Recording a voice reel: length, scripts and session

By James Jones, founder of Granary Digital · Updated 5 November 2026

A good voice reel is short, current and aimed at one kind of work. It opens with your strongest read, shows range through approach rather than through funny voices, and is recorded and edited by someone who can hear what you cannot. This guide is for actors and voice artists making a first reel or replacing an old one.

Decide which reel you are making

Do not try to make one reel that does everything. The advice from voice-reel producers is consistent: build a separate reel for each type of work and send each client only the one that matches the job. Voice Reels names four main styles:

• Commercial: radio and online adverts, brand reads
• Narration: documentary, audiobook and long-form reading
• Business: explainers, e-learning, IVR and presentations
• Characters: animation, games and drama

Pick the one that matches the work you are most likely to be booked for, make that first, and add others later. Actors often start with a commercial reel and add a character reel later.

How long, and what goes in it

Sources differ, so treat the numbers as a range. One UK sound engineer, writing about commercial reels, suggests:

• about six scripts from radio or TV, each typically 20 to 30 seconds
• one narrative piece of 30 seconds to 1 minute 30, to show your undirected voice
• a montage of 60 to 90 seconds cut from the best moments, which agency websites often feature

Another producer recommends 90 to 120 seconds overall for most reels, with narration the exception at three to five minutes and about 45 to 60 seconds per script. Leave a few seconds between spots so the listener registers each one.

On order, lead with your strongest work, because the person listening has little time. Put the read you would stake your career on first, not third.

Show range through approach

Range on a reel is not accents and funny voices. The engineer's guide says to show variety through approach: conversational, hard sell, seductive or blokey. Two rules follow from that.

• Do not experiment with different voices. The reel sells your natural voice, and you should be able to reproduce everything on it when a client asks.
• Impressionists are the exception. An impressions reel should feature many voices.

Radio scripts work better than TV scripts for an audio-only reel, because TV scripts often depend on a visual gag. Voice Reels also says to leave out copyrighted names, characters and other intellectual property, and not to include other performers' voices.

Choosing and preparing scripts

Collect real adverts and corporate scripts rather than writing your own, and choose reads that sound like jobs you want. Mark the stresses and breaths on the page, and read each one aloud before you record. A 30-second spot has a word budget, so time your scripts against our guide to how many words fit in 30 seconds.

Warm up before the session. Ten minutes of lips, tongue and breath work is enough, and our ten-minute voice and body warm-up is a start. Bring water, bring more scripts than you need and bring an open mind about which ones will work.

What happens in a directed session

A reel session with an engineer who directs runs roughly like this.

1. Plan. You talk through your voice type and the work you want, and agree the scripts.
2. Record. Expect several takes of each script so the engineer can learn what you can do. You may be asked to try a script in a different way, or to drop one that is not working.
3. Direct. A good engineer gives notes on intonation, pace and emphasis, and may try a different microphone technique.
4. Edit. Breaths and mouth noise are removed, EQ and compression are applied to suit each script, music and sound effects are added where needed, and timing is tightened.
5. Mix. The spots and montage are mixed into one finished file.

A typical commercial reel takes a couple of hours, and the engineer usually supplies any music. If you already have paid work that has aired, you can include it, provided you have cleared it with the agency and it is recent enough to send the right message.

Home or studio?

A reel is a sales tool, so the sound quality matters as much as the performance. A bedroom with a duvet and a decent microphone can do for early demos or self-submissions. A treated room with a director and an engineer gives you something a home recording cannot: someone outside your own head, calling out the take that worked. Our voiceover studio runs directed voice reel sessions for actors, with varied copy, honest feedback and a finished edit.

Common mistakes

• A reel that opens slowly. The first ten seconds decide whether the rest is heard.
• Reads you cannot do again on demand.
• Mixing commercial, character and narration on one file.
• Old work that no longer sounds like you.
• Signing away your voice carelessly. If a client or platform asks to use your recordings to train or clone a voice, read your voice and face in the AI era first.

Sources

• Mandy, Everything you need to know about voice-reels, read 5 November 2026
• Voice Reels, What to put in a voice reel?, read 5 November 2026

The picture at the top of this page is an illustration, not a photograph of a client or a real job.