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A Sound Education

The Voice, Part 3

Dec2017-mic

"At one time there were voiceover artists, now there are celebrity voiceover artists. It's unfortunate because these people need the money less than the voiceover artist."
David Duchovny


What does it take to perform a voice-over? After talking with several industry veterans, it turns out that it's not as easy as they make it sound - and that's the whole point. In Part 1, we found out how these four voice-over artists got into the profession. In Part 2, we learned about preparation and technique. In this last installment of our series, our nimble-tongued pros have advice to budding narrators and writers.

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The Voice, Part 2

Oct17-mic
"In voice-over work, you have to actually do more work with your facial muscles and your mouth. You have to kind of exaggerate your pronunciation a little bit more, whereas with live action, you can get away with mumbling sometimes."

Mark Valley


What does it take to perform a voice-over? After talking with several industry veterans, it turns out that it's not as easy as they make it sound - and that's the whole point. In Part 1, we found out how these four voice-over artists got into the profession. This month, we learn the nitty gritty of preparation and technique.

John-Campbell

John Campbell is a voice-over artist and semi-retired advertising and marketing writer and producer in Lexington. His voice has been hired by such clients as Klipsh, The NCAA, Valvoline, Fazoli's, and Brown-Forman. John is also a drummer in a classic rock band and enjoys noodling on the bagpipes. John describes his style as banks and hospitals to car dealers, and everything in between.


Kathie Stamps Round


Kathie Stamps is a voice-over artist, writer, producer, sports broadcast engineer and is owner of Stamps Communications in Lexington. Her voice has been hired by such clients as Ocean Spray, Sports Illustrated, Grand Victoria Casino, and East Kentucky Power. Her background in music helped prepare her for a career in voice-overs. She describes her style as "smooth."


Tom Martin


Tom Martin is a career journalist, reporting and anchoring on such news radio networks as ABC News, AP Radio, and RKO Radio Network, as well as being Paul Harvey's back-up host. Tom is also a lifelong pianist and keyboardist and currently plays with the Patrick McNeese Band. Tom says he inherited his deep smooth voice from his father.

JimJones


Jim Jones is owner of Cherry Voiceworks in Dayton, Ohio. Jim specializes in commercials, narrations, politicals, broadcast promos, on-hold messages, and audiobooks. His voice has been hired for such clients as Arby’s, GE Jet Engines, Proctor & Gamble, Kroger, and Fasig-Tipton. Jim describes his style as "warm, buttered bread."


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Preparation


Preparation, from tongue warm ups to research, can be key to having success in a voice-over session. But sometimes life experiences unexpectedly work their way into the booth. Years ago, Jim worked a six-month stint in a shoebox factory. He probably wasn't thinking about how that experience would help his voice-over career at the time, but now it helps him while recording industrial narrations. "I learned about presses and machinery," Jim said. When a script might detail a mechanical process referencing movements, controls, and safety procedures, Jim can visualize the actions, "and it would help me with my interpretation."

In a perfect world, voice-over artists get a script beforehand so they can prepare. The reality is that copy is often being written and re-written right up until session time. But, as John points out, you'd better be able to correctly pronounce the name of the product. As he was preparing for a recording session for the spirit and wine giant Brown-Forman, he did some research on the scotch whiskey he would be selling. "Very few Americans,' John said, "even scotch aficionados, know how to pronounce Glenmorangie. So I made it part of my business to know how to pronounce the name of the product."

Physical preparation for a session is different for everybody. One actor I used to work with did push ups in the voice booth. Another sings scales. Others "purposefully hit the highest note they could possibly hit, then the mid-range, then the lowest note they could possibly hit," Tom chuckles. "If people only knew what what was going on in our cars as we were driving to the speaking gig, they probably would laugh." Jim chews bubblegum about 15 minutes before a session because "it loosens my jaws." Kathie brushes her teeth beforehand because she doesn't want to make excessive mouth sounds. John will do mouth exercises he learned in his Speaking for the Stage class.


microphone-2104091_640

Technique


Perhaps the hardest thing to learn and deftly apply to a voice-over is technique. Someone can have a lovely voice, but if no one can understand what's being said, it's a major fail. "My father always told me over-and-over," Tom remembers, "to always e-nun-ci-ate. And he would say it that way so that he got every syllable of the word in. That was his point, words have syllables for a reason."

I was a trombone major in college, and although I don't do voice-overs, I see many parallels between performing music and performing a voice-over. Two similarities are breathing and phrasing. Playing a wind instrument or singing correctly teaches you all about breath control. You learn to take in a quick, deep, and nearly silent breath. As you play or sing, controlling the flow of air from your diaphragm results in even tones and predictable air reserves. Phrasing is carefully planning your breaths around a group of notes while retaining musicality.

Reading a script is exactly the same way if done right. Kathie's music training allows her to see the parallels as well. "I think it's all very related," she says. "Music and voice-overs, singing and talking, writing and expressing. I just picked up that singing and talking were very related in the expression, the breath work, and putting the meaning across."

Sight reading, that is playing a piece of sheet music with little or no preparation, is another fundamental part of music training that can be applied to voice-over work. It helps Kathie to "give it the feel it deserves." When Tom was in live broadcasting, being handed cold copy was a common occurrence during a breaking event. "One of the tricks of the trade, especially in network news," he spells out, "you have to learn to read a couple of lines ahead of where you are. You're looking for punctuation marks and that sort of thing while you're reading along." Sometimes a script doesn't have natural places to breath or phrase, especially with long sentences. John notes that he looks for "places to breath, places to pause, and words you're going to emphasize."

And John adds, "What words you emphasize often makes the read." Much like playing music. You can have all the technique in the world, but if you can't get the meaning across, it another major fail. John scans a script with the questions, "What are the key words, what is the key thought, what are we trying to sell, and how are we trying to persuade an audience?" Kathie says she needs "the tiniest bit of 'who's your audience? Who am I?' I don't have that many styles, but if it's hyper-over-the-top salesy, or regular-medium-authoritative instructional, I just need a little bit of direction."

And that brings us to one of next month's topics: taking direction. Plus, our super-professionals offer advice to budding voice-over artists, and tips for writing narration scripts.

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The Voice, Part 1

Oct17-mic
"One of the things that I love about voiceover is that it's a situation where - because you're not encumbered by being seen - it's liberating. You're able to make broad choices that you would never make if you were on camera."
Mark Hamill


What does it take to perform a voice-over? After talking with several industry veterans, it turns out that it's not as easy as they make it sound - and that's the whole point. We find out that each of these voice professionals have their own approach to achieving the nearly impossible task of a voice-over artist: making it sound sincere. Plus, find out what's been happening at Dynamix lately.

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Wagner, Vader, and the Viking

vikingladey

"The opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings."
Ralph Carpenter, Texas Tech Sports Information Director



Richard Wagner, the 19th century German composer, would have loved Star Wars. He may not have understood what a light saber or X-Wing fighter was, but he would get it - even with his eyes shut. That's because the Star Wars films are rich with composer John Williams' scores that employ a musical tool that Wagner himself was a master of: the leitmotif.

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I Review the Aputure Deity Boom Microphone

Aputure Narration Test in Studio



Read and/or watch my review of the Aputure Deity boom microphone. It's a sub-$400 offering that sounds and feels like a much costlier microphone. It has a few caveats, but not enough to keep it out of the gear bag of the budget-conscious, but quality-focused videographer.


http://mediaunlocked.net/aputure-deity-boom-mic-tests-review/

The Lasting Legacy of Bell Labs

Bell_Labs_Bardeen_Shockley_Brattain_1948

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? "
Albert Einstein


Bell Labs was born more than a hundred years ago out of the need to improve the nascent telephone. It grew into a pure research facility that made an astounding number of scientific discoveries, improved or invented new technologies, and even influenced art and music.

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22 Bazillion ⚫ 2 Gazillion

Godzilla-Surrounded

"I like to be surrounded by splendid things."
Freddie Mercury




1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 5.1, 7.1, 10.2, 11.1, 22.2 – the numbers get bigger and bigger, like monsters stomping toward us. Oh no, we're surrounded! And it's a good thing!

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Retro Digital

Pasted Graphic

"Analog is more beautiful than digital, really, but we go for comfort."
Anton Corbijn


There's been a growing trend over the last several years to bring back the sound of classic analog gear, such as compressors and amps with vacuum tubes, ribbon microphones, and even reel-to-reel tape. Let's look at how old school charm is finding new love.

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Hello From Mars

OSIRIS_Mars_true_color

"The rockets came like drums, beating in the night."
From "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury


Walter Gripp is the last man on Mars. All the rockets to Earth have launched without him. One evening in a deserted town, he hears a phone ringing. This creepy scenario from Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles has captured the fascination of science fiction fans for decades. The reader wonders, who could it be? The scientist wonders, what would it sound like? We're about to find out...maybe.

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Time Travelers

clock

"Shh! Listen! Someone's coming! I think -- I think it might be us!"
J. K. ROWLING, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Imagine if we could time travel without changing history. If we could go back 50 or 100 years would people view our technology as magic? If we were visited by time travelers from the future, would their technology be magic to us?

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Pots & Pans: Cooking Up Stereo

Mar 17-Pots Pans

"Cooking is like music: you can tell when someone puts love into it.”
Taylor Hicks

The transition from mono to stereo music recordings in the late 1950s had its challenges. Find out how Rudy Van Gelder and other recording engineers worked out the details.

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The Loudest Record!!!

Feb17-loudestrecord

"Every crowd has a silver lining.”
P.T. Barnum

126.4 I think that's what will be inside a little oval sticker that I'm going to put on my bumper. I see "26.2" bumper stickers that marathon runners proudly display. Colorado mountain climbers have "14er" stickers. A lot of dads are number "1." Then what's so special about 126.4? It used to be a number for Kings, but now it's a number for Cats.

Before I start to sound like a broken record, let me back up and tell this story from the beginning. Team Cornett wanted to raise the profile of UK Health Care and their close association with UK Athletics, so they came up with a plan to get the attention of a sports crowd. There's no better place for a hyped up crowd than Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington. With nearly 24,000 people, its been known to get really loud in there. It would be the perfect place to try and break the world record for the loudest crowd roar at an indoor sports event. And what basketball game would have the biggest and loudest crowd? A made-for-ESPN-TV marquee matchup: Kentucky versus Kansas.

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New Year's Resolution

Jan17

"New Year’s Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”
Mark Twain


Have you made your resolutions yet? Why bother, no one keeps them anyway. So let's talk about resolution instead. In particular how low-resolution MP3s can affect your emotional reaction to music. In a study out of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), researchers found that the fidelity of an MP3 recording of musical instruments can affect their emotional characteristics.

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