Audio Narration: What Is Your Workflow with Hired Talent?

[Jenise_RidgeViewMedia.com]

Dear Community,

Can you help a fellow colleague who will be working with professional voice over talent for the first time? She sent me her questions, and gave me permission to blog and tweet them to others for help. See link below:

How to Answer Voice Over Narration Questions

Please chime in here in the Forums, on Twitter, the blog. She'll appreciate your wisdom.

Thanks!

On Twitter: @jenisecook

[cyrelle]

Script-
If you eventually want your narration broken into segments for slides, you should break your script into the desired segments. Be sure to consistently label each part so that the audio producer and narrator can tell where the breaks are.

I always provide the entire script for the project and ask to have it all recorded during one session or set of session. You are more likely to get a consistent reading and consistent audio quality that way, although good talent and a good studio can often replicate their performance pretty well.

Files-
If you need separate files for each slide, I would ask to have the audio provided in separate files. It will save you a lot of time in editing. Indicate on your script how you want the files named. Some studios will name the files in numerical order by default so you will need your naming/numbering system on your script to keep track of what's what.

Pitfalls-
If there is a lot of "acting" needed in your script, you may have to be present (either in person or via phone connection) during the recording; however, requiring your presence during the recording takes up a lot of your time and raises the cost of the production dramatically.

If it's mostly straightforward narration, giving some directions in the script should be enough for a good narrator. Ask for a few minutes of preview to be recorded before the session for the final recording, so that you can tell if the narrator is getting the idea of what you were looking for.

Make sure you specify the type of file you want including bit rate, compression settings, etc. For example, Articulate has specific suggestions for what kind of files will give you the best audio quality when using Presenter.

[Patrick_J]

Cyrelle is correct, being organized in what you are asking goes a long ways towards finishing the product.

[brenstrong]

I too agree with Cyrelle.

I'd also add to try and think ahead with your script - are there any words or phrases that might require special emphasis and/or pronunciation? It's a good idea to try and mark these out for the narrator.

Also, once you've written your script - read it aloud yourself. There's nothing worse (and it can happen) than getting recorded audio back and realising it might have read well, but when spoken there are phrases or clauses that just don't sound 'right'.

Try to keep your sentences short and to the point, but also vary their structure so they don't sound monotone. This is both awful and great advice (the advice is good, but I realise it is very generalised!). A read through (out loud) will give you an idea as to whether your narration is interesting or becomes dull.

Sometimes it is also worth bending (or breaking) strict grammatical rules if it makes the narration easier to listen to and understand. One prime example is the use of prepositions at the end of sentences. Sometimes, if you're narrating a piece of information, it is easier for people to understand when you use a preposition at the end, rather than listening to more complex sentences. This is not always the case - and I'm not advocating throwing the grammar book out the window - but in some instances, it is easier to break a very complex concept into simple sentences and suffer the indignity of using bad grammar!

[rsawchuk]

I have just hired my first narrators for a pilot project. I posted a project and sample script on Voice123. I received over 90 auditions within a few days and finally decided to close the project. (I wanted both a female and male narrator on the same script so it made it a little more complicated. However, a few auditions included both female and male and one audition was exactly what we wanted).

There is a lot of talent out there looking for work, with very reasonable and flexible fees. Now is certainly a good time to consider using a professional narrator for any special projects you may have where you want to impress the boss or client.

I will post our experiences and the narration when I get the audio files.

Russ

[PRansom]

Hi everyone!

I'm the person who is benefitting from your wisdom and experience...thank you for sharing! I'm sharing everything with my team, and we appreciate all of the knowledge. Thanks again!

Feel free to contact me on Twitter or via LinkedIn (Patricia Ransom - LinkedIn)

[Brian Sullivan]

One thing to be careful of that has tripped us up -- make sure you provide specifics on pronunciation for acronyms, proper names and anything else where there could be interpreted differently.

Often this requires client participation.

Nothing worse than recording 30 minutes of audio where a key acronym is mispronounced and must be redone (and paid for again).

Another issue -- have the studio or recording engineer add a second or so of silence at the beginning (or end if that works better for you) of each slide -- it will make the audio flow better and facilitate any audio editing you might have to do within Articulate.

Just thought of another thing -- get your files delivered in .wav format rendered in CD quality (16 bit 44k). Any compression applied should be at your end -- not from the studio.

[Jenise_RidgeViewMedia.com]

This is great, everyone, and happy to see PRansom write a post for this thread!

Please keep the advice coming.

It helps all of us!

@jenisecook

[rsawchuk]

So far I have had great success with different contracted narrators. Turnaround time was quick and the results were excellent.

I agree with previous suggestions. Get your narration in a .wav format if you are going to import into AP.

I also discovered that with AP 09 I can import the entire narration into slide 1, and then use the "set slide" and "set animations" button to synchronize the slides and PowerPoint animations for the rest of the presentation. You can then use your mouse to move the slide and animation markers exactly to where you want them. Much easier faster and precise than with the older versions.

Russ