Unfiltered Thoughts

2022.03.01 – 0425 – Pod-Fasting
POD-FASTINGThis is when listeners play back your podcast really fast, perhaps 1.5 or even twice the originally recorded speed (often referred to as “2-ex” speed). They may be short of time, or they may find your delivery either not compelling enough – just too drawn out, or not enough wheat for the chaff, or simply your presentation just. Too. Slow.
The podcast player removes the micro-pauses in and between words, without affecting your pitch. So you seem to speed up without sounding like Mickey Mouse, Alvin The Chipmunk or Pinky and Perky.
If you want to replicate that in your home recordings for say voice-overs, such tech is available in most DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). You usually do this by selecting the audio you want to speed up, and then a button called “Remove Silence” or “Truncate Silence” and then setting parameters for what you want to be considered as ‘silence’: that is, the ‘loudness’ and the duration’.
You don’t want to eliminate all silence as that will sound completely unnatural, but you may want to reduce them by a percentage. “There's a time and a place for everything.Listen to the movie ‘Tootsie, where Bill Murray stole many scenes from Dustin Hoffman's manic performance with measured, mindful pacing. The ‘I Have A Dream’ speech, at 1.5x speed, sounds like a grocery list.Liam Neeson's ‘Taken’ speech, the action movie monologue that became the meme of the 2000s,at 1.5x speed, would be 0.5x as threatening.” [1]
[1] https://www.thepodcasthost.com/editing-production/podcasts-at-1-5x-speed-take-control-of-your-flow/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.02.28 – 0424 – The Pregnant Pause Pregnant pauseThis is a pause that is full of meaning (‘pregnant’ means ‘full’) – it builds suspension and signifies significance.
“And Prime Mionsiter, did you ever take drugs?” [Pause] “Yes. Yes I did.”“And now we come to who will inherit the vast percentage of grandad’s estate…”  [Pause] or perhaps could happen when no-one knows quite what to say:
“You know Nigel? He’s been arrested for murder…” [Pause]
Pregnant pauses can be natural as in those examples, or manufactured. For example, a conversation between a car salesman and a potential customer can often have pregnant pauses in them as they try to make the other uncomfortable, give the impression they are mulling over an offer or suggestion… and as brinkmanship to cause an uncomfortable situation and force the other person to speak and so give away part of their gameplan.
The danger is not only talking, but ill-considered talking, starting to sound desperate, saying words just to fill the silence.A clever salesperson or manager, parent or presenter knows the pregnant pause can be a powerful tool. When it appears, consider letting it linger. Stretch it and feel it. Sense how it affects the conversation (perhaps give the other person time to think, and process, what you said) and shifts balance of ‘power’ in the conversation.The “silence may be deafening”, they may feel threatened or flustered by it, see it as a psychological trick, and pressured into making a decision.
On the other hand, the listener, possible customer, staff member may feel more respected, unthreatened, more in control. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.02.27 – 0423 – The Difference Between A Pause And ‘Dead Air’
A Pause and Dead Air – the differenceA pause is purposeful production. It’s been included for a reason, for effect, for punctuation and a dozen other reasons (see below). Dead air is a gap caused by a gaffe – a miscalculation, a technical mistake, a brain freeze. A pause is intentional, dead air is accidental. “A pause is a silence filled with meaning; an empty lapse of time is a wait.”
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2022.02.26 – 0422 – Pausing Practicalities Pausing practicalitiesIf recording a voice over often it doesn’t matter if you pause for several seconds in the middle of a script. A producer or director will understand that if you have an intense, heavy technical read, or maybe one with subclauses or no punctuation (for example a ‘terms and conditions’ section), then you may have to record several versions starting at different points and leave it to them to edit together. Obviously only do this after a conversation with them and together you can find a good spot at which you can breathe and also make an edit easier for them.
It will be better for everyone if you stop to take a longer pause at a place where there is a comma or fullstop/period, than to fight through to the end of a sentence and squeeze every last ounce of air from your lungs as you do so.
