Listenupnorth.com, a spoken word website asked me on Twitter the other day about some recording tips or suggestions when it comes to recording voice overs like they have on their website. They record poetry and single voice recordings that need to be quiet and intimate to capture the listener.
After brainstorming and listening to some of the selections on their website there are a few recording tips I can suggest for a better voice over experience.
Dead Silence
When you are recording speech, especially if that is the only thing that is going to be on the recording it’s important to eliminate as much outside noise as possible. Dedicated voice over booths, found in TV stations for instance, are treated to be completely dead. No reflections, outside noise or room sound. That way only the sound of your voice is being picked up by the microphone, nothing else.
Of course, it’s harder to deaden a complete room if you are recording at home but you can certainly set up a space that is deader than anywhere else in the room. You can achieve this with dedicated acoustic absorption, or with blankets and duvets if you are on a budget. Additionally, a dedicated vocal recording solution such as the sE Reflection Filter can help reduce the room sound that tends to creep into home recordings.
Equipment
A good, large diaphragm condenser is good bet for capturing a full and balanced sound of the voice. There are many different brands of condensers out there but most of them get the job done.
You don’t need a $2,000 condenser to get a nice recording of your voice. You can usually get by with a condenser that’s under $300, like the super silent Rode NT1A or the cheap Audio Technica AT2020. There are even a few USB microphone options out there but I would recommend getting a nice standalone usb interface instead.
Recording Tips
When you have a nice quiet area to record in with your large condenser microphone then there are a few more things to worry about before hitting record. Some home recordings have a low hum to them due to background noise and such. You can reduce a lot of this low end noise if your microphone has a low cut filter that cuts out most of the low end you don’t need. You will end up with a cleaner recording that’s free of annoying low end noises.
If your microphone does not have a low-cut filter then you need to do some post production mixing after recording. Using a high-pass filter in your audio program you can filter out most of that pesky low end you don’t need. If you are afraid of filtering, get over your fear by reading my article on how to beat that particular phobia.
Additionally, when you have your vocal tracks inside your audio program you can EQ them for more presence and character. For more details read The Five Frequency Areas of the Vocal.
Before/After Sample.
With just a simple adjustments you can get a much better sound out of your vocal recordings. Listen to the vocal samples below to hear the difference in quality from one to the other. The first recording is done in the part of my room where there is almost no acoustic treatment. There are no blankets or anything to reduce the room sound and I have done no post production to the audio files. I recorded both audio samples with my Audix CX-112 large diaphragm condenser.
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In the next sample I moved myself into the “vocal recording” area of my home recording studio. There is acoustic treatment on the walls behind me to dampen the reflections, I have placed the sE Reflection Filter around the microphone to kill most of the room sound and I switched on the low frequency roll-off on my condenser. Lastly, I did some light EQ fixes in Logic to make the voice sound better.
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The sound of the voice is a little more intimate and there is less room sound. The only drawback to the “after” recording is that the fan of my old laptop is pretty loud and the conversion to mp3 only makes the noise floor of the recording louder. But all in all a pretty big improvement.
Conclusion
When you are recording voice over, or just vocals in general make sure you take these suggestions into consideration. Treating the wall behind the singer, reducing the room sound that can enter your microphone and filtering out unwanted low end will improve your vocal recording substantially.
I hope these suggestions helped @listenupnorth and the rest of you. If you have any thoughts or doubts about your production don’t hesitate to hit me up on Twitter or send me and e-mail.
Image by: Mark David Zahn
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6 Comments on "Recording Tips for a Successful Voice Over Session"
Thanks Audio Issues fot this great advice – I now hope to go and put it into practice
You are very welcome. Thanks for the suggestion.
I just discovered your site. Nice article !
The link to the first voice sample is dead…
Seems to be working fine for me now. Thanks for letting me know.
Do you care if I put part of this on my site if I post a link to this site?
You can include a short excerpt and link to the original article with the headline in the link.