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By Hugh & Rob

Voiceover Software – there are many different types, brands and makes of voiceover software on the market. This blog looks at the most popular voiceover software and makes recommendations as to what they’re used for, which are best, and why.

There are different types of voiceover software that you should specifically use during your studio recordings, be that at home in your home recording studio, or out and about. This blog is specific to that software – however, this blog looks at the generic types of software and tools you will need as a voice artist.

The Types of Voiceover Software

So what are these different types of voiceover software? What are they used for? Well, as an overview (specifically to Voiceover) these can be broken down into four broad groups:

Audio Editors Multi-Track Recorders (DAW’s, or Digital Audio Workstations) Plugins Miscellaneous Voice Studio Software

This blog deals with the first two in turn. Plugins are a huge subject and a little off-topic for a discussion on Voiceover Artists requirements as they’re common to all recording software environments. For miscellaneous voiceover software, go and google Annotate and Voxover, two amazing bits of software that you may want to consider for your studio, but again out of the scope of this topic.

#1 – Audio Editors.

These are the lifeblood and the workhorses of most Voiceover Artists, and indeed radio producers, television editors, hobbyists and studio engineers around the world.

Audio editors do exactly what they say on the tin – they edit audio. In almost all cases they edit destructively, meaning that as you make a change to a file it is saved into the source audio file itself. This is important to note as it affects your workflow and how you should backup & manage your audio files.

Typical things you can do with an audio editor include:

Recording audio in a single stream (mono or stereo) from selectable inputs

Editing the audio file, for example selecting an area, moving it, deleting it, copying it and so on.

Providing a visual representation of the audio file, areas you are working on, sometimes in decibels (volume) sometimes via spectral views (by pitch) and so on, with audio meters to show specific levels at various points.

Creating new audio files

Renaming audio files

Processing the audio files, e.g., compressing, normalising, EQ, topping & tailing, adding delay, echo, reverb, effects, altering the volume, all of which can be done as a whole or on individual parts

Reversing audio files

Sorting out audio problems such as phasing, de-essing, removal of noise, pops and clicks, plosives

Mastering your audio ready for broadcast & delivery to clients

Changing sample rates, bit depth and filetypes, for example converting from wav files to mp3 files.

Batching repetitive processing tasks to save huge amounts of time

The key elements of a good, professional audio editor are that they should allow all of their operations to a fine-point detail (i.e. to a sample level), have a great quality audio engine, excellent quality algorithms, be fully tested, be flexible and provide good & relevant visualisations, be stable (not crash, which many do), be constantly supported (and developed to move with the times) and be able to work in all relevant mediums and filetypes.

Examples of Audio Editors:



Sony SoundForge Pro

(Mac/Windows) – £299 / $249 Pro version, £50 / $60 Entry Versions

Sound Forge was the first editor I ever used. Back in the day I acquired a cracked version of Sound Forge 4.5 (which was old even then) and it was brilliant! I still have it on my current PC, even though I have legitimate copies of SF pro 11 and SF Audio Studio 8.

Fast forward to the time of writing and things have changed a lot. Sound Forge is now owned by Magix (having been owned by Sony for a long time) and is available in different flavours and for Mac and PC. On the PC it’s up to version 13, and on the Mac it’s now on version 3. The Mac version is still a bit buggy and is still not on par with the usability of its PC equivalent, but it’s catching up fast. For PC there is a Pro version, and a cut down version with reduced features and reduced price tag. The Sound Forge feature set is on one of the most complete – albeit the Mac version slightly less so. The PC version has Punch & Roll which the Mac version lacks. Even on the PC it’s a little hidden away and not the most usable P&R around, but it’s there – but only on the PC version.

Both PC and Mac retain the extremely useful Autotrim function. This is a process you can use to top and tail files – very useful if you’re producing IVR prompts or multiple sections of e-learning. Which handily leads into mentioning the Batch Processor. Mac and PC versions of Sound Forge Pro both include very simple to use and comprehensive batch processors (the cut down PC version lacks this feature). With the PC version it’s integrated into the main program, with the Mac it comes as a separate program called Convrt.

There are many audio formats available for you to save your audio in. Again the PC version has more available than the Mac, but I suspect that the extra ones you get on PC are old legacy formats that can’t read Mac metadata anyway. There’s certainly everything you need for 99.5% of your jobs on both platforms.

Had there been a Mac version of Sound Forge available when I moved my studio from PC to Mac I have no doubt that it would still be my editor of choice. It may well become it again.



