Sound studios?

News & General Discussion
1

Hello together,

I have nearly every finished for my game. All I need are character voices.

Does anybody know some sound studios, that have the guys to make you the character voices?

How about the costs?

Thanks

2

Why not head over to the Voice Acting Alliance? You can put up a project and everybody records their own voice.

3

+1
Some of them work for free just to be in credits.

4

Voices.com

Many voice actors have their own home recording setup and can produce decent quality results. Otherwise you have to get them into a local recording studio (local to the artist) that supports remote direction during the session (over the phone).

Edit: actually I can be a bit more helpful about the process. So here’s what we normally do.

  1. Write the voice over script (and include character artwork if possible!). Include a section that explains the characters and their accents/tone/attitude/status/age.
  2. Test the dialogue with a recording of the best actor on your team, and check the approximate timings work in your dev build. Provide these test recordings to the final actors to assist with direction.
  3. Post the script on various voice over websites and invite auditions based on reading a few lines from your script. Be flexible with your budget providing a range. Specify the audio file quality if you want them to record it themselves. Minimum such as 24-bit 48KHz WAV file (overkill). Don’t use lossy audio compression formats such as mp3.
  4. Review all the auditions, and commission your artists. Be open in negotiations.
  5. Have a contract that deals with rights ownership!

Check with your sound designer first if you have one. They may want the artist to only use volume normalization and a dry recording. Add compression yourself to prevent any unnecessary distortion. Check what the voice actor uses for sibilance reduction, make sure they use a pop shield, and ask them about their sound insulation. Anyone experienced with audio will be able to distinguish the good from bad by their sample works.

With regards cost, that depends on experience and fame of the voice actor, the amount of dialogue, number of recording sessions, and rights required.