Okay, if you have been following this column lately, you should have at least one or two decent microphones with which to record that Emmy-winning narration track, and by now you've "cleaned up" your control room and made it as quiet as possible. So now lets look at some of the in's and out's of voice-over techniques used by the pro's that we can adapt to our purposes.
To begin with let me state that I am NO James Earl Jones when it comes to narration. The only time I have real resonance to my voice is after a 4-hour gig singing (screaming to be heard over a three-guitar band) or possibly the morning after a knock down drag out yell match with the neighbor. I try to time those events around an upcoming voice-over job the next day. It may sound ridiculous but you'd be amazed at the difference it makes! After screaming the night before my throat is open and my voice is REALLY d-e-e-p. I have cut some of my very best voice-overs on "the morning after". Back when I worked in radio I would always schedule my heavy voice production for the day after band rehearsal. The things we do . . . . . . . . .
In any event, having a low, resonant "God-like" voice is not as important as pronunciation, diction, and proper pacing. And there ARE some "tricks of the trade" which we will delve into here.
To start off, the room in which you are going to record the narration should be as acoustically dead as possible. You can always add ambiance (delay, reverb, EQ, etc.) after the fact, but you can never take it away, so the place to start is with is a completely dead vocal track. The very next thing to consider is the signal chain. I would recommend starting by running the microphone into a limiter/compressor and then to the recording medium of choice. In the analog world, your choices are few. It will either be to a reel-to-reel deck or to a cassette. Digital offers much more potential. You have DAT or hard drive. In the case of the Toaster/Flyer (or the VTNT and VT2) you could record your tracks directly into the audio drive. I highly recommend that for most projects as it makes it so much easier to edit. You can just let the hard drive go and read your narrative from start to finish. I keep a copy of my script and a pencil so I can mark up the script as I go along. If I make a mistake or decide I can do a better reading then I will mark in the margin of the paragraph "TK 2/3/4/etc". Then, when I have completed the task I simply bring the entire clip up into the edit window and locate all the good takes (and eliminating all the out takes) and give them appropriate file names, such as "VO.01", "VO.02", etc. It's also advisable to make many smaller audio clips as opposed to a single large file. It's not only easier to scrub smaller clips but if you ever did have to record a new part you would only need to replace a smaller clip instead of trying to find the small segment in the looooooooong clip.
When using compression there seems to be a widely used practice of using lots of compression on voice-overs designed for commercial use. The theory here is to gain optimal "loudness" in the voice track so it will ride above everything else in the commercial and also maintain a consistency with adjacent commercials. Long form projects (documentaries, audio books, promotional videos, etc.) don't need to "sell" quite as hard as commercials so less overall compression is usually applied to the track. I have read that voice talent usually stands to deliver a commercial message, while long form projects find the talent sitting. Of course, that's all subjective and I always bow to the particular method of the person hired to do the talking. Generally, standing while reading results in better vocal control because the diaphragm is free to move. As for myself, I find sitting works well for me. Perhaps that is because in 15 years of radio announcing I always sat at the console to deliver my voice work. However, I have no problem standing in front of a mic either. One thing to consider: If you sit you are probably sitting at your work desk or some kind of table. Any hard surface will reflect sound and may even color the sound of your narration. Standing gives you the freedom to be away from walls, tables, and any other hard surface. Whenever I DO select a sitting position I am careful to place the mic on a boom stand. I do NOT use a desk stand as any mechanical noises will be transmitted through the stand into the microphone. If you do not own a boom you can make do by placing the desk stand on top of a large block of foam.
Microphone proximity is crucial to delivering the correct kind of sound for the project. If you work the mic closely (2-3 inches) your voice-over will sound very intimate. You will also hear things like taking a breath and the mic will be more sensitive to plosives (popping those "p's" and "t's") and essing (frying those "s-s-s-s-s's"). Of course, adding compression will only increase all these factors. As a rule, for commercial delivery I work the mic closely, speaking not directly into it but rather projecting off to one side. This give my voice presence and increases the "loudness" factor. (NOTE: When working the mic closely always use a pop screen) For long form production I usually work the mic farther back (6- 10) inches. This give my delivery more of an overall smooth feel and decreases the instances of plosives and other unwanted audio artifacts. It also allows outside sound, ambiance, and room acoustics to enter into the track. The further away from the mic you are speaking, the more susceptible the track is to pick up unwanted noises. As a rule, women's voices are more likely than men's to introduce sibilance problems, especially if using a condenser microphone.
And now a word about monitoring. Headphones are an absolute MUST. I can tell you from experience that you will deliver a better voice track if you can her yourself plainly. You will enunciate more clearly, be more aware of plosives, and instantly know if you are straying too far or too close to the mic. An inch of difference in mic proximity will make a world of difference in playback. Wearing phones I can tell just how far back I can move my head in order to grab a breath before starting the next line. Preventing these problems from arising in the first place will ensure a great finished voice-over that will require very little fixing in post production. But beware of the voice-over talent that wants to hear every little nuance of their delivery. Those persons usually spend too much time concerned with listening to the sound of their own voices and not enough time paying attention to the matters at hand.
Scripts should be typed in at least 12-point type (I prefer 14) in a simple, easy to read font. I also number the pages as I do not staple them together. You don't need to hear the sound of the page being flipped between words. If you are standing, place the script on a music stand that is padded and angled to avoid reflection back into the microphone. Also, place the "working" part of the script high enough to avoid looking down at it and getting out of the "sweet spot" of the mic.
You do not become a voice-over artist overnight. It takes a great deal of time to learn all the pitfalls and short cuts of voice-over work. Human speech sounds are so dramatically different and individual that there is no set way to record the voice. Vocals are produced by interaction between the lungs, chest, diaphragm, larynx, the mouth, teeth, palette, gums, and lips. The tonal combinations are virtually endless. A good voice-over artist will instinctively know when to back off the mic for louder passages or when to suppress hard plosives like "T" and "P", and when to work off the side of the mic to defeat the dreaded sibilance effect ("Seven Sickly Snakes Slither in the Swamp").
All the elements, tips, and situations in this article present a good place to start in your quest for the perfect narrative, but by no means does it end here. It takes many sessions of working with different scripts and with different voice-over artists to get a good jump on the next project. I learn something new every single time I set up a mic for voice-over work. One last thing. If you really HATE the sound of your own voice, ask someone you trust to listen to a playback track and then discuss it. So many times I've seen potential VO artists get discouraged because they think they sound "squirrely" or their voice sounds too thin. But that is a natural reaction whenever anyone hears their own voice being played back to them off the monitors. My theory is that when you talk and simultaneously listen to your own voice, it is being "enhanced" by the bio mechanical interaction of your chest, throat, mouth and head. It gives you the impression that your voice is deeper than it really is. The first time I ever heard my own voice played back it sounded so squeaky to me I swore I'd never do THAT again. I have since come to realize that literally everyone else in the world hears me the way I sound on playback (not a comfortable realization) and they are already used to hearing my voice that way.
Not that I still wouldn't like to have James Earl Jones bequeath his vocal chords to me.
Bob Ketchum, the Viceroy of Voice-Overs, sits up late at night just to hear "THIS��� is CNN!"
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