Blog

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We at Voice To Me work with sound and spoken information in all its forms. We mediate and produce over 8000 jobs on an annual basis. It can be a telephone exchange, an elevator message, an advertising jingle, a podcast or a long e-Learning course in a variety of languages.

One category that has grown explosively in recent years is Audiobooks. Together with its own production company Audio To Me, Voice To Me is today Sweden’s largest supplier of audio books in the education sector. Over the past 10 years, we have made thousands of books for elementary, high school, and college.
In the sign of Pandemic, the demand for audiobook novels has also increased explosively, something we at Voice To Me think is great fun.
Sometimes we receive requests that are a little out of the box and that require a little extra from everyone involved. Something we think is extra fun and challenging.

The author Bengt Bohm contacted us on Voice To Me a couple of weeks ago and was looking for a voice that could read his book. Since the book took place in the 17th century, it was important that the reader could live into the story and understand the meaning. We came up with some suggestions for voices that we thought were suitable for the task and together with the customer came to the conclusion that our talented voice Lars was a perfect match.

Lars really understood the assignment and delivered exactly the style the customer requested.

Here you can read the review from the customer:

A big thanks you to Lars who worked very well with this book and thanks to the customer for a fun collaboration.

Here you can listen to the audiobook:
https://bokon.se/ljudbok/spetalet_bengt-bohm-2/

Do you have an audiobook you want help with? Or do you have any questions or ideas you want to discuss with someone?

Do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to help you. As we said, we love audio books ..

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Have you thought about the different voice recordings you interact with daily? Such as when you visit a hospital or supermarket, or when you travel by public transport. There are multiple channels and communicators in the public sector have to reach out to several target audiences. How does someone who works in communication make sure that target audiences follow restrictions or receive the correct information?

Voice recordings can accommodate important messages

Please stand clear of the doors and mind the gap between the platform and the train; keep your distance and consider other customers; your call has been queued or your number has been called; you have been sent to another platform or department. There are countless voice recordings that reach you through announcements and messages. Sure, it’s great when you understand them all. But have you thought about the extensive work behind those messages? You usually only register what you, yourself, understand, as well as your target audience. That being said, announcements that are read out in a language you don’t understand are subconsciously filtered out in the flow of information.

The importance of accessible voice recordings

When you work in the public sector, it’s important for both safety and security that everyone can understand and absorb the relevant information. This information includes referrals and social information. Sometimes it can even be a matter of life and death, such as when a fire alarm goes off and you’re told how to evacuate the premises. It’s incredibly important that everyone understands how to act and how to get to a safe space. The less you as a recipient think about the voice itself the better, because the message is received – loud and clear.

Have you got the right language resources for an authentic voice recording?

Working in the public sector often, if not always, requires a degree of multilingual understanding. This then means you have internal access to greater language resources. But there are actually few businesses that do this. Even if you work in a multicultural workplace where you are enriched with multilingual colleagues on a daily basis, it isn’t certain that they’re best suited for a voice recording job. Since it takes time to find the right people internally, as well as create scripts so the message is understood and record and launch messages for specific channels, it’s important that the final product is of the highest quality. It’s a job that can be both easier and more fun if you get help. The secret behind all public announcements is that it’s the voices and translators behind the message that are received by an external party. The senders simply create a voice recording and translate their messages into different languages which can then be used across a broad range of channels.

External help with voice recording

Those who complete these translations are experts in voice recording – just like our team at Voice To Me. We work on voice-overs for supermarkets, telephone switchboards, or public transport, and make sure that all messages are played back in the native language so that the language is as authentic as possible. This is because it’s incredibly important for you, as a listener, to absorb the reference, warning or information and react accordingly.

Do you need help with voice recording?

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Commissioned by Bonnier Audio, Audio To Me has produced the audiobook for Renata Chlumska’s book När bergen kallar. A very special audiobook production where we had the honor of having Renata at our studio in Jönköping.  We had the privilege to up close hear Renata tell about how she was the first Swedish woman to climb Mount Everest, and then her journey towards becoming Sweden’s first woman to meet the challenge Seven Summits. An incredibly inspiring story that at least made us at Audio To Me want to aim for new heights.

The audiobook is now available at Storytel and Nextory.

Here you see what it looked like when Renata read in our studio

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Did you know that we at Voice To Me also offer children’s voices?

Recently, we were commissioned to produce a couple of readings with children’s voices for a campaign like Erikshjälpen.

Feel free to take a look at the video below and read about the important work that Erikshjälpen does.

Every second child in the world is exposed to domestic violence. Three out of four children between the ages of two and four are exposed to systematic violence for educational purposes. Half of all children between the ages of 13 and 15 face physical punishment at school.

This is a reality in several countries where Erikshjälpen operates. During the corona pandemic, violence against children has also increased, as a result of increased stress in many families.

The voices that are part of this campaign:

Oliver: Listen here

Ida: Listen here

Lovisa: Listen here

 If you want to book any of these voices, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

 

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Through an innovation procurement, four proposals have developed solutions that can contribute to more people traveling actively in a safe way. All solutions are based on the sustainability goals in Agenda 2030.

To stimulate the development of smart solutions for active travel, the Swedish Transport Administration has carried out an innovation procurement together with the municipalities of Skellefteå and Uppsala. In March 2020, four proposals received research funding to further develop their ideas.

We at Voice To Me have been commissioned to make the voice for one of the contributions, namely to RSI Bike. RSI Bike is an innovation that proactively wants to reduce bicycle accidents. In the video below, you can hear more about this through our wonderful voice EwaMaria.

