Looking Good / Sounding Good: Meeting VO Deliverable Specs – Tuesday VO Studio Tech Tip

There’s a critical difference between meeting spec and delivering great sounding audio. “Specs” are numbers we need to match, but the “quality” of our audio depends on a number of less quantifiable variables. In the past, both those things were taken care of for us. Back then, a voiceover or narration session took place in a tuned and controlled recording environment, with experienced engineers keeping an ear out for issues and making adjustments while we concentrated on the words in front of us.

Now, we regularly remotely patch in our clients and work from our own spaces. This is why our base audio quality matters, and part of our studio practice is continually reviewing and improving how things sound. We always need to get this first part right to remain competitive. 

For post-recording processes, I prefer handing off the audio to someone who has deep experience in the genre. Creating video game soundscapes for our characters, or dynamic commercials that focus our attention requires a very specific set of skills. Best practice is to deliver clean, unprocessed audio so those audio engineers can do what needs to be done. The time we spend making our studio quiet and neutral makes their job easier. It’s hard to go wrong with raw audio that sounds great.

There are times when we are expected to maintain a high level of performance and then deal with delivering a more “final” or “processed” version of our audio files. This occurs most frequently within a specific segment of audiobook narration projects. If you work directly with a high-level publisher, they may only require “clean” or “punch-edited” audio – basically raw audio that has the mistakes removed. Those publishers would handle the actual cleanup and final mastering on their end. But, more commonly, ACX-based projects and those on other distribution platforms ask that you deliver to “spec.”

The requirement to “meet spec” can cause a moment of deep panic. Though you may have spent time building up a reliable recording space, and are able to capture your performances consistently, all of a sudden you are dealing with “Loudness”, “Peak”, “RMS”, “Noise Floor” and other terms that make no sense. Worse, when you get one of those numbers where they need to be, the others are no longer right. On any given day, you can skim through half a dozen online discussion groups and encounter panicked narrators experiencing just this issue.

The problem is that in the rush to meet spec, it’s easy to become focused upon only hitting the numbers, while losing track of the actual audio quality. You’ll definitely find online videos touting a “proven” approach that will make anyone’s audio meet spec. Some of them can achieve the desired numbers. More frequently, a cookie-cutter method will simply sacrifice quality for consistency. Those “one size fits all” recipes tend to create results which are good enough to get by, rather than creating something that listeners want to hear.

The trap is that we can end up listening with our eyes instead of our ears. It’s worth taking a moment closing your eyes, then ask whether you like the sound of the results. Did things get overly harsh? Crunchy? Did you lose the nuance of your storytelling? A refined processing chain maintains our unique tone and should enhance our performance. The art is in having it meet spec but making sure that it still sounds good.

Have you tested your studio’s audio quality to make sure it meets professional standards? For a free review of your vocal recordings, please use the upload tool on my Audio Review page.

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