5 Hacks to Instantly Improve Your Voiceovers

5 Hacks to Instantly Improve Your Voiceovers

In this episode of the Media Download, John Ando shares five practical tips to instantly enhance your voiceovers. Whether you're recording yourself, directing talent, or working with clients, these communication-focused hacks will help you achieve better results. Learn how to underline key words, give directions, project your voice, do a backup take, and effectively use AI voice-changing software. Subscribe to our channel for more smart shortcuts in media production and tips to improve quality while saving time.

00:00 Introduction to Improving Voiceovers
00:30 Welcome to the Media Download
01:06 The Importance of Audio in Video Production
01:30 Hack 1: Underline Key Words
03:31 Hack 2: Add Directions
04:58 Hack 3: Give It 110%
05:44 Hack 4: Do a Backup for Giggles
06:44 Hack 5: AI-Generated Voiceover
09:14 Conclusion and Recap

#VoiceoverTips #Podcast  @OndoMedia ​

Transcript

Speaker: 0:00

If you've ever listened to a voiceover and thought, wow, that really stinks. This is an episode for you today. I wanna share with you a few simple practical tips that will instantly improve your voiceovers, whether you're recording yourself, directing talent, or working with that client who insist that their spouse has this great voice and should cut all their company's commercials. What I'm gonna share with you in the next few minutes, they're not technical tricks, they're communication tips, and they will work. Welcome to the media download. Hi, I'm John Ando. This is a podcast about smart shortcuts in media production and how to save time while improving quality. I've spent 40 years in broadcast and digital media earning multiple Emmy awards while helping clients with small budgets look big time. Make sure you subscribe to this podcast on YouTube and anywhere you can listen to a podcast we're brought to you by On Media. When I got started in the industry, one of the most valuable lessons I was taught was the best way to make your video look better is to improve your audio. Now, let's assume you've been handed a script and told that the owner of the company wants to do the voiceover themselves. So these are the five hacks that you can use to improve your client's voiceovers and also work if you're doing it yourself. The first hack is a simple one. Underline the words that matter on the script. This is the biggest one, and it's shockingly overlooked by so many people who record voiceovers. Underline the key words that you wanna punch or hit, not just the whole sentence. Not every adjective, not every verb, but just the words that carry the meaning. Now, here's a fictional script read in a flat voice, like a novice voice over talent would do. Mornings move fast. That's why clear a day coffee is brewed. Smooth. Bold, and ready when you are. No bitterness. No waiting. Just great coffee that keeps up with your day. Clear a day. Coffee. Wake up. Ready. Okay. Sounds flat, doesn't it? Not a whole lot of energy. You can't really tell one word for another because the cadence is the same. It, it's almost like Morse code. It's like bubu, bubu, bubu, bubu. There's no change in the cadence by underlining key words. It allows you to break up that cadence in that rhythm. So let's underline some keywords in the script and see how I punch these words. Mornings move fast. That's why clear day coffee is bruised. Smooth, bold, and ready when you are. No bitterness, no waiting. Just great coffee that keeps up with your day. Clear a day. Coffee, wake up. Ready? One word can make a difference. So for example, at the end of that script where it says, wake up, ready. Now these are subjective ideas. You, there's no right or wrong, but in this one, wake up. Ready? Do I say. Wake up ready? Or do I go wake up ready for me? I would rather go wake up, ready, kind of punch that ready. All these pieces help break up the cadence and gives some punch and some direction to the listener, because you're giving a little bit of punch. See what I'm doing to the subtle words that are important. These are the. Keywords. You don't wanna make it too obvious though. You wanna make it sound natural. Hack number two, add directions now. Scripts tell talent what to say, but not often How to say it? Simple notes will help a lot. For example, notes like, I want this to sound smiling here, or it needs to be confident slower here. Maybe we need to breathe for a moment. Or matter of fact, these are all different directions you can give your voiceover talent. So let's kind of work the smile and a few things into this version of the voiceover. Mornings move fast. That's why clear day coffee is brewed smooth, bold, and ready when you are. No bitterness, no waiting. Just great coffee that keeps up with your day, clear day coffee. Wake up ready. You kind of notice I put a little smile in my voice. When you smile and you physically actually smile, it sounds different. So oftentimes when you get near the end of the script where you're doing the call to action. You just, I just tell my voiceover, gimme a little smile right there. Clear it, a coffee, you know, so forth. You get a little bit of a, a, a little bit more of a punch right there. You're not micromanaging, uh, the voiceover talent. You're giving them context and for voiceover talent. Context is gold. Think of it like directing an actor on a video or a film. Uh, do the same thing with your voiceover. They're not reading instructions. Now let's move on to our third thing. I call this, give it 110%. Now, most stage actors and actors who just do anything acting wise will tell you, uh, you just can't speak naturally. You need. To project a little bit, and I always say, give me 110%. You have to punch every word a little bit more with your voice. For example, if I just say, Hey, mornings move fast, and that's why Clear Day Coffee is brewed. Well, it's easier if I go mornings, move fast. That's why Clear Day Coffee is brewed. Bold and ready when you are. It's just a little bit more than the average when I talk to you because you have to punch through that phone, that radio, that television. So give it another 10%. Hack number four for your voiceovers. Let's do a backup for giggles. If you ever work with me, you know, shooting a commercial or a voiceover, you'll find that, uh, once you get the right cut, you get it finished, you get the right thing. I always say, let's do one more for giggles. Because what happens is the talent finally got it done. They take a big sigh of relief. They're glad they finished it and they made me happy. But when they relax, oftentimes this is the best time to say, give me just one more, because the pressure's off. Now they know they already have the voiceover finished. I'm just giving them a mulligan. So you'll end up having two versions and oftentimes the second version, after they get the good cut. Uh, the, uh, the for giggles version is actually better because they've relaxed even a little bit more. And worst case, you can take it back in post-production and cut between the two different versions and get yourself a really nice option because again, you can change the cadence. Now, hack number five. AI generated voiceover, and let me be more specific. AI voice changing software. AI has really been impacting the voiceover industry. And on average, when you're talking about paying 60 to$200 for maybe a 30 or 62nd spot for a voiceover, that really makes a lot in your budget. Uh, if you've got a thousand dollars commercial you're doing and you've gotta pay$200 for the voiceover, it's important, but. It's a big deal and I really like supporting my voiceover friends, but for smaller projects, they just can't afford that additional, um, that additional budget. I will cut most of the voiceovers myself. And now ai, a generated software or actually game has been a game changer because now they can change your voice. 11 labs, the script, and others. Make it that you can change your voice, not just the sound of your voice. So you can sound like maybe Morgan Freeman, but you can also change the gender. Oftentimes, I'll get voiceovers. That I write where I'll voice it myself, and then I will change my male voice to a deeper, more radio male voice, and then run the same voice again in a female voice, and then cut those two together again, just to add a little bit more flavor to the whole project.

