Recording Professional Voiceovers
July 1, 2009
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. 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.
However, you need to prepare extensively for your recording. Preparation is key to make your whole project seamless. Below are some tips you can use in preparation for recording a quality piece.
1. Check all your equipment. Booking the voiceover talent for the project and then wasting several hours testing equipment will cost you. Jay Rose, the author of the book "Producing Great Sound for Digital Video" suggests that you make sure you get the right kind of equipment and test it well before production day. Even testing it a few hours before production time can reduce unforeseen delays.
2. Test a room for echoes. You can find out if a room creates an echo effect by doing some test records in it. Close all doors, windows and check all your equipments to eliminate or at least minimize echoes.
3. Make use of a background music. A Narration should feel and sound like as if the narrator is having an intimate conversation with the audience. There should not be any 'white noise' to produce this effect. If you find that you're recording a lot of 'white noise' and can do nothing about it, I suggest you use a background music to somehow mask those noises.
4. Search for your room's recording sweet spot. Find the one position of your microphone in the room that will produce the best recording. There's no actual system for doing this and you might spend some time in moving your mic around the room. Just remember that you don't ever want to produce an empty or strained sounding record ever.
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. However, most mics do not pick up these sounds. If you do feel like the script is being affected by these outside sounds, consider adding a high-pass filter to the microphone for a crisper recording.
6. Quiet vents, air conditioners and computer fans. If you're working in a very small space, you may have left computers or an A/C on during the recording. Sounds from these machines can cause some turbulence for your recording, so it's a good idea to turn them off for as long as possible during each recording segment.
You should also be able to monitor the recording throughout the production cycle using a pair of headphones. Take advantage of playback functions in a different room to make sure that everything is going smoothly; this will reduce the need to do another 'take' and can also help you address any problems with the audio quality right away.
However, you need to prepare extensively for your recording. Preparation is key to make your whole project seamless. Below are some tips you can use in preparation for recording a quality piece.
1. Check all your equipment. Booking the voiceover talent for the project and then wasting several hours testing equipment will cost you. Jay Rose, the author of the book "Producing Great Sound for Digital Video" suggests that you make sure you get the right kind of equipment and test it well before production day. Even testing it a few hours before production time can reduce unforeseen delays.
2. Test a room for echoes. You can find out if a room creates an echo effect by doing some test records in it. Close all doors, windows and check all your equipments to eliminate or at least minimize echoes.
3. Make use of a background music. A Narration should feel and sound like as if the narrator is having an intimate conversation with the audience. There should not be any 'white noise' to produce this effect. If you find that you're recording a lot of 'white noise' and can do nothing about it, I suggest you use a background music to somehow mask those noises.
4. Search for your room's recording sweet spot. Find the one position of your microphone in the room that will produce the best recording. There's no actual system for doing this and you might spend some time in moving your mic around the room. Just remember that you don't ever want to produce an empty or strained sounding record ever.
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. However, most mics do not pick up these sounds. If you do feel like the script is being affected by these outside sounds, consider adding a high-pass filter to the microphone for a crisper recording.
6. Quiet vents, air conditioners and computer fans. If you're working in a very small space, you may have left computers or an A/C on during the recording. Sounds from these machines can cause some turbulence for your recording, so it's a good idea to turn them off for as long as possible during each recording segment.
You should also be able to monitor the recording throughout the production cycle using a pair of headphones. Take advantage of playback functions in a different room to make sure that everything is going smoothly; this will reduce the need to do another 'take' and can also help you address any problems with the audio quality right away.
Posted by Voice Over. Posted In : Voice Over