Adobe Audition

(Mac/Windows) – Subscription Only (£20 / $21 pcm or £239 / $240 per year)

So what did I move to when I had to stop using Sound Forge? Adobe Audition.

Audition is as feature-rich and intuitive as Sound Forge, and the PC and Mac versions are as identical as they possibly can be.

Audition will do everything a VO needs, and more. The editing is simple, the plugins that come with it are perfectly adequate for what we need, and with every new version the list of what’s available grows. The latest version has a very useable punch and roll. It’s a long overdue addition, but it’s there now.

As it’s a part of Adobe’s Creative Suite it also integrates very well with the other programs in the suite, so if you need to do a bit of video editing you can use Audition alongside Premiere Pro to ensure the audio for your film is perfect.

What a lot of people consider a downside is that you can’t buy the program outright anymore, it’s a monthly (or annual – but it costs the same) subscription. The pricing structure for Creative cloud is fairly straight forward, if you only want one program you pay (currently) £19.97 per month, and if you want 2 or more you pay £49.94 per month. For your money you get 2 seats for the program, customer support, all the updates during your subscription period and 100GB of cloud storage, which can allow you to collaborate with other users or clients on projects or just work over several workstations yourself without having to manually transfer files between machines.

Audition has an effects rack – which is uncommon in an editor – which enables you to play & edit your audio through insert effects without writing the processes onto the waveform. This can help greatly in making sure your compression/EQ/other is absolutely right before committing the settings onto your audio (which is still a destructive process – this is an editor after all!).

And we must mention the Audition multi-track window. Unusually for an editor it does have multitrack capability. It’s not as fully spec’d as a proper DAW, and a fair portion of the editing is still destructive, but if you only occasionally need to produce multitrack audio or only need simple capability it will do you very well indeed.

Another big advantage to Audition is that there are lots of other VOs using it, so there’s plenty of help out there if you get stuck on something.



Audacity

(Windows & Mac) – Free

Audacity is widely used by voiceovers – it’s essentially an open-source audio editor that performs fairly well. For the money – i.e. none – it’s good and it records audio well, allowing a reasonable set of editing tools.

The elephant in the room with Audacity is that it does look/feel clunky – it’s designed by coders, and it really looks like it – it’s not particularly easy to use unless you’re already au-fait with the processes of audio recording and editing, and if you were, the chances are you’d be using something else already. It doesn’t have the best user interface and there are some key features missing, especially in terms of its metering in plugins like the compressor (there isn’t any). It also has a pretty major flaw in its programming that means it eats up space on your hard drive without some fairly careful management. But hey, it’s a free piece of voiceover software, and it’s an editor and a completely viable option for those on a budget. The latest versions are improving the usability of the program, it even has a native punch & roll feature now!

Audacity does also have a slightly functional multi-track editor, which will allow you to create mixes and mix in music with voice, but as with the rest of the program, it looks like it was designed at the start of the 90’s and isn’t that easy to use for beginners.

Personally I think you get what you pay for – it’s not as comprehensive as the paid models and does have bugs – these tend not to be fixed as quickly as it’s paid competitors by its very nature of being open-source. My own personal opinion is that if you’re on a limited budget either go and get Audition for the low entry price and work on a pro piece of kit, or preferably the cut-down version of SoundForge…but if you’re a beginner, just dipping your toe into the water and want to check it all out before you commit to much spending – this is a great option



Twisted Wave

(Mac Only) – $79

Twisted Wave is much like Audacity, but it’s not free. It’s an entry level program which is quite cheap, but it’s scope and range of editing capabilities reflects this. It doesn’t inherently have any true effects in there of its own – but it does run AU (Apple’s Audio Unit effects) and VST’s (Steinberg’s audio effects) which you can download to your computer and then use in the program.

The audio engine is ok, but like Audacity it’s got a very clunky user interface and in my opinion isn’t worth the money.

There are a couple of features that Twisted Wave has that many do not. The first one is a fully browser-based, online version which acts much like Google Sheets, i.e., it’s all hosted online, but for audio editing. I’d be really excited about this were Twisted Wave itself not just a little bit rubbish. If future development carries on and they sort out their effects and audio interface, this is an interesting prospect. And it also has a version you can use on a tablet or iPhone – this alone has helped it pick up fans, as it means you can edit on the road in the same way as you do in your studio (as long as you don’t mind editing on a tiny phone screen!).



