How To Provide Feedback in Remote Recordings & Live-directed Voiceover Sessions

Based on my years of experience making online recordings for the biggest studios and companies in the world, I put together a step-by-step guide to facilitate the process of giving feedback and conducting a remote recording, live-directed session from the perspective of marketing agencies and audio production companies.

The goal is to keep the recording session as close as possible to the golden thirty minutes to create a unique, bespoke, chilling voice-over with the perfect emotion and tone to the ears of the client and the audience.

Let's consider that:

• You've already checked the actor's or actress' voice over home studio,
• And you've decided if you are going to use Source Connect, VST Connect, ISDN, or if the voice talent is going to record it in his or her own offline recording studio.

So after having that initial setup, you can first apply this checklist to get prepared for a remote session with the voice talent or go straight to the session and apply the following step-by-step guide to provide feedback clearly and efficiently.

Feedback in 3 Steps

A. Fundamentals

I follow the bottom-up order, from bottom to top, first adjusting and giving feedback on the macro structure and general guidelines, which apply to the entire roadmap:

1. The Average rhythm of the piece, in general: I ask him/her to do it slower, or else to increase the speed;
2. Melody variation: I ask for it to be more flat, detached, without emphasis and pitch variations, or the opposite - to play more, oscillate, and make it more dynamic, also in general;
3. Emotion: correct any deviation from the expected predominant emotion.

If these fundamental parameters are out of line with the vision of the ideal voice-over, all the most superficial adjustments will be made in vain.

B. Specific Vocal Parameters

Only after the fundamentals of voice-over are well established, I start working on more specific points:

1. Conversationality: conversational voice over can include contractions of words, less articulation of vowels and consonants, softening the end of words, breaking a rhythm that sounds artificial or "read";
2. Accent: soften or accentuate the accent and country region, English with Brazilian accent for example;
3. Apexes & turning points: moments of a turning point of emotion or rhythm, where the story arc asks for a different energy.

C. The Finish

And finally, the part I like the most, the finish. In this super short step:

1. I guide the actor/actress to adjust the pronunciation of a specific word,
2. I work on an important phrase, cadence, or transition.

My goal in the last stage is to induce small breaks in speech patterns and habits (planned, purposeful, and meticulously measured) so that even the VO talent doesn't sound like himself and/or add something only he/she can do.

The goal is not to sound fancy or extravagant. Not at all. Most of the time, those breaks add naturality and freshness to the VO.

This final step is the last chance to transform an already excellent voiceover into an exceptional voiceover.

Not all projects need this last phase, but it should be considered in almost any advertising and commercial voiceover sessions.

In summary, consider the idea of giving organized bottom-up feedback, as it is common for the speaker or actor to get lost amid too many requests and start to backtrack or destabilize the voiceover, in an attempt to adjust micro and macro elements, both artistic and technical.

Get Prepared for the Next Project

Now you have a checklist and several insights to organize your process, direct a voice actor or voice actress and co-produce a voice-over with objectivity and creativity.

If your project requires differentiated voices, quality, casting and planning, send us a message, and we'll take care of the artistic direction during your recording session.