Editing Arcane University:Voice Acting

That depends. Do you plan on using your voice for more than just Beyond Skyrim? If so, that's a solid beginner's investment that you can continue to use throughout your entire professional career.

That depends. Do you plan on using your voice for more than just Beyond Skyrim? If so, that's a solid beginner's investment that you can continue to use throughout your entire professional career.

Because we are a volunteer group, there's no pay here. But the experience you get can prepare you for a life of voice over! Myself, I'm an aspiring audio engineer and musician who uses his gear to record local musicians, and my wife is getting into ACX for audiobooks. So I'll be using my equipment a lot, and recommend that you think long and hard before committing to the investment. Because my example price range just covers the basic hardware. The next part introduces something that is likely as important as your equipment choice, if not more so.

Because we are a volunteer group, there's no pay here. But the experience you get can prepare you for a life of voice over! Myself, I'm an aspiring audio engineer and musician who uses his gear to record local musicians, and my wife is getting into ACX for audiobooks. So I'll be using my equipment a lot, and recommend that you think long and hard before committing to the investment. Because my example price range just covers the basic hardware. The next part introduces something that is likely as important as your equipment choice, if not more so.

This is how you make your room sound like a studio and NOT a bedroom. The reason your bedroom (or closet or den or office) sounds "bad" is because of room reflections that create a nasty echo or fluttering noise. These are the sound of your voice, bouncing off of hard surfaces at different strengths and distances away. To combat this, you need acoustic treatment. Acoustic treatment is usually made of some rigid, porous material that will slow down the energy of sound waves and keep them from reflecting in the room. Don't stock up on egg carton foam or anything. You need something thicker and denser. Basically, you need a material that will absorb, or at least reduce the reflections in the room. Preferably down to at LEAST 1,000hz. Your standard egg crate foam stops absorbing frequencies much higher than that. The spiky rigid stuff that sells for dozens of dollars per square foot is… okay. But it's better when placed on something much more full range. I'll link to a few of my favorite tutorials for making sound absorption panels out of either rigid fiberglass insulation (very dangerous), or mineral wool (slightly less dangerous). If you aren't comfortable making these, there are a few other options. You can use the spiky foam stuff, just get it thicker, and mount it with an inch or two distance between it and the wall to maximize their effectiveness. You can also get by with some layers of heavier quilted moving blankets. But as your voice gets louder for things like combat barks or angry dialogue, you'll start noticing more heavy reflections from the lower and middle frequencies of your voice showing up in the recording. ''So this stuff with soundproof my room?'' No, it's for sound treatment. Treatment cuts down on echoes. Soundproofing (or more accurately, sound isolation) is there to eliminate the sound itself from moving in or out of the room. That's incredibly work-intensive and expensive. Don't worry about that unless your noise situation is dire enough to need it. If that is the case and you're pursuing a life dream of voice acting, and you've already got steady work with it, there is a web forum you should go to for designing yourself a custom, isolated vocal booth. Every room is different, every voice is different and each person's needs are different. What works for one person isn't likely to work for another. But it is all based around the same principle and as long as you get familiarized with the hows and whys, you'll be able to set something up that will work for you.

This is how you make your room sound like a studio and NOT a bedroom. The reason your bedroom (or closet or den or office) sounds "bad" is because of room reflections that create a nasty echo or fluttering noise. These are the sound of your voice, bouncing off of hard surfaces at different strengths and distances away. To combat this, you need acoustic treatment. Acoustic treatment is usually made of some rigid, porous material that will slow down the energy of sound waves and keep them from reflecting in the room. Don't stock up on egg carton foam or anything. You need something thicker and denser. Basically, you need a material that will absorb, or at least reduce the reflections in the room. Preferably down to at LEAST 1,000hz. Your standard egg crate foam stops absorbing frequencies much higher than that. The spiky rigid stuff that sells for dozens of dollars per square foot is… okay. But it's better when placed on something much more full range. I'll link to a few of my favorite tutorials for making sound absorption panels out of either rigid fiberglass insulation (very dangerous), or mineral wool (slightly less dangerous). If you aren't comfortable making these, there are a few other options. You can use the spiky foam stuff, just get it thicker, and mount it with an inch or two distance between it and the wall to maximize their effectiveness. You can also get by with some layers of heavier quilted moving blankets. But as your voice gets louder for things like combat barks or angry dialogue, you'll start noticing more heavy reflections from the lower and middle frequencies of your voice showing up in the recording. ''So this stuff with soundproof my room?'' No, it's for sound treatment. Treatment cuts down on echoes. Soundproofing (or more accurately, sound isolation) is there to eliminate the sound itself from moving in or out of the room. That's incredibly work-intensive and expensive. Don't worry about that unless your noise situation is dire enough to need it. If that is the case and you're pursuing a life dream of voice acting, and you've already got steady work with it, there is a web forum you should go to for designing yourself a custom, isolated vocal booth. Every room is different, every voice is different and each person's needs are different. What works for one person isn't likely to work for another. But it is all based around the same principle and as long as you get familiarized with the hows and whys, you'll be able to set something up that will work for you.