Tips and Tricks: The Secret to a Memorable Voiceover
Do you want to record your own voiceover instead of using the automated options, but aren’t a professional?
No worries! There are a few tips and tricks to make your voiceover recording sound great using the record your own voiceover option in the Finalize step, with no prior experience needed!
Find a room with good acoustics.
Unless you’re recording a voiceover in a professional studio, you should be aware of your surroundings. Find a room with good acoustics – likely not a very open room with high ceilings, or an area with a lot of background noise. A smaller, quiet room should be just fine to ensure a high quality recording.
Warm up your voice.
Make sure you have some water before recording, and keep it on hand while recording your voiceover. Clear your throat to get rid of any possible rasp and phlegm. If your throat is feeling scratchy, have a spoon full of honey to smooth out the itch!
Mic check!
Check your external microphone to make sure the gain levels aren’t too high or too low. To find the perfect volume for your voice – record the voiceover for the first scene to test out how your voice sounds once recorded, and adjust your levels from there. Having a pop filter isn’t a bad idea either, as it helps prevent popping and hissing noises that you’ll make unconsciously – blame it on the consonants!
Be animated.
A monotone voiceover is the key to disengagement. If you want your message to stick, your voice should reflect your mission! Don’t be scared to add some attitude, excitement, or sadness into your voice, depending on your message. Vary your vocal pitch and tone to emulate the more and less important parts of your message – emphasize the key parts of the message by being louder, and lesser important words by using a softer tone. Also, vary your sentence inflection – not all sentences should end on a high pitch like you are asking a question, most should end on a low pitch to affirm your message and leave a strong impression.
A great voiceover = Enunciation!
No mumbling allowed 😉 Be crystal clear when pronouncing words while recording. If you stumble over a word or something does not sound clear when you play it back, record the scene again.
Timing is everything.
You’re likely reading the text off of the screen in the Finalize step, and not off of a separate document or physical piece of paper. Timing is extremely important for your mysimpleshow voiceover! The words should come in at the same time your images appear on the screen. Test out your timing skills in one scene before recording the voiceover for all scenes, so you know if you have to speed up, slow down, or if you’re right on time.
Now you’re equipped to venture into and conquer the land of voiceovers. We can’t wait to hear what you’ve got!