Voice Acting For Dummies

by David Ciccarelli

  For your next recording session, open the template from the file menu and save it as the client’s name. Make sure you use “save as,” which maintains all the settings in your new session without overwriting the original template session. Repeat this process for each new session and you can save a lot of setup time.

  Whether you have one template or an entire library of session templates, this time-saving tip can save you hours of repetitive setup, allowing you to get recording faster than you ever thought possible.

  Defining Important Studio Terminology

  When you enter a recording studio, you inevitably will hear lots of technical terms and jargon. You may have even heard a few terms tossed around by your radio buddies or computer geeks you know. Maybe you’ve said a few yourself without even realizing what the word really means. Getting a strong understanding of all these terms can be overwhelming at first, but fret not.

  In this section, we run through some of the key terms you’ll likely come across in the recording studio, either with the related software or in your discussions with a recording engineer in a studio or with another voice actor in person or online.

  Voice coach and performer, Marc Cashman, provided us at one point with a brilliant glossary of terms. We include them here for you to help define some of the jargon you may hear people say in the industry and may need to use yourself.

  Back bed: The instrumental end of a jingle, usually reserved for location, phone numbers, legal disclaimers, or any other information the advertiser needs to add.

  Background: Known also as background noise, it’s usually music or sound effects that are placed behind the voice-over.

  Board: See console.

  Boom: An overhead mic stand.

  Booth: An enclosed, soundproofed room where voice actors usually work.

  Branching: Recording one part of a sentence with variables within that sentence as a means of customizing a response. Often recorded for multimedia games and voicemail systems. Also known as concatenation.

  Butt-cut: When sound files are placed together tightly with no dead air in between, particularly for a commercial voice-over demo, but it also applies to most demo types.

  Cans: Another word for headphones.

  Channel: Refers to the physical input or output of your software. Channels can be assigned to any available output, such as your speakers in the recording software system. Stereo systems have a left channel and a right channel.

  Compression: Reduces the dynamic range of an actor’s voice. Engineers apply compression to cut through background music and sound effects.

  Console: A large desk-like piece of equipment where the audio engineer monitors, records, and mixes a voice-over session.

  Control room: Where the engineer and producer (and many times, the client) are located. This room is usually separate from the booth.

  Cross talk: When one mic picks up copy spoken into another mic. The sound is said to spill over or bleed into the other actor’s mic.

  Cue: An electronic or physical signal given to an actor to begin performing.

  Cue up: Matching to time and speed, lining up an actor’s voice to the visuals or music.

  Cut: A specific segment of the voice-over recording, usually referred to during editing.

  Decibel (dB): A unit for measuring the intensity of sound. Zero is no sound; 130 would cause acute aural pain.

  De-esser: A piece of equipment used to remove excess sibilance.

  Dialogue: A script calling for two people talking to each other.

  Distortion: Fuzziness in the sound quality of a recorded piece. Distortion usually happens because the original recording tends to be too loud. This usually happens if you go over the meter threshold as indicated often by a red light on the recording meter. When looking at the waveform, you can notice that the tops of the waveform are cut off like a plateau and no longer have peaks.

  Earphones: Also known as cans, headphones, or headsets. Worn during the session to hear your own voice as well as cues and directions from the engineer or producer. Also used to converse with the client during an ISDN or phone-patch session. A phone-patch session allows your client to hear you and provide artistic direction as you record by listening in on his or her telephone. ISDN is similar to phone patch in that your client can hear and direct you; however, the session is conducted using an ISDN line.

  Engineer: The person who operates the audio equipment during the voice-over session.

  Equalization: Also known as EQ, equalization is used to emphasize or de-emphasize certain frequencies, which can alter the sound of a voice.

  Faders: The vertically moving objects located on the lower section of a mixing console. Faders are used to increase or decrease the volume level of a particular track.

  Fish-bowl effect: When the actor in the booth can’t hear what the engineer or producer is saying or vice-versa.

  In the can: A phrase connoting that a part of the copy or the entire spot is acceptable and done.

  Jingle: The short tune or song used in commercials. They’re generally catchy and help make a marketing message memorable.

  Mic: A common, shortened form of the word microphone.

  Mix: The blending of voice, sound effects, music, and so on. Final mix usually refers to the finished product.

  Monitors: The loudspeakers in the control room.

  Multitrack: A machine capable of recording and replaying several different tracks at the same time.

  Music bed: The soundtrack that will be placed behind the copy or mixed in with it.

  On mic/off mic: Either speaking or not speaking directly into the microphone. An actor is always on mic when recording, unless shouting, and then turns his head slightly to speak off mic.

  Patch: To make an electrical/digital connection for recording and/or broadcast. Also referred to as a phone patch or land patch.

