Voice Memos & GarageBand

Voice Memos and GarageBand are free Apple applications that together provide a complete voiceover audition recording and editing workflow at no cost. Voice Memos offers instant, one-tap recording for capturing quick VO takes, while GarageBand provides a more robust editing environment with effects processing and multi-track capabilities for polishing final submissions.

For simple voiceover auditions, Voice Memos is often all that is needed. The app records high-quality audio using the device's built-in microphone or any connected external mic, and the files can be trimmed and shared directly from the app. The simplicity of the workflow — open, record, trim, send — makes it ideal for quick turnaround VO submissions.

The combination of these two free tools covers the vast majority of voiceover audition scenarios, with Voice Memos handling the quick and simple submissions while GarageBand provides the polish needed for more competitive or higher-profile auditions. Getting started requires no downloads since both apps come pre-installed on every Apple device — simply open Voice Memos to record, or open GarageBand to import and enhance your recordings. GarageBand offers noise gate, equalization, and compression tools that can significantly improve the quality of a voiceover recording, allowing actors to remove room noise, boost vocal presence, and normalize audio levels to meet the specifications that production companies and casting directors expect.

GarageBand's audio effects chain for voiceover work should typically include a noise gate to eliminate room noise during pauses, an equalizer to enhance vocal clarity and presence, and a compressor to even out volume fluctuations — these three effects applied in this order transform raw voice recordings into broadcast-quality audio, and GarageBand includes presets specifically designed for voice recording that provide a solid starting point. While professional voiceover artists often graduate to dedicated DAWs like Audacity or Adobe Audition, Voice Memos and GarageBand provide more than enough capability for actors who do voiceover work as part of a broader career. GarageBand's multi-track capability is useful for actors who need to produce more complex voice recordings, such as character demos that showcase multiple voices or commercial reels that incorporate background music.

These tools are used by actors exploring voiceover as a secondary income stream, podcasters, audiobook narrators, and performers recording voice reels for their representatives, and the accessibility of Voice Memos and GarageBand has lowered the barrier to entry for voiceover work, allowing actors to audition for VO projects without investing in professional recording equipment or studio time. Many successful voiceover artists began their careers using these tools before investing in professional equipment, and the tools are capable enough to produce audition recordings that compete with submissions from dedicated home studios, particularly when combined with a quality external microphone. Several VO coaches specifically teach their students how to maximize these free tools, emphasizing that the quality of the performance matters more than the recording setup for initial auditions.

Both Voice Memos and GarageBand are completely free and included with all Apple devices, with no premium tiers, in-app purchases, or subscription fees — the full feature set of both applications is available immediately, and the only cost is the Apple device itself, which most actors already own. The zero-cost entry point makes Voice Memos and GarageBand the most accessible voiceover recording solution available, and for actors evaluating whether voiceover work is a viable addition to their career, these tools eliminate all financial risk. Even actors who eventually upgrade to professional recording software continue to use Voice Memos for quick captures and GarageBand for simple edits.

Voice Memos and GarageBand are the right starting point for any Apple-using actor who wants to explore voiceover work without financial commitment, and they are also sufficient for working actors who do occasional VO auditions and do not want to invest in dedicated recording software — the workflow is simple, the quality is good, and the price is unbeatable. Actors who do voiceover work professionally or who audition for VO projects regularly should eventually invest in a dedicated DAW like Audacity (free) or Adobe Audition (paid) that offers more precise control over audio processing, and non-Apple users will need to find alternative tools entirely.

Record in the quietest room in your home, facing away from windows and air vents, and use a closet full of clothes as a makeshift vocal booth if you do not have a treated space — the soft surfaces absorb reflections that cause the hollow, echoey sound that plagues home voiceover recordings, and position your microphone six to eight inches from your mouth at a slight angle to reduce plosive sounds. In GarageBand, start with the Natural Vocals preset and adjust from there rather than building your effects chain from scratch, export your final recordings at the highest quality setting (AIFF or WAV) rather than compressed MP3 unless the casting notice specifically requests MP3 format, and keep a Voice Memos folder organized by project so you can quickly find and re-submit previous auditions if requested.