Starting at the beginning of the script and seeing how far through you can get before you make a mistake, doesn’t make a lot of sense but uses a lot of time. Just make sure that when, using the stop start method above, you keep in mind the intonation in which you ended the previous sentence before you paused.

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2022.02.25 – 0421 – Too Many Pauses Too many pausesEven though it’s important that each word be properly pronounced, overly precise diction with a micro-pause after each word, can sound very unnatural. Another potential problem is, a we saw before, the speakers who chunk words together by how many there are rather than their sense, and then repeat the pattern. So you get, say three words, then a pause, then three more, and another pause ….. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.02.24 – 0420 – Silence In An On-Air Studio
VOICE BOXSilence in an on-air studio  If an audio signal is not sent to a radio station transmitter for a set period of time, an emergency ‘tape’ kicks in.
That’s if equipment senses that a silence is too long, and maybe ‘something’ has happened in the broadcast studio … say the studio desk has broken, there’s a power cut, fire or evacuation.
So if you’re being melodramatic with a super-long pause, you may just get more than you bargained for. That emergency recording will fire up, and go straight to the transmitter and take your desk off air. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.02.23 – 0419 – The Problem With Pauses PROBLEMS WITH PAUSESIn commercial voiceovers, the pauses are often edited out to leave a ‘word-wall of sound’. I was once asked to record a daily podcast for an (in)famous media company. They loved my voice and presentation style, but had one request: could I please go back and edit out all of my breaths from the recording as “people don’t want to hear them”. Errr!
Removing breaths disrupts this natural rhythm and therefore interferes with our understanding of the content, but it’s done to cram more information into the time allowed.
Granted people don’t want to hear big gulps or suck-in breaths, but they are a normal part of speech that we hear, live, every day. And of course, we naturally take a breath in adlibbed speech certainly, where it makes sense in a thought block, and therefore that creates a pause which the listener considers natural.
And pauses are pertinent in an ‘ad read’ for reasons mentioned before: they can help draw attention to key words or phrases such as a feeling the product suggests, the name of the business, the strapline or special offer.
Alternatively, some radio and podcast presenters edit pauses into their show, to add suspense. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.02.22 – 0418 – Pausing In Podcast Presenter Teams VOICE BOXPausing in teamworkA brief look at the pause when you have several presenters on your radio show or podcast. When you have one or more co-presenters, it’s important to know when one of them has paused, for effect, or stopped. Knowing each other, trust and on-air communication will avoid the problem of one of the rest of the team trampling all over a carefully timed link or bit. These might be hand signals – a raised hand might indicate “I’ve got this… let me talk”, an outward palm “don’t talk, let me finish”, and a finger-point or gracious ‘I cede the floor’ gesture might indicate it’s their turn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.02.21 – 0417 – The Janice Pause The ‘Janice pause’The exaggerated pause indicating stunned surprise, or comedic drama: a trend from ‘Friends’:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSmp1ZSvelY  Having said that, don’t fall into the pattern of pausing so much between words, so often, that your delivery becomes ‘bitty’, with you saying. Each. Individual. Word. Such a delivery is unconventional, un-conversational and un-emotional – sucking energy out of what may actually be exciting content. “Oh [pause] my [pause] gosh [pause] he [pause] just [pause] proposed.” More naturally in this situation of excited, energetic enthusiasm, you’d create a ‘word merge’…  “Ohmygosh [pause] hejustproposed.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.02.20 – 0416 – Silence In Different Cultures
Silence for different cultures  In general, eastern cultures value silence more than word-rich western ones. In their book ‘Communication between cultures’ Samovar and Porter, elaborate using an example: “In response to the question: ‘Will you marry me?’ Silence in English would be interpreted as uncertainty, in Japanese it would be interpreted as acceptance, in Igbo (Southeastern Nigeria) it would be considered as a denial if the woman was to continue to stand there and acceptance if she ran away.” [1] And of course, if you are reading or presenting for those who have your first language as their second, they may need additional time to process what you are saying.
[1] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/power-silence-alok-vishwakarma-%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AD%E3%82%AF-   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.