Get A Better Broadcast, Podcast and Voice-Over Voice

2022.08.23– 0600 – Vocal Confidence Through Familiarisation With The Script And Situation ·        Familiarisation with the subject – the knowledge of the script, not just the words, but the meaning and the significance and intention of it, and the role your ‘character’ plays in conveying the message. Plus, who that message is targeted at, and what you want that recipient to do with the information… Nerves are what you are feeling – but think of the audience, not yourself.If you have to present a script that you are not comfortable with (perhaps you don’t understand or are unfamiliar with it, or don’t agree with the content), then it’s natural that you will feel nervous about presenting it. ·        Familiarisation with the situation – so, the studio, the staff, the workflow.  Of course, when presenting a podcast, a lot of this comes naturally. You are likely to be familiar with your topic as it’s one you’re passionate about. And you’re likely to be recording at home, a location that you are comfortable in … You started your podcast because you have something to say…Your message and voice is too valued by your listeners and potential followersfor you to be rendered tongue tied by a lack of confidence.David Hutchinson, weeditpodcasts.com[1] Confidence comes from experience in all of these areas. Also playing a part, possible other elements such as:·        Your health - To sound better and feel better, have plenty of rest and water. There’s more health advice a little bit later.·        Your microphone – We looked at this before: how you hear yourself may add or detract from your confidence. Is your sound real and relatable, or thin and trebly?·        What you wear - What is your ‘superhero outfit’ to wear to get into zone for confidence? Certain clothes or a wristband or pendant... to help you get into the ‘zone’. Do you dress up or dress down? Lucky socks, or a special pen, or headphones that fit ‘just right’ and make you sound really good.One often has more confidence during a podcast because you are ‘in the moment’ but without the pressure of ‘immediately perfect’ performance, because of the ‘record-it’, ‘edit-it’ workflow. [1] https://www.weeditpodcasts.com/how-can-i-increase-my-confidence-on-the-mic/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.22– 0599 – Vocal Confidence Through Familiarisation With Yourself ·        Familiarisation with yourself – we have to turn nervous self-consciousness to self-confidence. That is, moving from being aware of every element of who you are and where you are and what you are doing to a more overall approach: that you have put in the time and the training, the prep and the practice towards your performance. The work on your skillset, helping create your mindset.And part of that mindset comes from what you tell yourself about your voice and your performance: o  Do you say “My voice is horrid” OR “I have a great, unique and distinct voice” o  “That was a stupid thing I said” OR “That was great, personal insight only I could give”o  “Who’s going to listen to my nonsense ramblings?” OR “I’m so grateful that my audience trusts my take on this”Also consider how you think of your feelings at moments like this, and turn them from nervousness to confidence:o  That pounding heart is not terror … it’s your body’s very own drum roll before you perform!o  The butterflies aren’t nerves … their wings are little rounds of applause for what you’re about to say.o  The sensation of tightness on your throat is only there because your fantastic message is impatient to get out and be heard.Don’t knock yourself down, but build yourself up! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.21– 0598 – Vocal Confidence Through Relaxed Breathing  ·        Relaxed breathing – we have looked at this a few times. If you breathe properly your whole body relaxes, your mind calms. You are less tense, so your voice strengthens. You have breath control to get to the end of a sentence without panicking. Your heartrate steadies. You are less likely to commit verbal slips and trips. Every element is interconnected and starts with your breath. Remember what I said at the start: breathing is the key-thing.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.20– 0597 – The Vocal Confidence Quotient The Confidence QuotientEffortless attention is when the challenge and the skill, are in balance. That balance is called ‘confidence’. To put it another way: (Relaxed breathing + familiarisation with self, subject and situation = confidence) = you sound credible and authoritative  Let’s look at those elements briefly over the next few days Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.19– 0596 – Work Variety To Increase Your Vocal Experience  Work varietySome of that practice may come from lots of work in which you’ll be experiencing different kinds of reads and learning new styles, and keeping your eye-to-mouth co-ordination and staying in the ‘zone’. But if you have less work, then practice is good to make sure you are ready when the phone rings or the email pings And of course, the more auditions you do for say voice-over work, the more practice you’re getting. Just remember though, if you’re not getting work from all of those auditions, maybe you are not so much practicing but repeating the same mistakes, and consider getting a voice-coach to help you ‘re-set your reading’. They say “practice makes perfect”, but actually “perfect practice makes perfect” and there’s no point repeating mistakes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.18– 0595 – Why We Sound Different In Our HeadphonesSelf-feedbackYour voice is very personal to you – get used to hearing it, learn to like it – but be aware of what you need to do to improve it. And then practice!Why do we sound different when we listen to a recording of ourselves?  It’s to do with the way we usually hear ourselves.When we speak, we hear our own voice two different ways at the same time, one slightly behind the other (out of phase).Convectively (through the air) – as the sound energy from your mouth, bounces around the room and then in to your ears where it vibrates the ear drum and small ear bones, which in turn transmit the sound vibrations to the cochlea, which stimulates nerve axons that send the auditory signal to the brain.AndConductively - through your bones and muscles of your head, neck and ear – which travels slower and is has much more bass. If you cover your ears and talk, all you hear is this version. So, when you combine both of these sounds, it’s the voice you are used to hearing, what you consider to be how you sound.But when we play back a recording, we only hear yourselves one way, through our ears, the convective version of your voice, which sounds much more trebly and mid-range. To put it another way people generally think their voice is deeper and richer than it actually is to others.And that’s why you dislike your own voice the first time you hear it back – it’s not like you usually hear yourself or consider how you sound to others. And yet this is the only way everyone else has ever heard you.This ‘new voice’ exposes a difference between your self-perception and reality and can be jarring because you suddenly realize other people have been hearing something else all along: you are not how you thought you were. It’s not necessarily a worse version, but it’s certainly a different one. A study published in 2005[1] had patients record and then listen back to their voices and rate them. Clinicians also rated the voices. Researchers found that patients tended to more-negatively rate the quality of their recorded voice, compared with the objective assessments of clinicians. So, if you don’t like the sound of your own recorded voice, don’t be too harsh on yourself. Others most likely think it’s fine. It’s all they’ve ever heard you sound like.It is very difficult to know how you sound without listening to a recording. It is not ego-tripping; it is a sensible and professional monitoring of your performance. [1] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2273.2005.01022.x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.17– 0594 – Wrapping Up Presenting Unboxing Videos On screen presenters, whether that is for livestreams, or video conferencing or pre-recorded videos for YouTube or webinars, often find it difficult to talk and do something else at the same time. It sounds odd as we do it all the time in real life, but whether it’s an unboxing of a new product or simply holding and describing a book, fluency often suffers. Be aware of this and plan for the possibility, make some notes and practice. However, remember that you don’t need to talk all of the time: as it’s a visual medium, people can see what you are doing or showing so simultaneous commentary (saying what you can all see), and one that is hesitant and repetitive may be entirely unnecessary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.16– 0593 – How To Practice Ad Libbing Skills Looking lotsReally looking at the world around you. On your walk or commute to work (be careful if you are driving!), take an effort to notice what you pass by. Perhaps take a different route occasionally to force yourself to see what’s different. And then sharpen your awareness and increase your confidence by giving an out-loud running commentary (a bit of a problem on public transport, I grant!) of what you notice.  Not just “a woman putting out the bins, and a siren in the distance” but specifics. Paint word pictures: “a middle-aged woman, I’d put her at about 45, is coming down her garden path with a small brown food-waste bin in her left hand. She’s used her other hand on her right knee to support herself as she bends down and leaves the plastic bin on the grass verge underneath a blossoming apple tree. Some of the blossom blows off the branches in the light breeze and lands on the woman, and as she stands up she brushes it off her shoulder as she makes her way back up her path to her front door. In the distance, the sound of an approaching siren, most likely from the ambulance station that’s based about 2 miles away…” The colours, what’s happening what someone looks like, what they’re doing … and don’t forget the sounds you hear as well as the sights you see. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.15– 0592 – How To Practice Talking To TimePractice Talking To TimeYou will also benefit from being able to ‘talk to time’, that is to fill exactly 10 seconds - or 7 or 12 or whatever - and to make sense and be a complete sentence. This is useful if you ever have to present a programme or bulletin that has a ‘clock end’, as well as knowing how to shave off a second or two (or half!) from a commercial voice-over script. As we saw in episode 427Take some copy which has a required duration indicated on it, and read it aloud like you might in a demo, and with a stopwatch to hand. How many words did you read in 30 seconds? Or how many seconds were you over? Keep practicing until you can sensibly get the copy in the seconds required, several times in a row. Then take another script and repeat the exercise before return to the first script and seeing if the rate and the rhythm are still there. Then go back to the second script. Then take a third one, of a different style and duration and word-count, and try it all again. A further exercise would be to take your 30 second script and elongate it so it when you read it, it lasts 40 seconds, or shorten it to 25: all of these are skills that will come in useful in the recording studio. You are often presented with a script that is just too ‘word-rich’ and yes, every single one is vital. It is up to you to ‘fit the words into the seconds’ in a clear and interesting way. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.14– 0591 – The ‘Two Brains’ Skill You Need To MasterPractice Having Two BrainsA way to practice receiving information and delivering it at the same time is to ‘parrot’ someone else’s news bulletin, or links on the radio. At home (and probably when you are alone!), listen to a station and repeat the script as it is being said. Or repeat ads a split second after the voice-over does so on the TV or radio. You will have to listen, process and repeat all at the same time, like having two brains: a handy skill to have for using talkback. It’s a skill not necessarily for voice-over actors, but essential for radio and TV presenters in a live presentation or commentary situation.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.13– 0590 – How To Practice Sight-ReadingPractice Sight-ReadingAnother way to help you sight-read is to read aloud and ad-lib around the credits at the end of a TV show as they scroll up. Doing this will help your muscle memory of sight-reading: being able to take almost any script and anticipate where it is going to get a good inflection and tone from the get-go. And if you have recorded it, play it back to yourself while looking back at the text. That way you can check your accuracy (it’s easy to misread or skip words) and your tone. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.12– 0589 – How To Practice Script-Reading AccuracyPractice AccuracyKeep up your eye-to-mouth accuracy by reading lots of every style, and out loud. It could be bedtime stories to the kids, newspaper or online articles, billboard ads as you are stuck in a traffic queue… some couples even read novels aloud to each other, taking turns at each chapter. Anything. To yourself, to someone else or even into a recording app on your phone. There are plenty of sites[1] with actual or mocked-up commercial scripts, use them to practice your technique.  Volunteer to read for the local school, or at an old people’s home or for the Wireless For The Blind[2] groups. You’ll be helping other people and sharpening your own skills at sightreading (and maybe character voices) at the same time, if you read new material out loud on a regular basis. [1] https://www.voices.com/blog/voice-over-sample-scripts/ , https://bunnystudio.com/blog/entertainment-commercial-scripts-for-voice-over-practice/ [2] https://blind.org.