A Good Voice Recording Requires Presence

When people think about professional announcers, most assume that all of the men must have pipes of steel and a basso profundo vocal range. However, there are as many successful male voice actors that don’t fit this description as the ones that do. So besides being able to read and interpret a script, do a bit of acting, or a vocal characterization, what separates a successful voice talent from the average announcer? The answer is presence.

Think of presence as the ratio of direct sound to reflected sound. It’s like a photo that’s sharply in focus compared to a blurred picture. A bad recording, where the talent is far from the microphone (or not properly focused on the microphone), will have sound reflections, reverberation, room tone, and a lack of high frequency that can cause it to sound “distant” and less intelligible. Conversely, a good recording, where the talent is very focused on the microphone will sound louder, even when it’s played at a lower volume than the bad recording.

Posted by: Jay Petach - Studio Engineer