Joe Passaro

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  • Home
  • Demos
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    • Political
    • Explainers and Brand Videos
    • eLearning
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Archives for November 2019

Sing-song

November 20, 2019 by Joe

VO Tips for the Non-VO Pro: Sing-song

Today’s topic is sing-song reads. What are sing-song reads? They’re when you go up and down in your cadence, giving a rhythmic and musical sound that doesn’t correspond to targeted emphasis or conversational flow. In short, it sounds more like singing than talking.

Match your pitch and pacing to the content and audience:

Your cadence should alter with the script, the topic, and the intended audience. You might go faster and higher pitched when you’re excited and slower and quieter when you’re more serious or reflective. You could even change up your pitch and pacing in a single script if it calls for it.

Sing-song reads are a very normal way that people read text out loud early on—kind of like the read-y reads I discussed in the last video. It’s perfectly fine… unless you want the listener to think you’re just talking. This habit was one of the hardest for me to break when I first started out in voiceover but with lots of practice it’s now something of the past.

What does sing-song sound like?

So what does it sound like? Pam Beasley in the Office does a nice version of it, albeit a bit exaggerated, during a holiday episode when she describes the Scranton coupon book “worth over $1500 in savings.” Here’s a little sample of what it sounds like: The other day I went to the store to bring back some cookies for my little sweetheart. She didn’t like the kind that I bought and made me go back for more. On the way I ended up eating them all because I was so upset, and when I came home with nothing left she made me go out again.

It sounds a bit like a nursery rhyme, right? The cadence starts low then goes high then goes low at the end. It’s great for kids because it’s so musical! But for most voiceover work it’s better to be more dynamic and natural with your reads.

Sing-song is very hard to get past. So if you’d prefer to hire a freelance voice talent with lots of experience then email any time: joe@joepassaro.com

 

Filed Under: VO Tips Tagged With: acting, audio advice, performance

Read-y Reads

November 13, 2019 by Joe

VO Tips for the Non-VO Pro: Read-y Reads

This is the first video on VO performance, and the topic that I thought would make the most sense to start with is what is known as read-y reads.

What are read-y reads?

They’re when you can tell that someone is reading a script. You hear it all the time in the news when someone who isn’t used to presenting to live audiences gets up to a podium and reads a speech. The speaker tends to over articulate each word, and their cadence is very staccato or broken up. It’s very difficult to listen to because it sounds so unnatural and forced. When you hear read-y reads in a corporate presentation, eLearning module, or even on commercials, you immediately focus on the how bad it sounds. Worse: you overlook the message they’re trying to communicate.

How to avoid them:

People tend to pay attention to the message when the words flow. This is especially true when they have emotion embedded somewhere in the read. Like right now, the emotions I’m conveying are a combination of happiness, optimism, excitement, and kindness. Right? I’m being helpful, friendly, and I’m pretty content, which makes what I’m saying easier to pay attention to.

Think of any great speakers or storytellers: they sound natural, as if they’re talking to you, and actually care about what they’re saying. Read-y reads almost sound robotic and emotionless by comparison. For the amateur, it’s hard to move away from this type of read because you’re used to reading to yourself not to other people and your mind doesn’t need to perform for itself. (Thankfully!) The easiest solution is just to relax and pretend you’re talking to a single person who might care about the material. For instance, I’m actually reading this script right now. But I’m imagining I’m speaking to a friend of mine who is thinking to try audio book narration. I genuinely care about this person and want to offer advice. So, I’m just talking.

Compare read-y reads with natural reads:

Now let me show you what a read-y read sounds like and I’ll read that exact bit I just did and go in and out of “read-y-ness” and naturalness to compare. For instance, I’m actually reading this script right now. But I’m imagining I’m speaking to a friend of mine who is thinking to try audio book narration. I genuinely care about this person and want to offer advice. So, I’m just talking.

