Hi all, Has anyone had experience with voice actors, or is a voice actor themselves? I am wondering what the rough deal is with costs, and what's required other than just a script - do actors generally use their own recording equipment? I am considering hiring voice actors to supply character voices for my game. I am looking for perhaps 1 or 2 hours of final, recorded speech, possibly from 2 or three different voice actors in a variety of styles. I have even considered hiring friends to do the work, but I'd need a proper recording setup, so I'm wondering what kind of equipment I'd need. I have some fairly decent sound software and PC, but I'd need the actual mic and soundproofed environment. Any tips? Cheers Chris

I dont know, but I am pretty sure voice actors do not generally use their own equipment, seems to me that the sligth variations in equalization, and microphone types could really affect the final product, makes more sence to reunite them all in a studio which already has all the equipment already set up.

But I really dont know.

If you can afford it, hire some professional (voice) actors. People who cannot act will produce really dull lines, no matter what text you give them. Some commercial games have made the error of using programmers to do voices, which is even more dreadful.

Price is going to depend largely on the skill and experience of the talent you want to hire. A lot of new actors will work cheap or even gratis in order to get their name out there and add a few projects to their resumes. As far as getting in touch, you could post in the help wanted forum and hope to get lucky, or try a professional agency. There are also a number of web sites, such as Voice123 ( http://voice123.com ), where you can post your project details and have talent compete for the job. Hope that helped, and good luck with your project.