If you’ve decided to enhance your project by adding voice over, and you’re currently searching for a voice talent to record your script, you’ve probably gotten some interesting price quotes.

Voice talents offer various pricing schemes, but they all have one thing in common: they are not cheap.

Well, why shouldn’t a voice over be cheap? All the voice talent has to do is talk, right?

Not quite.

Voice over is a craft, and it requires certain skills that often must be learned in a class. In addition, a voice talent invests in specialized recording equipment. Training and equipment don’t come cheap.

Aside from the voice talent’s initial investment in their trade, each project – even a project that only requires a few minutes of recorded text – involves extensive work:

• The voice talent examines the script, searching for words or sentences that require further clarification. If such exist, then the voice talent must contact you.

• The voice talent warms up, checks the sound "level", and records the script.

• The voice talent then edits the audio file, removing errors, breaths (if desired), and random sounds; adjusting the volume as needed; normalizing the file; converting the file to the desired format; and saving the file with the desired file name.

As a single voice over may be recorded in multiple segments (files), it may be necessary to follow this procedure several times, once for each recorded segment.

• The voice talent then zips and sends you the finished work via FTP or email.

• If recuts are required, the voice talent must re-record the necessary parts of the script and resend them.

• The voice talent must also spend time discussing your project and payment terms with you.

In short, when you pay for a voice over, you’re paying not only for a skilled voice and quality equipment - you’re paying for quite a lot of work!

In fact, a 10 minute voice over will take a bare minimum of 40 minutes to record and edit (not including organizational work, time spent communicating with you, and potential recuts).

Now that you know what you’re paying for, those price quotes should make more sense.