Voice Over
- Thread starter Huy Vu
- Start date
jade8472,
For perfect voice over: Actor, microphone, and BOOTH !
To have voice overs quality in your film... you can't realy, but to come very close you just use proper technics, shotguns, expensive field mixers, wind shields, and if this doesnt work you sure have to apply some filters later in post to reduse noise, hiss etc.
hope that helps
Andreas
For perfect voice over: Actor, microphone, and BOOTH !
To have voice overs quality in your film... you can't realy, but to come very close you just use proper technics, shotguns, expensive field mixers, wind shields, and if this doesnt work you sure have to apply some filters later in post to reduse noise, hiss etc.
hope that helps
Andreas
Andreas said:
Sorry, I'm a bit confused because it sounds like you're speaking of doing voice over outdoor, where background noises and wind sound would be a problem. But surely it's not that hard to secure an absolutely quiet environment indoor for recording. VO in film for me seems to have a booming quality that makes them "pop" from the dialogue. What exactly contributes to it or is it just an illusion?
wabbit
Evil has Ears
Finding a quiet place indoors is harder then you would imagine. Even then you have to treat the room for reverb. Having those two factors, quiet and diffuse, is why studios are expensive to build.
A "trick" that was taught to me is if you have access to a luxury SUV on set (producers often have these
). Park it in a fairly quiet area, take your actor in there, throw a few blankets over them and having them record some quick narration, wild lines, etc. Modern luxury cars are amazingly well treated for sound. It's ugly and unfriendly to the talent but a quite effective poor man's process.
Cheers
A "trick" that was taught to me is if you have access to a luxury SUV on set (producers often have these
). Park it in a fairly quiet area, take your actor in there, throw a few blankets over them and having them record some quick narration, wild lines, etc. Modern luxury cars are amazingly well treated for sound. It's ugly and unfriendly to the talent but a quite effective poor man's process.Cheers
dnachtrab
Member
It starts with the voice. If you ain't got it, you can't do it. Period. Then comes the years of training to master the style of trailers. If you are interested in coaching, I suggest Marice Tobias at www.tobiasent.com. (Although, she will only work with you if you have a professional refference or if you are already established in the business.) The style does not come easy for most and is not cheap for coaching. Last time I checked some coaches charge $175 an hour and demos could be as much as $4000. Then the mic and recording set-up follows. My rig cost aproximately 20k and I am still not finished.
Dan Nachtrab
Strange name. Great voice.
www.dannachtrab.com
www.myspace.com/dannachtrab
Dan Nachtrab
Strange name. Great voice.
www.dannachtrab.com
www.myspace.com/dannachtrab
jade8472 said:
I thought you said that you wanted voice over quality in your film dialog. The voice over pops out from the dialog because the of the BOOTH. And as our friends above mentioned, finding a quiet spot isnt easy at all, because what is quiet for your ears is a disaster for your mic.
Andreas
dnachtrab
Member
One thing I forgot to mention, if you are looking for a great (affordable) way to deaden a room for sound, check out this site: http://www.riffster.com/gobos/gobo.htm
Just by slapping together a few doors with acoustical treatment, you have a transportable sound solution. It will fit most any room and budget.
These (gobos) are very easy to build and quite effective. I know many VO talent who use them, instead of shelling out thousands on sound booths.
If you are interested in booths, these two companies produce very high quality products:
Whisper Room - www.whisperroom.com
Sound Sucker - www.soundsucker.com
Dan Nachtrab
Strange name. Great voice.
www.dannachtrab.com
www.myspace.com/dannachtrab
Just by slapping together a few doors with acoustical treatment, you have a transportable sound solution. It will fit most any room and budget.
These (gobos) are very easy to build and quite effective. I know many VO talent who use them, instead of shelling out thousands on sound booths.
If you are interested in booths, these two companies produce very high quality products:
Whisper Room - www.whisperroom.com
Sound Sucker - www.soundsucker.com
Dan Nachtrab
Strange name. Great voice.
www.dannachtrab.com
www.myspace.com/dannachtrab
signalhillsound
Member
I previosly owned some very expensive VO mics. I had a pair of U47s valued at over 8k a piece, a pair of Manley Reference Golds, AKG c12 valued at 12k. Once thing I cannot get over is how good my 200.00 Rode NT1-A sounds. compared to them. Really, look into Rode mics if you are on a budget. If you do not have a good room to record in, I would suggest a Schoeps MK41 short shotgun. If the talent gets in close, it sounds phenominal and rejects most of the room. In post, you can apply multiband expansion to suck even more ambience out of the recording. 416s are not really good indoors, and they do not sound natural at all.
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Noiz2
Sound Ninja
I agree with the order but not with a shotgun. If your looking for the "Hollywood VO" sound first it's the actor but second you need a good vocal mic. RE-20, Heil PR30, nice expensive large diaphragm condensers. Personally I prefer the Dynamics, but as a rule you don't want small diaphragm anything and especially not a shotgun.
Andreas said:
wabbit
Evil has Ears
Just to clarify, the key part of the "luxury SUV" was the Luxury part. The SUV part just gives you room to work. It's the luxury part that keeps out the sound. Cars like Lexus put a lot of serious effort into sealing up the passinger cabin from outside noise. It won't keep out large db sounds but will keep out the low level ambient that colors a wild track.
