Unfiltered Thoughts

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 Better
How 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.