Fall Forward and The Audition Loudness Survey Results

As we pass through into this time of year, late August sometimes strikes me as an awkward time – it’s not really summer, though the heat may disagree, yet it doesn’t seem to have quite settled into the fall.

This year, it feels much more like a time of resetting and change. In the immediate world of voiceover, I’ve encountered more clients and friends laying groundwork and getting back to fundamentals. Some are shaking off the cobwebs, while others are regaining momentum with a renewed focus. 

It can feel as though we are picking up dropped threads and dispersed ideas, as if we’ve collectively tripped and tumbled forward. It’s interesting how patient those scattered pieces can be, knowing we’ll find our footing and arise a bit more balanced. Falling is not failure. It’s the getting up which matters. We’ll certainly stumble again. Otherwise, we’re not trying things. 

“Fall Back” is kind of a lousy phrase. It does a disservice to the energy we’ve stored and the plans we’ve made. I feel like we need to put our weight a little more onto our toes. The message I would want to send back to a younger me is encouragement to take those leaps which seemed like risks at the time. To jump at the opportunities which appeared to be a little less sure but more exciting. 

That readies us to embrace the Next. To fall forward. 

Voiceover Commercial Audition Loudness Survey Results

I’ve had the Commercial Audition Loudness survey open for a couple weeks now, and it’s been interesting to view the response data. 87 voice actors have submitted responses so far. Over 60% of those who answered are submitting commercial auditions between -17 and -23 dB RMS (64.37%). Of that group, most are in the -20 to -23 dB range (37.93% of all respondents). 26.44% of those who responded are in the -17 to -20 dB group.

I’m interested in the difference between those two groups. I’ve always found it a bit tricky to get above -20 dB RMS on voiceover recordings without leaning a bit noticeably on Compression or some sort of dynamics process to boost things. Of course, some of that has to do with the instrument itself – there are definitely voices which have quite a bit of natural compression and certain performances contain a significant range of dynamics. 

Additionally, the ranges themselves may contain some false bias. The difference between -19 dB RMS and -20 dB RMS is not all that large, but those results place them different groups. 

The responses indicate that Competitively Loud is more a range than an absolute. As voice actors submitting auditions, we want our recordings to be heard clearly and not cause frustration for those making the casting decisions. 

Further Thoughts About Audition Loudness

I’ve always felt pretty good about submitting auditions close to the -20 dB RMS range – it creates an audition loud enough to be heard, but doesn’t veer into sounding over processed. Those steps taught in my VO recording classes would push the results into that zone. 

Spurious Values? 

I have to thank Natasha Marchewka (and you should check out her Speechless VO webcasts) who kindly pointed out that I may have skewed the responses somewhat by asking for “Average RMS” – if you use the Amplitude Statistics tool in Adobe Audition, it actually provides both “Total RMS” and “Average RMS” values. “Total RMS” would be the comparable value. The “Average RMS” as supplied through Audition is a lower value. That may account for some of the lower values.

On the other end of the scale, I’d be surprised by any auditions louder than -12 dB RMS. Perhaps the 10.34% in that group were referring to Peak values when they submitted those results. 

Thanks again to all who took the time to share their information.

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