First Voice-Over Session (advice/tips?)

Got a call today from a post-house that's short-staffed next week and needs an engineer for a few VO sessions, one of which is with (apparently) an "important client", and I'm somewhat nervous. Put me into a rock/metal recording session, and I'm good to go, but I haven't recorded much voice work.

I'd appreciate any advice & tips I could get from a more experienced VO engineer: are there any of you out there? I'm not sure of what equipment they're running, but I'd assume it'd be an LDC or ribbon, pop-filter in front, into Pro Tools. Assuming the talent I'm working with is experienced enough to handle his/her end of the equation, how hot should I be running into PT? Should I compress on the way in?

This could potentially lead to more work for me, so I'm (again) somewhat nervous!
 
Honestly, I'd suggest that you not try and fake it in front of the studio and in front of the client. I'd ask them how they like doing it usually, what mikes work for them and whether their board has any personality or idiosyncrasies to set up for, etc., and whether the client has any preferences.

Honestly- and nothing personal meant by this - if the client is that important, the studio is probably stuck between a rock and a hard place for a better option by bringing in someone with no experience to take care of him, and will probably appreciate you're being straight up with them and letting them know you want to do whatever you can to get it right, including letting them know your position and your desire to ask them how they think you should do it.

At best you'll all be on the same page, and you'll be doing it the right way; and at least if something goes wrong, you have at least some excuse that you were just doing it the way they asked you to do it.

G.
 
Oh, absolutely; thanks for the advice! I'm pretty ego-less when it comes to this sort of stuff. I'm going in Monday for a studio tour and general "getting to know you" session with the studio owner. I feel for the guy; there's no way calling up a friend of a friend to take care of a somewhat important session was his first choice! My overall goal is to do everything I can to be as accommodating and helpful as possible.

I'm moreso worried about any technical stuff I might want to do differently, particularly when it comes to session management, standards, and syncing to video.

Side-note, I haven't been here in almost a year: how's the HR & IRN going, Glen?
 
I'm moreso worried about any technical stuff I might want to do differently, particularly when it comes to session management, standards, and syncing to video.
Well, again, Steve-o, I'd defer to what they tell you on Monday as far as any standards or tech requirements they may want. There are some broadcast standards as far as levels and such, but I'm not sure what they might expect in the tracking phase in that regard; I'd think that'd be handled mostly in post.
Side-note, I haven't been here in almost a year: how's the HR & IRN going, Glen?
Yeah, welcome back bud.This seems to be reunion week here at HR; in the past week both Sonic Albert and and Lee Rosario have re-appeared after long hiatuses also.

As far as IRN, you can take a look for yourself. I've been a bit busy lately with a new association with a new small studio as well as too much going on in non-musical life lately, so there have not been a lot of recent updates to it unfortunately, but I have a few things in the development oven.

G.
 
I'd assume it'd be an LDC or ribbon, pop-filter in front, into Pro Tools. Assuming the talent I'm working with is experienced enough to handle his/her end of the equation, how hot should I be running into PT? Should I compress on the way in?

This could potentially lead to more work for me, so I'm (again) somewhat nervous!

You could also find yourself working with an SM-5, SM-7 or RE-20. These seem to be some of the more popular voice over mics out there. As a Minneapolis transplant I can tell you that there is (or was when I was there) quite a bit of good voice over talent there. I have done very little in voice over land, but I would try to record it straight and add compression after the fact. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
 
Well who ever you are going to record if they are well known you can look them up and get a gander of them on utube or what have you and get a feel of how they sound .







:cool:
 
I strongly recommend and RE-20. The "Variable-D" feature means that changes in distance cause little change in tone and the cardioid pattern is forgiving of lateral movement. Use a pop filter on a gooseneck a few inches out from the mic. Of course, it the talent is experienced and has other ideas be open to them.

One trick I learned is to drop a marker ("Enter" on the keypad) when a mistake is made and have the speaker go back to the beginning of the sentence or paragraph. In PT you can quickly put an "x" in the marker to indicate an error (Enter, x, Enter). Then you can go back later and edit the error out by deleting the mistake. You can also drop markers with other indicators for paragraphs, chapters, alternate takes etc. as needed. Having a copy of the script for recording and editing is handy.

