Best practices for Voice123 sample descriptions

We’ve updated the sample description forms in Voice123 to help improve your chances of being contacted by clients for projects that suit your VO skills. 

Here’s a glossary of definitions for the updated sample fields:

Sample name

• Write a catchy name so clients can see what the sample is about. Include your character/role, client or brand name, and project category/type.

  • If you’re interpreting a special character or a specific role, you can follow the structure: character/role name, project name, client name  
    • e.g., Narrator in an Environmental documentary for National Geographic 
    • e.g., Live announcer in a National spot for the NBA
    • e.g., Mad professor in Digital escape room experience
    • e.g Scooby Doo animated character - Demo
  • If it’s a commercial sample, you can follow this structure: Brand/company name and project type
    • e.g., Whole Foods Market - Instructional video for suppliers' training

Accents and Dialects

• This field expands the ‘Languages’ field. You can add up to 2 accents or dialects, such as:
  • Northern, Southern, American, British, African-American, etc.
  • There is no pre-defined list of options to choose from. Feel free to include any accent-related words that relate to your sample. 
  • Avoid non-geographical terms.

Voice styles

You can add up to 2 voice styles from a predefined list of options, such as:

• • Warm, conversational, calm, happy, etc.
  • Voice styles will be a filterable category for clients when using the search feature.

Search keywords

You can add up to 3 descriptive keywords from a dropdown list or add tags such as characters, brands, or other keywords not considered in the previous fields.

• For example: Morgan Freeman, Nike, easy-going, approachable, etc. These should match commonly searched voice over terms.  
• These options are populated from client searches and can be used for inspiration, but be sure to choose only those that reflect your sample's content.
• Avoid adding search keywords in this field that you may have previously added in the other fields (sample name, language, accents, purposes, voice styles, etc). This won’t provide additional benefits and will be a missed opportunity to include a new word that could match a client’s needs.
• Be sure to vary your search keywords among your samples. Avoid repetition so you can include more variety. Don't lose the chance to include unique words in your sample to position it for clients. Each sample is unique and should showcase a specific aspect of your work.

Additional sample details

The goal of this new release is to distribute the words from this section amongst the existing fields (language, accents, purposes, voice styles) so that clients find your sample/s when they’re looking for that specific performance.

If your samples have this section, you will still be able to see the content you had previously entered, which can be copied and saved for future use. However, this section will be phased out and will not affect the Voice123 search algorithm.

Updating your samples

Here’s an example of an updated sample in the new sample form structure: