The world of audio engineering is full of exciting career paths, from acoustic technicians and treatment specialist to world-class composers and mastering engineers. There is something for everyone when it comes to audio. As part of an Audio Engineers career, no matter what you will be dealing with the spoken word, dialogues and vocal in some way, shape or form, which is the topic of today discussion, The art of the Voice over.
Voice overs are a prevalent thing in the audio world, and you may not even know it. In light of my recent side project l though it would be nice to look at the process of Voice over and dialogue. Here I will go through editing, mixing and mastering techniques best used to improve the overall quality of your recordings.
Before the edit:
First off what is a voiceover? Well, it's an audio production of a voice for a specific medium. These recordings are to address, inform or resemble a meaning for the public. For example, a voice over could be used for a video game, tv, film, documentaries, commercials, radios, podcasts, audiobooks and even Toys like action figures, plush teddies, barbies and educational learning. Voice also appear in everyday activities, like train and plane announcements. The uses of the Voice over are limitless and often seen to be a complete art form.
I have worked with dialogue before in my first few trimesters while studying audio engineering. I even read a book on the production to better prepare myself for the day of recording. A lot of the information was about the setup of the studio, the microphones type and placement best used for different people, how to work with clients and the talent and most importantly how to get the best possible recording quickly and professionally. All while keeping the environment and the recording process comfortable for everybody.
That's the key to an excellent audio recording. Your talent needs to feel relaxed and comfortable when recording voice over; otherwise, the recording will sound, for lack of a better work terrible. Your goal is to communicate something, whether it is for a game, book, film or a toy. The tonally and delivery of the moment need to be clear, coherent and of course, convincing. IF your talent is voicing the audio for an action figure and the Artist sounds dull and bored, it just won't feel right. Often in a recording session, a director and producer will be there monitoring the recording to make sure that they get the perfect final recording. They leave it to you as the engineer to get that out of the Artist.
One of the talents of a great audio engineer, they can hear differences in almost anything, due to the skills as a critical listener. They understand the needs of the clients brief and know how to coach the talent to deliver the final result.
Editing:
First up the editing, ok let's say that you have a recording, the take is good, the talent is happy the client is comfortable, and you are satisfied. The next step is to cut and edit the audio into sections and prepare it for the mix.
First, you listen to the take; this is where your critical listening skills coming to play. Here you listen to each word and make sure that each is clear and understandable. Here you can look at multiple takes and cut pieces together, but you have to keep in mind that you have to put crossfades on the cuts you make. It is crucial when you make cuts to apply crossfades as you may introduce pops and clicks in the audio. A crossfade has a benefit of reducing and removing any unwanted clicks if they ever appear, which is why you should apply them to every editing cut you make in your work.
After you have crafted the track, listen to the delivery to see if breaths are in the audio. Generally, you will remove the breaths to make the audio clean; You would remove the breath before each sentence by either cutting it out or using a fade. Be careful when doing this, you don't want to cut off the front part of words; otherwise, the recording won't sound right. Keep in mind that small breaths can also be useful to break up long sentences and make the speech seem natural.
When you finish with the edit, you should have a nice clean audio strip with coherent dialogue, and correct tonally. Then you are ready for mixing.
Mixing:
Here is where you make the audio suitable for the medium you are producing for and significantly loud. You do this use Plugs like EQ's, Compression, De-Esser's, De-noiser's and if needed a minimal amount of reverb. The reverb will be a case by case as not a lot of Voiceovers need reverb unless you need to simulate space in the speech. The mixing can get a bit technical, but if you understand the essential operation of these plugins, you should be able to use your ability to listen and come out with a nice precise mix.
The De-noiser, a useful instrument used to remove any room tone or wanted hum, buzz or static from the original recording. Sometimes noise can appear, commonly with home recordings and location sound. Locations are not the best place for voice recordings as environment sound can bleed into the audio. But if you're in a recording in a studio, you will be fine. Some plugins are great a removing the unwanted and somewhat destructive background audio.
The compressor is one of the most useful tools in your arsenal. The compressor will turn down the high peak in your audio once it passes a certain point, while at the same time turn up quieter tones. Compressors will give your Voice over a balanced delivery making everything appear upfront. The best setting for a compression varies from people to person but from the research I have done a common approach is a 3/1 ratio, with a 3-5ms attack and a 10+15 ms release time. But these can be adjusted to suit your production desires.
The EQ, again once the most common and valuable tool to any audio engineer. The EQ is used to remove tone from the audio spectrum within the audio. For most Voiceovers, you would remove the low end from the audio at around 60-80Hz. Then you would look into the other frequency range and boost the sound you like and cut the sound you don't. But if you are new to EQ one technique to use the subtractive method. This method is where you would use the parameters with a tight Q and slowly slide through the frequencies until you hear something that sounds bad and cut/pull it out.
De-Esser a tool used to reduce the sibilance produced by the performance. During the performance, common letters like S, H, T, P, B, and V are the cause of sibilance resulting is a hissing effect in the speech of the audio. This plugin will reduce the sibilance of the words.
Mastering.
We are at the final stage, Mastering, here is where you push the audio through a limiter, making it loud. That is the point of Mastering, to make everything loud, and meet the LUFs and volume limit standard for publication. You can also do a little more compression and EQ to suit, but that more for Music mastering. But the limiter is always a good idea if you want to give you Voice over some power in the volume areas.
Here you could set up a bus and route the audio through the different channels to prepare for the final piece of mixing and Printing. Set your limiter to a ceiling of -0.3dB and listen to the audio as to pull the threshold down. If you make it too loud, the audio will distort, and you will lose all the work that you have put into the mixing stage of the production. Once you have a loud audio file, you are ready to print to a new track and send it to the client for final approval.
Always use a detailed naming convention when working on audio assets—the more specific, the better. Add details like dates and type of file. Add the stage that is in like edit or mix in the name. A name naming convention with also benefit you, so you know where you stand when you take a break from work. Plus, when you sent audio to the client because there will always be a point when the client asks for another version. DO NOT use the word "final" in a naming convention…EVER.
Conclusion
All of this will help, you prepare and produce a pure and clear voice over ready for any platform. Use your critical listening skill to identify problem areas in the audio and work out ways to remove them of the audio.
Always think if I can fix it in the recording stage than fix it during the recording. All of this will be a lot harder if you don't start with a reliable audio recording of your Voiceover.
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