Voice & Narration pricing

Before you ask

The questions that come up on most voice & narration inquiries.

Can you rescue a bad recording?

Sometimes, and we will tell you honestly before you pay. Noise reduction, de-reverb and clip repair all work up to a point, and past that the artifacts are worse than the problem. If a section is beyond rescue we say so and suggest re-recording it rather than charging you for a result neither of us would be happy with.

What loudness should my podcast be?

Apple Podcasts publishes guidance around −16 LUFS for stereo, and −19 LUFS is the common mono convention. Platforms normalize on playback, so mastering louder than the target gains nothing and costs you dynamics. Broadcast is a different number entirely — ATSC A/85 at −24 LKFS in the US. Tell us where it publishes.

Why do you want one track per speaker?

Because two voices on one track cannot be leveled independently. If one person is quiet and the other is loud, nothing can fully fix it afterward. It costs nothing at the recording end and saves an hour at the editing end on every episode. It is the single highest-return change most shows can make.

Do you supply stems?

Yes, where they are useful — dialogue, music and effects as separate groups alongside the master. That makes a later change possible without a remix. An M&E version, which is music and effects without dialogue, is what you need if the piece will ever be dubbed into another language. Ask for it up front; building it retrospectively costs more.

Is the transcript machine-generated?

Only if you want it cheap. A raw automatic transcript is quick and gets names, jargon and product terms wrong. A corrected transcript is a person's time and is quoted as such. For anything published or used for accessibility, the corrected one is the one that counts.

Is the free trial really free?

Yes. What the trial covers differs by discipline — two images, a 30-second cut of your own footage, one mastered episode, a technical review of a page you already own — and each service page says which one applies. No card, no invoice, no subscription that starts quietly afterward. It is done by the same people who would do the paid job, to the same standard, because a trial that flatters the work is useless to both of us.

How fast can you turn work around?

Most image work comes back in 6 to 24 hours. Video and 3D depend on the shot and the length, and we tell you the turnaround in the quote rather than after you have committed. If you have a deadline that cannot move, say so in the brief. We will tell you honestly whether we can hit it.

How do you price the work?

By what the job actually involves, not an average. A clipping path around a box and one around a bicycle are different amounts of work, and so are a two-minute explainer and a two-minute product film. The unit differs by discipline: per image, per finished minute, per episode, per product, per project, or monthly for retained work. Every service has a pricing page with our published rates and the US market ranges beside them, so you can sanity-check any quote including ours.