{"id":6067,"date":"2026-09-30T12:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T16:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevoicerealm.com\/blog\/?p=6067"},"modified":"2026-09-30T09:13:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T13:13:59","slug":"how-to-take-direction-in-a-voice-over-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevoicerealm.com\/blog\/how-to-take-direction-in-a-voice-over-session\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Take Direction in a Live Voice Over Session"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most voice actors learn the job alone. You get a script, you record it, you listen back, you send the files. Then one day a client says they’d like to direct the session live, a link arrives for Tuesday at 10am, and suddenly there are three people in your headphones waiting to hear what you do with line one. This guide is for anyone heading into their first live directed session, or anyone who’s done a few and came out feeling a step behind. It covers who you’ll meet, how to get the technology out of the way, and how to hear a note and turn it into a better take without losing your nerve.<\/p>\n

Who’s on the call, and what they’re listening for<\/h2>\n

A directed session is a small team working on one thing: your read. The line-up changes from job to job, but it usually looks something like this.<\/p>\n

Voice actor Katelyn Dawn, writing about her own live sessions, describes the first minutes plainly: “When you have a live-direct session, you are going to meet the engineer and voice director.” The engineer runs the recording and the connection. The director shapes the performance. Behind them there may be a producer, someone from the agency, or the client who wrote the script, and they’re often listening without saying much. Dawn notes that the director and engineer “will most likely connect with the agency reps and\/or clients during the session”, which is why you’ll sometimes hear nothing at all for a minute while they talk among themselves.<\/p>\n

Knowing who’s who matters, because each person is listening for something different. The engineer wants clean audio and consistent levels. The director wants a performance that fits the brief. The client wants to hear their brand, their product name said right, and a read that fits in the time they’ve got. When a note arrives, it helps to guess which of those three concerns it’s coming from.<\/p>\n

Dawn’s advice for the first minute is simple and worth copying: “take this time to introduce yourself, and make sure you know their name.” Write the names down. Saying “Thanks, Priya” after a note lands very differently from “Thanks, um, you”.<\/p>\n

\n
Self-directed<\/span><\/p>\n

You’re the director<\/h4>\n

You choose the read, record as many takes as you like, pick the best one and send it. Nobody hears the takes you threw away. The risk is that your best guess isn’t what the client pictured.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Live directed<\/span><\/p>\n

You’re the instrument<\/h4>\n

The team hears everything, in real time. You offer a read, they shape it, you adjust. It’s faster to the right answer and there are no revision rounds later, but you need to change quickly and stay relaxed while people listen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Get the technology out of the way the day before<\/h2>\n

Nothing eats into a session like a connection problem. The director’s time is expensive, the client is watching the clock, and the first ten minutes of a session spent fixing your audio is the one thing everyone will remember.<\/p>\n

Most sessions run over a remote studio link such as Source-Connect, a browser-based tool, or a plain video call with you recording locally. Whatever the studio uses, test it on your own first. Voice actor Carrie Olsen, in her guide to preparing for directed sessions, puts it clearly: “The key is to test it out on your own before your schedule directed voiceover session.” She also recommends a wired connection over wifi: “I recommend being hardwired as it is more stable.”<\/p>\n

Her other tips are the kind that sound obvious until the day you forget one. “Close all browsers and programs that you’re not using.” And “make sure that your phone is in silent mode and that your notifications are turned off.” A laptop chime in the middle of the perfect take is the sort of thing that gets a laugh from the engineer, but it still costs you the take.<\/p>\n

\"A

A cable to the router is steadier than wifi for a live session. \u00a9 The Voice Realm<\/p><\/div>\n

If something does go wrong on the day, say so straight away. As Olsen puts it, “the sooner you let them know, the sooner you can work to correct it.” Engineers fix connection issues all the time. What they can’t fix is an actor who stays quiet for five minutes hoping it’ll sort itself out.<\/p>\n

Finally, have the script ready in a way you can read it easily. Printed pages make no noise when you turn them, as long as you lay them out flat and don’t rustle them while you’re recording. A tablet works too, if it’s set so the screen won’t sleep. Mark it up in advance so you know where the breaths go and which words carry the meaning. Our guide to marking up a script before you say a word<\/a> walks through that pass by pass.<\/p>\n

\"Infographic:

\u00a9 The Voice Realm<\/p><\/div>\n

Hearing a note and changing one thing<\/h2>\n

This is the real skill of a directed session. You’ll read a line, there’ll be a short silence, and then the director will say something like “Great. Can we try that a bit lighter, and let’s land on the word ‘today’.” What happens next separates actors who get rebooked from actors who don’t.<\/p>\n

Good directors keep notes small. Voice actor Toby Ricketts, writing for people who direct voice sessions, advises them to “give one or two notes per take (if possible). Overloading a voice actor with five directions at once creates confusion.” Not every director follows that, so it helps to do the sorting yourself. If you get four notes at once, pick the one that matters most, usually the first or the last one they said, and focus the next take on that. Then fold in the rest over the following takes.<\/p>\n

Change what they asked for, and try to keep everything else. If the note is about pace, don’t also change your pitch, your energy and your smile. The director is trying to find the right read by adjusting one thing at a time, like tuning a radio. If you change everything at once, they can’t tell what worked.<\/p>\n

Write the note down, even as a single word in the margin. By take seven it’s easy to forget what take three was fixing. A small arrow for “go up at the end”, a circle around a word to stress, or a slash for a pause will keep you consistent when you go back to the line later.<\/p>\n

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An arrow, a circle, a slash: small marks keep a note from getting lost by take seven. \u00a9 The Voice Realm<\/p><\/div>\n

