Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, welcome. My name is Angela. I am a full-time voiceover artist and audiobook narrator. And my channel is dedicated to those of you that are just getting started out in this wonderful world of voiceover and audiobook narration. And through my channel, I share with you some of the techniques and tips and tricks that I use every day in my own voiceover business, and I answer your questions about the business. So one of the questions that I got recently was regarding DAWs. Well, actually, I get this question quite a bit. And if you're unfamiliar, DAW is an acronym for Digital Audio Workstation. And that is the software that we use to record our voices, to create audiobooks, to create voiceover projects, to record, edit, and then send audio files to your clients. There are lots of different options to choose from, so that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's get into it. If you're going to get into voiceover or audiobook narration, you absolutely need to have a DAW. Again, a DAW is a Digital Audio Workstation. And that, again, is the software that you need to record your voice with. And there are lots of different options to choose from, varying from free to paid. And of course, the paid ones are typically going to be a little bit personal opinion, a little bit easier to use. Some of them are a little bit more music producer-friendly. Some are a little bit more voiceover-friendly. And we're going to go through some of the ones that I am familiar with, along with the one that I use and have used. And that way, you can hopefully decide which one will be best for you. So first, let's start with Audacity. Audacity is completely free to use. And let's check that out now. All right. So this is Audacity. And you can find this software at audacityteam.org. And this software is completely free to download. It works with Windows and Mac. And this is actually what I started with in the very beginning with recording voiceovers and audiobooks. And this is what it looks like. It's pretty easy to use. I believe there are some plugins that you can use with it as well. I don't know exactly which ones. You might want to do a little research and find out which plugins will work with this. And plugins are additional pieces of downloadable software that you can use that perform a certain task or effect for your voice. Such as, if you watched any of my videos, you know that I'm always talking about NS1 from Waves for noise reduction, that sort of thing. If you download plugins to use, Audacity, from what I understand, can use a lot of different or is friendly for using plugins. Definitely double check with Audacity before you purchase a plugin to make sure that it'll work for it. I know a lot of voiceover artists that use this software. There are podcasters that use this software. Again, it's completely free and free to use. The next one I wanted to talk about is the DAW that I personally use and always recommend for voiceover as it seems to me, personal opinion again, that it is a little bit more voiceover friendly. This is Adobe Audition and it can be found at adobe.com. You can purchase the standalone app for Adobe Audition or you can purchase the entire suite, which includes Lightroom and Premiere Pro and dozens of other apps that are exclusive to Adobe and they all work together. You can cross use them, different functions. For example, if you had the suite and you had Premiere Pro and you wanted to edit the audio in a video, you can send it directly over to Adobe Audition to edit and then send it directly right back over to Premiere Pro without having to, you know, open different software suites and, you know, download and then upload. It just, they talk to each other, which makes things a whole lot easier in my world because I work with a lot of audio and video. Anyway, the standalone Adobe Audition app right now is $20.99 a month. And I believe there is a 14-day free trial at the moment, which if you wanted to check it out and try it, you're welcome to try it for that free trial. I would definitely recommend it. Again, this would be good for voiceover, audio books, podcasters, just about anything that requires recording, mixing, editing, formatting audio. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Adobe Audition can be used with either Windows or Mac. And then the next one I see quite a bit is GarageBand, and that is for Mac only. And I could be completely wrong, but I think GarageBand comes with Mac products. Don't quote me on that. I'm not entirely sure. It looks like it may be free to download, but again, it does not work with Windows. It is intended for Mac, and it is used by not only voiceover artists, but music producers and podcasters alike. But it looks like that it has a lot of the same elements that Adobe Audition does. I've never personally used it because I am a PC user, but it looks like it would be fairly easy to learn and understand and to use. And another one I hear quite a bit is Avid's Pro Tools. And I have never used Pro Tools, but from what I understand, it looks like there is a lite version for looks like free music software for students, musicians, and podcasters. And then it looks like there's a free trial of some of the other packages to use. I haven't personally used it again, but I know of some other people that have paid for this and use it and seem to be happy with it. And last but not least, the last DAW that I hear quite a bit being used for voiceover is Studio One. And again, I think this one might be more for music production, but can still be used for voiceover with all of the same basic functions that it does. And it looks like it's a one-time purchase or a monthly or annual purchase with some additional items that come with it. But I know of a few voiceover artists that still use Studio One and like it quite a bit. But it looks like they also have a Try Now feature or a free trial. So what I would do is to do some research on some of these DAWs, and there are others. So you could do your own research and find which one you like, which one just speaks to you. Looks like it could be, I know they look intimidating to start, believe me, I've been there. But if you do a little bit of research on these, you know, compare what plugins you can use with them, their pricing, their ease of use, the way that they look even matters a lot to you because you're going to be looking, as a voiceover artist, you're going to be using your DAW every single day that you are working in this industry. So it is going to have to be something that you can understand, that you can learn, that is visually appealing to the eye. Ease of use is going to be huge. So take a look around at some of these DAWs that I've recommended to you and then find some others if you want to just make sure that you have all of the education on DAWs that you could possibly have and then make the best choice for you. But a DAW is something for a voice artist or an audiobook narrator, something that you absolutely need to have. And again, I personally use Adobe Audition. Most of my videos here on my channel are done. The tutorials are done using Adobe Audition. And a lot of my students and my coach and a lot of other people that I have worked with also use Adobe Audition. So it makes it a little bit easier to translate everything that I am explaining, you know, if someone, if the other person also has Adobe Audition. So that was one of the reasons that I had started with Adobe Audition myself. And not only that, but it just seems to me that it is a little bit more voiceover friendly than some of the others. And nothing against them. I'm sure they're fabulous, but I haven't personally used them or tried them. I kind of went from Audacity to Audition and then stuck with Audition for, you know, ever since I started. And I have had no complaints whatsoever. So I hope this video helped to explain what DAWs are and why you need them and all of the different options that you have available to you to choose, right? There are, I think, four or five that we went over here in this video. And there are lots of others to look at. These were just some of the few that I hear used the most. So I hope that helps. If you have any questions about voiceover or audiobook narration in general, please leave them down below. If you'd like more information about me, my work, or how I can help you get started in voiceover or audiobook narration, please check out my website at voiceoverangela.com. Thank you again for your time. I always appreciate you. If you found this video helpful, please hit that like and subscribe buttons. I appreciate that too. But until next time, bye.