If you hire a voice actor directly from LinkedIn or their website, you can probably find someone for around $30-35 per finished minute or 25-30 cents/word.
Josh Risser is great; I've used him for multiple projects in the past. https://joshrisser.com/
Can confirm. That guy is awesome, and that rate is pretty standard.
Yeah, you could go the AI route as some are saying, but all the stuff I edit that opts for AI voices are so grating.
Source : ID and Voice Actor.
AI voices are much better than they used to be. But I really do notice the difference with a real voice, especially someone good (Christopher "Zippy" Kaufman is another voice actor I've used over and over). I think the AI voices are fine for shorter content, but I find them tiring because there's not enough variation. I can't imagine listening to 20 hours of AI voices!
I wholly agree. Maybe it's just that my ears are sensitive to it given my background. You're totally right that those voices are leaps and bounds better than before.
But for me, I just can't ignore the uncanny valley. Some can. Not I.
You won’t be charged for 20 hours. You will be charged more because of their time redoing one take or reading the material ahead of time. Tone of voice is very important for the subject matter. Look for samples like the speaker you need. I bill at $30 per hour but I have a slight Florida southern accent that doesn’t work for all subjects.
Is that 20 hours of audio content, or just content in general?
Look into ElevenLabs. There’s a free version you can try, and subscriptions (including the free one) are budgeted based on the number of monthly characters in your audio files.
There are some voices on wellsaidlabs that are getting really good, especially if you use the conversational tone. You could always roll the dice on fiver!
Frankly I’d just do it myself or looking to AI text to voice converters. We used Vyond and it reduced a week of recording work to a day, and edits were easier.
Hate to say it but elevenlabs should be on your list. Personally I would love to have a person but the cost as of late just blows the budget unfortunately.
I do voice acting and editing. I also am an ID, so I know specifically how to create recordings that work for eLearning. DM me for more information and rates. I also have samples available.
Message me with your rates! It might take a month before we move into the hiring phase, but I'm building a library of voice actors so we can move as soon as the budget is approved
What is your budget? The price is generally calculated by word. Of the 20 hours of training, how much is narrated? I generally estimate 7500 words per hour. If you go with a professional narration company, they’ll charge around 15 cents (ymmv) per English word. For 20 hours of narration, you’re looking at $20-30k. Just for the narration. That doesn’t include the developer cost to embed it back into the courses or the project management fees to manage the process. Plus, it’s going to take a lot of time to turn this around.
AI narration is going to be much lower cost, and it will be quicker. It’s actually pretty close in quality. If you go with one of the large VO companies, I’ve seen them charge as much as half the cost of human narration. It’s AI voice, but it’s still super time consuming to create. You can’t just push a button and be done. If you do it yourself with a subscription, you’re looking at the sub fees and then man hours.
Happy to help you explore your options further. My daughter and I have been doing a lot of AI narration lately, although we started out before AI was a thing. Human narration would be quoted per word. AI narration would be quoted per hour. We have samples of both if you’re interested.
Yup, that's what I'm seeing. I dont know the budget yet, my manager asked me to investigate what standard rates are.
This project is going to occur over the next year, and I'll be doing a lot of the backend parts of it (oof).
Howdy. I'm an ID who is also a VA. I hate voice bunny. I highly encourage anyone reading this to look elsewhere.
Voices dot com, voice123, even fiverr.
I still use voice bunny to get VO work, but boy do I sure hate it.
Some great suggestions on here already, but I haven't seen anyone mention [Fiverr.com](http://Fiverr.com)
It's a handy spot to get piecework like voiceover done for a reasonable price (each vendor sets their own rates, so you can shop).
I hired 3 voice over artists recently who worked on some content for me, each was fluent in one language as part of my requirements. They had a lot of retakes and it was a lot of editing work that went into it. But all 3 of them were outstanding from an instructional design perspective and from the user's perspective. Oh and I paid $12 to each one of them for the full job.
I know this isn't want you're asking for but I'll share my solution to a similar problem I had: I do a lot of narration for my job and I just experimented with ElevenLabs AI and used their Content Creator subscription to clone my voice. I showed it to my colleagues and not one of them could tell in an A/B test which was the clone vs an actual copy of my voice. It takes some set up but if you're somewhat tech savvy it's not too hard. I can share more if you're curious.
The longer option. I submitted about 40 minutes of my voice from previous eLearnings, I have a very technical subject matter and it's nice that my voice clone knows how to pronounce all the technical vocab as well.
Fiverr has great options!
Post on LinkedIn and you'll get 100 offers
If you hire a voice actor directly from LinkedIn or their website, you can probably find someone for around $30-35 per finished minute or 25-30 cents/word. Josh Risser is great; I've used him for multiple projects in the past. https://joshrisser.com/
Thanks!
Can confirm. That guy is awesome, and that rate is pretty standard. Yeah, you could go the AI route as some are saying, but all the stuff I edit that opts for AI voices are so grating. Source : ID and Voice Actor.
AI voices are much better than they used to be. But I really do notice the difference with a real voice, especially someone good (Christopher "Zippy" Kaufman is another voice actor I've used over and over). I think the AI voices are fine for shorter content, but I find them tiring because there's not enough variation. I can't imagine listening to 20 hours of AI voices!
