Comments

Bill Ravens wrote on 5/26/2003, 7:22 AM
This comes from Douglas Spotted Eagle:
When working with voices on a dialog track, consider using a light compression in nearly any instance, at a setting of around 3:1. Add a slight bit of low bottom end, around 125 hz, no more than 3dB, and usually just 1.5 dB or so suffices, and adding about the same amount at the 6-8khz region. Try dropping some mids, around 500-800 hz by about 1.5-3dB. This is not a hard, fast rule, but a good point to view when working with audio destined for television. Of course, bed music, sound FX, etc are all going to affect part of this mix too, but the dialog tracks can usually stand to benefit from a light compression and EQ treatment.
mikkie wrote on 5/26/2003, 1:27 PM
That makes a lot of sense, dropping the mids etc...

FWIW, if you're not recording to hard disk, a LOT of folks use the mini disc recorders. Great sound plus lower cost then a DAT by far... Try not to use the camcorder if you want really nice/clear voice recording, and it isn't synced dialog IMO.

As far as mics go, you can find a decent selection at musiciansfriend for some decent pricing -> quality is kind of a function of price, though it's possible to get some decent sounding voice recording out of some modest cost stuff. I guess another way of saying it is to get the best you can afford -> the equipment chain leading to your recording device is the most critical area to pay attention to.

For some decent info on the different types & useage of mics check out dplay.com & dv.com for anything J. Rose written. The home page of m-audio.net also has a PDF you can download.

For preamps you can sometimes get away with a nice mixer with built-in preamps, but again, if you can spend more...
krrpt wrote on 5/26/2003, 4:04 PM
I don't know if this helps . . .

I did one voice over gig as a "favor" once using very simple "ghetto" gear:

Shure SM-57 MIC -> Mackie Mixer -> Alesis Compressor (limiting) -> Sound Blaster -> Sound Forge.

It was all about getting a god hot signal and doing some "mastering" using WAVES DX plugins (Ultramaximizer, Compressor and MaxxBass). Turned out very nice - It's all about "fixing it up in post". I think I threw on a tad of EQ as well, but not much. The whole process was simple.

Now, the poor girl who had to _do_ the talking, that's a different story. Make sure you give the talent some rest and a bag of chips (nice greasy food to coat the throat).


Good luck.
VOGuy wrote on 5/26/2003, 4:58 PM
Hi Zbig,

So much depends on where you will be recording, who you will be recording, and what kind of material you are recording (I'm beginning to sound like a Journalism teacher.)

In my years of experience as a voiceover guy, I've found the most important factor is your recording location. The acoustical environment makes a very big impact on your recording. If the background is noisy, (assuming you don't want the background noise there for effect) there isn't much you can do to remove the noise, or edit a recording. If you recorded the voiceover in an acoustically "live" environment, your voiceover will have a "hollow" sound that can't be fixed or removed.

Good microphones are important, and may, in some instances, help to compensate for bad acoustics (to a very limited degree).

Recording straight into a camera is usually a bad idea, but I have worked on projects where the director did just that, and the narration turned out ok - some of the microphones mounted on cameras are surprizingly good, and if the talent is close enough to the camera, you MIGHT get useable audio.

If this is an important project, I would recommend that you take your voiceover to a professional audio-production recording studio. There you will find a selection of microphones (matching a mic to talent and project is important), a near-perfect acoustic envoronment, an environment already set up for recording voiceover (good lighting, copy stand, talkback system, etc.) and a recording engineer with expertise. You will find that the cost is not excessive (Studios in Los Angeles go for around $350.00 per hour, other areas of the country, experinced, quality studios can be found as low as $50.00/hour).

You will probably find that recording in a studio is less expensive than doing it yourself, when you factor in the cost of your own time - it will take a lot less time at a professional studio.


Good Luck
Travis ( www.Announcing.biz )

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