Cheers
Cheers
Jason Ramsey
Admin
A decent condensor studio mic, a room with lots of furniture and/or blankets on the walls and carpet, for deadening of echo. A 100 dollar behringer board with phantom power, a table top cd burner if your computer is too noisy, or just a computer. I use a 150 dollar marshall mxl2003, I believe. I bought it several years ago. my behringer board was 130. If you find the right distance from mic to actors mouth, you can do a good recording without a lot of background noise in a relatively quite environment. I use the above mic and sound board, running into my computer. Record using sound forge all the time for my radio production work. It is much better quality than the equipment the radio station I work at is putting out from their production room. Rich bass, smooth sound real good clarity. You just need a quiet studio condensor mic with a good (flat) dynamic range and a room that is not too noisy/and does not have a lot of echo. my 2 cents
Jason
Jason
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
The Oktava is a very nice mic. It probably wont give you as "hollywood" a VO as something like the RE20. BUt...
Get good wind/pop protection on the mic so the actor can get close enough with out becoming pop city. Also have some apples or water with some lemon juice in it to cut down on the lip tung slap/pop (that stick spit snappy sound that some times afflicts voice talent. THe Oktava will pick up those sharp sound really well.
Get good wind/pop protection on the mic so the actor can get close enough with out becoming pop city. Also have some apples or water with some lemon juice in it to cut down on the lip tung slap/pop (that stick spit snappy sound that some times afflicts voice talent. THe Oktava will pick up those sharp sound really well.
jade8472 said:
signalhillsound
Member
Re20?
Re20?
Re20?
I've recorded voiceovers for about seventeen years, and we would never use a RE20; in fact, nobody I know uses one for anything but kick drums and broadcast radio. Don LaFontaine and Pete Stacker use Sennheiser 416 shotguns for movie trailer stuff. I personally don't like the sound of 416s, and they really aren't designed for use on interiors, but the VO talent loves them.Noiz2 said:
dnachtrab
Member
True, the Sennheiser MKH-416 is the standard for VO in the industry. Funny, I always thought it was the engineer crowd who loved the 416s. Having one, though, I love the way it pulls everything out of my chest to rumble the monitors. Many top talent, including LaFontaine, have switched to Manley mics. From what I hear he even travels with it.signalhillsound said:
Stay away from the RE-20s and the like for a good VO. If you are on a budget, and who isn't, take a look at the Studio Project C1. Nothing but good reviews and many comparisons to a Neumann U-87.
Dan Nachtrab
Strange name. Great voice.
www.dannachtrab.com
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
That's really interesting. I haven't done any trailer recordings but in ADR and Radio VO's for both big budget and small, I have seen RE20's and Heils used and not the 416. It may be a North CA VS South CA thing or I have just seen a select group?? I have heard it recommended to use a 416 for ADR and I know in some circles it's a popular choice, but again it hasn't been the choice of the folks I have worked with and personally I don't like it.
RE20 is used all the time in radio, it's primarily what it was designed for, up close spoken announcer VOX. I could see it on kicks because it's almost overload proof.
RE20 is used all the time in radio, it's primarily what it was designed for, up close spoken announcer VOX. I could see it on kicks because it's almost overload proof.
signalhillsound said:
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
THe best choice is to find someone who knows what they are doing and get them to do it. Different mics are flattering to different voices. Dan, a lot of TV VO and narration want's a mid rangy kind of voice to slice through. Judging by your demos that is a lot of what you do and the 416 will certainly help get that sound. I was thinking more of the big bottom narration that happens more in films/ trailers. The 416 should not help get that because it's low end is not that great, low mid is pretty good and you can hear that on your demos.
Anyway , I prefer the Heil over the 20 but that's me. I would also not use it on certain voices. But both the 20 and Heil will tend to help give that very deep smooth sound on voices that can go there. I suspect that some of these guys that are getting that big bottom sound with a 416 have VERY deep voices and the 416 helps keep that in control. But that is pure speculation.
I do know that people with signature sounds usually have a specific mic that helps them get there and often bring their personal one to work.
Ribbon mics also have a very nice sound on voice but you have to have really good mic technique or you can get into problems. The same is true for condensers, very sensitive to plosives and such. Dynamics tend to smooth out the sound a bit because they have a slower transient response and tend to be less sensitive to ify mic technique.
Anyway , I prefer the Heil over the 20 but that's me. I would also not use it on certain voices. But both the 20 and Heil will tend to help give that very deep smooth sound on voices that can go there. I suspect that some of these guys that are getting that big bottom sound with a 416 have VERY deep voices and the 416 helps keep that in control. But that is pure speculation.
I do know that people with signature sounds usually have a specific mic that helps them get there and often bring their personal one to work.
Ribbon mics also have a very nice sound on voice but you have to have really good mic technique or you can get into problems. The same is true for condensers, very sensitive to plosives and such. Dynamics tend to smooth out the sound a bit because they have a slower transient response and tend to be less sensitive to ify mic technique.
Alan H. Chang
Veteran
Noiz2 said:
I Believe it is the Norcal vs. SoCal. Most of the VO mics used here in the Bay Area have RE20s and not a single 416. When I visited several studios down near SoCal, at least one 416 was mentioned and suggested to be used for VO. Odd thing. In most situations, a 416 was used on-location. So using a 416 in the studio for VO would sonically match the character that was recorded on-location.
signalhillsound
Member
It seems practical to use the same shotgun on the shoot for ADR, but it is not normally the case. I stay away from a 416 at all costs in the studio. If it was a 416 on set, I shoot ADR with a Schoeps MK41 about 2 feet away. Any further than three feet and the MK41 is useless. For VO my favorite mic of all time, and I am not kidding is the Rode NT1-A. It cuts great and can get beefy. Like I said in an earlier post, I have had Manleys and Neuman U47's and an AKG C12. The Rode Classic Tube is great too, but I like the transients from the NT1. Don't forget that a huge part of the sound is the preamp. I like the Amek/Neve 9098 and anything from LaFont or John Hardy.