Forum Discussion

HeatherEmerick's avatar
HeatherEmerick
Community Member
2 years ago

Best Practices for Providing Files to Professional Voice Over Artists

What are your best practices/ tips for providing files to voice-over artists when you are outsourcing your narration? Similarly, what works best when the files are delivered back to you? Thanks. 

  • Nowadays, I'd check with the narrator about their preferences re: font, size, etc.

    The script could be within a two-column table:

    • Each row of the table would represent one audio clip.
    • The first column would contain the text to be read.
    • The second column would contain the name that the audio file should be given. 

    Other tips: 

    • For initialisms, put hyphens between the letters to indicate each letter is pronounced separately. For example: "F-B-I." 
    • Include pronunciations where they might be needed, such as for industry-specific terms. 
    • Spell out how you want numbers to be pronounced. For example: instead of "1100," you might have "one thousand and one hundred" or "eleven hundred." 
  • Hi Heather! Thanks for posting your question here! Judy shared some really helpful ideas and tips. I agree that it's a good idea to check with the narrator first. They may already have a list of how they want the files prepared. This article also has some great pointers on making the script-writing process efficient and effective - More Than a Dozen Tips for Writing Awesome Audio Narration Scripts. I hope that helps!