What equipment and software do I need to get started?

One understandable point of apprehension for amateur voice actors is whether they will need to spend money even to pursue voice acting as a hobby. Most hobbies DO require some type of materials and supplies in order to get started (for example, if you wanted to learn to sew for fun, you’d still need to get a sewing machine, fabric, thread, and basic tools) but the good news is that when approaching VO purely as a hobby, you can likely make do with a lot of things you already have.

Computer

You will need some type of computer to record your voice and audition for projects. This doesn’t need to be anything too fancy for hobby work – chances are you already have a laptop or PC at home you can use – but if you need to buy one, try to get one without a noisy fan that runs constantly.

Recording on a phone or tablet can be fine for simple practice or if it’s legitimately all you have access to. However, it’s not ideal for auditions and especially recording for projects, as you’ll need to be able to do things like basic editing + export of your files, recording while viewing a script at the same time, etc.

Dedicated microphone for voiceover

You will need a proper microphone – either one that connects directly to your computer via USB, or via an audio interface which connects to your computer. Don’t worry, you don’t need to run out and spend thousands of dollars on a microphone to do free projects online!

You do need some type of actual microphone, however. Anything “built-in” (such as on a laptop or webcam) is typically of poor quality and not sufficient for voiceover recording, even for hobby projects. A gaming headset is not ideal either, but can do in a pinch if it’s all you have at the moment. Some people record using their phones, which again may do if it’s all you have access to, but you’ll then want to transfer the recordings over to your computer to edit, which can be a hassle.

Ideally, you want to get a condenser microphone, which is the most common type used for voiceover. For online hobby projects, a USB condenser (such as the AT2020 USB, Blue Yeti, or Razer Seiren, though there are many options available) is completely fine and has an easy learning curve. If you happen to livestream as well, you may already have this type of microphone! (If you decide to pursue professional voice work, you can always upgrade to an XLR setup later.)

Headphones

It is highly recommended to use a pair of headphones if at all possible, for monitoring and playback of your recordings. Laptop speakers sound tinny and muffled, making it hard to accurately review your audio. Headphones will also be necessary if you participate in any sort of live sessions or calls where you read through a script with other people.

Over-the-ear headphones will be your best bet, but if you don’t have or cannot afford them, then you can make do with earbuds or whatever you have around in the meantime.

A quiet recording space

Room acoustics do matter to an extent, though less than they do for paid projects—for instance, recording in an echoey bathroom isn’t going to do you any favors. You don’t need to build a whole booth for hobby work the way people often do for professional home studios, but you should still try to minimize noise and room echo as much as possible to make your files sound good.

If you have access to a walk-in closet, those tend to work great for recording. If you don’t have access to a smaller space for recording, there are various free resources online you can look up for how to work with the space you have. You may already have access to materials to help you do some basic treatment of your recording area! Examples include moving blankets or other thick blankets, towels, pillows, clothes, stuffed animals, or anything else that can help “dampen” the sound and keep your voice from bouncing off too many reflective hard surfaces.

Recording software

Most any recording software will do, but a FREE and easy software for recording and basic editing is Audacity. It will do pretty much everything you need it to do (recording, cutting and exporting files, etc) for amateur voice acting projects. If you plan to do mixing or other heavy editing for creating your own projects, then you may wish to look into a designated DAW such as Reaper.

Resist the urge to buy subscriptions to pricey recording software—it won’t magically make your voice sound better (plenty of projects request “raw” recordings anyway, so what DAW you use is mainly just a matter of personal workflow preference) and as a beginner, your money would be better invested in things like acting lessons and/or acoustically treating your space.

What is the basic process for auditioning for online projects?

Step 1: Find projects holding open casting calls.

