The Transformation of a Voice Over Talent:

A real world example of how one voice over talent completely modified his sound – from 300 miles away.

When I got a call from James, he was looking for advice on how to improve his sound. He had asked me to listen to his demos which I did, and then I offered my criticism as well as advice. Part of that advice was to go ahead and let me re-work his demos for him, which he quickly agreed needed to be done.

Part of the problem was that he had a great voice, and a great sound, but it wasn’t being shown in a great light. There were issues with his audio chain, his studio isolation, and his mic placement among other things. Before we addressed recording new demo pieces, all of the other issues would have to be resolved.

I started by having him ship me everything he had ever recorded and saved, to see if there was any of it we could use or would want to use. It wasn’t looking good. All of his previous home recordings which had been of sufficient quality for club style broadcast, were of such a quality that when mixed with quiet studio production, would have detracted from the new work. So they needed to be replaced.

Then I started in on his audio chain. His sound was muddy, to best describe it. While on the phone, I had him trace his mic chain from the computer back toward the mic. His I/O at the computer interface was sound. He was using a 24 bit sound card, so no problem there. I had him go into the settings for the sound card and make sure that all the factory EQ presets were disabled, which eliminated them as a possible source of the “muddiness” of his sound. It sounded as if there were pillows overtop of his microphone and he was trying to talk through them.

We traced the cables back to his mixer and confirmed their integrity. This was followed by going over the pre-amp and EQ settings on his mixer, which after brief discussion were all zeroed or brought to unity. Once that was eliminated, we went to the mic cable which was sound. So now, there was only one item left, the mic. During this whole process, he had been recording some copy I sent him and sending it for me to listen to in order to better diagnose the sound issue.

Once we got to the mic, I had him search the mic for polar axis and roll-off switches. Finally, that is where we found a big piece of the problem. Of all the settings the mic could be on, the two worst for this mic were selected. The first switch is a switch which allows you to attenuate the mic’s incoming signal -10dB, which one might do if the mic were sitting in front of a snare drum or a high SPL instrument such as a horn. The second switch was a low cut, roll-off or high pass filter which allows frequencies below 80Hz to be “cut” from the incoming signal, or attenuated 18 to 20 dB on average.

With both of these switches being set to -10/low-cut/high pass, his voice was smashed at best and all of the subtle characteristics were completely lost. When he switched them off and re-recorded a spot for me, I almost jumped through the ceiling. The difference was remarkable. Then I said the one thing he wished he didn’t hear..”Ok, re-record everything!!!”

With the signal cleaned up, things started to move along faster. I noticed about 3 or 4 pieces into it, that there was still this unidentifiable coloration of the mic signal. It wasn’t digital, but some sort of metallic sound, or tinny. I have heard people refer to tinny before and I guess it is best described as sounding as if one was talking into the open end of a soup can. There are a few other interpretations of the sound, but for the purpose of this story that definition will have to do.

It got to the point where I started to get a little PO’ed that I couldn’t isolate what was causing the metallic artifacts in the audio. Not being able to reach out and make an adjustment with my own hands was a little bit of a problem. So I went to the next extreme which was to get him to send me photos of his workspace and namely his mic location as it related to the rest of the area. In all of the audio, there were some early reflection issues that popped up from time to time, but after listening to it and trying to remove it from the signal for hours on end, I had had enough.

When I got the photos, they were the final piece to the puzzle. The mic was too close to the surrounding walls which explained the reflection issue. Now to tackle the odd metallic noise. This was our last chance. If these mods didn’t resolve the issue, the ugliness of buying a new mic might be in order, and no one wanted that.

I’m sure we have all seen a condenser mic hanging from a boom at one time or another. To some of us in the voice over business, it is one of the most holy of visions. Well, if you have ever spent time in radio, you know that the last thing you are going to see is one of those majestic diaphragm mics dangling around in an air studio, where any one in a series of Joe Blows could come along and knock it from its mount. Most of the time in radio, the mics are bolted in, screwed in, glued in or hanging from a spring loaded boom and look anything but majestic. Though they may be very nice mics as far as radio is concerned, is it seldom that the “Big Beauties” of the business are hanging around the station. Most of the time, the way they are hanging, their quality and your physical approach to them are completely different from traditional studio recording.

As it turns out, radio was to blame for the odd metallic sound that had eluded me for so long. Well, sort of.

