Voice Tips?

P

Pete

Hey all!

For some projects I'm working on, I need to record a few different types of voice-overs. However, my voice sounds awful when being played back through a recording. Maybe it sounds bad in real life too, but I don't notice that :P

So my question is, are there any tips on how to make voices sound better or more natural (in real life, or especially over a recording)? Any general or specific ideas are very welcome.

Thanks!
 
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First of all, I know exactly what you mean when you say your voice sounds horrible when played back. I sound exactly like Daria when I record myself, and I never thought I sounded like that in real life...people never sound like they think they do.

One thing to make sure of is that you're using a decent microphone and you're recording in an environment that's set up for decent sound. The poor man's version of this is to record in something like a walk-in closet, where there's plenty of sound-absorbing material. You can also set up a portable sound booth (just search online for DIY portable sound booth or something similar). I used a Blue Snowball mic to record VO for my first short, and was really pleased with the results. I got very clean sound without having to go too overboard. In fact, the sound was the only thing that turned out decent on that short! :blush:
 
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Thanks cameronchapman!

For at least one project, I have a high probability of gaining access to a (somebody else's) more expensive mic. So hopefully clean audio will be taken care of.

Do you have any tips/tricks on the actual delivery of lines? It's just that whenever I hear a recording of myself (even if the audio quality is good), I start to twitch and die a little inside.
 
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Pete said:
Do you have any tips/tricks on the actual delivery of lines? It's just that whenever I hear a recording of myself (even if the audio quality is good), I start to twitch and die a little inside.
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I know exactly what you mean. The only advice I can give is to keep recording yourself over and over again, and keep listening to it, until you get used to the sound of your own voice.

Also, don't try to "act" with the voiceovers. Just speak naturally until you're used to it. I always feel like it's better to have an under-acted VO than an over-acted one.
 
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Hi, Pete

I can't help you out much on the actual recording (I just use my camcorder) other than agree with Cameron that recording inside your walk in closet will work pretty good.
It may even sound too dead sterile. I dunno. Your call.

Just... please don't try it in a basically empty, normally furnished room.
Everyone will tell you here no matter whatever kind of microphone you use it'll sound like echoy sh!te.


However, once you've recorded your voice over dialog a few times to work out the kinks of what looks good on paper vs. what comes out of our mouths, and you'll get a better feel for timing, and some breath control, then you can clean it up and monkey with it in post using an audio editor and a voice morpher.

http://free-audio-editor.com/index.htm

http://download.cnet.com/AV-MP3-Player-Morpher/3000-2140_4-10201978.html

With the audio editor I select and delete all sorts of amateur breath inhalations, tongue clicks, spit smacking, and general flubs.
You see, one of the great benefits of doing voice overs vs. live action is that you can screw it up six ways to Sunday and still delete the flub ups easy as pi.

With all the trash deleted I can then go back and add or subtract fractions of seconds to improve timing/delivery.

Hear a little static or tinny sound? Fine. Try a few filters and see if one knocks out what you don't wanna hear.
Yeah, you'll lose some "crispness" , but it'll be less annoying than that... whatever it was.

Okay, now that that's done and saved, pull it up in the morpher and tinker with the tone over there.

The morpher does a fair job of dropping the pitch down, but not so good at raising it.
I can make my voice sound like a trucker, but not the hooker with a heart of gold.
And you can't record Daffy Duck and make him sound like James Earl Jones, either.
You're still going to sound like a shade of yourself.

GL.
Have fun.
Don't poke yerr eye out!


Ray
 
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rayw said:
GL.
Have fun.
Don't poke yerr eye out!
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Haha, thanks rayw.

Out of curiosity, how do those softwares compare to Audacity and Adobe Soundbooth CS4 (both of which I currently have)? As far as pitch, I have the problem of too low of a voice, so I might run into issues trying to raise it a bit?

Also, I do have a closet full of coats that I can lock myself in :)

Thanks for the responses!
 
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Pete said:
Out of curiosity, how do those softwares compare to Audacity and Adobe Soundbooth CS4 (both of which I currently have)? As far as pitch, I have the problem of too low of a voice, so I might run into issues trying to raise it a bit?
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Ah, if you already have audio editors then just use what you're fastest on.

I haven't tinkered with either of those two programs, so I can't provide any comparison.
I know whatever I'm doing isn't all that complex, so surely they both have select and delete/copy/paste capabilities which is all I do before filtering (usually just a high shelf pass @ 1khz) which surely they also have.

Yeah, having a low voice is going to limit what you can do with that AV MP3 voice morpher, but it's free, so WTH.
Give it a try, remove it from your 'puter if it don't work for you.
Honestly, I'm not impressed with it, it's just free while most of the other voice morphers are trials.

I'm always on the lookout for a better free alternative!
 
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Pete said:
For at least one project, I have a high probability of gaining access to a (somebody else's) more expensive mic. So hopefully clean audio will be taken care of.
Click to expand...

Pay attention, the mic is only part of the battle.

cameronchapman said:
One thing to make sure of is that... you're recording in an environment that's set up for decent sound. The poor man's version of this is to record in something like a walk-in closet, where there's plenty of sound-absorbing material. You can also set up a portable sound booth (just search online for DIY portable sound booth or something similar).
Click to expand...

A closet full of clothes works well. The late, great Don LaFontaine used the "sound cube" for his personal "studio." The "sound cube" is a 3'x3'x3' box with lots of sound treatment on the inside and carpeting on the outside.

Here is a portable version:

Portable-Voice-Recording-Booth.jpg


Even something like this can work very well:

Panels-set-up-front.jpg


A "traditional" vocal booth:

studio_vocal_booth.jpg


BTW, if you don't know who Don LaFontaine was SHAME ON YOU!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_LaFontaine

Pete said:
Do you have any tips/tricks on the actual delivery of lines? It's just that whenever I hear a recording of myself (even if the audio quality is good), I start to twitch and die a little inside.
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It all depends upon what type of VO you're doing. There are many different types of VO work - commercials, trailers, corporate and documentaries - and each has its own style and approach. One very basic tip is to not let your voice drop at the end of sentences; we all drop down in "pitch" as a natural part of speaking. However, when we are excited and/or yelling/screaming out voices go up towards the end of our exclamations. The trick is to use the excited voice tendencies with our normal speaking voice. It takes a lot of practice to make this sound natural.

This is a part of what makes us cringe when we hear our own voices; we know how a VO voice is supposed to sound and are subliminally aware of the speaking pattern that is used. Our voices don't sound like the famous voices, so they sound "wrong," and the pattern doesn't conform to the accepted VO delivery style.

From a purely technical standpoint the sound needs to be "dry", without any room sound. You want to use a large diaphragm mic, and you want to be very close to get the "proximity effect", the exaggerated low end that is a part of the VO sound. You also want to use a very clean mic and mic-pre. (Anyone remember our discussions on self noise?) The reason is that the "classic" VO sound is also highly compressed, and compression will make all of the noise in your audio chain much, much louder.
 
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CamVader said:
Can you recommend any good places to buy sound treatment, Alcove?
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Auralex is far and away the most popular sound treatment. They offer everything from single 12" X 12" panels to complete room solutions. They can vary from 1" to 4" inches thick and have different absorbtion qualities and patterns (pyramids, wedges, egg crate). You can get it from the usual suspects - B&H, Sweetwater and other major audio vendors; I'm sure Amazon and eBay has it as well.
 
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