Voiceover techniques for shotgun?

T

toddburch

Active member
Can any experienced folks offer advice for recording good voiceover audio when limited to just using a shotgun?

I've got a Sennheiser 416 and can't invest in a typical voiceover studio mic, so I was wondering what techniques--both in production and postproduction--I should use to obtain nice voiceover audio with this mic. (I know that part of the problem is the fact that I don't have a decent voice for this type of work, but I'm sure much of it has to do with technique).

Is it even possible to obtain voiceover quality that you would hear in a typical commercial or movie trailer with a shotgun?

I know about getting the mic close to the mouth and stringing up blankets to deaden any reverb, but what else?

Mic placement/orientation, EQ work, etc. would all be helpful information.

Thanks,
Todd
 
Re: Voiceover techniques for shotgun?

The most important part of capturing audio for any application is mic placement. I would even go so far as to say that it's MORE important than the quality of your audio gear. A well-placed crappy mic will do a better job of capturing audio than a poorly placed good one.

That being said, most mic diaphragms work in the same fashion (except for ribbon mics which you aren't using).

First move the mic closer to the subject's mouth. Also, try to keep it more on a level access with the subject. I know shotguns are meant to operate around 45-degrees for optimal capture; however, you get a lot of nasal tone when you aim down from too far above.

Start with the mic around 4" from the talent's mouth at about a 70-80-degree down angle to the plane of his/her face. Use a separate windscreen, NOT the foam pop-filter, but a "pantyhose" style one and place it between the mouth and the mic. This will block plosives (hard Ps and Bs) when the talent talks.

Record a sentence of the copy with the mic in this placement. Then record the same sentence with the mic in a different position. Try more down angle, some up angle, further back, closer in. Generally, the VO you hear for trailers is done with the mic VEEERRRRY close to the talent (I record VO with the mic within 2" of the talent) This brings the mic closer to the chest cavity, which adds that heavy low tone, and it picks up a lot of the lips and mouth noise which is so intimate.

Try to position the talent in a room with little hard surface reflection, and minimize room ambience as much as possible, couch cushions, blankets, etc. help knock down reflections.

Capture the audio as best you can with no clips or pops. Then bring it into your editing software. If you need some more low end, bring it up 2-4db around the 125-160hz area. If you need more consonants, bring it up a few db around the 2.5-4khz area. If there are lots of sibilants (EESSSes) trim it down with a bell in the 4-5khz area (5+ for female voices).

If you have too much room ambience in your source, you can apply some narrow-band eq around 800hz and drop it about 6-8db. You can also drop it around the 250hz area to reduce some room ambience as well.

If your talent has a lot of variation in his/her speaking volume, FIRST ask them to keep it more consistent, and if you must, add some compression. I could spend a day teaching compression alone. Applying it right is an artform that in even 12+ years of audio engineering I have yet to totally learn. Keep the compression moderate and TRANSPARENT; the best rule of thumb is, if you can hear the compression working, you're not doing it right.

Well-done voiceover isn't neccessarily the hardest thign in the world to do. It's actually one of my favorite audio gigs b/c it's not too complicated but the results of a well-recorded VO track are wonderful with visuals. That said, just remember that the VO you hear on commercials and movies is recorded with a mic that probably cost as much as our camera and a mic pre that costs as much as our computer, and software and outboard gear and plugins that total more than our gross reciepts last year. BUT, we don't NEED all that to get really good sounding audio.

Really great audio isn't recorded with gear, we record great audio with our EARS. Use the those tools and you can get really good results.
 
Re: Voiceover techniques for shotgun?

Thanks for the info gossamer. Do you by any chance have any vo samples uve made that i can download? thanks!
 
Re: Voiceover techniques for shotgun?

Gossamer,

Great advice! This sort of information is what I'd like to see more of in these forums...IMHO there are too many "is this mic better than that one?" posts and not enough info on technique, because we all know technique is more important than gear anyway...but I'll get off my soapbox...

Anyway, Magdi had an interesting request. I'd love to hear some examples of VO work that's been recorded with a shotgun using prosumer equipment to hear what kind of quality we should be aiming for.

Thanks again,
Todd
 
Re: Voiceover techniques for shotgun?

Gossamer gets the award for post of the day.

[quote author=gossamer link=board=audio;num=1101260088;start=0#1 date=11/24/04 at 09:08:05]The most important part of capturing audio for any application is mic placement.  I would even go so far as to say that it's MORE important than the quality of your audio gear.  A well-placed crappy mic will do a better job of capturing audio than a poorly placed good one.[/quote]
This right here is the crux of audio recording, and it's why using the on-camera mic is such a bad idea. It's not so much the quality of the mic, it's the fact that the mic is ON CAMERA.

So replacing the on-camera mic with an expensive shotgun, and then mounting that shotgun ON THE CAMERA again, is a pointless exercise. The better mic will make a little difference, sure, but nowhere near as much as getting the mic off the camera and right up to the subject.
 
Re: Voiceover techniques for shotgun?

I can't remember if it was here, or another forum..but..

Someone posted that they had a friend that did VO work for a major un-named network. I think it was for commercials for the network. The guy records his VO's on the onboard camera mic of his mini-dv cam, and loads that into his computer. Can you believe this? Now, since it wasn't revealed what network this was for, or which specific commercials they were, I have no idea what to watch for, but this is a fine example of:

-Sometimes you don't always need the latest and greatest gear to get good work.

-Network people don't care if audio may sound like crap, as long as they can hear it. Just listen to the commercials Adelphia does here in L.A. All the audio is distorted.

-Dave
 
Re: Voiceover techniques for shotgun?

Hey guys. I'll try and put together some comparisons using my Shotgun mic and my VO mic and post mp3s to my site so you can all check them out. It'll take me a couple weeks to get it all together but it's a good excercise for me to learn a few things.
 
Re: Voiceover techniques for shotgun?

Todd,

Gossamer hit it right on the head for recording!!  I'll just add a couple of points to think about in post.

Depending on how the person doing the voiceover speaks and how you want it to sit in the mix, you might find that a bit of compression here is your friend.  Some people, especially those without a lot of VO experience, tend to be less conscious of mic technique (even though the mic doesn't move, they do) and they also do too much emphasizing with volume.  Combined or separate, these factors can create more dynamic range than you might like for a VO track.  Some transparent compression would fix this.  Without hearing the track a very general suggestion would be to start with a threshold that would allow for 4-6db in reduction with a fairly fast attack (maybe 2-3ms?) and about a 30ms release to avoid distortion or artifacts that could be created by compressing.

Also, if you might find a desser helpful.  Just like you want to remove plosives some folks whistle their "s", or at least is sound that way once tracked.  A desser would help here.  You could achieve the same results with other gear/plugs, but a dedicated desser just makes the process easier.

Matt
 
Re: Voiceover techniques for shotgun?

Barry,

I agree completely. Ever try recording a saxophone? You can't believe the difference mic placement makes!! Often times guys are too quick on the eq, when the should be experimenting with mic position instead.

Matt
 
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