{"id":9111,"date":"2020-01-23T12:05:45","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T10:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voicebooking.com\/blog\/?p=4724"},"modified":"2024-01-23T17:52:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T15:52:20","slug":"audio-post-production-is-that-really-necessary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.voicebooking.com\/en\/blog\/audio-post-production-is-that-really-necessary","title":{"rendered":"Tips on Audio post production"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio post production is just a bit of cutting and sticking. A dial up here, a dial down there. And you’re all done. You can easily do that yourself\u2026 right? Not quite.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That’s often how people usually think about it, but there’s a lot more to audio post production<\/a> than that. Check out our 3 audio production tips to follow for more effective sound.<\/p>\n

Why audio production is important<\/h2>\n

Picture this: you’re making an animated video. We had to do this a little while back, and as a voice over studio<\/a> we decided that rather than working with just 1 voice over actor we’d like to work with a whole load of \u00b4em.<\/p>\n

Everyone recorded from their own home studio. Which immediately provided the first challenge as every studio produces a slightly different “sound”. Volume varies, microphones sound different and there are differences in acoustics\u2026 Meaning, one voice might stand out more than the other, which isn’t great for users to hear.<\/p>\n

That’s why audio production is important in the initial stages of producing a piece of media, it helps it sound more complete. To understand better, we’ve put together a list of 3 steps to great audio post production.<\/p>\n

Steps to audio production<\/h2>\n

Let’s go through the 3 main steps that make up audio post production: editing, mixing and mastering.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Editing<\/h3>\n

You have two forms of editing. Cleaning up the audio, somewhere that you generally start. Followed by editing in music and sound effects.<\/p>\n

Editing speech<\/b><\/h4>\n

Sometimes, I can just hear people thinking: those voice overs speak so wonderfully, and such skill, that they can record a message in just one take. If you have never been to a recording before, then you should know that the vast majority of voice overs that you hear are a combination of a number of different takes.<\/p>\n

The best takes are chosen and combined. Sometimes, the first half of a word can be from a different take than the second half of the word. Handy, if you want the intonation to be slightly different.<\/p>\n

That’s why I always ask for multiple takes if a voice over actor is working from their own studio. After choosing the right takes, I remove any distracting clicks, breaths or lip smacking sounds. Sometimes I lengthen a pause a little and other times I remove one completely.<\/p>\n

Music<\/b><\/h4>\n

The music you cut to fit as closely as possible, that goes for both the video footage and the voice over recording. Rework a track in such a way as to still have a clear intro, middle and an outro.<\/p>\n

When choosing music, should you be offered the option of paying more for a longer version of the track than a short one. I suggest that you still take the longer form because it will usually offer more variety within it, which makes it much easier to make the best edit.<\/p>\n

With our explainer video, we went a couple of steps further than making some cuts. Though it sounds like a reasonable whole, the track was in fact cut to pieces. And afterwards stuck back together. Here and there we added extras to it, such as the drone of the trailer voice over at 0:08.<\/p>\n