The contrast is exaggerated a bit here. But you can hear the over articulation and the staccato rhythm pretty clearly when juxtaposed with the natural read. Ready-reads can be more subtle in their nuances, but our ears can hear it and tell something is off. It’ll take time and a good amount of practice, but once you can distinguish the differences in your own reads then it’s even easier to improve on.

So, as promised in the very first of these videos, this video is actually short which means you can watch another cat video and not feel guilty. Well, not TOO guilty.

And if you need any help with your reads or you’d just prefer leaving it to a millennial voiceover talent like yours truly, then email me any time: joe@joepassaro.com

Filed Under: VO Tips Tagged With: acting, audio advice, performance

Recording Software

November 6, 2019 by Joe

VO Tips for the Non-VO Pro: Recording Software

We’re back once more for our last tech video before we jump into performance tips. Hooray!

Today we’ll cover recording software or as we call it in the audio world: your DAW—Digital Audio Workstation. We love our acronyms in English, and we love puns. Well, some of us do. So, if you can’t remember the acronym DAW just throw a G at the end and call it your DAWG—Digital Audio Workstation Gizmo!

And that’s all you need to know about…DAWGs.

Actually, there’s quite a lot you need to know, but for voiceover it’s pretty simple. The simpler and more clutter-free the better…generally speaking. For basic voiceover, a single track audio editor is perfect because in most cases you aren’t adding lots of sound effects, instruments, or even a music track. Although if you do need to add music, there are some excellent multi-track options, which I’ll mention at the end of this video.

What do DAWs do?

DAWs take the digital signal from your USB mic or your audio interface if you’re using an XLR mic, and displays that in real time (or near real-time) on your screen as a wave form. In its basic use, it allows you to cut, copy, move, and alter the audio. Most DAWs record the audio in their own proprietary file type. Then you must save or export the file as a WAV, AIFF, mp3, etc. for other programs to read the file and play/edit the audio.

Pretty straight forward, right?

How to choose which DAW:

There are four core criteria you should use when choosing a DAW:

  • The Layout—is it cluttered or clean and can it be customized to your preferences?
  • Capabilities or features—is it single track or multi-track? Can you insert plugins and tools from other audio programs?
  • Learning curve—how difficult is it to learn how to use?
  • Price—many excellent options are free. And some cost more but have many crucial time-saving tools. It depends on your needs.

Popular DAWs:

Professional voiceover artists use a variety of DAWs—some even use different DAWs for different types of work. A few of the most popular paid ones are Adobe Audition (which is subscription based), ProTools (the standard in the music production world), Reaper, and Twisted Wave.

Twisted Wave in particular is very popular because it’s clean, has many specific features voice actors use, and costs $80. But, it’s Mac only. Adobe Audition is well-loved because it’s been around for a long time and has lots of features. But that monthly subscription is a doozy for some. I personally use Reaper because I love the customization and the macros. You can cut down on your editing by quite a bit.

And some professionals use free DAWs. Audacity is by far the most common. A great program with lots of features. Their latest update makes the interface quite smooth and modern. The only two downsides of Audacity are destructive editing, meaning once you delete something there’s no getting it back. Then there are some limitations about plugin compatibility which I won’t get into. Other free options are Ocenaudio—not ocean, but OCEN—and PreSonus Studio One, both free and great options.

All of these DAWs should identify your audio interface or USB automatically, but to get started using them, you can just do a quick YouTube search for the DAW of your choice.

My advice:

So…which should you choose? I’d personally start with Audacity because it’s the simplest, cleanest, and free-est option. And as you get more into recording, definitely check out the others, especially the other free options. And if you really enjoy the free ones, maybe donate $5 or so to the developers. ?

If choosing a DAW is too complicated or you just don’t have the time, a professional voiceover talent like yours truly can certainly help. Email me direct at joe@joepassaro.com.

Filed Under: VO Tips Tagged With: audio advice, equipment, recording software

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