Unfiltered Thoughts

2022.06.19 – 0535 – Why A Studio Engineer Wants To Know About Your BreakfastWhen asked for “a bit for level”, it is surprisingly difficult to think of what to say! It sounds obvious but many people simply say “testing, testing … 1,2,3,4,5” or “Mary had a little lamb” or a producer may use the classic line “tell me what you had for breakfast”. But all of those are too short and don’t encourage you to speak in the same way as you will do when you are ‘live’. Your volume may differ, as too may your tone of voice. It also needs to be a sentence or two so the producer or engineer has time to adjust any settings on their desk or console to better reproduce your special tonal qualities. So read from your actual script with the same presentation style, volume and vitality, position and posture as you will later on. A sound engineer may ask you to talk slightly differently (“a bit softer” or “pull away from the mic a touch”). Comply with their request and carry on talking until you are asked to stop. The tip is: say in rehearsal what you will say in reality, say it in the same way, and position yourself in relation to the mic just as you will ‘for real’.
Whatever you do, don’t ‘test the mic’ by tapping it or blowing into it. A microphone is sensitive and doing either of these will damage it. You may also be asked at this point to say your name and the name of the product or script “for the tape”, so that there is an audio record of whose voice follows on the recording. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.18 – 0534 – “A Bit For Level, Please”
“A bit for level”Part of working out your correct mic position before you start recording or go live, will involve of course, you speaking in to the mic so your voice can be heard by you (wearing headphones) and by any engineer you might have (in a control room), and correct recording levels can be set. This is to check:

• The microphone, its channel and signal are working – a microphone such as lapel clip-on mic may have an on/off switch on it, or its battery back, or transmitter unit; the battery in the unit may be drained or faulty; there may be signal interference from the transmitter to the receiver; a studio mic may have been unplugged for some reason or the desk fader which controls its volume may be dirty and lead to crackling on air; or it may have been turned around leading a speaker to be ‘off mic’ and not heard properly.
• The level or loudness of your voice – so correct levels can be set for you so they are regulated with those of other guests or sound sources
• The proximity of your voice to the microphone – to avoid issues such as plosives distorting the clarity of your voice
• Any additional interference – for example, if a clip-on mic was too close to and picking up noise from a necklace or chain; hidden under clothing which rustled ‘on mic’; picked up the ‘searching for signal’ noise from a mobile phone which had been left on.
• As we have seen you may need to get a little closer or more distant from the mic (with all the other considerations that that will bring), and/or turn up the mic input level (or ‘gain’) so that your voice level appears louder on the air or on the recording.

