Typecasting is the state where an actor is constantly brought in to act for a particular type of character. It happens across all forms of acting and voice acting is no exception. Some people will be grateful that their voice serves a selected character but others will be rather miffed at the idea of only being able to voice one or two types of characters throughout their careers.

Honestly? I don’t blame them.

Part of the appeal of voice acting (in my opinion) is the idea of being able to voice a wide variety of different characters in different stories across different mediums such as games and animation. To suddenly realize that you might only fit a select few types closes many doors you thought were previously open. Not a good feeling at all.

So what can you do?

The best advice is, of course, practice! Not just practice your regular routine practice voicing things you’ve never voiced before! Take characters from shows you’re watching and record over their lines, try and figure out what makes the character really them. Pick up on techniques other voice actors are using and add those to your repertoire.

But there’s a hard aspect about attempting to break out of a typecast.

If your voice doesn’t commonly fit for the character you’re going for, you’re going to have a much harder time competing for roles than someone whose voice does fit. Is it impossible? Of course not, and don’t let anyone stop you from going for it! But you do need to think about this before submitting that audition.

But if people like your work with a particular type, is it really all that bad?

Personally I think it’s subjective. Someone who constantly voices a young main protagonist may have a much better opinion of their typecast than someone who only voices side characters and the like. But if you enjoy the character you’re voicing then just embrace it and take comfort in the fact that you can probably play that character better than anyone!

So you’ve gotten yourself acquainted with a new microphone, created your accounts a number of different websites, and now you’re ready to find a project and start auditioning!

But it can’t be that simple, right?

On the surface it seems rather simple! Taking a look at the lines, recording them, exporting them in the appropriate format and sending them off. But there is so much more to a good audition than just those three steps, and to help you get the most out of your audition here are four different tips I’ve found in my auditioning process that’s helped me massively:

• Read the Instructions Carefully!

It sounds like a no-brainer, but making sure you take the time to digest every piece of direction the director has given you can make or break an audition right from the get-go. As an example, I’ve sent in an audition for a character that I knew was going to have a robotic sounding voice. Knowing how to do some basic filtering, I decided to take the initiative and put one on my audition. It was only after I auditioned did I see that it specifically said not to apply any sort of effect onto the audition. A small oversight lead to wasted time, and failed potential for a role.

• Record to Read then Record to Perform

Sometimes you’ll be recording and no matter how many times you reach a certain line you always flub it up somehow. The best advice to fix this is to not only read the script in your head the first time you see it, but record one small run through just to get used to saying the words. Once you’ve done that a few times then you can go back and give it all the energy you can muster!

• Record in Mono!

Super simple tip but you always want to make sure you record everything in mono. Recording in stereo not only takes up more time, but makes it much more difficult for directors to mess with your audio once they get it. Save you and them some time and effort by recording in mono!

• No Half-Energy, Give it Your All!

The most important tip of the list and one that really separates the good from the great. An audition is your chance to show your skill, don’t throw it away by not giving it every ounce of energy you have! Record a take oozing with energy, then do another and double that until you feel completely satisfied. If you get an opportunity to listen to others and feel you aren’t energetic enough, then that’s a sign you just have to make even more for yourself!

These are four tips that I’ve learned over the course of practicing for a year but these aren’t the only four! There are plenty of other lessons to learn on auditioning but I hope these have given you some insight. Go out there and achieve