Ocenaudio

(Mac, PC & Linux) Free

Ocenaudio is a relatively new kid on the block, with the first version being designed in 2009. It’s an audio editor, so lacks any multi-track capability, but it’s a simple to use editor and it’s free. Although it is an editor, and therefore edits destructively, it has a nice couple of features which allow you to semi-non-destructively record, and automatically backup a file before overwriting it with a new save. It also features a simple to use punch and roll for all you audiobook narrators. It has a fairly handy way of exporting different regions of audio to new files, so good for IVR or e-learning narrators. It can’t open video files so no use for any voice-to-picture work, but Hey! It’s free!

It has a few of its own effects and supports VST, so there’s plenty of scope for processing your files. You can also save to more file formats than you could ever remember in a pub quiz.

Generally it feels much more intuitive and user friendly than Audacity, so if you’re limited to a free piece of software I’d definitely go for this one over Audacity. I may even pick it over some of the paid ones.



Garageband & Sound Recorder

(Garageband Mac, SR Windows) – Free with the OS

Garageband and Sound Recorder are entry level recording tools. They are designed for literally everyone to use from children upwards, and as such do not have comprehensive toolsets at all. You cannot edit finely in these programs, they do not have good audio metering and do not have comprehensive tool suites. Garageband comes pre-installed on Macs, Sound Recorder doesn’t come pre-installed (at least it didn’t on my PC) but it is a free download from the Microsoft store.

In fact, Garageband is actually a very cut-down and free version of Apple’s Logic software, which…is great. But considering that Audacity exists, is free and is available on both Mac and Pc, there’s no need to use such a feature restricted piece of software. It’s not that it’s bad (it isn’t!), it’s just that it doesn’t do enough for you. For that reason, there’s just no point using this if you’re serious about home recording at all.

#2 – Multi-Track Sequencers (DAWS)

So Digital Audio Workstations, DAW’s, aka, multi-track sequencers or recording environments, are audio recording, editing and processing environments. They share many common factors with audio editors in that they also record, allow you to edit audio, create effects, but they are designed in a fundamentally different way and are useful for different jobs (as well as some which are the same).

One of the main differences is that DAW’s edit non-destructively. This means that if you make a change to the file, cut a region, edit out a clip or whatever, you need to ‘bounce’ or mixdown the complete session to a new file which can then be delivered to a client – during this process the original source files remain intact and unchanged.

The obvious benefit of this approach is that you can always go back to the original source point with a DAW if you screw something up, or if a client asks for changes – with an audio editor you need to have backed up the original source file or ‘copied to new’, otherwise you’re always stuck with the last saved version of your file.

Some (I say ‘some’ because the list of things you can do with pro DAW’s is quite phenomenal) of the things you typically can do with a DAW are:

Record audio on one track

Record audio on multi-tracks, infinitely up to the limits of your setup, e.g. 250 audio tracks, recorded & played back simultaneously

Edit audio clips individually or across the entire track

Create insert and send & return effects on individual tracks, and on individual files

Mix vocals with music & sound effects

Create music & sound effects with audio & midi, instrument libraries and effects plugins

Record & playback to both audio & video

Mix and master to all formats & types, including surround sound

Use hugely versatile and expansive sub-routines (and plugins) that do many wonderous things, such as strip silence, bulk exports

Manage your pools of audio files and audio data

Drive and be driven by external hardware, such as Mackie devices, automated mixing desks with faders, midi triggers, midi keyboards etc.

The list goes on, and on. And on. And on.

Entire recording suites can be run with DAW’s and they are the heart of all professional (and most home) recording studio’s. They are hugely feature rich and they can be appropriately expensive!

Examples of Multi-Track Sequencers (DAWS):



Steinberg’s Cubase

(Mac/Windows)

Full Version – £400 / $549

Cubase Artist – £190 / $270

(Educational Versions typically 1/3 the price)

What can you say about Cubase. It’s difficult to describe in a few short paragraphs without just listing all it’s functionalities. Suffice to say…it is an…amazing…piece of audio software which has been developed for over 20 years having originated on the Atari ST many moons ago.

It does literally everything you could ever ask of it. 10 years ago, Steinberg’s software was full of bugs but since brought out by Yamaha it’s now very stable, immaculately designed and hugely powerful. They have, it seems, thought of everything.

The new versions of Cubase also have interactive online capabilities so you can collaborate with other artists around the world in real-time. It has VST Connect which effectively replaces ISDN, Source Connect and ipDTL…and builds that kind of peer-to-peer connection natively into the program. It has powerful Macros so you can write unlimited audio processing – I’ve used this myself extensively to bounce stepped sequences of audio files based on their filenames to specific file.