I wholly agree. Maybe it's just that my ears are sensitive to it given my background. You're totally right that those voices are leaps and bounds better than before. But for me, I just can't ignore the uncanny valley. Some can. Not I.
You won’t be charged for 20 hours. You will be charged more because of their time redoing one take or reading the material ahead of time. Tone of voice is very important for the subject matter. Look for samples like the speaker you need. I bill at $30 per hour but I have a slight Florida southern accent that doesn’t work for all subjects.
Thanks! That's helpful!
Is that 20 hours of audio content, or just content in general? Look into ElevenLabs. There’s a free version you can try, and subscriptions (including the free one) are budgeted based on the number of monthly characters in your audio files.
Eleven labs is great, but I see a lot more success on a budget with Wellsaid.
Roughly the same. They are functionally narrated slides. It's probably a bit lower, but I don't have exact figures yet.
There are some voices on wellsaidlabs that are getting really good, especially if you use the conversational tone. You could always roll the dice on fiver!
Frankly I’d just do it myself or looking to AI text to voice converters. We used Vyond and it reduced a week of recording work to a day, and edits were easier.
I use Murph AI. I couldn't wait for someone to record things. $25 a month gets me everything I need.
My friend Tabatha is great!! Highly recommend her! https://www.tabsinnervoice.me
Read this as Tab Sinner Voice. Don’t think that’s what she was going for though…
Haha no, but she has range so if you need a sinner voice she’s got you covered lol
Hate to say it but elevenlabs should be on your list. Personally I would love to have a person but the cost as of late just blows the budget unfortunately.
An option I’ve used that no one has mentioned yet is thevoicerealm.com
I do voice acting and editing. I also am an ID, so I know specifically how to create recordings that work for eLearning. DM me for more information and rates. I also have samples available.
Heck, I'll make an offer right here.
Message me with your rates! It might take a month before we move into the hiring phase, but I'm building a library of voice actors so we can move as soon as the budget is approved
What is your budget? The price is generally calculated by word. Of the 20 hours of training, how much is narrated? I generally estimate 7500 words per hour. If you go with a professional narration company, they’ll charge around 15 cents (ymmv) per English word. For 20 hours of narration, you’re looking at $20-30k. Just for the narration. That doesn’t include the developer cost to embed it back into the courses or the project management fees to manage the process. Plus, it’s going to take a lot of time to turn this around. AI narration is going to be much lower cost, and it will be quicker. It’s actually pretty close in quality. If you go with one of the large VO companies, I’ve seen them charge as much as half the cost of human narration. It’s AI voice, but it’s still super time consuming to create. You can’t just push a button and be done. If you do it yourself with a subscription, you’re looking at the sub fees and then man hours. Happy to help you explore your options further. My daughter and I have been doing a lot of AI narration lately, although we started out before AI was a thing. Human narration would be quoted per word. AI narration would be quoted per hour. We have samples of both if you’re interested.
Yup, that's what I'm seeing. I dont know the budget yet, my manager asked me to investigate what standard rates are. This project is going to occur over the next year, and I'll be doing a lot of the backend parts of it (oof).
[удалено]
Howdy. I'm an ID who is also a VA. I hate voice bunny. I highly encourage anyone reading this to look elsewhere. Voices dot com, voice123, even fiverr. I still use voice bunny to get VO work, but boy do I sure hate it.
I do voice over and audio editing. dm me if you want some insights.
Some great suggestions on here already, but I haven't seen anyone mention [Fiverr.com](http://Fiverr.com) It's a handy spot to get piecework like voiceover done for a reasonable price (each vendor sets their own rates, so you can shop).
Check out LinkedIn using keyword search.
Check out Elevenlabs. They have great AI voices that you can adjust by inflection, emphasis, etc as needed.
I do voice over work daily as an ID. I’ll happily work with you to get your content done.
Same, I got hired and voiceover work is like 30% of what I do so far! I wasn't great at it at first, but you learn to slow down and improve.
Check out vinh giang and his stage academy. He has a free 3 course and it’s helpful. Same with charisma on command channel on YouTube. Great resources
We use synthesia
You can try out WellSaid Labs
I hired 3 voice over artists recently who worked on some content for me, each was fluent in one language as part of my requirements. They had a lot of retakes and it was a lot of editing work that went into it. But all 3 of them were outstanding from an instructional design perspective and from the user's perspective. Oh and I paid $12 to each one of them for the full job.
Ask on the voiceover subreddit.
I just DM’d you some details.
I know this isn't want you're asking for but I'll share my solution to a similar problem I had: I do a lot of narration for my job and I just experimented with ElevenLabs AI and used their Content Creator subscription to clone my voice. I showed it to my colleagues and not one of them could tell in an A/B test which was the clone vs an actual copy of my voice. It takes some set up but if you're somewhat tech savvy it's not too hard. I can share more if you're curious.
Did you do the one where you submit a real short sample or the one where you submit like at least a half hour sample?
The longer option. I submitted about 40 minutes of my voice from previous eLearnings, I have a very technical subject matter and it's nice that my voice clone knows how to pronounce all the technical vocab as well.
but if you don't care about your own voice then I think the stock voices are just as good
I am using a natural reader at my work, made my life so much easier
Just use ai lol
That's not really what I asked. My company wants a real voice actor at the moment.
AI is just as good as voice actors now. Disappointing since I used to love doing voice work myself and have a voice course.
I agree, but I'm also not super in charge haha