Get A Better Broadcast, Podcast and Voice-Over Voice

2022.12.01 – 0700 – Post-Dialogue Attributions In Audiobook Narration Mark any ‘post-dialogue attributions’, where the name of the person who just spoke is written after their statement, (“ Merlin said ”, “ Trayvon interjected ”, “ Marsha replied ”, “ Neville whispered ”, “ she said with a tremor in her voice ”), so you know which voice to use for the preceding comment, and how to read it. You may...

2022.11.30 – 0699 – Preparing a Text For Audiobook Narration   Preparing the text Since you’re reading a long piece, it’s essential to skim the book beforehand. Mark unfamiliar words and check their pronunciation (imagine a character called Romè, but because of how your screen is set up, you have recorded the whole book calling them Rome, like the city…). Fantasy and science fiction books wil...

2022.11.29 – 0698 – Story-telling For A Young Audience Story-telling for a young audience For younger pairs of ears, think particularly about the storytelling journey. Children’s books are often very much about emotion and change: the lonely girl who finds friends with seven dwarves; the poor boy who climbs a beanstalk and escapes from a new land with a pot of gold and so on. So play with those fe...

2022.11.28 – 0697 – Potential Problems When Voicing Audiobook Characters A potential problem - When you create a very distinctive voice for a minor character, who then has a greater role than you’d anticipated! Maybe you’ve developed a deep, gravelly, heavily-accented voice for a few lines, and then in book two of the series, that character is the lead… your vocal health is in trouble! Male and fe...

2022.11.27 – 0696 – Voicing ‘Minor Characters’ in Audiobook Narration Minor characters - You don’t need a totally unique voice for each character. Listeners know you are telling a story, not pretending to be different characters or that the production has a cast of hundreds. Have changes in your voice, but don’t worry about creating 30 or 40 different characters, some of whom will only have a line...

2022.11.26 – 0695 – Audiobook Character Voices Character voices (This is in addition to the in-depth look at character voices in the ‘animation’ section previously.) The main character – Create a voice that you can use in various emotions and one not so strong that it exhausts or hurts you.   Individuality – having said that, each main character’s voice must be somewhat distinct from each oth...

2022.11.25 – 0694 – Projection And Pace For The Audiobook Narrator   Projection – we have looked at loudness before, but as a quick reminder that with audiobooks especially, people will be listening alone perhaps through headphones, so talk to them with a one-to-one volume. A ‘big’ narration will be exhausting for everyone.   Pace – don’t read too fast. Allow the listener to ‘see’ the sc...

2022.11.24 – 0693 – Impartiality For The Audiobook Narrator   Be interested, invested and informed …– only read the genres you enjoy to be more emotionally connected to the text and to draw the listener in. You are the knowledgeable guide on the journey through these characters’ lives; don’t mislead the listeners and even though you may surprise them, you should not be surprised yourself at w...

2022.11.23 – 0692 – Analysis and Agility For The Audiobook Narrator Analysis – be somewhat of a student of literature. Understand what makes a story, a story and how one moves through a sequence (the characters, the setting, the plot, the conflict and tension, and the resolution) and the six common themes in literature (good vs. evil, love, redemption, courage and perseverance, coming of age, reve...

2022.11.22 – 0691 – The Audiobook Narrator’s *Own* Character The narrator’s own character Depending on which POV you are reading the story from, your ‘character voice’ will be different. If you are one of the characters (First Person POV), be careful not to have such a strong accent characterisation that it becomes annoying to the listener and awkward for you to perform for any length of time. If...

2022.11.21 – 0690 – The Narrator’s Various Points of Views Narration - First understand who you, the narrator, are in the story. That is, whose point of view (POV) is the story told from? [1] ·        First Person POV – when you as narrator say “ I ” and “ we ” (it’s how we all speak in real life). It is a more personal viewpoint (and so used in memoirs, rom...

2022.11.20 – 0689 – Fiction Audiobook Narration Skills Fiction skills for an audiobook narrator First a few definitions: Solo narration – when a reader either differentiates between each character with their voice (different pitch, race, gender, accent and so on), or, when they do not, and presents a ‘straight’ narrated read with no variation between the different people in the text. Narrator – th...