  Phones: A short word for headphones.

  Pick-up session: An additional session to complete the original. It may include making copy changes or character changes in a spot before it finally airs. A pick-up session usually happens after the client changes his or her mind before committing to air the spot.

  Plosives: The consonants that when produced create a burst of air. Basic English plosives include t, k, p (they’re voiceless plosives, meaning that there is no vibration of the vocal folds required to produce those sounds) and d, g, and b (which are voiced plosives, meaning that it takes vibration of the vocal folds to produce those sounds).

  Pop: When voice sounds are registering too hard into the mic. Usually caused by plosives.

  Pop filter: A foam cover enveloping the mic or a nylon windscreen in front of the mic. Mitigates popping. Also known as a pop stopper.

  Post-production: Also known as post. The work done after the voice actor has finished recording the session and includes mixing in sound effects and music.

  Regions: A piece of audio data. An audio region can be a voice-over, sound effect, or piece of music. In most recording programs, regions are captured from an audio file and assembled together to create a playlist. When editing, you can edit a region into smaller parts or trim out the beginning or end. Audio regions are assembled as playlists for playback.

  Reverb: A variation of echo. It’s an effect added to your voice in post-production.

  Rough mix: The step before the final mix. This is when the producer and engineer fine-tune levels of voice, music, and sound effects.

  SFX: Short for sound effects. Also referred to as EFX.

  Session: The event where a voice actor performs a script for recording purposes. A session is also the file name that includes all the parts of your recording, such as music, sound effects, vocal tracks, settings, and preferences. In your recording software, you likely open a reco
rding session from the “File” menu and click “New.”

  Sibilance: The snake-like hiss that you hear, particularly when saying words that contain the letter s or soft c.

  Stand: Where the printed script is placed in the booth.

  Studio: The facility where all recording and mixing for a commercial takes place.

  Talkback: The button connected to the microphone in the engineer’s console. It allows the engineer or director to talk to the voice actor in the booth.

  Time code: A digital read-out on the engineer’s console referring to audiotape and videotape positions. Used in film dubbing.

  Tracks: Every recording session has at least one track. After you hit record and you see a waveform show up in the software, you’re seeing a track. A track can be made up of a single region or many regions in sequence.

  Waveform: A graphical representation of a recorded sound. The shape of the waveform tells you about the sound’s characteristics, such as frequency and amplitude.

  Windscreen: A pop filter or pop stopper.

  Wrap: The end, as in “That’s a wrap.”

  Grasping what hertz means in voice acting

  We attended a voice-over workshop where the term hertz was explained in terms of the human voice. Hertz, named for the German physicist Heinrich Hertz, measures the number of cycles per second. Where the human voice is concerned, this means the number of times the vocal folds vibrate per second.

  A healthy male voice’s fundamental frequency usually falls between 110 to 120 hertz.

  A healthy female voice’s fundamental frequency usually falls between 200 to 210 hertz.

  A child voice’s fundamental frequency usually falls between 300 to 400 hertz.

  The higher the vibrations per second, the brighter the sound. To give you an example, you may be familiar with A440, also known as concert pitch. As an orchestra prepares to tune, the principal violinist will play this pitch to help others in the ensemble tune their instruments.

  Consider yourself prepared for the next recording session where you have an engineer in the room or you’re getting help from a technical wizard.

  In the event you hear a word not on the list, never be afraid to ask for clarification. Industry people usually are genuinely helpful, and many are glad to discuss technical terms at length.

  Positioning the Microphone and Script Stand

  Getting the microphone and the stand in the right spot can make or break your recording. A well-positioned microphone is at mouth level, about two hand widths away from your mouth. The closer you are to the microphone, the more intimate the recording will sound. The farther away you are from the mic, the more room sound you’ll inevitably pick up, which isn’t desirable.

  You also want to find a good spot for your script stand so you can easily read the words off your script and not be craning your neck to read the next word.

  These sections explain about finding the sweet spot on your microphone and how to use a music stand to position your script, whether it’s a piece of paper or a digital copy displayed on a tablet. Take the time to set up so that you’re comfortable as you record!

  Finding the sweet spot on a microphone

  For most voice actors, the sweet spot is the exact point or area of the microphone where their voice sounds its absolute best. When you’ve been around microphones long enough, finding that sweet spot where you sound amazing will become second nature to you. If you haven’t worked much with a mic, you know you’ve hit the sweet spot because it’s where your voice sounds its most robust or fullest.

  You may need to practice before you find your sweet spot; over time you’ll know instinctively where to stand in front of the microphone to voice in the sweet spot. Even though each microphone is different, playing with your voice can help you to know how your voice sounds best and where to speak into the microphone.