It’s a joy to use and looks fantastic – everything is colour coded, neatly hidden away until you need it and customisable to the nth degree with user-definable keyboard shortcuts, mackie controls and so on.

Steinberg of course conceived of and wrote the VST effects format which was then quickly copied by Pro Tools (their version being RTAS) and Apple (their version being AU), and they also designed the ASIO format. They own it, they develop it – and you can bet that their software works flawlessly with it. The practical upshot for you voiceover’s is that if you can think of a plugin, you can get it in VST format and it works seamlessly.

Cubase comes built in with huge audio libraries, extensive audio effects, excellent capabilities of things you may never have thought of, such as inbuilt auto-tune, time-stretching, comping facilities, looping facilities and a new way of mixing that separates itself from it’s competitors; the rest of the world is still fixated on replicating traditional mixing desks in software form, but Steinberg realised that the home production world no longer needs this, and have moved on to the benefit of it’s users.

In one of Steinberg’s biggest frustrations, Cubase is one of the most cracked and copied programs in the world – but they always have issues and bugs introduced by the cracks – I’d advise avoiding these myself. But it’s so user friendly, that it’s a testament to it’s developers that the world’s audio production members download the cracked versions over many other programs.

One of the things you’ll hear about Cubase from other audio users is that ‘it isn’t professional’ or ‘it’s not Pro Tools’ or that ‘It’s for kids who create music’ – I’m here to tell you that may have been true 10 years ago, but it’s not true now. Cubase is robust, professional and simply a joy to use.

In terms of support Steinberg also have their act sorted out – you ring up, you get through to a guy called Herman – he talks to you until your problem is fixed. They don’t charge you for it, or ask you to purchase a support pack. This is the way that all support should be.

For voiceover artists, you can probably get away with the Cubase Artists pack which is half the price of the full version as you may not need all the features that provides. If you want the VST Connect for peer-to-peer remove connections though you’ll need the full, pro version.

Don’t forget the educational version which is around a third the price. You’re going to have to prove it, but it’s well worth it.



Avid’s Pro Tools

(Mac/Windows)

Subscription Version – £25 / $30 pcm (or £299 / $360 per year)

Pro Tools First – free

Pro Tools is the big daddy of recording software. If there is an industry standard, it’s Pro Tools. Pro Tools is used across the audio industry from recording music to mixing films. Every studio I’ve ever freelanced in runs Pro Tools as their main – sometimes only – recording software. There’s even a version of it for mixing at live music venues.

Pro Tools is now owned by Avid, but it was originally designed and made by Digidesign, and there are still some legacy bits of kit and old setups that still bear that name. It used to be licensed by attaching an approved audio interface to your computer – most of which were made by Digidesign or M-audio – but since Avid bought it you are now able to use whatever interface you like and it’s licensed with an iLok (the latest versions can be licensed by iLok cloud, which means you don’t actually need the iLok plugged into your computer as long as you have an internet connection). It has now moved onto a subscription model pricing, like Adobe Audition, and not only do you get the latest software for your money, but you also get cloud storage and the ability to save your work as a ‘project’ (rather than a session) with which you can collaborate with other people. The subscription options are a bit more flexible than Adobe’s, so you can tailor your spend to your needs a bit more – which should work out cheaper!

Pro Tools First is a free version of Pro Tools, and is limited in its specifications. It only works in projects, of which you can only have 3 at once, and it has a cut down list of plugins. But it is very useable, and a good toe-in-the-water for those considering spending their money on the full product.

Customer support for Pro Tools has never been brilliant, but there is a lively user forum from which you can usually get the help you need, and as there are so many people using it there are YouTube tips and tricks a-plenty.

As Pro Tools was originally a Mac program it used to be fiddley getting it to function correctly on a PC, but other than a few optimisation issues I believe those problems have been ironed out and Pro Tools will run stably on both platforms.

You’d expect that software from one of the leading video/film editing companies in the world – Avid – would be second to none when it comes to video integration. It sort of is, but only if you use the right codec! Jobs like ADR, recording to picture and mixing to picture are a breeze with this suite, as long as you’re using the right format. If you’re not it gets jumpy and laggy.

But let’s be honest, is Pro Tools any good as voiceover software?

You bet your bottom dollar it is. It’s easily laid out and has one of the best audio engines in the world. Don’t underestimate that.