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.11– 0588 – The Cheeky Hack To Sound Like Other Voice Artists Listen to Other Voice Demos Go onto voice agent websites and listen to the demos of other voice artists. After all, they have got an agent so must be doing something right! Work out what it is: ·        How are different voice used for different messages and scripts?·        How are they working to communicate the message and the meaning?The more you listen (really listener) and analyse what’s is already being produced, the better you will be at working out what works, what is wanted and why with script styles and voice trends.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.10– 0587 – Life’s Free Voice Training OpportunitiesListening lotsDon’t skip through the commercials on radio or TV, the internet or cinema! Watch and listen to every ad that comes on.[1] ·        Listen mindfully – that is, really listen·        Think:o  What is the service or product being advertised?o  Why is this ad being played at this time, on this station, on this show?o  Who are they targeting and therefore, what style is the ad written in? What is this script really saying and trying to ‘make’ the audience do (is it to buy something, inform them, persuade them…?) What are the key words and phrases? o  What about the voice? Its age, sex, tone, speed and so on? Is the style ‘announcery’ or ‘conversational;? Why? What technique is the voice using to engage and communicate with the audience? (Who is the audience?) How does the voice reflect the pictures and music in the ad?o  Part of this ‘reveal’ will come from the time of day and the style of the station or type of programme the commercial is in. As we said before, who the audience is will ‘inform your read’, that is, will give you a clue as to how to communicate with them o  How are the product, the message, the target audience and the voice, all married together?·        Copy the style a moment after you hear the ad·        Or transcribe the ad and record yourself reading it. You may notice similar products being advertised in a different way, and ask yourself why. Typically, car commercials can vary in their production values, usually reflecting their cost! A quality production for an expensive sedan, a faster, announcer-type read for a run-around. Listen for and identify the variety you come across. [1] Visit https://www.ispot.tv/ for a database of television commercials on demand.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.09– 0586 – 10,000 Kicks To A Better Voice Continual Practice I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once,but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.Bruce Lee You have to be continually ready for your next live or recorded voice session, much like an athlete must always be ‘match fit’. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. Practice won’t make you perfect (what is ‘perfection’?), but it will make you better. Only amateurs believe that rehearsal inhibits spontaneity. Professionals respect their audience andrehearse their script and links off-mic so that their performance on-mic will be brief, bright, smooth, natural, and personable. But as ‘practice makes permanent’, make sure you do it right once you have read and understood the tips here, and maybe got some professional one-to-one advice as well to get skill-acquisition and skill-retention, one at a time. Practice is not just repetition, because doing that may reinforce a bad pattern. It’s like once you have got to your desired weight, or got your 6-pack, you don’t stop … you continue training… So, let’s start with what amounts to free training! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.08– 0585 – The 3-P Formula For A Better VoiceTHE THREE P’s FORMULAIf you want to claim you have a professional presentation (albeit sounding adlibbed), then you need to work at your craft.In the same way the starter guitarist doesn’t launch instantly into riffs and jams, you need to do the work to underpin your future career of having ‘your mouth on the mic’. Get the fundamental foundations, the mouth and mental muscle memory, before your creative communication excellence can begin. And you do that through: continual Practice, and then on-the-day and with-the-script Preparation and finally, your actual Performance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.07– 0584 – How To Be An Auto-Cutie 3  Look at the lens·        Keep looking the camera lens ‘in the eye’ in the same way as you’d look at someone if they were in the room with you. That doesn’t mean a stare or a glare, but with a natural ease (one of interested, informed involvement) alongside occasional glances at your paper-notes or maybe a colleague or monitor. Not only will this make you look conversational, because you will be emulating the style of face-to-face interaction, it will also help you sound conversational too.  Relax ·        Keep your head, neck, and shoulders relaxed. Let your head move naturally, with small movements up and down left and right so you don’t appear to be staring. Some people look down at a desk script occasionally to keep up the ‘pretence’ of having committed the story to memory. As well as helping you look and feel more natural, it’ll help reduce stress around your neck and shoulders. ·        Smile and gesticulate (within reason!). Obviously, this depends on the context and content of what you’re saying, but don’t be a statue.·        Consider (with permissions) putting in ‘natural’ pauses or hesitations to make the presentation sound more authentic.The prompter may be just that, a prompt·        If you just ‘read the words’ you may come across as inauthentic and disengaged from the actual content. Try and avoid the ‘glazed-over glare’ look.·        The key is to use the prompter to sound conversational. Again, where allowed by a director, use natural habits we do as we talk to each other face-to-face: look up or down to ‘gather your thoughts’, use those natural instinctive gestures. ·        Don’t necessarily feel as though you have to read every single word. To be clear, on a TV news bulletin you will have to because of timings, fluency and accuracy, but if you have a prompter for a livestream show then you can afford to adlib around the bullet points that are on screen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.06– 0583 – How To Be An Auto-Cutie 2 Rehearse·        Have the font set to suit your sight. Although, the larger the font, the fewer words will appear at a time, it will save you squinting or slipping up and getting panicked. You can often switch the text from white on black to black on white if that makes it easier for you to read. You may also need to adjust your glasses as you’ll be focussing on the mid distance rather than close distance as you would be with a script.·        You can’t see many words at once on a prompter, so it’s tricky to read ahead and get the sense of the sentence before you read it out loud. So, you have to know the script in advance to get the correct delivery and intonation and not be caught out by any unusual words. You may be able to have some key words underlined or in CAPITALS to help guide you through. Having said that, some studios write the whole script in capitals which can make it tricky to spot a name or title. ·        Write out words how you will read them and in the correct order: “AU$0.7m” does not necessarily belong on a teleprompter, instead a presenter may prefer “700-million Australian dollars”.