DLF Voice Over Lab. Orientation

Transcription

1 DLF Voice Over Lab Orientation

2 Presentation Flow Introduction To VO Styles Of Voice Over Theory Properties Of Sound How We Measure Sound Frequency Spectrum History Of Recording File Formats Sample Rate / Bit Depth Practical Audio Hardware Microphones Mic Technique Software (DAW) Twisted Wave Demo MP3 Listening Test Data Delivery Backup Lab Specific Information Uses Of The DLF VO Lab Educational Materials What To Do Next

3 Styles Of Voice Over

4 Commercial Product Sales (cars, food, health care, business services etc..) Heavy use of music and effects Styles run the gamut from authoritative, emotional, sincere, polished and normal Present and compressed voice, usually close miked

5 Narration Voice used to assist program Think Discovery Channel, Bio, History Channel, How Stuff Works, Cops, Reality TV Slight adjustments in tone, smaller dynamics Usually regular voice, real person

6 Promo Upcoming programs - TV / Radio Up front sound Loud Rhythmic the Voice Over Guy voice

7 Animation Character voices Languages Accents Gender Bending Age Bending

8 Audiobook Clean and present read No reverb / No effects Little processing Character voices are often minimized to assist story (opposite of radio play) Editorial Note: Room tone is needed throughout to stitch together story, no silence!

9 Video Game Like animation Often over the top Stereo typical characters Jobs consist of loads of lines, noises and body interactions (hits, falls, punches)

10 IVR Interactive Voice Response Phone Prompt Interactive Web Prompts

11 E Learning Software Tutorials Online training Corporate training programs

12 Trailer Upfront Deep voice Specific sound That... IN A WORLD voice Opening up for more women lately Current trend is to cut narrative from story, minimize VO

13 Industrial Corporate training materials Product information videos Safety videos Clean read, often normal style Informative, authoritative and trusting

14 ADR Automated Dialog Replacement Looping Matching Walla

15 Theory

16 Properties Of Sound Energy in the form of mechanical waves Sound is heard and felt Sound waves oscillate Omni-directional Loses energy as it passes through the world Reflective

17 How We Measure Sound (Hz) Cycles Per Second [Hertz] Frequency Pitch

18 How We Measure Sound (db) Decibel (db) Amplitude Gain Volume

19 Frequency Spectrum The Human Range of Hearing (10 Octaves) 20 Hz <----> 20,000 Hz Loss of higher frequencies happens with age and ear damage Dog (40 Hz - 60 khz) Dolphin (75 Hz -150 khz) Bat (1 khz - ~200 khz)

20 History Of Recording Acoustical Recording Phonograph/Gramophone Electrical Recording Magnetic Recording Digital Recording

21 Phonograph & Gramaphone Phonograph created in 1877 by Thomas Edison Rotating cylinder using either wax or tin Gramaphone created at turn of century by Emile Berliner Flattened disc (record)

22 Electrical Recording Created In The Late 1920 s Process of using a MICROPHONE to record sounds, AMPLIFIED by vacuum tubes and recorded using an electromagnetic recording head. Greater fidelity and frequency response Cleaner and more natural reproductions

23 Magnetic Recording (1940 s) Use of magnetic medium moving at constant speed past a playback/ record head Electrical signal fed to recording head magnetizes tape analogously to voltage of signal, then reproduced in reverse through playback via speakers First time artist can overdub First time we can easily edit audio

24 Digital Recording In digital recording, digital audio is directly recorded to a storage device as a stream of discrete numbers, not voltage, as in analog. This binary code represents the changes in incoming signal. Analog Signal -> ADC -> Digital (bits 1s & 0s) -> DAC -> Analog Signal 1982 sees the first compact discs make it to market

25 Analog -> Digital -> Analog Analog To Digital Chip (ADC) -> Hard Drive -> Digital To Analog Chip (DAC)

26 File Formats Compressed vs. Uncompressed WAV AIFF MP3 AAC

27 Uncompressed Audio - WAV / AIFF Uncompressed audio is bit for bit identical to source at capture. No data compression is used System interchangeable Larger in size AIFF (Apple/Amiga 1988) / WAV (Microsoft/IBM 1991) Your computer naturally records in wav format behind the scenes

28 Compressed Audio - MP3 / AAC MP3 = Mpeg 2 Layer 3 (Created in 1995) Standardized and widely adopted Used in audio systems beyond the computer AAC = Mpeg 4 Part 3 (Created in 1997) Purported to sound better than MP3 at lower rates Adds larger multichannel support, better frequency reproduction at higher freq s and more compression formats. Gaining momentum (thanks to Apple) Audio displays as.m4a

29 Audio Compression Process (lossy) Compression was designed to greatly reduce the size of data required to represent the audio recording but still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original, for most people. Compressed audio uses bit rates in determining the amount of data to discard. An MP3 using a setting of 128 kbit/s will result in a file that is about 1/11 the size of the original. An MP3/AAC file can also be constructed at higher or lower bit rates, with higher or lower resulting quality. Compression works by reducing certain parts of sound that are considered to be beyond the auditory resolution of most people. We call this method perceptual encoding.