With a less experienced speaker I like to keep them off the mic a bit so the volume doesn't vary as much. If you start them too close to the grill any little change in distance yields a big change in level.
 
might sound like a rookie mistake (cos it is) but i did voice work last week, and i thought it was all fine.

once done, i used a little eq and compression to taste, and all of a sudden there was this immensely loud lip smacking going on!!!

wasn't really noticeable at the start, but now that i know it's there it kills me..

long story short, i have to redo the whole thing now, so you might find it useful to do a trial passage and to add any effects you plan to use(if any), just to make sure it's all good.

also, give a quick listen on headphones too, cos unwanted sounds often come through clearer on good cans.


that's great advice about laying markers too. it's very easy to forget about or loose a wee glitch or mistake, especially with long sections of speech.
 
I work in the VO industry, recording auditions for a top talent agency in Los Angeles, and many of those auditions are lifted directly to air. I'll second the advice that Southside gave about asking if they have any preferences, etc., and also share my experience (which may or may not relate to how they want things done.)
As far as mics, we mostly use the Sennheiser 416, and sometimes use the Neumann U89. Virtually every working VO studio in the city has at least these two mics. We run them through an Avalon 2022, and leave the tracks dry. Usually, if the client wants compression or effects, they prefer to add them later. ProTools is industry standard, but we use Sony SoundForge Audio Studio, which is more user-friendly, and handles all of the different file formats (wav, aif, mp3, m4a, etc.) that we have to work with, with a minimum of fuss.
The type of project will also have some impact on how the session goes - is it a 30 commercial spot, or several hundred pages of audiobook, or...? Dropping markers where you have pickups or bumbles will save lots of time later in the editing - I usually drop one marker for a simple pickup, and two if the actor has to go back and start the top of a passage over again.
Having an actor who is physically and emotionally comfortable also helps a lot - make sure that water, pencils and/or highlighter, and possibly a chair or stool if it's a long project, are available to the actor. A comfortable and well-hydrated actor is less likely to have mouth noise, or mess up takes.
 
I work in the VO industry, recording auditions for a top talent agency in Los Angeles, and many of those auditions are lifted directly to air. I'll second the advice that Southside gave about asking if they have any preferences, etc., and also share my experience (which may or may not relate to how they want things done.)
As far as mics, we mostly use the Sennheiser 416, and sometimes use the Neumann U89. Virtually every working VO studio in the city has at least these two mics. We run them through an Avalon 2022, and leave the tracks dry. Usually, if the client wants compression or effects, they prefer to add them later. ProTools is industry standard, but we use Sony SoundForge Audio Studio, which is more user-friendly, and handles all of the different file formats (wav, aif, mp3, m4a, etc.) that we have to work with, with a minimum of fuss.
The type of project will also have some impact on how the session goes - is it a 30 commercial spot, or several hundred pages of audiobook, or...? Dropping markers where you have pickups or bumbles will save lots of time later in the editing - I usually drop one marker for a simple pickup, and two if the actor has to go back and start the top of a passage over again.
Having an actor who is physically and emotionally comfortable also helps a lot - make sure that water, pencils and/or highlighter, and possibly a chair or stool if it's a long project, are available to the actor. A comfortable and well-hydrated actor is less likely to have mouth noise, or mess up takes.

I can see the u87 for voice over Whyseye, but I would have never had thought about the 416 shotgun microphone for voice over. You learn something new everyday!







:cool:
 
Not sure how the 416 started getting used for VO, but it gets used a LOT. Not everyone loves it, though - the amazingly talented voice actor Corey Burton despises the mic, and has a long rant about how much he hates it for VO, and why, posted on his website. It is very good at not picking up ambient room noise, and for cutting through a mix; less good for capturing the full range of subtle tones in a vocal performance.
I see the RE-20 and SM-7 frequently listed as popular VO mics, and I do see them used a lot in radio. They always sound to me like broadcast mics, so I'd personally avoid them for something that requires a more naturalistic sound. The U89 sounds great for almost anything, if the actor has good mic technique.
Most decent LDCs work well for VO, as long as the actor isn't wearing noisy clothing, or swaying back and forth as they speak. A good pop filter is always appropriate, as well.
 