Speaker 2: 8:02

Mornings move fast. That's why Clear Day Coffee is brewed smooth. Bold, and ready when you are.

Speaker 3: 8:07

No bitterness, no waiting. Just great coffee that keeps up with your day.

Speaker 2: 8:12

Clear day coffee. Wake up. Ready.

Speaker: 8:15

This is the key though, to AI voice changing. You've gotta have a good voiceover to begin with. Uh, you must have a good read with all those things We talked about, the cadence and the underlying words, because if it's a bad voiceover, the AI's not gonna fix it. It's just changing the voice the other. Option that you'll see a lot of people do is text to speech. Frankly, I hate this. Um, this is very unnaturally sounding. Uh, you'll see where it will mispronounce a word. Uh, for example, we, I live in Columbus, Ohio. We have a suburb here called Johanna, and if you type in Johanna, which you'll get in a text to speech voiceover is gahana, and you just know, okay, that's. AI and it's wrong, or they'll mispronounce there or read for read. This is why text to speech is horrible. Don't use it, and it also does not have cadence. So for ai, voice changing, it can be great. A great alternative. But you have to start with a good read first. Great voiceovers are not about fancy microphones or studio tricks. They're about clarity, intention in helping your talent succeed. Underline those words that matter. Give direction. Give your voiceover 110%. After you get a good voiceover, do a backup for giggles and ai voice changing. Use it if it's appropriate. And if this helped, stick around for more practical storytelling, production tips coming your way on the media. Download both on your favorite audio podcast platform and on YouTube.

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