What it does it does brilliantly and there’s a reason why the majority of albums and productions around the world are done on Pro Tools. Watching a Pro Tools engineer makes things look easy.

It has a complete set of onboard effects and is an integrated music & SFX production system, as are most DAW’s. It’s midi capability has improved of late and there are almost as many AAX instruments out there as VST’s. It’s got all the features you’d expect from a DAW, such as strip silence, visualisations, and once you’ve got your head round why it works the way it does (which can be a little daunting to beginners, but effectively follows a recording studio routing model) it becomes quite intuitive.

Speaking of plugins, because Pro Tools was long seen as the industry standard, many top-end companies have developed high-end plugins for the program which aren’t available on other DAWs and if you’re into fully expert-level audio, this can be a big plus, although perhaps not relevant to VO’s.

In terms of ease of use, again, once you’ve got to grips with it (it’s not super-easy at first) things like the multi-tool become second nature and editing becomes simple. Pro Tools also has probably the best Grouping capabilities of any DAW on the market, which is simple, intuitive and how it should be.

(NB: One of the main reasons that people buy Pro Tools is because it’s the industry standard, i.e., meaning that if you want to open Pro Tools files you need Pro Tools. I’ve heard this a lot from VO’s who don’t want to be caught out. However, All the DAW’s featured here have OMF/AAF capability which is an import/export/exchange file format for multi-tracks which makes swapping between programs a non-issue.)



Apple Logic Pro X

(Mac Only)

Full Version – £199/$199

Take a look at the price tag and you can instantly see what’s attractive about this Mac only DAW. Although it’s touted as a music production system, it’s actually a fully-fledged DAW direct from Apple.

As a program, it’s effectively Garageband’s Daddy, or rather, Garageband is Logic’s son. It’s pretty user interface will feel quite familiar to users of Garageband, and Mac users will feel at home with it straight away. It uses the OSX Core Audio drivers so sounds great and runs audio, midi and has lots of great ease-of-use features like Take Management.

It has many different audio editing tools, including nifty speed fades, and has in-built samplers and Flex-Time which allows audio slicing based on transients. As well as all the normal effects, you get lots of instrument racks and instrument effects racks with a good non-destructive audio editor and cool auto-tune functions.

As you might expect, editing is easy in Logic and it’s longest running selling point is that it’s very stable – many people use a Mac loaded with Logic for live performances because it’s so unlikely to crash.

Logic isn’t as feature rich as Cubase nor Pro Tools by a long way, and it isn’t installed in as many pro studios, but what it does, it does very well indeed and makes mixing and mastering a breeze. Apple like to make things easy for you! It’s also much cheaper than it’s rivals, and this may have an impact on your choice.



Presonus Studio One

Mac and Windows

Free – £345 ($400)

Presonus Studio One is software that comes bundled with Presonus audio interfaces, but it’s not limited to their interfaces and you can buy the software and use it with almost any interface. There are 3 levels of the software, Studio One Prime is free, Artist is £85 and Professional is £345. As you’d expect there are differences between the versions.

Prime is a very functional multi-track recorder and does most things you’ll need as a VO. It has punch and roll, it will support video and the latest version (version 4) will convert your audio to mp3 which previous versions didn’t. The free version won’t support the use of vst plugins, but both paid versions will do. It can be a little fiddley to get set up, and it can be a little choosy over the audio interfaces it likes, but there are often workarounds to get things going.

Keyboard shortcuts are editable so you can customise your own workflow and it will enable you to do all the fine editing you need in a separate editor window.



Reaper

(Mac and Windows)

Full Version – $60

Last but not least, making huge waves in the industry is the newest kid on the block, Reaper. It’s making huge waves because it’s in constant development and it’s super-cheap for what it is but with good functionality. Let’s be frank, it’s very light in features compared to the big boys, but what’s there is very good and it’s developing at a fast pace.

This is so cheap in fact, that there is an argument that as a piece of voiceover software, and for all your DAW needs, this is the only choice as it has all the main things you really need.

Still, it’s multi-tracking at it’s heart, it’s got a good range of effects (again, missing some metering here and there) and it supports VST and AU formats so the world is your oyster with effects and processing. It supports Asio and Core Audio, and although it isn’t that easy on the eye, it comes with free Reaplugs, video support, elastic time stretching and much more.

For those on a budget, this is a serious contender.



Adobe Audition

Previously mentioned, the multitrack section of Audition is basic but functional. it’s not super-easy to use and definitely not as user friendly as the true DAW programs, but it does have the advantage that it’s all in one program with a brilliant audio editor. It also has most of the effects you’d need (plus it runs VST and AU plugins) and some basic level mixing & automation tools.



