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Preparing the Room for Quality Voiceover Recordings

Are you one of those that have discovered your voiceover talent and will start producing a script for a professional recording for advertising? You may be working with a videographer or production team to create your voiceover script, but there are also several computer software programs and tools available to help you create the entire project from start to finish on your own.

There is a significant amount of preparation required to ensure that the environment in which you record the Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE voiceover will help you create a quality advertising and promotion piece. Here are some vital tips in how to prepare the room that can help you achieve quality voice over recording.

1. Check all your equipment. Booking the voiceover talent for the project and then wasting several hours testing equipment will cost you. ”Producing Great Sound for Digital Video” author, Jay Rose, expertly suggests that you should get the right kind of equipment and test it the day before production schedule. If you can’t test the equipment the day before production, then conduct the test a few hours before production time to reduce the chance of any unforseen delays.

2. Make sure the room does not create echoes. To check if the room is creating echoes, tightly shut all doors and windows, and turn on the microphone. Conduct some test recordings with all of the equipment so that the echo effect can effectively be reduced.

3. Adding background music. Professional quality voiceovers do not have any noise between the narrator and the listener. You want to create an audio space that sounds as if the narrator is having a face-to-face conversation with the audience. If there is a lot of 'white noise' in the recording, you have the option to add background music.

4. Find the best position in the room for the recording. There are no rules about where to position the microphone, so feel free to move the mic setup into different areas of the room to get the right sound. You don't want to record when the sounds seem hollow or filtered in any way. Move around to find the best fit.

5. Outside noise like traffic is not a major concern. Noise like outside traffic and the hum of fluorescent lighting can affect the quality of a  voiceover recording. However, most mics do not pick up these sounds. If you do feel like the script is being affected by these outside sounds, consider adding a high-pass filter to the microphone for a crisper recording.

6. Quiet vents, air conditioners and computer fans. Noise from computers, air conditioners and other similar equipment may be picked up by the mic especially when you are recording in small area. Sounds from these machines can cause some turbulence for your recording, so it's a good idea to turn them off for as long as possible during each recording segment.

You should also be able to monitor the voiceover recording throughout the production cycle using a pair of headphones. Take advantage of playback functions in a different room to make sure that everything is going smoothly; this will reduce the need to do another 'take' and can also help you address any problems with the audio quality of your voiceover recording right away.