·        Beware of any ‘stage directions’ that might be included in the script [usually in square brackets] such as [CAMERA ONE] or [AD LIB TO FILL TO 29:30] which you should not read out. ·        Have a hard copy of the script to hand in case the prompter malfunctions, turning the pages as you proceed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.05– 0582 – How To Be An Auto-Cutie 1 How to be an auto-cutie The speed of the read·        The prompter operator should follow your pace. That is, you don't need to speed up or slow down to follow the words appearing, but trust that the words will be there when you need them. Don’t play ‘cat-and-mouse’: if you go quickly the scroll of the script will pick up pace too. ·        Develop rapport with the operator so you find a balance on your likely speed of the read together with the speed they need you to go to fit with the duration of the programme, so you can focus on your delivery. They will also get to know your idiosyncrasies, such as when you might pause or throw in an adlib. ·        Sometimes the speed the words appear is controlled by you with a foot-pedal or joystick. Be careful not to get itchy foot-syndrome and press the pedal as though it’s a car accelerator as the words will shoot ahead to another point entirely. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.04– 0581 – Prompts On Using Your Voice With A Teleprompt TelepromptersWhile we are talking about reading from a screen, a few words on systems[1] which project the words you have to read, onto the lens of a TV camera, or alongside the lens of a mobile phone. Teleprompter positives·        In using a teleprompter, presenters naturally look into the lens (or the text is so close to the lens that their eye-line doesn’t look askew), giving the impression of eye contact which helps ‘connect’ with the viewer·        The intention is to make the presenter appear to know their material off by heart and are simply talking naturally and fluently to the audience·        Looking at a screen at eye level means that you will have your head up and be sitting with a ‘long spine’ both postures to help with your breath control and resonance. Teleprompter Negatives ·        What frequently spoils the illusion is the way some presenters stare woodenly into the camera·        Using a teleprompter can make you look shifty if you don’t know how to use it properly, with your unblinking eyes going from left to right. Then people watch you rather than listen to you·        Reliance on a prompter can make some presenters feel as though they can’t look away from the screen at all, let alone ad-lib. [1] Autocue is a trademarked name of a teleprompter system. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.03– 0580 – Video Call Voice Confidence TricksVideo confidence tricks:So once you have set the lights and background how you want them, find the button on your video-platform that allows you to turn off your ‘self-view’, which may help you feel more confident … because you wont have the dysmorphia we spoke about a few days ago. Then: ·     notes to one side of the screen·     picture of someone friendly beyond the mic·     look at the lens so you don’t look a dick·     have a separate mic and headphone which’ll make you sound better and have a better emotional connection.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.02– 0579 – Why Video Calls Lead To Vocal LoadingBut then neither is the whole tech and protocol of video-conferencing:Talking to people we can see and hear but are not physically with and so can’t see their full body languageThe now-disrupted turn-taking rhythm we are used to in a conversation and working out the protocol if several people talk at once and how to give wayHow we can do work, school, church, a quiz with friends, talk with grandparents or the doctor … all while sitting in the same chair at the same desk, sometimes switching from one to another without even getting out of the chair. And so, as everything is in the same format, a meeting with friends can feel like work. Yes, you're talking about fun things, but you've set it up just like a meeting.Coping with audio delays, buffering, automatic mic cut-outs, extra noises for children and pets, unmuted mics and broken feedsFriends and colleagues who don’t join on time, don’t know how to mute and unmute, or turn video on and off, or send messages on the current video-chat platform of choice. All of which adds to mental tension, skeletal stress and vocal loading - meaning you are less ‘communicatively confident’.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.01– 0578 – How ‘Zoom Dysmorphia’ Affects Your Video-Call Voice How ‘Zoom Dysmorphia’ Affects Your Video-Call Voice [1]Seeing ourselves (and others) on screen can cause micro-stresses, and so, tension in our frame, shallower breathing and a potentially lighter voice. ·        What we think of our face, hair, clothes and voice, room background (and so on)·        What we think others may think of our face, hair, clothes and voice, room background (!)·        And what we think of their face, hair, clothes and voice, room backgroundPeople see us in our own space: our room, how we dress, whether are shaved and so on. The confidence-sapping tension can be compounded by our old friend, the broken feedback loop. In ‘real life’ we can clearly see our colleagues’ nods, eye contact and so on which constantly tell us that what we are saying is being understood, or not. Such feedback gives us confidence or tells us to adjust our style – gestures, volume, tone, pace, duration – to regain their engagement them. But with video appearances the feedback is disrupted or broken completely and the incongruity of being seen and seeing yourself on a monitor; of talking to hundreds or thousands of people at once – and only seeing some of them, and but using a quieter voice than if they were actually with you; of trying to be business-like but sitting in your home… and dealing with the tech, you’re not in a meeting room with a notepad (“Will I be able to bring up the right caption, can I get the PowerPoint on screen, will a child scream or a dog bark or another call come in…?”) It’s just not natural! The incongruity causes stress, affecting our voice.But then neither is the whole tech and protocol of video-conferencing as we will hear tomorrow: [1] Spending increased time in video meetings during the pandemic has created a new phenomenon being called ‘Zoom dysmorphia’, insecurity about how we see ourselves. Doctors have reportedly noticed a rise in cosmetic surgery requests as people are forced to spend more time on camera. (NBC, January, 2021) https://www.today.com/video/what-is-zoom-dysmorphia-insecurity-rises-due-to-video-calls-99327045790  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.31– 0577 – How To Prepare Your voice For Video-Calls How Your Schedule Affects Your Video-Call