Steinberg’s Nuendo & Ableton Live/Live Lite

This is just a quick note to cover off Nuendo and Ableton Live. This article is aimed at looking at Voiceover Software and neither is really suitable for that use.

Nuendo is Steinberg’s answer to Pro Tools HD and contains all the features of Cubase – and a lot more. But it’s designed for professional post-production and is overkill for Voice Artists – Cubase will do you just fine!

Ableton comes bundled with various pieces of hardware and whereas it will record audio it’s designed to be an electronic music tool, and as such its audio editing capability is negligible.

Well, Now I’m Confused! How Do I Choose The Right Voiceover Software For Me?

Do I Need an Audio Editor, a DAW…or Both!?

This is an important question, and not a stupid question at all. Money and budget is a serious factor, but so is your workflow and productivity. It’s up to you to evaluate your budget but I can help with the workflow.

Remember the main difference between the two is that an audio editor is designed to edit audio files destructively, and a DAW/multitrack is designed to mix multiple tracks and larger productions together, non-destructively.

They have a different workflow and as a voice artist you’ll use them differently for different tasks.

As a professional voiceover artist though, you definitely do need an audio editor. If you’re a voiceover artist who only ever records vocals one at a time, or one voice at a time and then edits these audio files, you can probably just get away with only using an audio editor as opposed to having a DAW as well.

If you want to record your demo reels at home, or want to mix more than one track of audio together, you’re going to also need a DAW. Alternatively, if you record long form scripts, especially those which need mixing to individual files, such as IVR scripts, this is much easier to record, edit and split to individual files in a DAW….and then batch process in the audio editor (you may also find the fine editing easier in an editor, you may prefer to do that in your DAW). (Note that Audition is a viable option for both, but do remember that the multi-track version is limited and it doesn’t have the strip silence features common to DAW’s).

If you want to create Music, Sound Effects, record with proper foldback to your booth, record loop grouping or ADR looping, you’re almost definitely also going to want a DAW.

So Which Voiceover Software Should I Choose?

For Those Who Aren’t On a Budget:

Hugh says –

For me personally, on a Windows PC, I use Cubase and Soundforge. When I’m on Macs, I use Cubase and Audition. If I had my way (and mainly because of the crazy subscription prices) I’d have Sony bring their Mac SoundForge up to the same level as the Windows version, and then use Cubase and SoundForge.

Why Cubase over the others?

It’s simply the best of the lot, the easiest to use, the most flexible and the one that breaks most boundaries – it’s not tied to a complicated physical mixing desk model, and their support is just the best. I genuinely use all three of the big hitters for different things, and I always wish I was using Cubase.

Why Sound Forge? Firstly because it’s not a subscription model and you get to keep it forever, secondly because (at least on Windows) it’s the best in terms of functionality, and thirdly because it has Auto Trim/Crop, which for VO’s is essential.

Why Audition on a Mac? Because the Mac version of SoundForge isn’t quite there yet and is missing a scale on it’s waveform window – once that’s there, hopefully in the next version, we won’t be forced to rent our software from Adobe. Which is a shame, because it’s one of the best editors in the world.

Rob says –

I’d opt for ProTools and Audition.

Why ProTools?

Because I think it’s better than Cubase!

It does everything I need to do apart from file conversion! I don’t need to work between a DAW and an editor on audio projects as I can take a project from voicing to completion within the session – including fine editing and processing of individual files. It’s layout is clear and I find it the most intuitive and user-friendly recording software I’ve ever used.

Why Audition?

Hugh hints above that it’s very good! Notwithstanding the subscription thing which is frustrating, Audition provides a very comprehensive set of tools. The audio analysis capability is fantastic, and the effects rack helps it act more like a DAW than other editors do. It’s integration with the rest of Adobe’s Creative Suite make it the natural choice for those working across different media.

For Those On a Limited Budget:

For PC

The cut-down version of SoundForge and Reaper will give you a couple of great audio programs with most of what you need for only $150.

For Mac

Twisted Wave and Reaper. There is no cut down version of Sound Forge for Mac.

For Those On a Strict/Zero Budget:

If you’re looking for the best of the freebies I’d go for Ocenaudio as an editor and Studio One Prime for a DAW. 2 perfectly well appointed programs that will allow you to do a remarkable amount of pretty powerful audio editing.

For more information on voice acting visit our series of posts on how to become a voice actor