And don’t argue with a note in the moment. You might think the old read was better. You might be right. Give them what they asked for first, fully and without holding back. If you still have an idea, you’ll get your chance, and it lands better once you’ve shown you can take direction.<\/p>\n

Translating the notes you’ll actually hear<\/h2>\n

Directors have a shorthand, and a lot of it is feelings rather than instructions. Dawn sums up the kind of notes she usually gets: “Mostly, change up your speed, emphasize this phrase more, change the tone here, or your energy, etc.” That’s most of it. The hard part is the words people use to describe those changes.<\/p>\n

Here’s how the common ones usually translate into something you can do.<\/p>\n

\"Infographic:

\u00a9 The Voice Realm<\/p><\/div>\n

“More conversational” or “less announcer.”<\/strong> Drop the pitch a little, take the push off the start of each sentence, and picture one person across a table. You’re telling, not selling. Our article on why “warm, natural, conversational” might not mean what you think<\/a> goes deep on this one, because it’s the most common note in the business and the most often misread.<\/p>\n

“Warmer.”<\/strong> Usually means slower, lower and closer. Softer consonants, a little more breath, a thought of someone you like.<\/p>\n

“More energy.”<\/strong> Rarely means louder. It usually means faster thinking, crisper consonants and more lift at the ends of phrases. Stand up if you can. Energy you can see in your body comes through in the voice.<\/p>\n

“Punch that word” or “land on it.”<\/strong> Stress one word, then let the rest of the sentence relax around it. If everything is punched, nothing is.<\/p>\n

“Can you pick it up a bit?”<\/strong> Pace. Take out the gaps between sentences first, before you speed up the words themselves. It keeps the read clear while cutting the time.<\/p>\n

“Just one more for safety.”<\/strong> Do the same read again, as close as you can. They liked it. This isn’t a hint that something was wrong.<\/p>\n

Ricketts also tells directors to steer by “Tone, Pacing, and Intention” rather than vague notes like more energy. You can use the same three to decode anything they say. When a note feels unclear, ask yourself whether it’s about how it sounds, how fast it goes, or what you mean by it. One of the three usually fits.<\/p>\n

The waiting is part of the job<\/h2>\n

Here’s what nobody tells you before your first session: a lot of it is silence. Dawn describes it honestly: “Much of what you are doing in a live-directed session is waiting around while the engineers and decision-makers listen back.” You’ll read, they’ll go quiet, and it can feel like the silence means something went wrong. It almost never does. They’re comparing takes, checking the time, or asking the client a question you can’t hear.<\/p>\n

\"A

The quiet moments are the team listening back. Stay ready. \u00a9 The Voice Realm<\/p><\/div>\n

Use the gaps well. Sip water. Keep your posture. Look at the next line and think about what it means. Don’t fill the silence with chat, and don’t clear your throat into a live mic. Dawn’s advice for the moment they come back is the whole job in one sentence: “You have to be ready to give them 100% effort in your next line, and jump in whenever they ask you to perform again.”<\/p>\n

It also helps to keep your energy steady across a long session. The first takes are usually your freshest, and a two-hour session can wear the voice down. Take a small break if you’re offered one, and if you need one, ask.<\/p>\n

When you don’t understand the note<\/h2>\n

Sometimes a note just doesn’t make sense to you. “Can it be a bit more purple?” is a real kind of note, and every working actor has had one. Asking a question is fine. Asking it well is a skill.<\/p>\n

Don’t say “I don’t get it.” Offer a choice instead: “Do you mean brighter, or more playful?” Or even better, give them two quick versions and let them pick. “Let me try two, one a bit brighter and one a bit more fun.” Directors love this, because it lets them point at something instead of describing it.<\/p>\n

If you have an idea of your own, wait until they’ve got a read they’re happy with, then ask: “I’ve got one more idea for this line, can I give you one?” Most directors will say yes, and sometimes that’s the take that ends up in the ad. Dawn calls the director “a huge asset” and the session “a really collaborative experience”, and the best sessions feel exactly like that.<\/p>\n

If you’d like to practise taking live notes before you do it for a paying client, a coach is the fastest route. Voice Master Academy<\/a> is a good place to get used to changing a read on the spot with a coach in your ear.<\/p>\n

Wrapping up the session<\/h2>\n

When they say “I think we’ve got it”, don’t leave yet. Ask whether they need anything else: pickups, alternate reads, a wild line for the end of the ad. Check how they want the files. Some studios record everything on their side and need nothing from you. Others want your local recording as a backup, named and trimmed a certain way.<\/p>\n

Thank everyone by name. The engineer too. Then, if you recorded locally, send any files they asked for the same day. A short, friendly note afterwards doesn’t hurt either.<\/p>\n

Directed sessions feel intimidating at first because everything happens in the open. But they’re also the fastest way to get better, because you get expert feedback in real time on every line. Show up prepared, change one thing at a time, stay calm through the silences, and you’ll be the actor they ask for by name next time. If you’re still building the kind of read that gets you into the room, our guide to the real-person commercial read<\/a> is a good next stop, and there’s fresh work on the voice over jobs board<\/a> most days.<\/p>\n

Sources: “What To Expect in a Live Direct Session Using Source Connect”, Katelyn Dawn<\/a>; “How to prepare for directed voice over session”, Carrie Olsen<\/a>; “How to Give Voiceover Direction (Live or After the Session)”, Toby Ricketts<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your first live directed session? Who’s on the call, how to test the tech, and how to turn a director’s note into a better take without losing your nerve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[235,504],"tags":[590,592,593,591,594],"class_list":["post-6067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-voice-acting-voice-actor-2","category-voice-over-tips","tag-directed-session","tag-remote-recording","tag-voice-acting-tips","tag-voice-direction","tag-voice-over-sessions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t