VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Ed Fisher]

BY "Vocal Tricks" I'm referring to changing pitch or time compression.

I've had several clients lately that I've used either pitch adjustment or time compression on their productions and they LIKED it.

(Go Figure)

One, early on, had me doing a character but wanted a "little more energy" so I use the IDENTICAL production and simply time compressed it to speed up my delivery. THAT made them happy.

I have another that I did both in a demo and THAT'S the one they picked.

Some of the reads I hear on TV and other places will be these guys with the crisp young voices rattling off things at a speed that makes me wonder...."Did they time compress that?"

This thread is simply asking...if you ever use any of these techniques.

Thanks.
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"I reserve the right to be completely wrong."

[Scott Pollak]

Almost never.

EXCEPT... with my NPR daily underwriter spots, I have a very strict time limit: No more than either 15.5 or 30.5 seconds, depending on the spot.

With some regularity I will time-compress using Audition's time-compression effect and I find that if I keep it at no more than about 93% compression or less, it usually sounds just fine.
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

[Leslie Humble]

Although it's never a good idea to do it if you don't have to......
I have found you can compress up to 3 seconds off a 60 sec spot. Anything more and it's a mess. I also use Audition for that when I gotta.

This reminds me of its sister thread not long ago about copy being written to long. Who has not had to patiently explain to a Sales dog or client that less is more and just try to get one idea across?
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There are rules to the Universe. Learn them and prosper. www.HumbleVoiceover.com

[Bish]

Only very occasionally have I used time manipulation. When I've done the best I can with a nominal 29 sec read and it's coming in a hair too long (even after brutal editing), I'll trim max 5% by time compression. Once in a while I'll trim a disclaimer section a little more than that

But I've always let them know that I've manipulated slightly, and I've never done it to "improve" my read... just when it's a critical time thing.
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Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[Lee Gordon]

I use time compression fairly regularly. I have this odd quirk of liking to provide files at the precise length specified by the client. Unfortunately, many of these same clients seem to think that if they write 38 seconds worth of copy and say it's a 30, that it will somehow magically time out to 30 seconds. I'm the one who ends up performing the magic. I read as fast as I can without making the spot sound like crap, cut out as much breathing as I can without making the spot sound like crap, and use Audacity (I think its time compression is better than Adobe's) to squeeze out the remaining time. I can usually go with up to about 5% compression without making it sound like crap.

I will also use time compression for those rapid-read disclaimers such as at the end of car commercials. I find it comes out better when I read at a normal pace and time-compress than if I try to blast through the copy. I will sometimes exceed 5% or even 10% compression on those.

The only time I use pitch change is if a particular character voice calls for it. For example, I lower the pitch by a tone or two for my Darth Vader. And I once played a three-headed robot for a video and one of the robot's three personalities was female, so I read her part slightly "differently" and then pitched it up several tones. But I don't use pitch change without informing the client.
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[Ed Fisher]

[Scott Pollak]

I know we're beginning to wander slightly off-topic here, but Lee, when you do that (make their 38 seconds sound good) you're only re-enforcing (and rewarding) their bad habits.

Try reading their :38 at what should be a normal delivery speed, send it back to them and say "Sorry, it's too long to fit" and/or speed it up so it DOES sound like crap so that maybe, just maybe, they'll learn. It doesn't HAVE to be crap. It's okay to teach old dogs new tricks.

I've done that with the NPR sales folks who are, for the most part, really good at trying NOT to squeeze too much copy in. When they do, it's usually at the behest of THEIR clients, and when they go back and play a spot that does indeed sound bad, the clients usually understand why they need to trim some words.
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

[heyguido]

Over the years, I've done pretty much all of it.... Time compression to cram copy, pitch change for the voice of gods and monsters, flanging, phase shifts, and reverb for wonky effects, you name it.

But, I've always taken the time to point out to clients that the best read needs room to breathe, pauses for emphasis, and that, truly, it's more than just words.
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Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"

[Lee Gordon]

[Lance Blair]

I use time compression on words or syllables that are slightly stumbled upon on long form narration. If the whole sentence or paragraph is good, but there's just one word that sounds shaky, time compression (at 110% to 115%) on that one bit makes it sound like a natural keeper take.

There was a guy in Boston in the 90s and 00s that did all the stuff for WBZ and he obviously pitch-shifted everything down. Well, obviously to me. Nobody else seemed to notice it. I thought it was so cheap.

I got a gig for a UK infomercial...I recorded it at 48kHz but somehow it all fouled up (Echo Interface wasn't in locked mode) and got saved at 44kHz and so was slower and pitch shifted down. The client had never worked with me before. They loved it! So, I figured out the pitch ratio and continued to process the files to emmulate the software mix-up.

Next week, I'm going to ever so slightly pitch shift a few of my P2P auditions as an experiment. If they want the younger energetic read, it's going up...if they want 'warm' it's going down. Why not?
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Skype: globalvoiceover
and now, http://lanceblairvo.com the blog is there now too!

[Foog]

If I used a change in pitch or speed to cover mouth noise, would I be using a vocal trick to retract a vocal tic on my vocal track?

Of course, if I ever did do such a thing, I think I would undo it, or rather: revoke the vocal tactic of using vocal tricks to retract the vocal tic on my vocal track, since vocal tact demands I leave the vocal track intact. Mind you, if the client insisted, I suppose I would redo it all so that once again I would redact the vocal tic via vocal tricks on my vocal track.

[melissa eX]

HAH! I enjoyed that.