Voicing Audio Guides

When you voice guides, you are the calm voice of reason and knowledge in subjects ranging the full spectrum of imagination. As such, you will be introduced to some very diverse subject matter.

My own best example of this diversity was voicing a guide to how to assemble a working tractor from the ground up. This particular job was a good indicator of the sort of energy required for tour guide projects. The kind of script you can expect will be crammed with obscure technical terms. Your greatest challenge will be to lift these heavy-handed wordings off the page and give them sense, meaning, and importance to the listener for the full duration of the recording, which can stretch into hours for a normal full tour script.

One of the biggest challenges for any voice over artist is to keep a balance between the energy and enthusiasm required throughout the recording session, while still keeping the information in the script relevant and clear. This is all done by a mixture of understanding of the rhythm of the script, a very clear and precise intonation, bags and bags of energy, and a good thorough vocal warm up.

It is a very good idea to ask questions about anything and everything before you start the recording, since the script will most likely be more technical or specific in nature and full of facts that you might not have known before. I ended up having to go back a week after the original recording session to redo a script because of a single mispronounced word. Do not make this same mistake, it costs more money from the investors to have you go back to the studio as well as taking time out of your own books to correct an error which could easily have been avoided. Any facts, words, or terms that you have any questions about, ask them immediately before you start working.

It may not bring home the biggest bucks but this sort of work is phenomenal at keeping your vocal stamina and sight reading skills at a peak, as well as bringing more kudos and weight to any voice-over CV. If it is possible to get a sample of the session never forget that this sort of job lends itself extremely well to your corporate voice-reel, as by their very nature tour guide voice-overs make for extremely well crafted, intelligent, and professional clips of you at your best.