The words you'll hear, explained.

Automated dialogue replacement: re-recording lines to picture after a shoot, matching the actor's mouth. In voice over it usually means a synced read booked with the video, which carries a sync loading on the rate card.

Silence left before and after a line. Imaging producers ask for "a little air" so they can lay music and effects around each read without clipping the first word.

A presenter read: awards, promos, introductions, commercials, with lift and polish. Different from a narrator, who tells a story over minutes. Announcer voices often do both.

A voice reading a few lines of your actual script so you can hear it before you book. Here auditions are free and come back as recordings, usually within hours.

The music track a voice sits on. Reads are delivered without one unless you add production; your editor lays the bed, or the voice does it for you.

Audio clean enough to air: a treated room, a respected microphone, no hiss or echo, delivered at 48 kHz or 44.1 kHz WAV. Every voice listed here records to it.

A short piece of audio, two to ten seconds, played into or out of a break on TV or radio. Sits with idents and sweepers under imaging on the rate card.

A one-off fee that lets you use the recording without time limit. Everything on the rate card is a buyout except radio, TV and internet commercials, which are licensed for twelve months.

A performance away from the actor's natural speaking voice: a villain, a creature, a cartoon child. Carries a character loading on the rate card. See character voice overs.

Reading a script for the first time with no preparation. Auditions are close to it, which is why a good cold read tells you a lot about a voice.

The style most briefs ask for now: sounding like a person talking to one listener rather than an announcer addressing a crowd.

Old advertising word for the script. "Send the copy" means send the words.

Silence where there should be sound. On radio it is a sin; in a file it usually means a missing take.

A short reel, sixty to ninety seconds, of a voice's best reads by category. How to listen to a demo is a skill worth two minutes of your time.

Hiring one voice from their profile without a casting, when you already know the sound you want. The rate card sets the price and the voice starts on payment.

You listen in over a call while the voice records, giving notes between takes. Costs more than a self-directed read from a good brief, and worth it for a long or sensitive script.

A commercial with a recorded opening and closing and a hole in the middle for a local message. Common in radio for dealer groups and franchises.

A read delivered raw: no music, no effects, no editing beyond removing mistakes. The default delivery, and what most editors and stations want.

Replacing the spoken language of a film or video with another, timed to the picture. Needs a translation, a native voice and a sync booking. Translation can be added to a booking here.

Training and course narration, priced by word count as a buyout, delivered split per slide or screen. See e-learning voice overs.

Non-word sounds in game and animation work: grunts, gasps, laughs, death sounds. Hard on a voice, so they are recorded last in a session.

The figure shown on a casting notice. The client sets it against the script as they picture it; the final fee follows the words actually recorded on the rate card.

A short online video that walks a viewer through a product or idea, usually ninety seconds to two minutes, read conversationally. Priced as basic internet or narration.

A pricing unit some studios use: the length of the final audio. This site prices by word count instead, which you know before recording. The script length calculator converts one to the other.

Two ends of the commercial read. Hard sell is loud, urgent, retail; soft sell is warm, unhurried, brand. Say which in the brief.

A station or channel identification, often just the name with attitude. Part of imaging.

Everything a station or channel says about itself between programmes: sweepers, liners, idents, promos. Has its own line on the rate card. See radio imaging and TV imaging.

Forever. "Buyout in perpetuity, all media" on the rate card means you can use the recording anywhere, for any length of time, with no renewal.

Interactive voice response: the phone menu that asks callers to press one for sales. Recorded as numbered prompts, split into files, saved in the phone system's format. See IVR prompts.

Permission to use a recording for a set time and place. Radio, TV and internet commercials here are licensed for twelve months by market; everything else is a buyout.

A short scripted station line read over a song intro or between songs. Longer than a sweeper, shorter than a promo. See sweepers and liners.

Matching a voice to mouth movements already on screen. The hardest kind of sync work, booked with the video and carrying the sync loading.

