Recording Voiceover

Description

Recording Voiceover
The Spoken Word in Media
By Tom Blakemore

246 Pages

The only book on the market to specifically address its audience, Recording Voiceover is the comprehensive guide for engineers looking to understand the aspects of capturing the spoken word.

Discussing all phases of the recording session, Recording Voiceover addresses everything from microphone recommendations for voice recording to pre-production considerations, including setting up the studio, working with and directing the voice talent, and strategies for reducing or eliminating distracting noise elements found in human speech.

Recording Voiceover features in-depth, specific recommendations for recording radio and television commercials, corporate communications, documentaries, tracks for gaming and animation, radio drama, interviews and roundtable discussions. A discussion of the voice in film and television is also included.

Special attention is paid to the final release format and its impact on recording strategies. Exploration of using telephone interfaces – including both analogue and digital ISDN, as well as recording across the internet – is included.

Table of Contents

Introduction

A Life in Sound

A Bit About This Book

The Making of a Superior Voiceover Recording

A Short Case Study

The Voice in Media

Information Theory

The Beginning of Digital Audio

Historical Precedents

Psychoacoustics

Reverberation

The Disembodied Voice

Recording Foreign Languages

Room Acoustics

A Word on Project Studio Acoustics

Studio Design and Acoustics

Microphones

Fundamentals of the Human Voice

Microphone Design Types

Polar Response

Frequency Response

Microphone Experiments

Dynamic Microphones

Condenser Microphones

Digital Microphones

USB Microphones

The Engineer

The Engineer at Work

Collaboration – Communication – Responsibility

Multitasking

Building a Sense of Trust

Preparation

The Team

The Studio

A Few Simple Truths

Lighting

The Script Easel

Seated or Standing?

Monitoring

Video Monitoring

Keep it Organized

Additional Considerations

The Session

Documentation and Notes

The Co-producer Role

Working With the Voice Talent

Some Tips and Tricks

Documentation (Part II)

Studio Weirdness

Your Personal Recording Space

The Basics

The Space

Modifying an Existing Space

Custom Designing a Studio

Prefabricated Voice Booths

Hardware

Software

Delivery – The Remote Session

Additional Costs

The Matter of Trust

Recording for Commercials

The Dictatorship of the Clock

How Long is Too Long?

The Commercial Session

Insert Lines and Redos

Editing and Intercutting

After the Session

One Final Word

Recording Long-Form Narration

The Long-Form Session

Documentation

Recording to Picture

Further Thoughts on Long-Form Narration

Recording for Games and Animation

Game Voice Recording

Recording for Animation

Watch Your Levels!

An Experiment in Voice Recording

Recording Interviews and Roundtable Discussions

Interviews

Video Interviews

Boom and Shotgun Mic Techniques

Recording Roundtable Discussions

Live Mixing of Roundtable Discussions

More Voiceover Opportunities

Voice Response

Public Announcements

Web Content

Voice Talent Demos

Audio Books

The Wacky World of Toys

Audio Tours

Something Completely Different

In Conclusion

That’s a Wrap

Building the Sense of Trust

Your Insurance Policy

A Passion for Voice

Biography

Tom Blakemore has been an active audio engineer for over thirty years, working in film, television, commercial, and corporate communications as a supervising sound editor and mixer. His film work includes Emmy Award winning documentaries, Academy Award nominees, Directors Guild of America Best Documentary winners, and Audience Award winners at the Toronto, Chicago and Amsterdam Film Festivals. Tom lives in Chicago, where he is an adjunct professor at Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy teaching film sound, and is a member of the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) and the Audio Engineering Society (AES).