VO Weekly Workflow: Thinking About Playback Volume

Most of the time when talking about volume in voiceover, the focus falls upon either input gain from our microphones, or how we might adjust our recordings to hit Loudness/Peak deliverable specs. But, there’s another aspect which is easy to lose sight of – the volume of the playback that we are delivering to our speakers or headphones.

I first noticed this when other voice actors would share audio, warning in advance how bad it sounded. I would cue it up expecting to hear horrifically bad mouth clicks, or sibilance that might make my skin crawl, aaaaannndd….lo and behold, their audio sounded good. None of the reported problems seemed to exist in the recordings when I listened back. This was confusing until I turned things up – way up. As the playback volume edged up to nearly ear-bleeding levels, I could discern some things that weren’t perfect.

Sure enough, under cross-examination, those clients would admit they had been listening at fairly high volumes. “…I was trying to find all the imperfections before I sent it in…” was a common phrase.

There are a few reasons why listening back at higher volume levels is not a good practice. The most obvious one is that it increases our exposure to loud sounds. That cumulative load over the day is how hearing gets negatively impacted. Loud restaurants, city noise, even listening to music on your errands all add up. Depending upon your environment, there may be significant load even before stepping into the studio.

It’s helpful to acknowledge that imperfections in our voice recordings will always be a nonzero amount. Nothing is perfect. (And besides, perfect is boring). Falling into a habit of increasing volume to “hear more” will likely just cause us to focus on ever tinier imperfections. I’m not saying that obvious clicks, smacks, or snorts don’t matter. Just that there’s a point below which no one but us will notice them.

One of the reasons I prefer to use headphones to monitor my recordings is that they let me listen back at a quieter level. When I use freestanding speakers, there’s always a tendency to crank them up to be able to hear more detail. In either case, I try to avoid just unconsciously nudging up the playback volume. I want to be very specific in choosing the volume at which I listen back.

It helps to have an understanding of how loudly to listen to your stuff. One thing that’s easy to forget: we record conservatively. That means that our raw audio will be quieter than what we submit for auditions or deliverables. I have two “go-to” positions on my playback volume – a louder one for the initial raw takes, and then another with reduced level for the final review that takes place post-processing. There could easily be a 10 dB difference in the overall loudness between those two files.

Now, I might give one quick listen with the volume nudged up a bit, but I don’t want to fall into the habit of leaving the playback volume in one place when there’s noticeable variance in the loudness of the audio I’m reviewing.

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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