James had been in radio so long, that when designing his home studio, he simply designed it like a radio station would be designed. A lot of this was done as a matter of necessity as well. The Royal Bank of Scotland was not financing the build, so the Royal Bank of James had to. With that in mind there were some constraints. That didn’t mean he bought shoddy equipment, because he didn’t. The computer, mixer, wiring, software and mic were all at or above par for this business. So how do you blame it on radio Mike? Most simply put, it was because of the position of his mic. Not how he was addressing it, but the actual physical position of the mic was to blame for the mystery metallic noise with no obvious solution.

A least not obvious until I saw it. The mic had been hung from the boom in a shock mount much the same way you would see the mic at any number of stations around the world. That is why I blamed it on radio. Anyway… Then we made the adjustment. For those who have been around for a while and covet nice mics and sound. Try to imagine spinning your Neumann around to a 90 degree angle, like it were an SM58 at a rock show, where you are actually addressing the bottom of the diaphragm, or speaking directly across it. Then tilt it downward 15 or 20 degrees, so the bottom of the diaphragm is pointed at or below your shoulders.

To some ears, the fact that the mic is recording a signal is good enough. To other ears that spend their days in front of studio monitors, it is completely different. I was totally perplexed at the beginning, because it didn’t sound like the VO was completely and entirely off axis. That sound is generally easy to discern and remedy. This was more of a mystery at the time because the audio signal was very rich and had a lot of punch, but was just riddled with this tinny, metallic utterly annoying (much like my babbling on about it) sound.

After this adjustment, we were off to the races. Once again, I said, “re-record everything” but this time he knew it was coming so it wasn’t much of a surprise. We started to cut audio so fast at this point; I had a day’s work of editing to do within a couple of hours. I had to tell him to break it off a few times because I couldn’t keep up with the pace at which he was generating the reads.

It was of real importance that we got the audio signal fixed before we proceeded, or all of this would have been for nothing. His understanding and willingness to let someone else take the reins was what led him to success with his new work. Along with his demo production, he was receiving what amounted to “Studio Consultation Services” at no extra charge. In his case, at least a five hundred dollar savings if not more. This is one of the many perks of online demo production here at the studio. The talent not only gets the production work, but also gets a tremendous amount of advice and guidance along the way.

All the time I encounter “Do-it-your-self-ers” that want help along the way, which in any industry are anything but quantum. They would like you to show them the map, but aren’t willing to pay when it comes to explaining the legend. I try to help where I can, though more often than not many venture forward and bypass the steps James took with his product. He was able to turn inward and realize that maybe someone else had the answer. Or at least a different, if not better idea. He willingly accepted the fact that when you want something done professionally, you hire a professional.

Throughout the entire process, I was sending reads back to him that didn’t make the grade. This would be where the coaching kicked in (Perk #2). I no longer had to focus on the sound of the audio. Now all I had to do was focus on the reads, and making sure that they were exactly what I was looking for. We would go over a spot again and again, and given his natural ability to take direction well, there weren’t a whole lot of times where we hit a wall. Some of the copy I sent just wasn’t right. Much like normal production and casting, when the talent doesn’t fit the copy, there is no sense in wasting each other’s time.

I was able to coach him along the way, which made all the difference in the world in the end product. Which leads me to mention this again. This business depends heavily on your ability to take direction. Without the ability, you are a one trick pony, and destined to go hungry waiting for jobs to come in.

Overall, his production took about a week to put together. We started with a voice talent who one week before had demos that weren’t doing him any favors and ended up with a talent that now has the tools to compete on a national level for many different kinds of voice work. His product has been polished to a point where leading consumers of audio will sit and listen to him, and give him a chance rather than click away in the first few seconds.

Before, his demos were muddy and busy with all sorts of echo and effects. Now they are clean, much more streamlined and speak to traditional producers in a way they didn’t before. His sometimes overpowering radio style was tamed and transformed into a style of delivery that can walk hand in hand with conversational reads, announcer reads, light commercial reads, comedic reads, and natural every day guy kind of reads. Actual versatility that he can shop around to prospective clients.

His terrific ability for radio imaging was captured on another demo and branded as such. The overall branding and imaging of his product was completely modified in the span of a week, all because he was willing to take a good look at his product and ask if it could be better. It could have been better, and now it is.