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2022.06.17 – 0533 – Don’t Interfere With the Sound Engineer
A quick word to be kind to your sound engineer. This is the person in a voiceover or dubbing studio who is likely to be doing the technical side of things such as setting up your microphone, monitoring levels, doing the actual recording and playing back those recordings to a client. Another role will be turning on your talkback (the intercom system between the director and you in the studio) so you can hear (or not) the conversations about your read between a client and a director. They will also pass on their expertise to a director, for example on the tone of the voice, what ‘take’ is best, whether different versions can be cut together and so on. As well as other studio staff, the engineer is your friend. They can make you sound good! Always treat that mic as ‘live’, so no swearing or complaining or criticising the script, the client, the pay or the coffee, even under your breath. You don’t know who is listening…  As your microphone is always likely to be on, don’t tap it, or cough or burp into it as it will go straight into their ears.  And ensure you eat something (but not a huge meal) before you go into the studio. OK you may be nervous and not feel like it, but it can happen that stomach growling or rumbling[1] can be picked up by a sensitive microphone in a sound-proofed booth, and compromise recordings.
[1] Borborigmus is the fantastically onomatopoeic word meaning "a rumbling sound made by the movement of gas in the intestines". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.16 – 0532 – Why You Need To Love Your LUFSSound levels are gauged with decibels and ‘LKFS’ and LUFS’[1] and on studio displays which light up vertically, or with needles that wiggle, but essentially your ‘moment-by-moment’ level should pretty much always be in a yellow-to-green area, with very occasional short peaks into a red. Or if you have a level marked up, around -10dB, or ‘peaking to PPM 6’[2],
When recording for a podcast your host will most likely want Apple’s required level of -16 LUFS, that is the average loudness over the entirety of the piece
Broadcasters mostly want -24 LUFS (U.S) of -23 LUFS (the rest of the world), so as James Cridland from www.podnews.net points out “if you were to take an audio file made for broadcast radio and upload it as a podcast, it would be too quiet”. [3]
An engineer can use a ‘compression’ device to give the impression that a sound is louder than it actually is, by making it sound ‘fuller’. (There’s more on this a bit later.)
[1] They are both the same and sometimes referred to as ‘integrated loudness’. LKFS (‘Loudness, K-weighted, relative to Full Scale’ and LUFS (‘Loudness Unit Full Scale’) are both the unit of measurement used to quantify a piece of audio's perceived loudness by analyzing the average level over time. LUFS is written in negative numbers, so -30 LUFS is quieter than -10 LUFS. They are a standard loudness measurement unit used for audio normalization in broadcast television systems and other video and music streaming services.[2] BBC recommendations for its studio staff, here: https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/radio/commissioning/TechnicalSpecificationRadio.pdf[3] https://podnews.net/article/lufs-lkfs-for-podcasters Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.15 – 0531 – Loudness Standards
In a network or voice-over studio, a sound engineer will adjust your volume settings so the volume of voice is balanced with a similar level of those of other sources, be they of other guests or music. (In smaller studios or for podcasting and so on, you will of course have to do this yourself.)
A consistent level is necessary so the listener isn’t forced to keep increasing the volume themselves. It’s called ‘normalisation’. Imagine how annoying it would be if a radio station had the presenter at one sound level and then a piece of music at another, or if one podcast was at a different level to the next in playlist and so on. That’s why there is a recommended standard volume setting not only for each programme but also for the whole broadcast industry (and by default podcasts, video channels and other services such as Spotify and so on). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.14 – 0530 – How Recording Levels Affect Your VoiceSo, you have optimised your recording space as far as you are able, and learnt about mic technique – knowledge of each will help you ‘get a better broadcast, podcast or voice-over voice’. So let’s move on to the actual recording of your sound, with a look at ‘loudness’.
But we’re not so much looking at your own ‘projection’ or volume – which we looked at in some depth previously – but at what level that is recorded at.
In this next section we’ll discuss why there’s a standard setting of levels, so even though you may shout a line when you need to, it’s unlikely to be recorded at that same volume. That is, the perception of projection comes more in the style of the read rather than in the actual level at which it was recorded.
We’ll take a look what the industry-standard voice recording levels are, how to mix your voice with effects and music, and if there’s anything you can do if your voice is recorded too high or too low. I’ll also explain audio processing: automatic level control, equalisation, compressors, de-essers, noise gates and ducking … all of which help you get a better recorded voice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.13 – 0529 – What To Wear ‘On-Mic’What you wear ‘on mic’The microphone is a sensitive piece of equipment which will ‘hear’ everything it can. That means your voice, your breathing, the squeak of a chair, the rustle of clothing or scripts. So when a microphone is open, move and act with care. This also includes not clicking your pen or tapping your feet.
‘Jangling jewellery’ will be heard on a mic, so might a stiff cotton shirt, leather trousers as you cross your legs or shift in your seat. Do what you can to reduce rattles and rustles. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.12 – 0528 – On-Mic BreathingTake a breath before opening the mic, so the first thing a listener hears is a word not a gasp. Also beware of lip-smacks when you take subsequent breaths when you are on air at the start of a new story or paragraph. This is the sound that occurs when you take a breath and utter a habitual ‘wet kiss’ sound (or ‘tsk’) as you open your mouth. It can be an unconscious habit and once spotted, very annoying to listeners. It can also be interpreted as a single ‘tutting sound’, as though you are judging what you or someone else has just said.  Gasped-in breaths during a read can be caused by nerves: people perhaps worried that they’ll run out of air and want to take a big lungful - what you’d do in a ‘freeze situation, or if you were about to run away.
As we have seen before, a big breath will:·        Cause tension in the neck and throat and shoulders·        Causes big pressure in your throat, all that air ready to rush out.
So, relax! Remember you don’t need to suck air in, it’s done naturally to even out the pressure lost once you have let it out. You don’t need to think about it at all – after all you do it naturally most of the day, and certainly all of the night when you are asleep. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.11 – 0527 – The Off-Chance of Being Off-MicIt may sound obvious but make sure that you know which part of the microphone to talk into! With some you talk into the top, with others you talk into the side. Added to that, different mics pick up noise from different areas (their ‘pick-up pattern’), so that could be more from the front and back and not much from the sides, or only from the front and so on. So, if you are talking into the wrong part of it, then you will be ‘off mic’ and your voice will sound thin, weedy and distant – which hardly aids effective communication. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.10 – 0526 – Speaking On MicSpeaking on micSo you are in the booth and you have your script stand, then you need to work out how you can talk into the microphone, but also be able to read from the script. You have to try and read it ‘through’ the pop-screen or stand, or off to one side slightly, or even up higher than the mic. One thing you shouldn’t do is have the script too far below the mic so you have to look down to read it. Doing this will cause a crease in your neck and constrict your airway.  So, try and have the script printed off in large type, or expand the size on your screen, so you can see it more clearly. And arrive at the studio in good time so you can, with a director’s permission, adjust the placement of script and mic (and the stand) to the best and most comfortable position for you, and the best sound quality.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.