• Our Discord server allows creators to post hobbyist casting calls in the #casting-unpaid-original and #casting-unpaid-fan channels. (It’s a big server, so feel free to lurk first to get the hang of things!)
• Casting Call Club is another website (unaffiliated with VAC) where auditions for hobby projects are posted on a near-daily basis.
• Many public casting calls are posted on social media/social sites, such as Twitter/X, Bluesky, Reddit, Tumblr, etc. You can also post your own voice samples on these platforms, and/or participate in “voice acting challenge” trends for fun on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok.
• Another option is to create your own content! If you’re handy with audio and/or video editing (there are plenty of tutorials online for any program of your choice), you can put together your own projects, either with just yourself or featuring some of your friends. Rather than waiting for other people to cast you in the types of roles of your choosing, making something yourself is a proactive way to practice and get your voice out there. If your project is good and gains traction, it may even result in other people seeking you out to collaborate. This is especially common in fandom-related communities.

Step 2: When you find a character that you might reasonably fit or otherwise want to try out for, record yourself reading the lines in the audition script.

Read through the character descriptions and find out what appeals to you. Do not stress too much over whether you have the “right voice” for a given role; remember it’s more about the acting! Most projects – at least reasonably organized ones – will provide some type of lines for you to audition with.

Record yourself reading through the audition lines. Remember, you don’t have to do this perfectly in one take – it’s fairly common for actors to try a few takes of each line, then listen back and pick their favorite of each to edit together for the final audition file. However, resist the urge to overthink things—chances are your 30th take isn’t magically going to be better than your 3rd!

Remember, you can use a free program like Audacity to record and do basic editing, unless you already have a different recording software you’re familiar with and prefer to use! There are plenty of freely accessible tutorials – both video and written – available online if you need help learning to use the program.

Step 3: Listen back to your audio file and make any necessary adjustments.

Listen back to ensure that your audio is clear and free of mistakes or distracting noises. If the acting doesn’t sound believable to you or you’re pretty sure you’ve got a better idea for how to approach one of the lines, try another take and see how it turns out.

Again, don’t overthink things. You want to put your best foot forward, but it’s easy to be too hard on yourself when you’re new.

Step 4: Export, label, and send your audition file according to the instructions given in the casting call.

Most casting calls will state how they would like files formatted and labeled, such as: “Save your files as Character Name – Your Name.mp3”. For example, if your name is John Doe and you are auditioning for a character named Big Chungus, you’d label your audition file as Big Chungus – John Doe.mp3.

If the casting call does NOT specify any of this, then it’s safe to simply export a high quality mp3 file of your audition and label it with your name and the character’s name, as seen in the example above.

As for sending, most project creators will ask you to submit either via email, DM, or something like a shared Dropbox folder. If you are auditioning on a site such as Casting Call Club, you will upload your file directly to the website for the project creator’s review, unless they request otherwise.

Step 5: Send and forget!

IF you are cast, or you receive a callback (meaning they want to hear you read a bit more – sometimes after giving feedback/notes on your audition – before making their final selection), then you will be notified. Note that it can sometimes take quite a while after the deadline passes for all auditions to be reviewed and a decision to be made.

Do not reach out to the project creator to follow up on your audition or ask if the role has been cast. Most of the time, you will not hear back if you do not book a role, so get in the habit of “sending and forgetting”—do your best on the audition, send it off, and then move onto the next one!

What happens if I get cast?

You’ve submitted a bunch of auditions, and finally, you get a message saying you’ve been selected for a role. Congratulations! But now, what do you do?

Write back to confirm, and follow any requested next steps.

Let them know you accept the role—or, if you have any questions, now is the time to ask. They may ask for more information, such as your Discord ID, how you’d like to be credited, etc. Be sure to provide any of the requested details in your response.

For self-directed recordings, a script will be sent for you to review and record.

The grand majority of unpaid projects will be self-directed, meaning you’ll record and send the lines on your own time.

When the script is ready, you will be sent a copy of it along with any pertinent instructions for how to record your part. It’s a good idea to read over the script beforehand—or at least the scenes with your character in them—to get context and figure out how you’d like to approach the character. If you have any questions, such as how to pronounce certain names, now is a good time to ask.

