To actually capture the human voice effectively takes a huge quantity of experience and experience. Clearly put it is fantastically tricky to capture the human voice well. Factors that will ruin a recording include: Sibilance (the sshh sound that goes with words beginning with s or sh), Plosive noise which can sometimes be controlled using a pop filter or pop shield and Poor Acoustics within your recording environment, not to mention low quality mics, audio kit including the studio itself and dampening objects placed inside the studio and an inexperienced voice over artist or vocalist.
A sound engineer can glaringly improve the recording quality quite a bit if highly proficient and experienced there is however no substitute for having high quality takes audio to work with in the 1st place.
It must be said, the actual issue with recording the human voice is as humans ourselves we are accutely aware of precisely how a vocal delivery should sound and thus it is really easy to pick up something that sounds imperfect. Our ears are finely tuned to the human voice and while many may not be able to ascertain precisely what sounds wrong, they're going to know something sounds wrong all the same.
If recording spoken word it becomes even more vital to really capture the recording well and the actual delivery of the vocal itself should be competantly delivered if a quality result is desired. A vocalist may require more range and breath control however the delivery itself has more scope for private style and room to express oneself without the limitations placed on the reading of an audio book for example where the voice over artist is expected to provide lucidity and express the mood of the tale being told.
Voice over artists are often told to belive what they are reading and emphasis the light and shade of a written piece and while this may sound easy to some this is really a very tough task to get right. So the next time you are listening to an audio book or spoken word piece appreciate the work that has gone into deliveing a quality product. You are an expert at detecting anything less than a top-notch vocal performance afterall.
A sound engineer can glaringly improve the recording quality quite a bit if highly proficient and experienced there is however no substitute for having high quality takes audio to work with in the 1st place.
It must be said, the actual issue with recording the human voice is as humans ourselves we are accutely aware of precisely how a vocal delivery should sound and thus it is really easy to pick up something that sounds imperfect. Our ears are finely tuned to the human voice and while many may not be able to ascertain precisely what sounds wrong, they're going to know something sounds wrong all the same.
If recording spoken word it becomes even more vital to really capture the recording well and the actual delivery of the vocal itself should be competantly delivered if a quality result is desired. A vocalist may require more range and breath control however the delivery itself has more scope for private style and room to express oneself without the limitations placed on the reading of an audio book for example where the voice over artist is expected to provide lucidity and express the mood of the tale being told.
Voice over artists are often told to belive what they are reading and emphasis the light and shade of a written piece and while this may sound easy to some this is really a very tough task to get right. So the next time you are listening to an audio book or spoken word piece appreciate the work that has gone into deliveing a quality product. You are an expert at detecting anything less than a top-notch vocal performance afterall.
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For more information on capturing the human voice including handling plosive noise and sibilance visit popfilter.org
