for the first time, this is not something that can happen within a few hours in just one day, even if you only have a few minutes of audio.
This is because even the shortest voice-over tracks take time to plan and produce. Some voice-over projects are more complex than others, though, and this article explores some of the biggest challenges you might face – and how to overcome them.
What makes a voice-over project challenging?
Every voice-over project is different – in some cases, you may only need a 30-second clip, while others could require a mix of recordings from different voice artists or a regular supply of voice-over tracks for ongoing content projects, such as a video or podcast series.
There are a lot of variables that determine the complexity of a voice-over project. From the experience we have gathered by working on various voice-over projects for different advertising & marketing agencies, we have pinpointed seven of the most common factors that can increase the production challenges involved:
Talent search:
Finding the right voice(s) for your content is one of the most challenging aspects of a voice-over project – and this only gets more difficult as other factors add further complexity.
Multiple voices:
The challenges of finding the right voice talent multiply on projects that require multiple voice actors/artists.
Production:
Voice-over production is one of the most demanding language projects in terms of resources, time and cost.
Turnaround times:
Production challenges can make fast turnaround times difficult, especially on more complex projects.
Translation:
Translating voice-overs into multiple languages adds another layer of complexity in terms of finding the right voice talent, producing tracks for each language audience and ensuring consistent quality across language deliverables.
Volume:
Projects that require a high volume of voice-over tracks in a short space of time or a large volume over an extended period of time are particularly challenging.
Project management:
Managing a complete voice-over project – including planning, talent search, production and content delivery – requires a streamlined, end-to-end process that you’re only going to find from voice-over agencies and highly specialised language companies in this service.
Many of these factors apply to all voice-over projects – such as talent search, production and project management – but they add complexity to varying degrees. For example, the production process becomes increasingly complex as the volume of tracks increases while the turnaround times also increase.
Other factors may only affect some projects, such as translating voice-overs and needing to find multiple voice artists.
Translation not only multiplies your workload with every language you need to cover, but it can also make each stage of production more challenging. This is because you may need to source talent from overseas countries, pay for recording sessions in their local area or rely on them to provide professional-grade recordings using their own studio facilities.
Also Read: Voice-Over Translation: Why It’s Important
How does a professional voice-over service solve these problems?
If multiple or all of the factors listed in the previous section apply to your next voice-over project, it is safe to say that you are dealing with a complex production that requires an effective end-to-end approach. In these cases, it is best to work with a specialist voice-over agency and language provider that can help you across every stage of the planning, production and project management processes.
Agencies of this type will help you find the right voice(s) for your message and/or brand without the headache of sourcing and interviewing talent yourself.
They will also be responsible for arranging the recording sessions you need with professional sound technicians and editors, using their own facilities, to ensure you are getting consistent quality with every voice recording. This is especially important if you are working with multiple voice artists or producing a large volume of clips for ongoing content projects.
The most complex voice-over projects tend to be the ones that require translated voice-over tracks, which multiplies the number of voice artists required, the volume of voice-over tracks you’re producing as well as timelines and project cost.
If this situation applies to your projects, make sure you partner with an agency that specialises in voice-over translation. This type of agencies will often be language agencies, like us, providing a range of translation services including video translation – both for voice-overs and other solutions (e.g. translated subtitles).
At translate plus, we have a solid experience in handling voicer-over projects, tapping into our network of +11,000 native-speaking linguists and +200 recording studios, covering 200 markets.
If you require help with your next project, feel free to complete the form on our contact page detailing your project’s needs and we can discuss next steps together.