It’s a good idea to have your original audition as reference and listen to it before recording to ensure you remain consistent, unless you’ve been asked to do something different. If you need your audition file again, ask the project creator to send over a copy.

Record your lines in the script and export the file(s) according to instructions.

First off, it’s important to follow any instructions given by the project director as to how they’d like you to record, edit, label, and submit your lines.

If not specified, it is fairly common to offer two to three takes of each line—this will give the director a few options to choose from, and reduce the need to go back and forth with retakes.

In most cases, you will be submitting a raw file of your recordings. This means, do not add any processing to your audio (such as noise reduction, compression, or equalization). However, you should still always remove mistakes, long silences, and distracting noises between lines.

The project director should specify the format they’d like to receive for the files, but if they don’t specify a preference, a .WAV file is a safe bet – in contrast to auditions which use MP3 to save on file size, WAV files are uncompressed meaning they won’t undergo a quality loss when edited and re-exported in the final project. (You can sort of think of it like what happens if you continually export a JPEG file versus a PNG file—just like how a JPEG will start getting more and more artifacts, the same will happen with an MP3 file).

Label the file however they request—or if they don’t specify, save it as the character’s name along with other potentially relevant information (such as episode number or script name).

Chances are the file will be too large to attach directly to the e-mail, so use a service such as WeTransfer, Dropbox, or Google Drive to deliver your audio, unless the director requests it to be delivered some other way (for example, on projects with a large cast it is fairly common to create a shared folder for actors to upload their deliverables to.) It’s a good idea to keep a backup of this audio on your own computer for at least three months following submission, in case the transfer link expires or they lose your file for whatever reason.

Be sure to submit your recordings by the given deadline.

Most online projects will provide a deadline for when they need the recordings delivered. If you anticipate having any issues meeting this deadline, or if an emergency situation happens, let the project director know as soon as possible and ask if you may receive an extension. If possible, be specific with how long of an extension you are requesting and when you realistically believe you’ll be able to deliver the lines.

There is a small chance that they may look for a replacement for your role if you are unable to deliver your lines on time, but life happens, and for the most part, people in volunteer projects tend to be understanding. The important thing, of course, is to communicate!

Wait to hear back about retakes, if needed.

Once you’ve submitted your recordings, your job is done for the time being. But be aware that there is always a possibility the project director could come back and ask for a few revisions—perhaps they want a certain line to be delivered with a different emotion or intensity, or a retake needs to be done for a technical reason such as an audio issue. If this happens, don’t stress! Just provide a couple more takes incorporating whatever notes they request.

It’s important for directors to be reasonable with their revisions on volunteer projects, as the cast is not getting compensated for their time. Requesting a small handful of lines to be redone is fair, but asking for the entire script to be redone probably isn’t!

What happens if they require a directed session?

While live-directed sessions are fairly uncommon for unpaid projects, it does sometimes come up, so it’s good to be prepared for the possibility especially as live sessions will become far more common once you start doing paid work.

During a live session, you will meet with the project director on a program such as Discord (most common for indie projects) or Zoom. You will record your lines for the script while on a call with them, and they will either approve a take or give feedback, in which case you will do another take of the line incorporating the notes given.

During the session, you will be expected to record audio on your end, which you will then deliver just as you would for self-directed recordings. Don’t worry about editing after the fact—you can just export the entire audio from your end of the directed session as one long file. If you’d like, you can remove any long silences or in-between chatter to cut down the file size and make it easier for them to select takes, but you won’t be expected to do this.

It’s easy to be nervous about your first live session, especially if you’re not used to voice acting in front of another person, but try to relax and approach it as a fun opportunity to collaborate and get real-time direction!

FAQ for amateur voice actors

Do I need to / should I use my real name?

