Home Studio and Voiceover (by Deseye 'N Record Studio)

1. Role of the Home Studio in the voiceover process
2. Available audio formats
3. Why in a professional studio and not on my Personal Computer?
4. What can be done with the audio voice file?

1. Role of the Home Studio in the voiceover process

The home studio comes with a trained sound engineer whose work is to make sure that the recording of the voice is done in the best possible way and with best possible quality sonic wise. The studio offers an acoustically controlled environment which allows a recording free of any sonic parasites (noise from the street, from the neighbours…). The sound engineer will be able to detect any mispronunciations (nevertheless, the presence of a quality checker is advised), or any necessary change in the tone of the artist’s voice. Any problem in the quality of the on-going recording will be spotted and can be addressed straight away by the Sound Engineer.

2. Available audio formats.

At Deseye'N Record Studio we use Protools 10. Protools is the industry standard audio recording software. We can deliver recordings in different audio formats like WAV, AIFF, AIFC, mp3, WMA, and SDII and QuickTime video files.

3. Why in a professional studio and not on my personal computer?

The equipment available in a professional recording studio cannot be compared to a simple recording system of a personal computer.

Signal chain in a professional recording studio:

MicrophoneàMicrophone pre-ampàEQàCompressionàProtools

All the cables and connectors (1/4 inch jacks, XLR’s) used in the recording studio are told to be balanced ones. This type of connection is very important in sound recording and production because it allows for the use of numerous and long cables while reducing vulnerability to external noise.

With your personal computer you would plug your mic directly into the sound card, using an unbalanced 3.5mm jack, and record directly into a cheap (or free of charge) recording software. Technically you would get a recorded voice, but the quality would be very low, presenting noise parasites, humming, etc, which would not be acceptable for professional use.

4. What can be done with the voice audio file?

Once your clean and parasites-free recording is finished, you can choose to do different things with it:

Sync to picture or ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement)

Technique generally used when the dialogs are recorded by an actor of the movie while looking at the scenes. Indeed, it helps to synchronize the voice and the pictures.

Advertisement

The voiceover artist reads a pre-written speech praising the qualities of such or such product and why you should buy it.

Narration

The voice over artist narrates a story and sometimes comments on the action.

Description or Education

Television news is often presented as a series of video clips of newsworthy events, with voice-over by the reporters describing the significance of the scenes being presented; these are interspersed with straight video of the news anchors describing stories for which video is not shown. It can also be used for documentaries like in National Geographic Park.

          Finally, the sound engineer can also apply some effects, also known as FX, on the voice, like Delay, Echo, Flanger, Reverb and many more effects for more complete results.

If you wish to contact the Studio for more details, please send an email to: deseyenrecordstudio@gmail.com