On the Swedish Transport Administration’s website, you can read more about the procurement and vote for the grant that you want win the procurement.

https://www.trafikverket.se/resa-och-trafik/forskning-och-innovation/aktuell-forskning/gang-och-cykel/aktivt-resande–det-ska-vara-enkelt-och-sakert-att -go-cycling-and-aka-collective /

Do you want to book EwaMarias or another one of our talented voices for your next project?

Do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to help you.

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The retail chain ÖoB is a Swedish chain with about 100 stores around the country. They contacted us through their marketing agency in March last year and were looking for a new voice that can present their offerings for commercials on television, radio and on social media.

We at Voice To Me got the mission to find a voice that fits ÖoB’s brand and that can present the different products in a fun and clear way. It was also important for the customer that the selected voice could be flexible as there could be rapid changes or additions in the scripts.

We jointly agreed that our voice talent Mikaela was a good match to the client wishes.

At the first recording we had a live session, a producer from the agency participated while Mikaela recorded in order to make it easier for her to find the right style. They managed to find a style they both liked quickly and Mikaela got through the rest of the script without any trouble.

Since then,  a great deal of scripts have been read with Mikaela who now is very comfortable in her role as the voice for ÖoB.

We would be very happy if you would like to watch and listen to one of the films we made together here:

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The Chinese car brand Maxus has through the Norwegian company RSA commissioned us to help with finding a voice for their video presentations. Maxus have dealers all over the country, and with their 100 percent electric cars they are class leading within the market.

We have helped Maxus make the voice for both Radio and TV commercials as well as informative videos for their website. Not only in Swedish, but also in Norwegian, Danish and Finnish.

The choices fell on the following voices who now have made several readings for Maxus as they have become a regular customer. We are so happy to work with RSA and Maxus.

Swedish: SWEM5011-FREDRIK

Norweigan: NORM009-DAN

Danish:  DANM158-TORBEN

Finnish: FINM005-JUKKA

 Here you can see the end results on a couple of movies we have done together:

Denmark https://maxus-danmark.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/e-D3-promo.mp4

Sweden https://maxus.se/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Produktfilm.mp4

Norway https://maxus.no/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/eD3-produktfilm.mp4

Finland https://maxus.fi/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/e-Deliver3.mp4

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National advertising
Recently we helped Coca Cola Sweden with a Voiceover for their recycling campaign. They redesigned all the plastic bottles for Coca Cola, Fanta, Sprite and Bonaqua. The commercial is produced by Lejonbröder” and the choice of voice fell on our talent Sanna

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Maybe you have been told you have the perfect voice to become a professional voice actor. Perhaps you have a unique tone, you can impersonate a celebrity voice, you can sing, you can act, you have incredible vocal stamina…. Or a variety of other possibilities that have made you think:

“Should I become a voice talent?”.

But how do you get into voice over work?

There are a lot of companies with platforms that allow you to get into voice over work by recording a demo and matching a project with your voice. But which one is right for you? Well, let us help you get started.

Here are the 3 basics to becoming a voice talent:

1) You must have flexibility.

Most new voice talents don’t just jump into the biz full time without testing their workload and knowing the industry a bit. If you have a flexible schedule and want to start voicing projects as a hobby, you should know that most voice over projects require a 48-hour or less turn around for recording. This means at any given moment, regardless of time zone, you could be asked to voice professional narration. And since your voice is your product, product availability is key.

2) Ensure you have access to a voice recording studio

It sounds simple enough, but proper voicing equipment takes some space. Also, acoustically, where your recordings are done could impact the quality of voice over. So regardless of how you sell your voice over services, make sure you have a basic recording setup either at home or nearby. Pro tip: community radio stations/ production houses can also be great resources for getting started with voice over work.

3) You need to have the interest and ability to take vocal instruction

It may seem obvious, but you’ll need to be able to follow your client’s brief on the voice overs. Even if you work with a company or company platform to connect your voice with projects, instructions on timing, tone and intonation will need to be followed. If you are person who is open to learning, with these abilities to follow vocal instruction, you could be the perfect voice over talent.

While we know there are various options for a starting voice talent, at Voice To Me, we build a relationship with each of our talents, know their voice skills and help to establish a quality standard our clients trust. If you already have a portfolio, know your strengths, and want to join our team, you can apply as a voice talent here…. We cannot wait to hear from you.

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Voice To MeHow to order a voice over

3 simple steps to problem-free voice recording from Voice To Me.

  • 1. Choose the voice-over talent you want

Listen to demos of the specific language you are looking for, or let us send a voice talent that we recommend for each language by contacting us at Voice To Me here. 

The voices you have chosen are grouped in a list, which means that you can easily download all the voice samples to your computer, and advise colleagues and customers later on. You can also send a price inquiry for the voices you have chosen. A price inquiry can also be sent without specifying any voices first. We will send you an offer back within 2 hours. If you need help in finding a voice, or have other questions, you are of course welcome to phone us at +46(0)36-770 15 40.

  • 2. Recording

As soon as you have approved the quote, we place the order to your chosen talent and we’ll send you login details for our My Voice To Me production environment. Here you can follow the entire process right up to delivery.

  • 3. Delivery

The completed audio files will then be delivered in your choice of file format (wav, mp3, aif etc.) either via email or by download from our ftp server. Upon request, we can send a CD to you in the mail instead.

You then confirm receipt of the audio files.

If, after the recording has been made, any script changes are required, a small surcharge will be payable. However, if the voice-over artist has, for example, made a mistake in pronunciation or if either something is missing or you are dissatisfied with any section of the text, we will of course correct this at no extra cost.

Please note that at any point in the process, you can always obtain help from us by contacting us via e-mail or telephone.

How to order a voice over from Voice To Me in 3 simple steps