Cubed3 Special | Want to be a Videogame Voice Actor?

The simple answer is: anyone can do voice acting. However, doing it well is a completely different matter. What do you need to start off with? It certainly does not cost much to pick up a headset, and then it is a mere case of grabbing a piece of recording kit, such as the ever-reliable Audacity. Time for the millions to start rolling in then, yes? Not exactly. This is perfectly acceptable for swiftly building up a repertoire of low sound quality demos, but there are so many budding ‘artists’ out there today that getting noticed from the crowd is becoming increasingly difficult.

What is required is something along the lines of a condenser microphone that can capture your voice at a much higher level of quality, as well as a pop killer or pop shield to help remove annoying over-pronounced letters such as ‘p,’ and maybe even a decent sound card that can aid with toning down background noise. The kit may set you back £100-£200 in total, yet if serious about giving this a shot it may well turn out to be a tiny investment in the long-run.

The next step is finding somewhere to spread the news of your new venture, and this is where online audition websites come in extremely useful. One primary example of a place where anyone can air their demos is Voice123, where there is a clever automated system in place to help anyone looking for a voice talent, as well as those wishing to get their voices heard, get the desired results. After all, both parties’ time is valuable, so attempting to create the ideal match up is certainly ideal. Signing up for free allows you to throw in a description of your voice, list what age groups you can sound like, which language you are able to record in, if there are any interesting accents that can be pulled off, and so on. There is even the possibility of uploading a whole host of demo recordings to Voice123’s servers, meaning others can easily get a firm grasp of what you have to offer. Thankfully there is free promotion as well, with a dedicated website with your name in it being created to host all of your details and demos, meaning that basically you merely have to fill in the boxes and the team at Voice123 does the rest. This address then can be posted anywhere and everywhere you desire in order to gain the maximum exposure.


The automated service, Voice123 SmartCast, is classed as ”a system designed to help voice seekers posting voice over jobs find the best talent or voice producers for their project on time, and on budget as easy as 1, 2, 3.” Basically, it is a tool to make the whole process smoother and hassle-free, with the voice seeker posting a project, SmartCast scanning all the voice talent members of Voice123 to select those that align with the requirements stipulated in the initial project, and then the system emailing audition invites out to those lucky bunch that met the criteria. With so many projects being posted on a daily basis, it certainly will not be a long time before opportunities start appearing en masse.

Standard free subscribers get all sorts of benefits, with project posters able to directly send invitation links to them for attending online auditions, access to the team’s community blog that is filled with all sorts of useful advice, and much more. There is even a ‘Resource Centre’ packed with useful articles to help people find their feet, learn what recording software is best to use, how to kick-start your voice acting career, and even how best to fill out your personal Voice123 profile. On top of that, there is a whole host of script samples, since after all, practice makes perfect!