2022.11.19 – 0688 – Non-Fiction Audiobook Narration Skills Non-fiction for an audiobook narrator Recording a non-fiction text is considered by some to be more straightforward than recording fiction. That’s because you’re delivering information, instruction, or facts, rather than navigating a narrative of characters and conflicts. Others say that’s just why non-fiction is difficult: the text can be...

2022.11.18 – 0687 – Vocal, Physical and Mental Health For Narration Good vocal, physical and mental health – you will be spending a lot of time by yourself in a booth, concentrating, so you need to be mentally strong. A lot of reading will require a lot of vocal strength: warm-up exercises, hydration and built-in rest breaks. In the booth itself, you need to have everything set up ergonomically so...

2022.11.17 – 0686 – Clarity, Consistency and Concentration in Voice Acting A clear voice – people will be spending a lot of time with you, so you need to have a voice that will not jar or grate on their ears. Consistency – consistency in the style and energy of your read, and for fiction books, each character’s voice and accent. Concentration - In non-fiction especially, this could be content-rich...

2022.11.16 – 0685 – ‘Punch And Roll’ Voice Recording VOICE BOX Learn the ‘punch and roll’ technique to save recording time This is when you mark (‘punch in’) the point in your recorded audio where you made a mistake. The  DAW (Digital Audio Workstation recorder), then plays back a few seconds of you speaking before that point (the ‘pre roll’), at which moment it starts recording again. T...

2022.11.15 – 0684 – Voice Over Eye>Brain>Mouth Control   Eye-Brain-Mouth Control – you have to be good at reading accurately, just sticking to the text. You will probably have skim-read the text before you start [1] , and in the studio, you need to be able to scan ahead as you read: more mistakes mean more editing time, leading to a disjointed read and less money-per-minute for your wor...

2022.11.14 – 0683 – Narration Stamina   Stamina – you will need to read a lot of words in a short period of time: 4-6 hours in front of a mic each day is not unheard of for an audiobook narrator. So, you need committed energy and the ability to sound the same at the end of the day as you did at the start. Performing a 30-second spot is like running a 50-yard dash; a 60-second spot is like a r...

2022.11.13 – 0682 – Natural Narration Foundations Natural Narration Foundations In the main, we have been looking at short reads, commercials and news stories and the like, but sometimes you may have a longer read to perform, such as an audiobook.   Longer reads need to be approached in a slightly different way than shorter ones. Instead of a series of short sentences about the attributes of...

2022.11.12 – 0681 – Audiobook Narration   Audiobook narration Audiobooks have become increasingly popular [1] as people consume books while commuting, exercising or doing chores and with the ease of listening via smartphones and Bluetooth. There are broadly two different types of books: non-fiction and fiction, each with different skills required of the voice actor and also some cross-over th...

2022.11.11 – 0680 – Voice Acting In Gaming   Games   Voice acting in the video game business is similar to doing animation work, although the portrayals have to be more ‘realistic’ than say, those ‘cartoon-caricatures’ of people or animals. In fact, gaming actors are more like those in movies – they just can’t be seen on screen.   Your skills Adaptability - Although you may read as...

2022.11.10 – 0679 – Concatenation Concerns Character creep can cause particular problems when combined with concatenation . This is where a voice-over has to read a short list of incomplete sentences, and then a long list of places, numbers, or other ‘options’. You will have heard examples on transport services, telephone booking systems and sat navs: the original sentences are completed by the co...

2022.11.09 – 0678 – Character Creep Character creep If you try and be someone who you’re not [1] , then there is a chance that over the course of a contract or studio session, your ‘persona’ might change. It may mean that you cannot keep up the voice that you created for the role, perhaps because it is too demanding vocally, or you forget how to create it. Maybe it’s not a specific decision, but t...

2022.11.08 – 0677 – Keeping In Character When you have developed a voice from scratch and you’re comfortable with it and do it well, keep it and add it to your cast of characters, and then build another character that builds from that one. Merge the ‘evil witch’ with the ‘young woman’ say, to have another voice. Aim for quality not quantity of these voices. Write a few notes describing their voice...

2022.11.07 – 0676 – Vocal Exaggeration In Animation Vocal exaggeration in animation [1] You must have the muscular strength to host the vocal gymnasium that is required in animation. Work on the instrument daily to achieve vocal strength.   The voice you use will, for much of the time, be more, well, animated in animation. More ‘over the top’, energetic, projected and with greater variety and...