Black Friday Voiceover Deals

Now, I know the chances are that if you are reading this it probably isn’t Black Friday, Cyber Monday or even ‘Do I really need this’ Thursday. But here are some Black Friday Voiceover Deals that I found this year. So, if you find yourself in October thinking of buying some new software or a new microphone… you might want to hold off till next month.

ONLY 1 in 7 BLACK FRIDAY DEALS ARE REAL DISCOUNTS (source: Which?)

I’ve split the deals in to four categories; Hardware; Software; Website Tools and Voiceover Subscriptions. If you find any deals that you would like to add to the selection, I’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to contact me here.

Hardware

I had hoped for some more voiceover studio hardware discounts this year. Lots of online stores seemed to be offering just 5-10% off of the full RRP. In actual fact, that wasn’t always accurate. That discount was often added on to an inflated price to bring the price down to where it always was in the first place. This is an old trick that you should be aware of. If I intend to buy something on Black Friday, I’ll often track it’s price for a few months leading up.

Software seemed to be much more heavily discounted, but here are some of the computer, mic and interface offers that were out there.

PC & Mac – Black Friday Voiceover Deals

I’m a Mac convert. So much so that if I am now faced with a PC I just stare at it like a dolphin would stare at a unicycle. Intrigued but confused. So apologies for focussing on Apple here.

I know Mac haven’t always been considered the most generous when it comes to Festive discounts. They now like to offer gift cards so you can own more of their products. With the move to their own M1+M2 chips these powerful machines really are a great option for your home studio. Especially if you want to run the MacBook in the studio itself as they run silently and don’t heat up.

I know you have to have a membership to purchase anything at Costco (in the UK). But if you are reading this you are probably self employed and that’s all you need to pass the test. You can simply give them your UTR and around £30 and you are good to go. If however you are going for the pizza and bottomless soda, no membership is necessary.

Again, I have highlighted the Mac offers but obviously Costco offer a full smorgasbord of PC’s and also actual smorgasbords.

Mics & Interfaces

Studiospares are a UK company that I have always found really helpful. A great team of knowledgeable staff. They used to be based just down the road from my studio in Wembley, but have since moved to Luton. They do have an in person help desk as well as email and phone support.

You can often find some deals to be had on their website and this Black Friday they have some additional offerings. The company also stock their own range of hardware which is often more heavily discounted. When I looked last everything was at least 5% off.

Focusrite is right at home in many voiceover studios worldwide. Because of their simple lightweight robust nature I had one in my travel setup for years and it never failed. The no nonsense Scarlett series with its 2-in/2-out will be suitable for most voiceover jobs.

Worth noting that I did find the prices to be cheaper through Studiospares than directly through Focusrite.

Ebay and Amazon are also a thing….

Software – Black Friday Voiceover Deals

In addition to my DAW, I have a few ‘must have’ pieces of software that I use in the studio every day. Adobe Creative Cloud, Izotope RX and Source Connect.

I know what you are thinking. Another monthly Subscription! I hear you, but this is the one I begrudge the least. The vast range of software available in this Adobe package is game changing. Or at least it was for me. You can pay a monthly subscription for individual pieces of software which is around £20 per month. Or for £30.34/mo (normally £51.98/mo) you get access to the whole creative cloud suite

I use Acrobat for amending and annotating script PDF’s. I use Photoshop and Illustrator for work on my website. Premier Pro helps me put my acting self tapes together. Not to mention Adobe Audition is an excellent audio workstation

You can also use Dreamweaver for your website design and Creative Cloud for your online data storage. It really is a one stop shop.

Isotope RX

I feel like Izotope RX and it’s price is talked about more than any other VoiceOver product online. It changes constantly and I don’t know anyone who has paid full price for it. The Black Friday deal on the website is currently offering £82.48 off. It’s sale price is now £246.79

Most people will not need to invest in the full bundles, shown above, of Izotope software. The RX standard option will give you lots of time saving plugins that will make you wonder how you ever lived without them!

I haven’t been asked for an ISDN session since 2020. A high quality stable platform, like source-connect, that makes it feel like I’m in the room. Source-Connect Standard is down from £536 and is now just $429. They also offer a monthly subscription and free trials if you want to try it before you commit.

Website – Black Friday Voiceover Deals

Trying to convince Google, Bing and Jeeves that they need you in their life is like crossing a Donkeys hoof with Silver. You don’t know if it will do you any good and why did you even do it in the first place? Analogies are not my forte.

With that said, here are some web tools that I have found useful in speeding up my website and making a more enjoyable user experience.

Elementor. I tried this drag and drop page builder for Wordpress a couple of years ago using their 30 day money back guarantee. I wanted to see whether it would dramatically increase my website page speed. It did. I like it. That is all.

In addition to changing my page builder I also changed my Wordpress theme to Kadence. The pro bundle is currently 40% off and in addition to the theme you get ‘pro blocks’ and templates.

Perfmatters, WP Rocket, Shortpixel and Yoast are four Wordpress plugins that offered the fine tuning that my website needed to work well on both desktop and mobile. All of them offer Black Friday deals.

Voiceover Subscription Deals

TV Subscriptions seem to be my guilty pleasure. I am signed up to Netflix, Prime, Now, Britbox, Apple TV and Disney+, to name but a few. Do I watch them all every month? No. Do I pay for them all every month? yes I do. If you too have a penchant for subscriptions, here are some options.

Pro Tools is considered the industry standard in audio production. Here are a couple of the subscriptions they offer. You can find their DAW comparison here.

Gravy For The Brain are offering a great deal for new members. I can’t speak highly enough of this company. If you haven’t already checked out all that they can offer, follow this link.

Pay to Play Voiceover Deals

This is not the time or place to discuss the pros and cons of Voiceover pay 2 play websites. Apparently that is every Voiceover forum and message board on the planet. Indeed, I myself have discussed the use of those very voice platforms in a previous blog.

I do know that some people find them useful and they are a big part of their business plan, so this section is for them.

Before I go…

There are a few questions I force myself to ask before I purchase anything for my business these days.

• Do I need this?
• Will my business work without it?
• Will my clients know the difference if I do buy it?
• Will it substantially speed up my workflow?

Only when I have satisfied these questions will I consider any new purchases for my studio. I did a massive scale back a couple of years ago when I realised I was sitting on so much unused hardware and software subscriptions.

Also, it’s worth noting that these Black Friday Voiceover Deals subscriptions might seem very appealing. But lots of the deals require you to pay a years subscription in full. This means not only a big initial outlay, but they will also renew at exactly the same point next year which may prove costly. You may prefer to spread any subscriptions on to a monthly payment plan or spread the yearly payments through the year.