Your brand videos don’t just act as digital billboards. They are essential to strengthen your brand’s bond with its audience. From the images used to the b-roll footage and the audio, every element significantly impacts a video. And adding a voice over is one such element that can easily lift the vibe of any video. But how to voice over a video?

We get it, many consider it a stressful task. However, you can do it in a few clicks. In this guide, we’ll explain how to voice over a video as we dig deeper into the topic.

What is a Voice Over?

A voice over is a person’s recorded voice being played over a video. It’s when we can hear someone speaking but can’t see them in the video. The idea is to describe, explain, or offer a context to what’s on screen. Primarily used in videos made in niches like virtual training and gaming, etc., voice overs have slowly expanded to every industry vertical and for the better.

Why Add Voice Over to a Video?

If you think videos win customers over with high-quality footage alone, think again. Good audio is equally, if not more, important. In fact, many people consume online content through listening as they multitask (workout, travel to work, perform house chores, etc.). For these reasons, it’s hard to miss the importance of excellent audio in a video.

But why does a video need a voice over? Here are a few answers:

To Personalize Your Videos

Videos give you the power to be truly consumer-driven. But you can’t harness that power without instilling your brand identity into the videos. Adding a voice over is a terrific way to do that. It lets you connect with your audience deeper by capitalizing on your “very own” and “very personal” voice.

To Add More Professionalism

Besides personalizing the video, voice over also makes it look more professional. So, if you want to raise your video’s production value, adding a voice over can be a smart strategy.

To Enhance Video Accessibility

While video content is about sharing a message with your audience through great visuals, you can aid accessibility and reach a bigger audience with voice overs. Adding a voice to your video improves experiences for people with disabilities like visual impairment or situational limitations like a shared workspace.

To Inspire Brand Trust

Layering your video with audio, such as voice over, can help you improve brand trust and loyalty as it adds more authenticity to your videos. Apart from forging a genuine bond with your audience, increased trust also means people are more inspired to take action, which could lead to more conversions along the line.

To Relay Your Message Better

Any video’s core is the message you want to convey through it. And amongst images, text, and animations, there’s little left to help you do it better. Voice overs, thus, can help you relay your message without taking a lot of screen real estate. Additionally, as people get to hear rather than consume everything coming up on the screen, it doesn’t get too intimidating for them.

How to Voice Over a Video

Adding a professional voice over to a video doesn’t have to be tricky. Using Wave.video’s Voice Over Video Maker, you can generate voice overs in over 20 languages. It’s just a matter of a few clicks. Here are the steps to follow when you want to add voice to a video:

Step 1 – Upload Your Video

Go to Wave.video and log into your account. Then, click “Upload Video” to upload the footage you want to add a voice over to.

Step 2 – Go to the Editor

Click the uploaded video and then select “Edit video” on the right to go inside the video editor. Next, select “Tracks” from above the video timeline and select “Audio 1” and so on… to add an audio layer to the video.

Step 3 – Click the Audio Layer

Now, hover anywhere on the audio layer (on the video timeline) and choose “Record Voice” from the options to record a voice over.

Step 4 – Record Your Voice

Once the countdown is over in the new window, record your voice to add it to the video and hit the stop icon once it’s done.

You can now listen to the voice over and add it to the video by clicking “Add voice” on the window.

Or, Generate Voice from Text

Although not a consecutive step, this is an alternative way to record your voice. Wave.video also lets you generate a voice over by converting text to speech.

To use this method of adding voice to a video, select “Auto Text-to-Speech” in Step 3. Or, click the “Generate voice” icon next to the Tracks tab above the video timeline.

You can then add text on the “Text-to-Speech” window and choose language, voice, speed, etc., to enhance your voice over.

Finally, hit the “Generate preview” tab and click “Add” to add the audio to your video.

Don’t forget to trim any unwanted parts of the audio track and adjust it to align the voice over with the video!

