You have a project to which you want to add voice over. You have prepared a great script, and you can practically hear it in your mind. You know exactly what it sounds like, and it sounds perfect.

You find a voice talent and send them the script. The voice talent records the script, sends it back to you, and... it sounds completely different from what you'd envisioned.

Nonetheless, you're stuck paying the bill. When you ask the talent to re-record the script "the right way", they agree but inform you that you will have to pay an additional fee for re-recording.

This scenario can easily be avoided by telling the voice talent exactly what style you are looking for, as well as the desired reading pace, at the start of the project. After all, while you may be able to hear in your mind what you think the script should sound like, the talent cannot hear the voice in your mind, and their mind may be playing a different tune entirely!

While many talents provide free recuts (re-recordings) when they have made an error in the recording (such as flubbing a word), they do not commonly provide free recuts because the client envisioned a different tone. Telling the voice talent what style you want upfront can therefore save you money.

How, you may ask, can you describe the exact style you want for your project, and get the voice talent to record the script as you'd imgained it? There are two ways to do this:

• Write a description of the desired style.
  
  Use words such as:
  marketing, formal, friendly, energetic, airy, soft, sexy, hard sell, soft sell, conversational, laid back, brisk, informative, serious, young, mature, business-like, casual, high-pitched, low-pitched, and so forth.
  
  Include an explanation of the project's purpose and target audience.
  
  Bear in mind that your idea of "young", "friendly", etc. may not coincide exactly with the voice talent's understanding of these concepts, so there is still room for misunderstanding.
  If you are concerned that the talent may not understand what you want, ask them if they are willing to record a sentence or two as a sample, before starting the project.
• Listen to the demos on the talent's website and choose one that demonstrates the style you are looking for.
  
  Ask the talent to use the same tone of voice as in that demo.
  
  This is the best way to get the exact style you want, as it leaves no room for misunderstanding.

In addition, if you want the talent to emphasize certain words, pause in certain places in the script, etc, be sure to add instructions in the script.

Follow these instructions, and the voice in your head will become the voice of your project.