VO Studio Workflow: Iterative Once Again – Tuesday Voiceover Tech Tip

During classes and when helping to set up voiceover studio workflows, I tend to use the term “iterative” a lot. It’s a word I’ve come to love. It’s both freeing and empowering because we don’t usually get things right the first time. Whether talking about acoustics, workflow, or auditioning competitively, it’s very difficult to understand and address all the variables out of the gate. 

Trying to envision “all” possible variables beforehand is simply overwhelming. That often leads to spending way too much time trying to get everything perfect before starting, without ever actually beginning. And, “perfect” is kinda boring anyway… 

“Iterative” can be thought of as shorthand for a longer game, one in which the key aspects include “attempt” “observe” “refine” and “retry”. As creative and resourceful individuals, we can quickly assess challenges and realign our efforts. 

In home studio acoustics, you’ll often find that certain audio problems actually mask other areas that need to be fixed. Unless you’ve spent a lot of time listening, it’s difficult to hear everything out of the gate. If your computer fan is howling along near the microphone, that broadband, cyclical noise will overwhelm most other flaws. It’s only when you move the noisy computer out of the booth that you notice more subtle issues. One sound masks the others.

Iterative refinement means our skills continue to grow over time. The act of hearing, analyzing, and addressing those sounds educates us and we get better at pinpointing anomalies in our sound. This often starts by just realizing something sounds “different”. I’ve had clients who will suddenly start noticing imperfections in their recordings where in some cases, those had already existed. We get better at it through continued practice and can offset our brain’s tendency to impose a very strong filter on sounds it deems as unimportant.

As a way of working, iterative approaches lower the stakes. It supports momentum. It lets us say “I’m going to get this as good as I can right now, and put it out there…” which helps to encourage creative momentum. 

There are “table stakes.” Something has to be “good enough” to be competitive. Investing in coaching, classes, or working with a knowledgeable peer group or mentor should provide a sense of what is expected. It’s one of the reasons I offer a no charge audio review. There are some tenets which must be met: being present on the mic, having no echoes in your space, and reducing any background sounds. With those foundational aspects in place, you can continue the refinement process. 

Each time we engage in that process, we learn a little more. As with all our skills, they continue to evolve.

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