Essential Plugins for Voice Over and Audiobook Narration

You’ll notice a theme here: none of these plugins add to your recording. Instead, they all take something away!

Start with proper mic technique and a suitably treated room, and you should not need much from your plugin collection. Natural sound is much more desirable, and you should consider the use of plugins as a last resort.

When you think about it, voice over is about recording the sound of your voice and just the sound of your voice. Anything that is done afterward detracts from the performance.

Equalizer

The only equalization (EQ) that is acceptable and even expected is a simple high-pass filter to limit the low end and a low-pass filter to limit the high end. For these simple tasks, any EQ plugin that has an adjustable cutoff should suffice. In truth, every single DAW has a built-in EQ plug-in that should work wonderfully for the simple needs of voice over.

Example: ReaEQ, part of the ReaPlugs VST FX Suite — FREE

Compressor

A good compressor will take a very dynamic vocal delivery and tame it down to one your clients and listeners can enjoy, clearly hearing the nuances and clarity of your voice, without needing to adjust the volume or loudness.

Honestly, you don’t need to get too fancy - we are not trying to get too creative in the way the compressor colors the tone, but just to “round off” the tops of the peaks. Again, every single DAW has a compressor that can be suitably configured for voice over our audiobook narration.

ReaComp, part of the ReaPlugs VST FX Suite — FREE

Limiter

The final link in the chain, the limiter is essentially another compressor, but it is tuned to absolutely stop sounds from becoming louder than a certain level. You do not want the sound to just clip, or be chopped off harshly, as that would ruin the sound of your voice, so the limiter acts as a compressor by taking your pre-set limit as the hard limit, and applying compression to the track only as the volume gets close to the limit. This leaves quieter passages untouched and only compresses those sounds that would have crossed your limit.

ReaLimit, part of the ReaPlugs VST FX Suite — FREE

Optionals - Noise suppression

This is a broad category that encompasses everything in your recording that is not your actual voice. The plug-ins available here are broken down into different categories based on the types of noise being suppressed - external room noise, mouth noise, and breathing noise.

Note that none of these noise suppression plugins are essential, but they serve a purpose for those without a treated booth or dead-silent studio.

Be careful though, because setting any of these incorrectly can have serious consequences for other segments of your recording. Be sure to re-listen to a larger section of your recording as you dial in your settings to make certain noise is the only thing you remove!

Room noise suppression

Of course, sometimes you can’t control everything, and whether it is the hum of your monitor or fluorescent lamps, the drone of your computer fan, the rattle from the refrigerator or air conditioning unit, or even the sounds of the highway outside, extraneous sounds need to be tamed. A dead silent recording booth is best, and these noise suppression plugins only really work with consistent droning sounds in a narrow frequency range and not unpredictable sounds.

• ReaFir, part of the ReaPlugs VST FX Suite — FREE
• DeNoise, part of Adobe Audition
• RX 10 Voice De-noise or Spectral De-noise, part of RX 10 Elements by iZotope (~$129 US)
• Extract:Dialogue, from Acon Digital (~$100 US), more suited to drastic clean-up
• Clarity Vx from Waves (~$40 US)

Mouth noise control

Yes, prevention is best, but for what you can’t control… Mouth smacks, lip noises, saliva squishing, whatever you want to call it, it must not end up in your final recording. These plugins listen for those short, sharp transients that indicate an undesirable click, and trim them out.

• RX 10 Mouth De-click, part of RX 10 Elements by iZotope (~$129 US)
• DeClicker, part of Adobe Audition

Breath control

Free up your long-form reads with a breath control plugin. These plugins listen for breaths in your recordings and reduce their level. Be careful if trying to completely eliminate breaths this way, as you need to carefully tailor the plugin to your particular voice, or you will end up with missing sections in other parts of your dialogue!

• RX 10 Breath Control, part of RX 10 Elements by iZotope (~$129 US)
• DeBreath by Waves (~$30 US)

Conclusion

Equalization, compression, and limiting — the three basic plugins that every voice over artist should make use of.

In a pinch, consider the types of noise control plugins I mentioned here, but use them wisely. Use a light touch! Anything more and you’re likely to do more harm than good.

And don’t feel like you need to invest in a whole arsenal of plugins. You would be better served by knowing more about proper audio engineering with the simple tools at your disposal than by having more plugins.