VoiceVideo-calls are perhaps more likely for those working from home, but try not to roll out of bed and go straight to your laptop and sit down and talk! Think what you used to do before our lazy lockdowns: busily getting ready, moving around, up and down the stairs, twisting into the car seat or running for the bus… and we’d be chatting along with all of that, to the kids, the person on the bus, talking back at the radio shock-jock, thanking someone in a shop, greeting a colleague… Yep, we generally had movement in our body and breath. And when at the laptop, it doesn’t necessarily feel like work: you’re just sitting there and people just appear in front of you. But don’t be misled. You can still be doing a lot of talking and getting stressed.So, start your WFH day with some ‘muscle and vocal’ exercises, and take a 10-minute break every hour (or have meetings of 45 minutes with a break in between). At the start of the day:·        Maybe a brisk walk, dancing to your favourite playlist or simply marching on the spot·        Warming up your voice with hums and trills, swoops and glides.·        Stretch your tongue.Between calls:·        Say nothing! Rest and relax your throat muscles to reduce vocal cord swelling. ·        Reduce neck pain, muscle tension in your back and shoulders after sitting still for so long. Move around, and carefully try a few head rolls, shoulder scrunches, turns and bends.·        Take the opportunity to top up with water: your body and your bottle. After all you should always be sipping to keep your folds slippery, hydrated and healthy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.30 – 0576 – Why Video Calls Are Exhausting  And don’t forget video-calls are really quite exhausting[1]And dullness saps your energy – mentally, physically and vocally. Webchats:·        Need more concentration on the conversation – as there’s little change of scenery. Dull backgrounds, green screens or even people wandering around in the office, but nothing much happens.·        Are very repetitive – in the format of the beginning and ending conversations. “We’ll give it a few minutes for latecomers”, “Please mute your mics”, “please put any questions in the chat box”, “Please mute your mics” …·        Are abrupt – in how they start and end. There’s no chance to mingle with people after the meeting as you would be able to in an office situation. You may feel abandoned and back alone in your back bedroom. [1] https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200421-why-zoom-video-chats-are-so-exhausting Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.29 – 0575 – Why Voices Are Raised On Video Calls Why voices are raised on video calls Research has shown that when we cannot hear someone well because of noise, we speak louder, and make their gestures more noticeable. Dr James Trujillo and colleagues at Radboud University Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, analysed video calls between 20 pairs of people[1]. For each pair, participants sat in separate rooms and chatted to each other in casual, unscripted conversation over a Zoom-like video call for 40 minutes. Over the course of the call, the quality of the video was changed in 10 steps between excellent and completely blurred, and as the quality deteriorated further, participants moved their arms and bodies more and their volume increased by up to 5 decibels. Trujillo said that to compensate for poorer video quality, people ‘exaggerate’ the form of their gestures in order to help their partner and although speaking louder probably doesn’t help, people still did it, saying “They know that the gestures being produced are vital to their communication, but their partner is going to have a harder time seeing them. So they increase the strength of the other signal – speech.” So we in crease our volume and our gestures, to compensate for the crackle and buzz, the pixelation of the picture, the delay and copouts on the video and audio feed. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/apr/13/voices-raised-video-calls-study-can-you-hear-me-now Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.28 – 0574 – The Zoom Settings To Make You Sound BetterHow to sound better on ZoomThere are a few tweaks that you can make in the settings that will make a huge difference to your voice. Zoom automatically adds processing to the audio through the mic. This is turned on and works best if you are in a noisy environment, if your mic is far from you or you are using the built-in mic in your webcam or computer, or using EarPods or a Bluetooth mic. But if you are using a more pro mic and have better acoustic treatment in your room, this setting may actually be damaging the audio feed and changing your voice detrimentally. Go to ‘Start Video’ at the bottom of the screen and then choose ‘Video Settings’ and then ‘Audio Settings’.  If you are routing an external microphone through a mixer, then make sure that that is selected in the drop down. A USB microphone will also show up here, perhaps indicated by its make and model. Untick ‘Automatically adjust microphone volume’, and then set the ‘Input Volume’ at its highest level. That way you can adjust the level of the sound manually on your mixer. Click through to ‘Advanced’ and at the top, select the option ‘Show in-meeting option to Enable Original Sound from microphone’. Then:·        ‘Supress Persistent Background Noise’ > Disable·        ‘Supress Intermittent Background Noise’ > Disable·        ‘Echo Cancellation’ > Auto  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.27 – 0573 - … And What You Can Do About It.It stands to reason that the higher quality the input, the better you'll sound to your listeners, and it’s important to sound your best if you hope to leave a strong impression. So upgrade your work-station to reduce such problems:·        If you can hear other people better as well as yourself, there’s less need to shout and strain. it sounds as if everyone is physically closer·        So, invest in a better mic and headphone kit to better control your speaking voice, minimise voice strain and overcome the urge to raise your voice and instead ‘invite’ people to listen to what it is you have to say. Better headphones or speakers? It’s because it’s odd that we almost always increase our speaking volume when we don’t hear ourselves or others well·        Have a clear background to your video, so you don’t distract form the message in your voice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.26 – 0572 - How You Hear Affects Your Video-Call Voice… How You Hear Affects Your Video-Call VoiceVideo-chat software compresses audio in a conversation, so it ends up not as clear as being face-to-face. This means that:·        People tend to talk louder to make sure that their voice carries. But often they’re not projecting like stage actors do, but more ‘squeezing’ their voice, creating vocal pain. (See our tips elsewhere for talking more loudly without straining.)·        This means that when it is your turn to speak you need to be able to cut through and hold their attention with what you say and how you say it.