Not sure how the 416 started getting used for VO, but it gets used a LOT. Not everyone loves it, though - the amazingly talented voice actor Corey Burton despises the mic, and has a long rant about how much he hates it for VO, and why, posted on his website. It is very good at not picking up ambient room noise, and for cutting through a mix; less good for capturing the full range of subtle tones in a vocal performance.
I see the RE-20 and SM-7 frequently listed as popular VO mics, and I do see them used a lot in radio. They always sound to me like broadcast mics, so I'd personally avoid them for something that requires a more naturalistic sound. The U89 sounds great for almost anything, if the actor has good mic technique.
Most decent LDCs work well for VO, as long as the actor isn't wearing noisy clothing, or swaying back and forth as they speak. A good pop filter is always appropriate, as well.

Will other shotguns work just as well or is it just the 416 that mysteriously works great?









:cool:
 
ProTools is industry standard, but we use Sony SoundForge Audio Studio, which is more user-friendly, and handles all of the different file formats (wav, aif, mp3, m4a, etc.) that we have to work with, with a minimum of fuss.

I used Sound Forge 6 which had pretty good compatibility.

Dropping markers where you have pickups or bumbles will save lots of time later in the editing - I usually drop one marker for a simple pickup, and two if the actor has to go back and start the top of a passage over again.

We used a single marker for a special function, and double markers for mistakes in general. More recently I've worked in PT which can name markers on the fly, one of the few things I like better about that software.

I see the RE-20 and SM-7 frequently listed as popular VO mics, and I do see them used a lot in radio. They always sound to me like broadcast mics, so I'd personally avoid them for something that requires a more naturalistic sound.

I did corporate work producing material with amateur speakers for mostly internal use and generally had only SM58s to work with. An RE20 would have been a big improvement on amateurs with its relative lack of proximity effect and wide pattern. What you do may be more applicable to the OPs situation.
 
I did corporate work producing material with amateur speakers for mostly internal use and generally had only SM58s to work with. An RE20 would have been a big improvement on amateurs with its relative lack of proximity effect and wide pattern. What you do may be more applicable to the OPs situation.

I myself do in house live corporate/government recordings of public meetings and use 57s all the way around and get great results!









:cool:
 
I've had clients drop noisy track pants, or strip off loud shirts. :cool:

I think the 416 probably started being used for matching sound in ADR, and somehow stuck around for other VO work as well. There are other shotguns that will work as well (I just personally sold off a Beyerdynamic CS 86 that was as good or better than the 416 to my ear, and I know people that are using the Rode), but if it comes to matching existing work, there's just enough sonic variation that it's safest for me to stay with the 416 as a sort of a standard, since I know that's what most of the other studios are using.
 
I used Sound Forge 6 which had pretty good compatibility.



We used a single marker for a special function, and double markers for mistakes in general. More recently I've worked in PT which can name markers on the fly, one of the few things I like better about that software.



I did corporate work producing material with amateur speakers for mostly internal use and generally had only SM58s to work with. An RE20 would have been a big improvement on amateurs with its relative lack of proximity effect and wide pattern. What you do may be more applicable to the OPs situation.

SoundForge hasn't changed much, but the new version will allow for multi-tracking, which I seldom need, but is handy now and again - and makes the need to learn (and invest in) ProTools less likely for me at this point in my life.
I can see why the RE20 would be an attractive alternative to an SM58 in that situation, for sure!
 
Overall, it went well. The clients were happy, and I didn't have any technical problems. It was so much faster-paced and stressful than anything I'd ever done before though, and nobody really seemed to know what format/delivery method people wanted. I figured it out though.

Thanks for the advice guys!
 
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