How do you get that Radio/TV Commercial Voice?

24Farrington · Post by **24Farrington** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 9:47 am

I was watching tv the other day, and was just wondering how they get that in your face, completely inteligible, yet non-abrasive sound. I can make a few assumptions, but is there a standard formula to get that sound? Has anyone worked in this area??

tiger vomitt · Post by **tiger vomitt** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 10:09 am

it's mostly a LDC mic (a U87 or TLM103 would do it), a shure SM7 or an RE-20 with a ton of compression.

i super compress vocals a lot - sometimes i cross the line and im like "ewww it sounds like a radio announcer". then i know i gotta back off.

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 10:35 am

I use an RE20, an sm7, or some big bomber and compress the crap out of it.

buzzaudioguy · Post by **buzzaudioguy** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 10:57 am

honestly, it's more than just the right mic and compression. Granted you need that too, but if you don't have the pipes you'll never really get "that" sound. Enginering voiceovers is my main job by day. Certain guys have "that" sound(movie trailer guy) with nothing at all. It's just nature I guess. Picking VO talents is just like picking the right kind of mic or guitar for whatever job you're doing. If I need the big bawlsy sound I have about 5 guys I can call that can do that. If it's just straight annoucer stuff I've got about 10 guys or gals to call for that too. I use pretty much the same mic everytime with mostly the same compression settings(about 3:1) If I need more for a more effected sound I just add alittle in post. But you can't make anyone have "that" sound. You'll know real fast they're faking it. It can take years of practice along with natural ability.

E-Rock · Post by **E-Rock** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 11:09 am

I am an audio post guy by day as well. It's true, it's all in the pipes.
As far as gear goes, for a lot of the "Big Voice-Over" stuff, I use a Sennheiser 416 shotgun mic, into a Focusrite Red 7. If you just tickle the compression meter a little, fucking huge. However, if your talent has a mid-range honk, it will kill you.
Then I switch to a Sounddeluxe LDC. Smooth it out a little.
But really, it is all about the talents voice, and how well they "work" the mic.
A good sounding room helps too. My VO booth has a nice little hump around 80 hertz. If you find the sweet spot in the room

soundguy · Post by **soundguy** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 12:33 pm

La4's are good for trailer guy voice.

I might break my mp3 rule and put up a recording of Orson Wells chewing out an engineer in a V/O session. Holy...

dave

transmothra · Post by **transmothra** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 3:57 pm

compression out the yin-yang, slightly scooped out mids and a little boost on the highs and lows, and a good voice. and compression. also, compression.

markpar · Post by **markpar** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 4:04 pm

soundguy wrote:I might break my mp3 rule and put up a recording of Orson Wells chewing out an engineer in a V/O session. Holy...

Oh, man. Ya gotta do that!

-mark

cassembler · Post by **cassembler** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 4:08 pm

Dave, I think that would be a great service to many of us...

ottokbre · Post by **ottokbre** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 4:10 pm

pleeeeez post that!

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 4:18 pm

buzz,

I am usually the first one to say that sort of thing, like "it is the person, not the gear" but that means that it indeed takes talent to make this sort of thing happen, and you cant buy that at guitar center for 39 dollars.

In this case, I was simply stating the equipment I have used for voiceover. I dont do a lot of it, mostly for "fake" radio announcer stuff on someone's record or whatever, and I usually pull out an RE20 and squish the hell out of it.

Of course if the person sounds like mickey mouse, it sounds like mickey mouse through an RE20 and compressed a lot.

stillafool · Post by **stillafool** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 5:38 pm

There's a preset in Waves Renaissance Vox called "sports announcer" or something -- I think it adds compression and a bit of eq.

electrofloss · Post by **electrofloss** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 9:57 pm

i work in a place where many, many VOs for tv commercials are recorded. generally a U87 is used with light compression to tape (disk) often through a DBX 160. preamps vary, but the room i work in used a jensen twin servo. somet of the other rooms have neves. when the spots are mixed, the vocals are givin a giant midrange boost in pro tools anywhere from 3 to 7k (depending on the voice) and compressed to high heaven. and the final mix goes through a tc finalizer at a 2:1 ratio.

its kind of a painful process. nice to know, though, that there are other audio post guys hanging around.

SMPTE slaves unite!!

uqbar · Post by **uqbar** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 10:28 am

I would suggest hiring Ken Nordine.

EasyGo · Post by **EasyGo** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 10:59 am

uqbar wrote:I would suggest hiring Ken Nordine.

There's a weekend guy on 'The Drive,' classic rock/AOR station here in Chicago, I believe his name is Allan Stagg, who has quite possibly the lowest pitched voice I think I have ever heard. It's quite hard to believe.

He's obviously a natural for night time radio; I think this guy's pipes would make Ken Nordine feel at least a little bit scared.

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