How to Do Character Voice Overs

There are many different ways as a voice artist to make your voice sound different for different productions. Below I have outlined the top ten ways to change the sound of your voice.

1. Signature. Your natural everyday voice. This is your base to which you can add accents, compressions, and emotional rhythms to change it up.

2. Head Voice. Reaching up through the top of your head inside – resulting in a higher pitched or falsetto. Women tend to use this voice more than men.

3. The Mosquito. Contrary to popular opinion, this is not actually a high pitched voice. Imagine, instead that you have blown up a balloon and have the edges of the lips of the balloon in your fingers, pulled apart and air is rushing out. It is a very high-pitched expression of air from a place of holding your breath and allowing this piercingly bright, high quality to escape.

4. Soft Palette Pull. To get a sound for an older or lower income character, yawn, then remember the structure of your mouth. This will produce a rounded sound from the back of your throat.

5. Swallow. Think of Kermit the Frog with this one, as you pull your voice down into the lower throat region, pretending you have phlegm at the back of your throat and are trying to dislodge it.

6. Low or Barrel. This one is pretty self explanatory, place your voice low and thick and weighted in your chest.

7. The Mask. This one is a little tricky but often used in animation. Trying to simulate the effect of sucking a helium balloon, pull in your vocal cords as if doing a bicep curl.

8. Monster. As you would guess, this voice over talent creates a deep gravely sounding effect. The compressed and depth can be adjusted to suit the character. Be careful doing this one too much, as it can damage your voice if done incorrectly.

9. Nasal Head. This is as it sounds and happens when you force your head voice through the nasal system. Make sure the air passages are clear and you are able to push strong breaths out of your nostrils before trying this.

10. Pug. Inspired by the little child with a cold quality, this voice effect is achieved by blocking the entire nasal system so that k’s are almost impossible to voice. Try honking and bringing the back of the tongue up to chock off the sound of the k.

At Media Sound, we only employ the best voice artists in the business, with a variety of difference vocal styles to choose from. Our professional team then mixes and produces your audio recording, which results in a quality product, ready for commercial release.

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