Professional narration services

Aug 31, 2011

Andrew Kay
By Andrew Kay

Has anyone used professional narration services for their eLearning courses?  We used to have a very professional person in our company that did all of our narration, but unfortunately she recently left us and we don't have anyone in-house that has the talent to do this task.

I have looked at some of the websites that provide this service (voiceover.com narrationservices.com) and they have a good range of voice talent, but I am interested in finding out if anyone here has a company they would recommend. 

Also does anyone have a suggestion as to what the approximate cost we might be looking at to get this done?  I am guessing it's not going to come cheap for a 1 hour training course, but have no real idea of the cost.

8 Replies
Matt Lobel
over 12 years ago08/31/11 at 1:21 pm (UTC)

Hi Andrew,  my organization (www.narratorfiles.com) provides turnkey voice production solutions specifically for training.  We have a bit of a different pricing model (by the page, not finished minute) and a 100% guarantee.  If you try us and don't like us, we'll refund your money.  If you send a script through our customer service will provide you with an exact quote.

Hope that helps! 

Kayla Burtch
over 12 years ago09/01/11 at 1:11 pm (UTC)

I second narratorfiles. I use them probably 2 or 3 times a month and love love love them. 20$ a page compared to what my company pays me per hour for me to record it myself actually SAVES them money. You have to format the text to 1.5 inch line spacing and size 12 courier font, but it still comes out very affordable. Unless they tell me otherwise (and only because I insist on always using the same voice, and sometimes she is booked) it's almost always ready in three days.

In terms of cost, it depends is it 1 hours worth of talking (that's a lot of talking!) or is it an hour to complete including interactions, quizes and absorption. We find our "1 hour" courses are usually only 15-20 pages of narration (so 300-400 dollars). Sometimes a 1-hour course is only 200 if there is a lot of interaction. Having it be by the page is actually better I find, because I know EXACTLY how much it will cost and can budget accordingly.

Robert Kennedy
over 12 years ago09/02/11 at 11:24 am (UTC)

There are a lot of good options here.  NarratorFiles.com is a great option.  You can also look to form relationships with voice narrators through some other voice sites like voices.com or voice123.com.  There are a few relationships that I formed there over 3 years ago and still use those voices today.  

Bottom line, its worth it to pay someone else to record the voice instead of you trying to do it yourself.

My .02

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