30 How An MP3 Works

31 Audio Data Compression Standard Bit Rates = 64 kbps 128 kbps 192 kbps 256 kbps 320 kbps Greater the bit rate, greater the fidelity, closer to the original source CBR Constant Bit Rate = 1 bit rate for entire file, standardizes sizes, simple and faster VBR Variable Bit Rate = changes as file complexity does, more efficient but varied CD Bit Rate = 1411 kbit/s (Values of compression 11:1 (128) 9:1 (160) 7:1 (192)

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33 Sample Rate Sample Rate = Number Of Samples Per Second CD = 44,100 Hz (44.1 khz) = Samples Per Second Film = 48,000 Hz (48 khz) = Samples Per Second Higher The Sample Rate = Greater The File Size VO destined for video purposes = 48 khz Sample Rate Audiobook / CD = 44.1 khz Sample Rate

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35 Bit Depth Bit Depth = Possible range of volume (dynamic range) More Bits = More Possible Values 16 bit = bit = Greater Bit Depth = Greater File Size Voice Over / CDs / Audiobooks = 16 bit

36 When to use where WAV MP3 Demo production Audiobook recordings Making music CDs Standard Uncompressed Format Completely system interchangeable Auditions Audio for review Placement on websites Preferred lossy format Last stage of production Final audiobook uploads

37 Practical

38 The Audio Interface Converts Analog To Digital Multiple Inputs Mic Preamp Line Outs (Speakers) Headphone Jack Connects with USB / Firewire

39 Microphone Types Polar Patterns Dynamic Condenser USB

40 Figure 8 Cardioid Hyper-Cardioid Omni

41 Dynamic Microphone Rugged No Power Needed Can Take Large Volume Range Moisture Resistant Radio Station Mics Road Mics / PA Systems / Churches

42 Condenser Microphone Delicate Greater Sensitivity Better Reproduction Of Spectrum Need Power (48v) Phantom Power Studio Microphones Better Models = More Polar Patterns

43 USB Microphone No Interface/Preamp Needed Ease Of Use Portable Often Condenser Cross Platform (Mac & PC) Often Cheaper (Usually < $200)

44 Microphone Practices Use Pop Filter Always Keep Relative Distance (6-8 in) Stay On Axis Use Mic Stand / Boom Stand Cover When Not In Use

45 the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) Avid Pro Tools Twisted Wave Apple Garage Band Audacity Adobe Audition Apple Logic Pro Reaper Sony Sound Forge

46 Recording Practices Set level Top / Tail Normalize Keep distance from noise floor (room tone) Leave headroom for louder passages Edit beginning and end of audio to clean up recording Process by which we increase volume of entire track to specified level. Achieved by finding loudest peak and raising that to the threshold. Normalization should only be done when delivering MP3 files for review.

47 Twisted Wave Demonstration

48 Twisted Wave Demo Setup Level Check Record Edit Normalize Export

49 The Digital Domain (Sending) Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail = 25 MB Corporate < 15 MB FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Potentially Limitless Dependent On Internet Speed Filezilla (Free - Mac/PC)

50 One Shot Send & Personal Storage Send Once Hightail Wetransfer Mediafire Personal Storage (Cloud) Dropbox Google Drive Box.net Sugarsync Cubby Amazon S3

51 Backup On-Site External Hard Drive Mac includes Time Machine PC includes Backup & Restore Off-Site Carbonite Mozy

52 Lab Specific Information

53 Uses Of The DLF Lab Hone your voice / practice your craft Record audition / Run ISDN Session Record audio for your demo Practice/learn with different audio software Mic shootouts/comparisons Practice Promo / ADR Workout Groups Workshops Software Classes (Audacity)

54 Educational Resources Voice Over Experts Podcast podcasts.voices.com/ voiceoverexperts/ VO Buzz Weekly Voice Over Resource Guide Edge Studio (Free Script Library) East West Audio Body Shop (EWABS)

55 What To Do Next Book an appointment! Come To An Event Record An Audition (323) Be Social Facebook Don LaFontaine Voice Over Lab