Since audiobooks, podcasts, video voice over, narration, and other categories have grown rapidly, more people than ever before are doing their own recording. A sizable portion of our work is around assisting voiceover artists in creating crystal-clear, understandable, and professional voiceover tracks. This post will go through some of our preferred methods for resolving the most frequent issues voiceover artists run across in order to create voiceover tracks sound better.
Although, only when there aren’t any external noises to distract from the voiceover, it will sound its finest. In a tiny, untreated room, it is impossible to generate a clear voice that is devoid of background noise and has an audible focus. An efficient, interesting, and emotionally-transmitting performance is what matters most, and these qualities serve as its foundation.
Timber Acoustics is here to help you remove the clutter from the room so that your voice sounds wonderful from the very first take.
Firstly, let’s identify the issues in a voice-over studio.
Many individuals appear to believe that you must build a room that is fully covered with absorptive materials and has no reflections—this is extreme overkill! Whereas, it is not necessary to build an anechoic chamber.
It’s crucial for the message to come over clearly and naturally to the listeners, whether you’re reading a book for the blind, in a music studio, in a home theatre or having a session at a radio station. The first issue is that a microphone can’t distinguish between what is important and what should be ignored. It is incapable of distinguishing between human speech and other sounds like air conditioner sounds. Basically, it deadens the sound after capturing it.
Another issue is the room. If the space has hard surfaces, the voice will reverberate between the window and the walls, creating flutter echo, a dense reverberant field due to which lip movement and facial clues are lost at the listening end. Additionally, the brain can no longer block out the undesirable noises. Hence, it is challenging to comprehend and wears out the listener. Inappropriate treatment, which is common in most voice-over booths, taints the voice, aggravating the issue further.
How can Timber Acoustics help you?
Making a relatively quiet area where the voice may be recorded without background noise reflecting back into the mic is the first line of defence. A quiet space that has been treated with 3″ thick Timber Acoustics Sound Absorption Panels would be the ideal setting. We advise applying at least 50% of the recommended coverage to the wall surfaces from the waist up because it is crucial to get rid of the flutter echo.
The majority of “commercially created” voice-over rooms have the issue known as “chest hump,” which causes the voice to sound boomy and unnatural by adding a low-mid frequency. This is due to the application of thin, low-density foam to the walls, which only absorbs high frequencies. For consistent absorption down to 200Hz, Absorption panels are the way to go. These panels are composed of high density Roxul Rockwool. You can also install Timber Acoustics Broadband panels (5″ thick) for maximum control across the frequency range with high bass absorption.
Why Rockwool Panels? Click here to read more.
Further, corners are bad for forming something called a standing wave at low frequencies, making the voice-over recording muddier and less pleasing to the ear.
So, smooth down the bottom end that is too strong by installing tri-corner traps, effectively designed to absorb more low end, but still excels at absorbing high end, resulting in seamless sound absorption from 50 to 5000 Hz or corner bass traps, developed to deal with varying levels of reflection in corners and effectively designed to absorb more low end.
Timber Acoustics Foldable Isolation Booth is another choice if establishing a dedicated voice-over room is not feasible.
Using absorption panels in the vocal booth is a revolutionary design that isolates and dampens ambient atmosphere from voice recordings, allowing the engineer to add echo or reverb and equalize the voice in post production to best suit the performance. These booths can be opened as required and closed like a cupboard when not in use. In fact, radio stations have been using these since almost a century to make sure the message is comprehended properly.
Still confused about what you should get for the acoustic treatment of your studio? Contact us to get a consultation by our engineers now.