  When you’re in the recording studio with an engineer, trust the engineer to know where to place the mic and how its placement is unique for each voice-over actor in the session. It’s the engineer’s job after all. When you do find your sweet spot, it’s even sweeter.

  When speaking into the mic, remember these tips to help your voice sound better:

  Smile through your words. If you smile while speaking, your mouth creates a way for softening words that begin with plosives such as the letters p, t, k, b, d, and g.

  Put a pencil in front of your mouth. The pencil acts as a barrier for the puff of air that leaves your mouth when saying words that begin with plosives.

  Cut the air in half by speaking with your face turned down a bit. Doing so can minimize the amount of air headed toward the microphone. You can also speak across the microphone instead of directly into it to minimize the impact of plosives.

  Using a stand to hold your script

  Generally speaking, placing the script stand between you and the microphone is best. Have the stand at a comfortable height in front of you so you’ll be able to read right off the script, and the microphone will naturally pick up your performance. Don’t put off the stand to the side, or you’ll be constantly turning your head away from the microphone to read the words from the script.

  If you’re reading a script on a computer screen or off a tablet, position it so that you can see the copy well and maintain a clear line of vision between your script and your eyes. Whatever you do, don’t take your eyes off the script when you’re reading. As a voice actor, you have the benefit of always having the script in front of you and not having to memorize lines like an on-camera actor. Use this to your advantage by aligning your script well with your recording setup.

  Hooking Up Your Equipment

  Setting your studio up properly is paramount to getting the sound you want to have. In this section, you discover what equipment to use to hook up your equipment.

  Digital input/output interfaces allow the user to transfer digital audio data that is stored as samples between two pieces of digital equipment, thereby avoiding extraneous conversion back to analog and reconversions to digital.

  Digital I/O interface standard must send:

  The sample date

  The sample rate and timing information

  The bit-depth (word-length) used

  To connect audio recording equipment in a professional recording studio, here is a list of cables to use:

  AES/EBU standard (Audio Engineering Society/European Broadcast Union): The serial transmission format standardized for professional digital audio signals. A specification using time division multiplex for data and balanced line drivers to transit two channels (left/right) of digital audio data on a single twisted pair cable using 3-pin XLR connectors. With this balanced configuration, AES/EBU data can be sent over long distances. It carries 24-bit audio and has multichannel capabilities.

  S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format): A consumer version of the AES/EBU digital audio cable standard based on unbalanced coaxial cable and RCA connectors. Transmits up to 20-bit audio with extra bits holding track ID information.

  Optical: Optical digital interface is utilized on some professional gear, but mostly on consumer products. It consists of a fiber-optic cable with a light transmitter and receiver on each end by using a similar format to S/PDIF (see the preceding bullet).

  TDIF and ADAT Lightpipe: Tascam Digital Interface (TDIF) and the ADAT (Alesis Digital Audio Tape) Lightpipe are proprietary formats for transfer of digital audio in a multitrack situation. The TDIF interface uses specially shielded cables with regular DB-25-pin connectors, while the ADAT interface uses optical connections. Third-party company boxes allow interface between these connections and S/PDIF or AES/EBU equipped devices.

  Your Work Pays Off: Time to Hit Record

  It’s your big moment. The moment all your hard work comes together to put into practice and
record your voice. By this time, your equipment is set up, your mic is in position, and your script is in front you. All that’s left is to start recording.

  To make the actual recording in your recording software, do the following steps:

  1.Record enable the track that you want to record.

  By clicking the “record enable” button, you’re telling the software where you want your voice recorded to. For example, say your session template has three tracks, one for your voice, one for your slate (which is simply saying your name in a professional manner), and another for music. If you want your voice-over recorded on that first track, then click the “record enable” button on that particular track, and your voice-over will be recorded on track 1.

  2.Click the “record” button on the controls, usually identified by a red circular button.

  As soon as you hit record, the cursor will begin to scroll across the screen and visually display soundwaves, which represent the sounds captured by the microphone.

  That’s it.

  We recommend that you record a short take first, such as simply reading out one of the lines you have to perform, just to be sure the software is recording correctly.

  These sections explain how to record your first take, how to record multiple takes, and how to listen back to your work. Listening back to your recordings is a great way to identify mistakes, learn from them, and develop your voicing and editing skills.

  Doing your first take

  After you test the setup, you’re ready to do your first take. A take is the recording of one specific piece of voice-over copy from start to finish.

  To do your first take, stick to these simple steps:

  1.Read through the copy aloud first to be sure you’re able to get through it without making any mistakes.

  You must rehearse aloud because that’s how you’re going to do the actual recording.

  2.When you’re ready, hit that big record button, take a deep breath, and perform the script.