Recording Your Own Voice

Alastair Taylor ARPS DPAGB/AV

Recording your own voice is an aspect of AV production which some people enjoy and others avoid at all costs. For me it all comes down to the message you wish to convey and the extent to which you feel that a “third party” voice will deliver the tone and message you wish to convey.

A few AV producers are buying in the voice of a professional from services such as www.verr.com where there is a myriad of freelance voiceover experts who will bring whatever tone, dialect or mood you desire. It all comes at a cost but well worth a try.

Across the AV community, there are many talented voices and it is great to hear them. More and more we are hearing the female voice being used for AV voice overs and for me, the voices of Jenny Gee, Bev Tyrer and Lavinia Hardwick, Pat Mansell and Linda Gibbs are all excellent. From time to time we hear a familiar voice pop up on a soundtrack with Ron Davies occasionally making a guest appearance. It is always great to hear Ron’s wonderful Welsh accent which adds such colour to AV productions (and especially those based in that part of the world).

Similarly, who will forget the voice of that great Northern Irish character, the Reverend Doctor Gordon Gray, whose voice over on Raymond Hughes AV To What End is, in my view, just superb.

Anyone who knows me, will know that my AV productions are often from the heart. Beyond the Wall shares my feelings on prisons and punishment. That Picture is a personal reection of the Taj Mahal and more recently, For Peace and Democracy is all about apartheid and the role of Nelson Mandela in its demise. For me, only I can tell the story in the way I want it to come over with all of the emotion and messaging I wish to portray.

As if you didn't know it already (and I suspect many of you have already thought it) but the truth is out, I do like the sound of my own voice! You heard it here!

Sound Hunters continued ...

In the rest of this article, I will share some of my thoughts and approaches to recording a sound track.

Owning the Microphone

I remember hearing a radio programme on the way in which presenters deal with the microphone. Disc Jockey Noel Edmonds who was the host of the Breakfast Show often stood up or at least leant into the microphone in an early morning and purposeful manner. By the same token (Whispering) Bob Harris looked after a late evening slot and was more of a “leaning back in the arm chair type of guy” (Smoking a cigarette at the same time one assumes). Apparently trafc reports will often read out the trafc news whilst stood up and apparently in an animated way with arms waving (not surprising given the state of the UK roads!).

For me this is about owning the microphone and to that end, the way you “attack” it will impact upon the feel of the recording. I always record whilst stood up and in my mind, try to do it as if I am addressing a live audience with all of the body movement and mannerisms I might adopt if addressing a crowd in a lecture theatre.

My distance from the microphone is also important. Watch a singer and you will see how they work the microphone, sometimes close to their lips, and then moving it away as the song fades out. Next time you watch a music programme from the sixties, Tom Jones perhaps, just see how he handles the microphone. It is part of the art.

Clearing the Gills

Making a voice over with a heavy cold is perhaps not the best idea (Although Howard Bagshaw did this with Kelpies and look at the result.) The rst time I heard it I was left wondering what he had done to get the sound). My voice is always best rst thing although a good nose blow and clearing of the chest is a good start. Apparently milk make you develop phlegm, so avoid that. Another tip is to suck a mint humbug which helps clear the gills nicely.

Don’t underestimate the value of “liquorice” avoured Nipits. It is not often that you come across something that actually does what it says on the tin!

Apparently they are a favourite of the DJ Chris Evans.

Go for it and record in one take

Occasionally you will hear an AV voice over which changes in tone or pace mid way. It is obvious that the recording is made up of different recordings, perhaps paused midway or with a change of setting or microphone use.

I always record in one take. I keep the recorder going with the same settings. The end result will have coughs, throat clearing, various false starts where I have read the sentence a second, third or fourth time. If a car drives by, or some other noise creeps into the background, I will record the sentence again. There might even be the odd profanity!!

The image below shows a typical recording before I have edited it. What you see is “warts and all”. Within my sound editor (I use Adobe Audition), I will remove the additional material.

This is a section extracted from a longer recording but it is clear that there is some work to do to sort it out. For example, at the start there was some rustling of paper as I started to read the script. The point marked A was a clearing of the throat. I do nd that shortly after I start talking, I will need to do this (too much information I know!). There is a slight pause at point B where a car drove by. Immediately following that I started to read a sentence but had to cough at the end of it. This is marked as point C. If you can read the wave line, you will see that I immediately say it again as shown at Point D. There will be various points similar to these throughout the recording so all will need to be edited at a later stage.

Next time: Sorting out the mess ...