An addition to the base rate for work that takes more than a straight read: character voices, medical or technical scripts, syncing to video, live direction. Each is shown on the rate card before you book.

Adapting content for another market, not just translating it: currency, idiom, the accent of the voice. A native voice from that market is the shortest route.

Small wet sounds a microphone picks up between words. A professional voice manages them with water and technique; production removes any that remain.

The long read: documentaries, corporate films, audiobooks, guides. Priced by word count as a buyout. See narrator voices.

A voice recording in the language or accent they grew up with. Listeners spot a performed accent in a sentence, which is why this site lists voices by native language.

A read with regional markers softened so it travels: neutral English for global e-learning, neutral Latin American Spanish for the region. Not the right choice for a local commercial.

The quiet hiss a room and a microphone make with nobody talking. The lower the better; a high noise floor is the sound of a hobby setup.

Work priced once, by word count and usage, with no residuals or agent fee. The rates here are non-union; what that means for your invoice.

The messages callers hear while they wait. Three or four of twenty to thirty seconds, rotated with music, is the usual set. See on-hold voice.

Re-recording one line or phrase rather than the whole script, usually after a small change. Within thirty days of a booking it is a revision.

The burst of air on a P or B that pops a microphone. A pop shield and technique prevent it; hearing plosives on a demo is a warning.

The person on the client side running the session or the edit. On a casting here that is usually you.

A short advertisement for a programme, event or the station itself. Sits under imaging for stations and channels; a promo for your own product is a commercial.

A list of names, places and technical words with a phonetic spelling, sent with the script. The single thing that most often saves a re-record.

A recording technique for long scripts: on a mistake the engineer rolls back a few seconds and the voice picks up mid-flow, so the file has no seams.

The published prices, by usage and word count, that every voice on the site has agreed to. The rate card is the price before you book, not a starting point.

A full new take of the script for tone or style. Under 750 words a booking here includes two; over that they are half rate unless you direct live.

A change to the script after recording, re-recorded for a small fee within thirty days of the booking. Different from a re-record, which is the same words read differently.

Twenty seconds of the recording space with nobody talking, captured at the start of a session. Editors use it to fill gaps and match noise reduction.

A rough temporary voice, often the editor's own, laid on a video so the cut can be timed before the real voice is recorded. Send it with the booking; it tells the voice the pace.

How long a script runs when read aloud. A natural pace is about 150 words a minute, slow 100, fast 200. The script length calculator does the sum.

The voice saying their name and the take number at the start of an audition. Auditions here arrive labelled, so slates are optional.

A voice hired to resemble a famous one. Fine for parody with the right legal advice; a risk for advertising. Ask for a voice in the same register instead.

One audio file per prompt, slide, line or module, named to your list, instead of one long recording. Ask for it whenever the audio will be loaded into a system.

A two-to-six-second station branding line played between songs: the station name, with attitude. See radio sweepers.

Recording to match a video's timing exactly. Booked with the video and timecodes and carrying a 100% loading. Hitting rough timings for your editor to place is ordinary narration plus production.

The last line of a commercial: brand name, offer, where to go. Often recorded in several versions for different markets or dates.

One recorded attempt at a line or script. Character and game work usually comes back with three takes per line so you can choose.

Industry word for the voice actor. "The talent" is the person you are booking.

The hours, minutes, seconds and frames of a video, used to say where each line should land. Send them for any synced read.

How long from booking to delivered files. Each voice states the turnaround they keep on their profile; most jobs are back within 24 to 48 hours, some the same day.

Where and how long a recording will be used. With word count, the thing that sets the price: an internal video is a buyout, a national TV spot is a licence.

The unseen announcer at a live event or on a broadcast: "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome...". A live announcer line on the rate card.

A read delivered with processing, music or effects already applied. The opposite of dry, and only what you want if nobody downstream will be mixing.

A line recorded on its own, not to picture, so the editor can place it wherever it fits. Cheaper and quicker than a synced read.

The number of words in the script, the unit this site prices on. Count before you book; the calculator also turns it into minutes.