Voice over...

[trailertrash]

A couple of nights ago I listened to and watched a show which had an extensive voice over giving most of the show its soundtrack. Music made up the rest.

Obviously a lot of work had gone into it and it was very well done, including some poetry and explanation.

Now here's the point where I think [and this is only my opinion] voice overs can come unstuck.

The gentleman who recorded the VO had a seriously thick Scottish accent which did nothing for the presentation!!! Now I know we all sound a bit different in a recording,[just listen to some of the tutorials on youtube!!! Damn!] but us 'Jocks' have

this curse where we can sound perfectly normal indeed elequent to your face, but on a recording we sound awful. Indeed I myself speak with a crystal clarity in RL but on a recording my very strong Aberdeen [my home area]

accent flies to the fore and ruins the effect.

So my question is one of self ajudication, would you do a voice over yourself or would you ask someone to record the track for you?

Me...I'd ask someone simply because on a recording my accent is way to heavy.

Andrew.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Andrew

Don't denegrate your regional accent. Mine is strong Lancashire with a touch of Yorkshire.

The only time I would consider getting a "professional" speaker to do a VO would be at a clients request. My recent epic has my VO coming in for about 10 minutes in a 65 minute show broken up into 1 to 3 minute segments. My public audience of mixed regions loved it, no one said they couldn't hear what was being said. Using your own voice means you can put your style to the show which could be lost with a pro. Practice makes perfect, well nearly.

The comp entry called Leyburn a Town in Wensleydale I posted recently on here is an example of my take on how I do it.

Regards Eric

Tachtsman1

[trailertrash]

Funny thing that Eric, the person I have in mind for a trial VO comes from Whitby......Go Figure

[fh1805]

Andrew,

I think the Aberdonian accent is one of the softer Scottish accents. Now Glaswegian, there's a really strong accent!!

regards,

Peter

[Barry Beckham]

Andrew

You may notice that radio adverts seem to use people with an accent far more than the upper class BBC voice of old and I think it is done to attract the listener. In fact at one time in the UK a Scots guy was doing so many voiceovers that I did get sick of hearing him. However, it was the repetition not the accent that got on my nerves.

The answer to your question is, it depends on what your project is doesn't it ?

There is a rather nice AV on Yellowstone National Park I saw recently narrated with a strong Irish accent and while I personally like the Irish accent I didn't think the show worked that well because I was fixated on the accent. Now the same show with Lin Evans style of voice would be much better in my view.

I have an idea for a slide show here in Australia, but my own voice would be inappropriate, the slide show would need an Aussie accent to work.

For general use just use your own voice, no-one likes to hear the sound of their own recorded voice, but I am sure others will think it is fine.

Its not always easy to find others to read a script for you. I have tried it a few times, but sit some people down in front of a Microphone and unconsciously they try and speak differently and it all goes pear shaped. They sound wooden and the fluid motion of speech is lost. On the other hand I asked for a volunteer who had a UK North country accent to read a script for and AV and got a superb job done.

Surely the best recourse we have for voiceovers is right here on this forum. Most of us have the ability to record reasonably good quality voice and there will be a range of accents. We are experienced in doing this so, the voices should sound natural. In fact we ought to be able to ask one another to do the occasional voice over just to move away from the sound of our own voice.

Perhaps all those interested ought to make a one sentence recording and we could make a database of people and accents from the PTE forum willing to record a script. If anyone is interested I can host it and create the links for the moderators to place on the forum. A sentence or two will only be a few K as an Mp3.

[trailertrash]

Great idea. I must learn how to record now. PC World here I come for a good mic!!!

Andrew

[8321]

A very good AV maker and friend of mine in this part of the world suggests changing pitch and changing speed of your own voice (with Audacity/Audition effects) to camoflauge your voice. I am trying this with an entry to Geoffrey Round next month. You can't turn a Scotsman into an Aussie but it might do the trick. We should not resort to 'bought' voices as AV should stay a hobby.

I like the idea of a data bank. Maybe we should all record the same sentence like "Down with Labo..r" or suchlike.

