Before the internet and affordable professional recording equipment allowed VO talent to have their own high quality home studios, many jobs and auditions required talent to be in studio with the producers, directors, clients, etc... As technology enabled talent to record from home, this direct feedback loop was sort of lost, as there now needed to be back and forth communication, usually via email, to discuss revisions and any other comments on the project. Well now technology is helping to solve a problem it helped create, by allowing talent and clients to connect in real-time, easily and affordably.

While live directed sessions may seem a bit scary at first, they actually have a lot of benefits. Sure it may feel a bit intimidating to have the client “looking over your shoulder” as you work, but I’ve found this to actually be a good thing. For whatever reason, the added pressure of knowing someone is monitoring my work helps me to dial in and focus a bit more than when I’m on my own. I find myself making less reading mistakes in these conditions, so much so, that I’ve even started pretending I am doing live sessions when I’m actually not, in an effort to replicate this level of focus.

Live sessions also eliminate the back and forth which can sometimes follow the delivery of a voice-over to a client. You and the client get to hammer out all of the changes, revisions, alternate takes, and so on, right there in the session, so that when you send the files over afterwards, you know you are very likely done with the project completely.

While there are several high quality options to provide live session capabilities that come with an attached price tag. There are also several free ones that are quite capable of handling the job. If you’ve followed this blog a bit, you know that I’m a proponent of “growing as you go” so if you are just starting to offer live sessions to your clients, I’d recommend one of these free options first, and then working your way towards some of the pricier alternatives when it becomes necessary to do so.

Option 1: A Simple Phone Call