Vital Tips for Recording Quality Voiceovers

You've found your voiceover talent and are ready to start producing your script, and the next step will be to create a professional recording for advertising. You may be working with a videographer or production team to create your voiceover script, but there are also several computer software programs and tools available to help you create the entire project from start to finish on your own.

The environment in which you will record your Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE voiceover has to be prepared properly to assure the creation of a quality advertising and promotion piece. Here are some essential tips when preparing the room for your voice over recording:

1. Equipment check. Booking the voiceover talent for the project and then wasting several hours testing equipment will cost you. ”Producing Great Sound for Digital Video” author, Jay Rose, expertly suggests that you should get the right kind of equipment and test it the day before production schedule. Even testing it a few hours before production time can reduce unforeseen delays.

2. Try to eliminate the echoes in the recording room. The only way you'll know if the room is creating an 'echoing' effect is when you turn on the microphone and shut all the doors and windows. Conduct some test recordings with all of the equipment so that the echo effect can effectively be reduced.

3. Adding background music. In a professional voiceovers, there should not be any noise between the narrator and the listener. Create the ideal kind of audio space that sounds like the narrator is having a face-to-face conversation with the audience. If you have a lot of 'white noise', consider adding background music.

4. Find the best position in the room for the recording. There are no rules about where the mic should be placed, so you can try to set up your mic in different areas of the room to see which part has the right sound. By moving the mic around, you can find the area where the sounds do not seem hollowed or filtered in anyway. Move around to find the best fit.

5. Don't worry about outside traffic or small rumbles. Even simple things like fluorescent lighting or distant traffic outside the window can effect the sound quality of your voiceover recording. Yet, most microphones do not pick up these sounds. If you notice that the recording is affected by these kind of noises, you can add a high-pass filter to the mic to reduce the pick up of these sounds.

6. Reduce noise from vents, air conditioners and computer fans. Noise from computers, air conditioners and other similar equipment may be picked up by the mic especially when you are recording in small area. Machine sounds can cause some turbulence in your recording, so try to turn these machines off while recording each segment.

Use a pair of headphones to monitor the voiceover recording throughout the production cycle. By using the playback function in a different room to check if production is going smoothly, you can reduce the need of having another 'take' and make any adjustments needed for audio quality of the voiceover recording immediately.
 

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About Me


Terry Daniel is a Professional Voice Over Actor from Minneapolis, Minnesota

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