Voiceover Workflow: Setting Stuff “Wrong” – Tuesday VO Tech Tip

Failure is part of the process. Arguably, it is the process – as we are likely to encounter more instances where things don’t work right than times without a hiccup or glitch.  Most of us have heard the Edison quote that he learned 1,000 ways (or was it 10,000 ways?) how not to make a lightbulb before finding success, and Ed Catmull’s book “Creativity, Inc.” brilliantly describes the Pixar goal of “failing faster.” 

In our voiceover practice, an important key is building the skill of listening. That helps us evaluate our performance behind the mic and provide salient self-direction. It also allows us to keep tabs on our technical recording quality. As we push the envelope in either task, inevitably we’ll go too far. That’s an essential point in the process, as it provides an opportunity to learn. 

Indeed, simply noticing that something isn’t right is a hugely positive step. It means we’ve moved to a heightened awareness of how something “should” sound, even if we might not know what to do about it. We can start troubleshooting. Is this a simple case of the wrong mic being chosen by the software? Or some deeper issue that is manifesting in our recording chain?

In my VO recording classes, I point out that we tend to notice differences more than absolutes. Volume, echo, and resonances all fade into the background when we’re right in the middle of them. That’s why it can be difficult to self-diagnose an acoustics issue. Things simply sound normal until we can hear them compared to “good” audio. 

When we use various effects such as compression on our audio, we’re often using a fairly complex tool to create a subtle correction. It can take a while to really hear any differences. One quick hack I recommend is to set things “wrong”. Move the sliders or twist the dial all the way one way or the other and pay attention to how things fall apart. We inherently recognize appallingly poor applications of audio tools. If we can identify when things are sounding very bad, then it’s just a matter of degree to start to hear as things veer off course.

In the context of our VO studio recordings, it can be illuminating to set things completely wrong – we’re generally not going to damage anything, and we can always UNDO or revert to a clean saved copy of our audio (you did save a clean copy, right?). Mouth DeClick Tools, EQ, or Noise Reduction all fail in slightly different ways. Is there a clear point where we start to hear the “cure” more than the “symptom”?

When you hear “wrong” through an effect it creates an obvious example. From that, we can learn to notice it earlier – before things go too far. Recognizing that “something” is the first step to fixing it.

Want to receive these resources (and more!) the day they come out?
This information recently went out directly to my email community. Each week I send out a new article about using recording technology in your home voiceover studio, and how to balance those technical challenges with the need to be creative behind the microphone.
If you would like to join in to receive those emails the day they publish, please take a moment to share your contact information through this sign up form.
Thank you!