10 Tips to Add Voice to Video

Video production calls for various best practices to create impactful voice-overs that foster conversations. Check out our top tips on how to add voice to video like a pro:

1. Start with a Script

To drive home your message, have a script handy before you record your voice over. It would save you from those umms and ahhs and give your video direction. So, begin by taking some time to write a script and include all the points you want to speak about. Then, craft a word-for-word script to avoid meandering all over the place.

2. Volume and Clarity are the Cornerstones

When it comes to layering audio with video, clarity and volume are important. People won’t want to listen to recordings that sound muffled or cluttered. So, keep the speech clear and ensure that the audio’s volume is not too low or high that it makes it difficult for people to get your message.

3. Mind the Speed

Okay, so as important as the clarity and volume are, speed deserves the next spot in priority. Don’t rush as you speak; you can lose your audience’s attention. Likewise, too slow, and you risk putting your listeners to sleep.

Find a sweet spot where the pace is balanced and you don’t sound robotic. Take proper pauses to catch your breath and make it easier for your audience to consume the information.

4. Pronounce and Enunciate Well

While recording a voice over, a little extra work goes a long way. Practice pronouncing different words to sound right in your videos. Consider regional accents to be understood by your target audience and avoid confusion.

Also, enunciate well but don’t overdo it, or you’d sound like a robot.

Take a look at this video from Wave.video to understand how the right pronunciation and enunciation of words can make a huge difference to a voice over:

5. Focus on Tone and Voice Modulation

Well, we’re not trying to overwhelm you with technicalities, but focusing on your voice tonality and modulation is the key to creating effective voice overs.

Therefore, always use a tone that sounds natural and pleasant. Similarly, modulate your voice to add a certain gravitas to the audio. Giving due consideration to both these aspects can engage your audience better.

6. Look for Ease of Recording

Unsurprisingly, your voice-over recorder’s ease of use has a lot to do with producing excellent audio for your videos. So, choose a platform that doesn’t need a lot of grinding. Instead, using it should be hassle-free. It should also save time by offering multiple other tools to make stunningly engaging videos.

Think of Wave.video that lets you record voice overs, convert text to speech, caption your video, and do more on the fly. 

7. Use a Microphone and Place It Well

Although not a must-have, a quality mic can make your voice overs sound fantastic. There are many affordable and decent mics that you can use and achieve better sound than your laptop’s built-in mics.

Moreover, consider placing the mic correctly to get the right results. Avoid placing it too close or too far from your mouth. 6-7 inches from your mouth is usually a good enough distance to attain recognition accuracy.

 8. Choose a Quiet Recording Spot

In addition to a nice microphone, you’d need a nice place to record your voice-overs. It should ideally be free from distracting noises and shouldn’t be in a busy area like a workspace with people talking, a home with dogs barking in the background, etc.

If finding a quiet spot is difficult, record during hours when no one’s around or when disturbing sounds like honking cars are minimal.

9. Do a Test Recording

For the sake of putting your best voice forward, conduct a test recording before you record the final audio. A few sentences can help you understand how you sound, if the audio is clear and the volume is perfect, etc. Then, listen to the test recording and make necessary adjustments to your equipment, positioning, etc., before recording and adding voice to the video.

10. Edit Your Audio

After finishing your recording, always allot some time to editing. You may want to keep the entire audio the same, but a few tweaks could polish the whole piece. For example, syncing the audio to the video, removing dead space and even adding background music can remarkably elevate your voice over’s overall outcome.

All Set to Add Voice to Video?

Adding voice overs to your videos allows you to go beyond the traditional ways to connect with your audience. So, instead of getting buried under convoluted ways to catch your viewers’ attention, use voice overs.

Try Wave.video to easily record and customize your voice over. You can even generate automatic voice overs through text!

And, hey, if you want to remove sound from a video before you add a voice over, here are a few ways to do that.

Happy voicing your videos!