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.25 – 0571 - How You Sit Affects Your Video-Call Voice  How You Sit Affects Your Video-Call Voice Bad posture can affect how you sound: ·        We are likely to be sitting down·        We tend to then look down at the laptop camera, affecting the neck position and then the range of motion and flexibility that your larynx and voice box have, as well as putting a kink in the airflow to the larynx.·        All puts a strain on your muscular skeletal system and on the vocal folds as the air passes over them, reducing the breath support for your voice and lowering your resonance. Upgrade your work-station to reduce such problems:·        Simply raising your laptop so the camera is in your eye-line will help you keep your head up and spine straight, reducing tension and increasing breath support.·        Have an ergonomic chair to reduce the temptation to slouch and slump. And as you are likely to be on a Zoom call while working from home, and therefore likely not to have spoken as much before you start the conversation (perhaps not as much were you to have been in the office), don’t forget some warm-up exercises such as resonate humming or lip trills. (See the tips elsewhere in this book / podcast.)  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.24 – 0570 – How Appearing On Video Calls Affect Your VoiceLet’s briefly spend a few days looking at your voice on video such as home-studio webinars or YouTubes and Zoom-type classes or meetings. There is a very real possibility of vocal strain on video-calls because it’s a very different vocal demand:·        You sit differently·        You strain to be heard over poor quality links·        You’re talking to people who appear to be close, but are not actually present VOICE BOXSymptoms of vocal strain include:·        Vocal fatigue·        Change in vocal quality·        Soreness or pain with speaking·        Extra coughing or throat clearing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.23 – 0569 – A Piece On EarpiecesEarpiecesBecause TV presenters don’t usually wear headphones on screen (although social media video presenters often do), they have small earpieces which perform the same role as headphones, being able to monitor themselves and to hear any directions from the producer in the ‘gallery’ or ‘ops (operations) room’. Alongside those directions, injected directly into the ear through the earpiece, comes not only a countdown but everything said to the camera crews, videotape operators, graphics operators, caption operators, etc. Putting it mildly, it can be a distraction. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.22 – 0568 – What To Think Of When Buying Studio HeadphonesHeadphone considerationsA pretty good pair of headphones are worth it:·        Not all headphones will make your voice sound the same. You want a pair that reproduces your voice with a sound that you are comfortable with and doesn’t make you wince every time you hear yourself – that will only make you anxious and affect how you sound in the first place·        You will be wearing them a lot, so they need to be comfortable, tight enough so they don’t slip, with cushioned ears and a foam headband·        A consideration of on-ear or over-ear may be necessary: some people find the over-ear design (in which the whole ear is surrounded) a bit claustrophobic, but they do ensure that you just hear what the mic is hearing, and limits the possibility of ‘bleeding’ and ‘feedback’.·        Ones that produce a good stereo sound, especially important if recording a documentary or audio drama, with a mix of speech with music, ambience, and sound effects. These shows are will usually be produced in stereo, so there’ll be a usually subtle difference between what you hear in each ear.·        A cable that is long enough and won’t end up as a birds-nest tangle Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.21 – 0567 – Headphones: The ‘One Ear On, One Ear Off’ StyleThe case for only partly wearing headphones Some presenters wear headphones so that one ear is covered and the other is not, as it helps them hear a ‘natural self’ in the studio as well as what they sound like on air: to hear themselves as they actually sound and how the mic and processing is making them sound like. There is a chance in doing this of feedback and that any direction via the talkback is heard through the mic and on air, or on the recording. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.20 – 0566 – Why Some Presenters Go ‘Headless’The case for not wearing headphonesSome voice-overs don’t wear headphones when they record their spot, so they can be more ‘in the moment of the copy’ rather than feel as though they are ‘performing’, and monitoring their melody, pitch and breaths. The thinking goes, and I totally understand this, is that if you are giving yourself feedback and tweaking your performance every moment, maybe convincing yourself you sound great or poor, then you are not ‘connecting’ with the copy and helping it sound believable. It’s also easy to have the ‘I’m in a recording booth’ attitude, rather than the one-to-one engagement of ‘I’m having a conversation with just one person who’s really interested in what I’m saying’. If you do this, record a few takes, then listen back on studio speakers, work out what you can do differently and then record a few more. And it’s certainly true: in the studio you should be concentrating on communicating, that is, what you are saying not what you are sounding like. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.19 – 0565 – SQUEAEAEAL!! Headphone Volume And FeedbackHeadphone volume and feedbackIn a studio you will be able to control the volume of the headphones to a certain extent. This is though, usually limited to stop accidental damage to your ears. It also stops the volume being turned up high so noise does not leak (or ‘bleed’) from them, causing feedback (that high-pitched squeak, which we looked at just now).But remember the volume you hear yourself through your headphones is not the volume in which you are speaking and the level of your voice that is being broadcast or recorded. So be careful not to think, say, “hey I’m loud, so I can soften my voice”. What you can hear in your headphones is an artificial reality. If they are too loud you may instinctively speak softer, if they are too low you may speak louder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.18 – 0564 – How Wearing Headphones Improves Your VoiceWearing headphones improves your voice and presentationWearing headphones gives you immediate feedback on how you sound, and so you can make immediate adjustments to your voice and presentation style. Everything we have talked about so far to do with your voice can be tweaked or turned up, dialled down or downplayed: your pitch and pace, projection and diction. When it comes to delivering quality audio, headphones are your best friend. You want to hear yourself as your mic hears you, not as your ears hear you. That’s what the client will hear, too! The more experience you have with the immediate feedback courtesy of your ‘cans’, the better your voice, presentation and mic technique will become. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.17 – 0563 – The Weird Things About Hearing Yourself Through Headphones Hearing yourself through headphones “Headphones take your ears from the side of your head and put them right in front of your mouthso you can hear exactly what you sound like to others.”Rachel Corbett, Podcast Trainer[1] Think about it, no-one else on earth hears our voice as we ourselves do.  While an audience hears only the sound as vibrations through the air (either in person or via an electronic medium such as loudspeaker or headphones), we hear not only those vibrations through the air (at close range of course, through our ears just a few inches from our mouth), but also ‘internally’ as a result of the vibrations and reflections of sound in our body’s resonators (our chest, mouth and nasal cavities) and also through our skull bone.  Only we hear that unique combination of sounds, and so we imagine that others hear us the same way as we hear ourselves. Until we hear a recording. And so, the sound of hearing your voice heard through speakers, headphones or on video for the first time can be unnerving: because we are hearing ourselves as others hear us.  You should therefore be careful not to dismiss your voice as ‘funny’, ‘not good enough’ or ‘weird-sounding’: that is your own perception and unlikely to be one shared by others who have always heard you that way. It’s not that we don’t like our voice, it’s just the disconnect between not recognising it – and yet knowing that it is actually us. [1] https://rachelcorbett.com.au/blog/why-headphones-are-important/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.16 – 0562 – Three *More* Reasons You Need Studio Headphones·        To hear a ‘split feed’, when the sound in one ear of the headphones is different from that of the other. For example, in a radio studio one channel may have the station output (what you would normally expect to hear) and the other maybe output from another source. It can be tricky to cope with hearing two different things at the same time, but as a presenter or newsreader it may be used when you are talking into, say, a sports report, and are waiting for a certain cue (phrase) from the location reporter before you can introduce them on air. To hear the playback of a recorded itemTo allow a presenter to easily cue-up an item to be played next, without that audio going on air. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.15 – 0561 – Three Reasons You Need Studio HeadphonesMonitors (or loudspeakers / speakers):So we can hear the final mix of recorded audio in a room-situation (that is, without headphones), so several people can hear the same audio at the same time and be able to hear each other’s comments. In a live studio, to enable us to hear the output when a microphone is closed[1] HeadphonesWhy you need headphonesTo better hear the sound of our own voice or that of a contributor, and monitor the quality of both and fix in the moment rather than in the edits, such as Background noiseSpeaking levels – avoiding any high or low levels, plosives and so onEditing problems later is time consuming, and may even be impossible to fix. It may be easier to re-record the entire piece again, using more time and removing the spontaneity.To hear any audio that we mix in with our voice, in our live or recorded session, that could be music, a sound effect, or someone else’s voice.To allow a presenter or voice actor to hear instructions from a producer (via a ‘talkback’ intercom system), while they have the microphone open, without it being heard on air or by a guest[2] [1] In a radio studio, songs played on air can be heard by the presenter through loudspeakers. But when they open the microphone, the audio feed to the speakers is cut off. That’s to avoid ‘feedback’, a howl-round loop of sound caused by sound from the speakers being picked up by the microphone and then fed out through the speakers… and so on. As the presenter needs to hear the music and other elements that are going out on air (interviews, commercials and so on), they wear headphones which of course do much the same job as loudspeakers but because they are close to the ears, there is no feedback disruption.[2] You should be able to control the volume of the talkback from the engineer or producer, so it is not too loud or intrusive in your headphones.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.14 – 0560 – From Microphones To HeadphonesMONITORS AND HEADPHONESThese are all ways to hear audio while in the studio, either the audio that we are creating inside it or audio from another source or from outside the studio. So why are we talking about them hear? Well, a great part of getting a better broadcast, podcast and voice-over voice is not only creating that sound, but also being able to hear it, monitor it, knowing what you are listening for, working out what you are perhaps doing wrong and changing it. This constant listening and feedback is imperative – both second-by-second of your own voice in a live studio, and listening back to the recordings of you and others – if you are to develop your own style. Simply, the mic for the mouth and the headphones for the ears, go, well, hand-in-hand. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.13 – 0559 – Using A Mic, RightFinal mic thoughtsThe mic is your friend so look after it. Treat it with respect and don’t shout at it. It is there to help you, but it is sensitive.Having said that it simply wants to get on with the job in hand, to make you sound great. So, once it’s set up, leave it alone. Don’t talk to it. By ignoring the microphone and talking to your listener, you will sound more natural and relatable, conversational and real. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.12 – 0558 – Studio Bacteria Pop shields, filters, headphones and desk controls in radio stations are a breeding ground for bacteria and Valhalla for viruses, with all the spit, sweat and skin deposits. They are all spoken into, worn or touched by many people and rarely if ever cleaned. If you value your voice, do what I do (even before Covid-19 struck) and invest in your own pop shield and headphones and wipe down the panel before you use it (only do this in someone else’s studio with permission and use approved wipes as the chemicals in them may affect a panel or screen). Taking in your own headphones, is easily done and causes next to no disruption, although wiping down a studio may be awkward if you are not on a studio shift and are just going in briefly to record a short item, but take precautions.