Jeff

[Maureen]

PC World here I come for a good mic

You are far better buying a good mic from a professional sound shop or a good music shop

On line - Try Googling "professional audio equipment"

.Howard Gregory has some excellent CDs and DVDs about Microphones and sound recording

Contact Howard for advice before you buy if you can.

see http://www.wilmslowguildav.org.uk/ for his contact details.

Have attached info about his CD

PC World would be good for a Mic for Skype

Hope this helps.

The accent is not really the problem - it is whether the voice is clear and easy to understand.

MICS CD-ROM HANDBILL NO PIC.doc

[fh1805]

A very good AV maker and friend of mine in this part of the world suggests changing pitch and changing speed of your own voice (with Audacity/Audition effects) to camoflauge your voice...

Jeff,

I also use and suggest to others a slight change of pitch to the human male voice when used on voice-over; but not to camouflage it. The human male spoken voice uses the same range of frequencies as all the mid-toned instruments in an orchestra. In order to achieve a little better tonal separation I lift my voice by 1-1.5% using Effect...Change Pitch in Audacity. That slight lift in pitch improves, to my ear, the tonal separation of my voice from a classical orchestra.

regards,

Peter

[Barry Beckham]

I must be a terrible writer, people always grab the wrong end of the stick.

Jeff

The database would be half a dozen AV enthusiasts who are willing to record a commentary for a fellow AV enthusiast at no cost. In the spirit of the forum, because they enjoy doing it.

They would not be bought voices and if you ask a friend with a nice voice to help you out it has no bearing on your hobby at all.

Presumable you play all your own music to protect your hobby status?

[coopernatural]

Hi Andrew,

Ok let’s say...

I avoid PC world, and buy a decent voiceover mic.

I get some quality mic cable and connectors.

I rip out that Soundblaster audio card and replace it with a proper soundcard/interface.

I tweak the computer settings to work better for the interface.

I get some ‘proper’ software to apply some eq, compression, effects etc.

I acoustically treat the recording environment.

I carefully align, rotate, and work with mike placement and perfect my mike technique.

I avoid the misinformed mumbo jumbo put forward in Forums and Amazon ‘How To’ books.

I seek out instead, the advice of an experienced sound recording engineer.

I attend the ‘Henry Higgins’ School of Elocution for 6 months.

Now would I do my own Voiceover for my AV?

Not a chance. I don’t have the dulcet and silky toned voice of a Radio 2 presenter.

No amount of work can change that. I would rather listen to that dated, insipid and

awful, royalty free musak rubbish,than do a Voiceover.

If I really wanted a Voiceover,I would ask a friend with a nice sounding voiceover kind of voice.

It would be the best sounding Voiceover AV ever.Even to those who seem to have their ears painted on.

Davy

[Ken Cox]

Without being "catty"

most UK and Aussie actors that come to hollywood to do movies, tv shows etc speak perfect no accent "USA /CANADIAN English" when performing, yet when they are on a talk show they speak, their "native" accent - it is called training - singers are the same, there is no accent evident when singing, but their accent is also evident when in"public.

so i suggest if you are really serious, you best enroll in that school Davy suggests

Maybe when Igor comes up with this sound thing a few have been crying for, he could in corporate a "DE ACCENT" sound synthesizer -- maybe he could hook up with

http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/

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

ken

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Or the other route is the text to talk software that was mentioned on here some time ago, you can even talk like a lady if that's your bag (hand)

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[coopernatural]

most UK and Aussie actors that come to hollywood to do movies, tv shows etc speak perfect no accent "USA /CANADIAN English" when performing, yet when they are on a talk show they speak, their "native" accent - it is called training - singers are the same, there is no accent evident when singing, but their accent is also evident when in"public.

so i suggest if you are really serious, you best enroll in that school Davy suggests

ken

Ken,

I have noticed that with some interviews.There must be a lot of voice coaching going on.Maybe a bit of vocal training would work for us.

It would be possible to view the change of vocals in an audio editor like Audacity.

Here is a simple Speech prompt tool http://tinyurl.com/y8n3lk9

Not sure if it will change grumpy old men into grumpy old women.Will just have to wait on Eric gets back to us

'Henry Higgins',is of course the Professor of Phonetics in Pygmalion.

Of course Voiceovers can tear families apart http://tinyurl.com/yfskjnb

Davy