Hello! I restarted livestreaming and I’m restarting the blog. I decided that I am going to peel back the curtain on Voice Over and how I do things. My recording days are very predictable, and I want to share that with you. I start off with warming up. Then I review the material I’m going to record. I make sure I know how to pronounce all the words. I match character voices. Then I start recording and edit that recording. Let’s get into the details.
Warm-ups
I start my warm-ups with Vocal Warm-Up Exercises by James Alburger from the Art of Voice Acting bonus content. I use those exercises as well as a play list of songs to warm up, including Alphabet Aerobics by Blackaliscious, One Week by Barenaked Ladies, and Its the End of the World by REM. The face stretches and tongue twisters warm up my face and voice so I can express a wide range of emotions and to prepare for recording. It’s also a check-in for avoiding mouth noises like clicks, pops, and squelches as I’m speaking. Things that we don’t normally hear in day to day conversation you hear a lot on a recording in an empty room. If I’m getting mouth noises I take a little more time with stretching and hydration to get rid of those issues.
Script Analysis
After my warm-ups are completed, I go through my script analysis of the copy I’m going to read. I look at how long the copy is. This tells me how long it’s going to take to record, and if it’s too long I can plan on breaking it down into a couple of recordings instead of recording it all in one multi-hour go. I then look at the plot points and emotional notes that I wrote down in my script analysis. This helps prepare me to accurately convey the narative arcs. I have written down any words that I need to check on the pronunciation, and I’ll either use a resource online, or check with the author on their intended pronunciation. And then I look at the character voicing list and see if there are any new characters to create or any characters that have shown up previously. If they showed up previously then I match their voices with a previous performance.
Character Matching
When I have a character that gets used multiple chapters in a row, it’s easy enough to match the way the character sounds from one chapter to the next. If I have a character that doesn’t get voiced for several chapters, or got introduced in a previous book, I look for the recording I made of their voice previously and use that as a reference to match their voice. Some characters are only used for a line or two and so I use a generic voice for them if I don’t think I need to worry about using the voice again, or the voice getting confused with another character.
Recording and Editing
After I’ve completed preparing, I record the narration. I use a dog clicker to mark mistakes to make editing easier. I use Reaper as my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) for recording, and I use Audacity for editing. The recording and editing takes the longest in the entire process. And I’ll go into more detail about the recording and editing process another time.
Conclusion and Current Work
I hope this was interesting for you. You can join me on my livestream on Mondays at 11am Eastern on Twitch. I will continue to peel back the curtain on voice over work. The next stream will look at vocal exercises, recording techniques, and acoustic conditioning. Currently I’m working on recording Tasmakat by Rachel Neumeier.