This is entirely up to you! Screen names / aliases are fairly prevalent in the hobby VA community, and can not only help protect your privacy but also allow you to learn and make mistakes more freely. It can also help aid in separating your hobby work from your professional work later if you so desire.

Once you start working on paid productions, it will be more common to use a name that looks a bit more professional—it can still be a stage name if you wish, but should generally at least sound like a real first and last name. This has started to shift slightly over time as some people are participating in paid projects under their V-Tuber/content creator identities, but for the time being, assume that professional projects will want professional-looking credits; plus, it’s good to think about what name you’d eventually like your official credits to be listed under for sites like IMDB.

If I’m an amateur voice actor, can/should I try out for the paid projects as well?

Sure, go for it if you feel you can do a good job!

However, it’s important to keep your expectations in check in terms of how much the competition tends to go up when payment is involved. If the rates are good, you may even be competing against established professionals, many who are not only great actors but have great home setups.

That being said, don’t be discouraged when it comes to throwing your hat in the ring*! Just be realistic in terms of the “audition and forget” mindset.

And again, never offer to work for free (or cheaper than the listed rate) on a paid project! If you are good enough to book the role, then you deserve to get paid the same standard rate as the rest of the cast. If you are asked to submit your own rates along with your audition, check out our Indie Rate Guide for ideas.

*One small word of caution: if the “open call” comes from a high-profile, professional studio or casting director in the industry (rare, but happens occasionally if they need something specific) then you want to make sure you have high-quality materials and solid acting skills if you are going to submit. When it comes to industry opportunities, making a good first impression is important, so you don’t necessarily want to send a shoddy audition or a very amateur demo just because there is an open call.

If I become a professional voice actor later, will I get in trouble for having done fan projects?

There is a lot of understandable fear around participating in fan-based projects, as some actors have spoken out about how being known for such projects later harmed their professional reputation.

There’s generally no harm in doing fan projects when starting out, but the important thing is to be smart about it. It’s best to avoid going credited under your real name (or whatever stage name you have decided to use for your professional credits), as this could result in unwanted credits later showing up on your IMDB and similar sites. Do not list fan projects – especially fandubs – on your professional resume or website that you submit to studios, agencies, or casting directors.

While chances are it won’t be a problem (many currently prominent voice actors started out doing fan work), if you become very well known for things like abridged series or parodies, be aware that this could potentially open up issues with license holders for anime dubbing projects wishing to hire you in a professional capacity down the line. Not all countries have “fair use” provisions and some clients see projects like abridged series as infringing on their copyright. It doesn’t mean you can’t do them for fun, but think carefully about whether or not you wish to make them part of your professional branding especially once you are starting to enter the industry.

Can I put unpaid work on my voice acting resume?

Yes, as long as it is fully original work – to go along with the above, you shouldn’t put fan-based projects on any resume you plan to submit in a professional capacity (if you have a purely amateur voice acting resume in the meantime, particularly under an alias, it is OK to list them there.) Someone reviewing your resume would realistically have no way of knowing whether a project was paid or unpaid, and the important thing is that it’s acting experience! You can, of course, swap out those credits once you start getting more paid roles.

Do I HAVE to try to pursue VO as a career?

Of course not! One of the benefits of hobby work is that it’s relatively low-stakes—you can truly just try it out for fun, on the side, while pursuing other things. In fact, having another primary job is a good idea because it will help take the pressure off of trying to earn income from voice work.

Now obviously, if you wish to earn any significant money doing VO, it’ll take an investment of time and money. The reality is that there are thousands of people trying to break into voiceover as well as the thousands who are already working, so expect that it will likely take years before you start seeing significant returns.

However, if you just want to try out voice acting for fun, devoting yourself to it as a career path isn’t necessary! There are plenty of options for collaboration on online hobbyist projects. The term “amateur” may have somewhat of a negative connotation, but there is nothing wrong with being an amateur voice actor if that’s what you want to do. Whether or not you decide to pursue it professionally later is up to you!