Okay, so by now you have either mapped out exactly how your recording setups gonna be, or at least thought about it a little bit. So what's next you need a computer to do all of your work from. So what is a good choice for you? Well, honestly, it's probably what you already have. Computers have been able to handle audio recording and audio editing since like 2006 seven. So the chances are really slim that you have a computer that can't handle doing that.

Unless you have something from like the Pleistocene era, in which case it's time to upgrade anyway. If you have a PC or a Mac, it is totally not important. operating systems are just a matter of preference. Both can handle Any kind of voiceover work if you go to one conference about audio or music, you can see that there are a ton of ways to record and devices to record with. But there's really just a computer and a laptop like this. Or I guess you would call this a notebook.

This is an ultra book, I have done massive projects on this little machine on all corners of the earth, and it has served me wonderfully. Another thing that's awesome about this is I felt totally awful and wracked with guilt. As far as how many scripts I printed out every single day, so I'd look at an audition I printed out, I take the copy into the booth copy means script and the paper and I take it into the booth and then I would read it and then I would have like thousands of sheets of paper that I would just use and throw away using you know, recycle but once got like a little laptop or a tablet or anything like that. You pull the script up on here, you bring it into your booth with you or your your recording corner. And then I could actually record right into this thing too but it was so much easier if I just read the script off of this thing while it recorded into my main machine.

And then I never printed any paper again. But that is a side note. I digress. So you can use a notebook you can totally use a tablet by now but if you just have a simple Mac or PC most likely it will do. The whole reason why you need a computer in the first place is so that you can record an edit using software. Another word for software is a da a digital audio workstation.

So this software records your music and then you can slice up takes pick what is good from the first take what's good from the third take, paste them together make one perfect audition bounced that render that into a WAV file or an mp3 file or whatever the client asks for and send it off. So What software do you use to do all of this with? There are so many options. Let me break it down for you with this list I've compiled. All right, I'm just going to start with my favorite. And that is Adobe Audition.

I originally learned using several other different DAWs. So you can call me biased, but I am making a comparison between this one and all the other ones I know. And this one works the best for voiceover actors. When I go to record a file, it will ask me my settings then so that I can record natively in that format. And there's a lot of jobs where you know, like, let's say a phone system job, they want you to do 8k, and that isn't even an option on the menu of Studio One or a lot of other ones. And so I love that it makes it so much easier for me to do any phone system jobs for people.

Furthermore, more often than not you have jobs that want you to turn in multiple files, they'll say, you know, prompts one through five, or we're making five different slides, can you turn them in as five different files? Or can you turn in three files for three different takes. So my point is, let's say you're doing this in other software, this is kind of like how Sony Sound Forge was, which, by the way, is now bought by this company called Magic. So that's why I say was, and you could edit your whole file, but then you couldn't render out multiple files from there. So I couldn't do anything but have this one long file that had all three of my tapes in it, let's say, but there's no way I can divide them up into three WAV files that I'd be turning into the client. Adobe Audition does all of this for me, it's really simple to use.

It's clean, and they offer multiple pricing plans now so you can just pay for the software in full which is a few hundred dollars or you can have a monthly special subscription where you always have the latest and greatest version for 20 bucks a month. I was just talking a minute ago about Sony Sound Forge. And like I was saying that just recently was bought by this company called magics, which I think is awesome because Sound Forge is a great product and it would have been really sad to see it go away when Sony decided to sell it. So this is 399 bucks or you can even get just the audio Studio 10 version for $60. And it really has all of the features that you would need. By the way, this only works on Windows.

Adobe Audition works on a PC or a Mac. But Sound Forge only works on PCs running Windows. So you can still go do everything that you need to do for a job. You can make mp3 files, you can make WAV files, you can still use all the functionality in here. It's just not quite as convenient. Like I was saying as Adobe audition, because you can't render out individual files from one long sound recording that you're working on.

Reaper, check this out cost not so much. Reavers, pretty cool. You can evaluate Reaper in full for 60 days for free. And then when you buy the license, it's only like $60. It's a good doff for anyone in voiceover work. It works on a Mac or a PC.

And I recommend this software too. And then we have Audacity. This one is free. You can download it for Windows for OS X for Linux. You've got lots of options here. And audacity has all the capabilities you might need for doing voiceover jobs.

So it's a solid choice to once I got to a certain level in voiceover, I might upgrade my software to something that has a price point. But if I was just starting out you bed I might give audacity a try GarageBand. This comes with whatever Apple product you buy. So if you buy a new Apple Computer GarageBand is going to be bundled in the software when you open up that machine for the first time, if you have an Apple Computer and somehow you don't happen to have GarageBand, you can download the app for like 499 is in $4 and 99 cents, and it has all of the capabilities you might need. And then some I mean, look at this screenshot here, there's like eight audio files. And this is obviously a screenshot of someone producing a track as in a song so there's like, vocals, bass, drums keyboard, so much more than you would need.

If you were doing voiceover where you're only making and working on one audio file. Pro Tools made by avid This is the industry standard in professional studios. So if you book a big Voiceover job, the engineer in the recording studio is most likely going to be using this da. It's expensive. And in my opinion, it's not at all necessary for doing voiceover work out of your home studio. If you already have it, by all means keep using it.

But if you don't, I mean, you just can't justify the cost. You can buy the dog free and clear for $599, which is just crazy sounding to me. You can buy one year of a license for $299. Or you can have a monthly subscription plan for $24 99 cents. Honestly, none of this is a price that is justifiable for starting out in voiceover work. If you already have this software and you already know how to use it.

Go on with your bad self and keep using it. But if you're just starting out and looking for a software to get started with, yeah, I wouldn't start with this one Studio 134 Professional is one that I used for many years. It's like $400. And it's like I was saying with a lot of the other ones it just has, it has the capability to produce an entire album and mix and master it. I mean, it has so much more capability. The good news in that is that I was able to produce some actual full commercials for people and I could charge for my voiceover work, I could charge for the production, like the post production, the mixing down, and then I was able to give them a commercial that was broadcast ready for the radio.

If you're a musician as well as a voiceover actor, it might behoove you to have a license for Studio One three, because that software is amazing and like I said, can produce an entire album for you, but if you're just starting out, I would definitely start with one of the cheaper or free price points.