[1] [1] More here: https://technorama.org.au/?p=3521 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.11 – 0557 – Mic Muck-Ups Solved!: SibilanceSibilanceThis is ‘too much’ (whatever that is) of an ‘s’ sound, and in our line of work the pitch of that sound can be picked up and exaggerated by the microphone (and different types of mic work better with different kinds of voices, picking up different frequencies better), and with podcasts can go right into someone’s ear.There is some fix for the problem (if indeed it is a problem – some may reasonably say that sibilance adds character to the voice and what is too sibilant to one person is not to another), of recording a voice which has a lot of hisses in it or is very ‘essy’. You may be able to reduce the problem by having the mic to one side of your mouth so you are not speaking into it or indeed across it. It’s an issue well-recognised, so much so that audio programs often have a ‘de-esser’ function built in. De-esser https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/the-dos-and-donts-of-de-essing.html Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.10 – 0556 – Pop Screens and Filters Pop filters[1] work by either displacing or slowing down the flow of the air, to make it less aggressive on the mic head. There are two kinds.There’s the foam ‘hat’ that goes directly on the mic head to protect it from windblasts and usually seen on outside mics. But the microphone experts Neuman says these can reduce the treble part of a voice slightly. There’s also the filter that’s a ring of plastic or metal which holds two layers of a thin metal mesh or gauze-type fabric. It’s attached to the mic stand two or three inches away from the mic itself to work effectively, not directly against the head.[2] It’s also a good idea to angle the pop screen slightly to avoid sound reflections bouncing between the screen and the mic head.For a similar reason, large pop screens are better than smaller ones because the ring that holds the fabric may introduce sound reflections, too: the larger the pop screen the further away the outer ring is from the mic.These screens are much more effective against pop noises than foam shields and affect the sound far less, although they can be a bit intrusive as they are larger than the mic head, and you may not be able to read a script as easily or simply feel that it’s getting in the way of you connecting with the mic. [1] Hear sound samples of how pop-screens and filters work, here: https://www.neumann.com/homestudio/en/how-to-protect-your-microphone-against-pops [2] As this short video explains: pic.twitter.com/ekrf1Vg65y Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.09 – 0555 – Mic Muck-Ups Solved!: Popping PsPlosives (or: ‘pops’)This is the name for the small blast of air that hits the microphone when someone says words starting with the letter ‘p’. Put your hand in front of your mouth and say: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers / A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked” or “Peter Rabbit’s burrow”. Microphones are sensitive to these sounds in a similar way and the rush of air can cause a distortion of the sounds to the listener either live or on a recording. (You’ll remember we looked at plosives and how they are formed way back, in the section on diction.)It is difficult to fix this kind of distortion in a recording, but you could try reducing the level of that millisecond, removing it altogether or (like several of these problems) running that section of audio through an audio production program such as https://www.izotope.com/   You can cut the chances of this happening in the first place by: ·     Wear headphones so you know it is happening and you can take steps to stop it·     Saying such sounds a little more softly·     Backing away from the microphone·     Turning the microphone at an angle so you are not speaking directly into it ·     And having a ‘pop shield’ in front of the mic - whether one of gauze attached to the outside of the mic, or foam slipped over the mic’s head. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.08 – 0554 – Mic Muck-Ups Solved!: Off-Mic AudioOff mic audioIf your voice is off-mic, it will sound thin, muffled and distant. Move closer to the mic, speaking more clearly across its top (not directly into it, and so avoid ‘plosives’) and with better level-monitoring. Choosing a different type of microphone with an alternative pickup range may also be the answer. Wear headphones so you can monitor the recording as you make it. Sometimes altering the EQ (equalisation) on the voice may help solve part of the problem in ‘post’ (post-production) – but as always prevention is easier than cure! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.07 – 0553 – Mic Muck-Ups Solved!: Mouth NoiseMouth noiseWe all have this to some extent, the sound of too much saliva in the mouth, or too little! The sound someone may make as they open their mouth to speak, or move their tongue and lips to form the words, can create an unpleasant noise. Some of this is caused by nerves and not enough saliva to lubricate the mouth, or by eating something recently which can cause too much! The creamy taste of chocolate can cause someone to speak less ‘cleanly’. Tips: drink water rather than coffee; some presenters will brush their teeth immediately before a show to reduce the chances of ‘lip-smack’; move the mic to be off to one side may also help in the recording. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.06 – 0552 – Mic Muck-Ups Solved!: Interference and HumInterference and humThis is another kind of distortion, usually from external factors such as air-con units, mobile phone signals (not phones ringing, but when a phone is searching for a carrier), fluorescent or neon lights, computer monitors, fridges, electrical cables and so on. Move away from them or turn them off if possible, put cell-phones into ‘airplane’ mode and uncoil cables. The interference may also be caused by one of the cables you are using, perhaps connecting your mic and the recorder, in which case get it checked out soon in case of a potential fire or electric shock. Hums or buzzes caused by these issues are usually throughout a recording so even more problematic to fix than the others listed here, but you may be able to isolate a second or two of the hum by itself and then instruct an audio program to remove that frequency throughout the recording (although doing this will also remove that frequency from audio that you do not wish to affect). One more thing: some types of electrical hum will not be heard as you monitor a recording but only when you listen back. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.05 – 0551 – Mic Muck-Ups Solved!: HissHiss (or: ‘static’)This is usually caused when levels are set incorrectly during the recording and so the mic is picking up and boosting the ambient noise of an almost-silent room. It may also be down to a poor-quality microphone or one that has been damaged, or if the mic/line setting on a recorder (or on a connection built into the lead) is set incorrectly – in which case choose the alternate switch. The good news is that this kind of interference is easier to fix in most audio editing programs than some of the others listed here. Isolate a small part of the recording that is only hiss (and not speech or any other noise) and the program will then be able to remove that frequency from the rest of your interview. Remember to do this with the raw material, or you will have to repeat the process for every single edited section! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.