Recording a Radio Spot

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 12:36 am

Hello,

I seem to have secured myself a freelance job recording a radio spot for a major ad agency. I'm wondering if there's a certain way that I should be setting up my pro tools session for such a gig. I've really only done music till now.

Advice on mic setup, a fast workflow or anything else would greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:00 am

A couple of things

Your avatar is copyrighted and you could get yourself into some fairly hot water very quickly . The company, RCA, Victor, GE, vigorously protects that symbol with a lot of law suites (Just a friendly word of advice)

As to your question.

This is something that is learned over years and not something that you could learn quickly. I have been in broadcasting/recording for over 35 years and I am still learning the best ways to record the human voice.

You need in this order....

A good room

A good microphone

A good windscreen

A good preamp

AND

Lots and lots of experience.

Best of luck!

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:46 am

Except what Thomas said .. as far as your original question goes (about setting up your PT session) .. just hit CTRL+Shift+N and make a track to record and youre ready to go Very Happy

(sorry I just couldn't help myself Embarassed

)

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:05 am

This may not work for YOU, but in most cases, I like to work WITHOUT limiters and compressors for spoken word/VO sessions. (I know, this is very wrong for a lot of folks. I do it afterwards, actually. Wink

)

I like to keep plenty of headroom in the signal chain with my mic pre, so peaks and levels are OK, without any peak distortion happening. I shave off rogue peaks and transients later (in Sequoia) digitally, even trimming specific peaks and problems. Then I gently limit, if needed, and bounce the whole thing to a new file. This way, I'm in control of the whole dynamics issue, without a "one size fits all" comp/limiter going on. The reason I do this is because I feel I can often HEAR the comp/limiter on the front (analog) side. (And I hate that sound, unless that's what's required - loud car commericals, soap commericals, etc.....)

Admittedly, this takes a little more time than you'd normally have with just patching in a good comp/limiter in front of the A/D after the mic pre.

On the mechanical side, I always like to have the mic on a large boom, coming in from the TOP, above the talent's head, with the capsule pointed at their chin, but above the nose and out of the way of their airways. This too keeps p's popping and air blasts at a minimum. (I do have a popper-stopper as well, of course)

This keeps the lower area in front of the talent free for scripts, music stands, water glasses, etc. I always also have a small light for whatever it is they're reading. (People get older, need more light, etc. etc.)

As for the script itself, I make sure it's double-spaced, BOLD print, easy to read from about three feet away, without reading glasses. (You'd be surprised how many people don't even GET this concept. If the talent can't READ the script, there will be mistakes and precious time lost going over and over it again. I've seen scripts come in that are single spaced, times new roman font, non-bold; horrible stuff) Make sure all important lines don't break over a page turn or a paragraph break. Spell out (in parenthesis) any words that need special pronounciation guides, etc. (The talent will love you for this!) If you can, get a copy of the script from the producer long before anyone shows up, so you can go over it, and reprint it yourself, if necessary.

Have everything - including headphones/talkback ready and tested long before the talent and the producer arrives. YOu don't want to be scrambling with your ass hanging out during the session, looking like a dweeb. (been there, done that....hated it!)

That's all I can think of for now for a good VO session. Maybe you'll be doing the music bed as well?

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:28 am

I've done thousands of TV and radio commercials as talent, recordist or both - pre-digital age.

Talkback may be the single most important feature for the session itself. I agree with JoeH on keeping the narration track clean and adding to the V/O in post.

If the music for the spot has been selected, have it in the studio as reference for the talent, the producer and yourself. Nothing worse than finding the read doesn't match the music after the talent is gone.

BTW - Very few ad agency producers would know a good room if it bit them in the butt; they will recognize high end equipment.
Laughing

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