Tag: voiceover

Your Voice – The Human Connection

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By Tim Keenan and Mike Laponis

Every one of us has an imprinted memory from our youth of an unusual or significant VOICE – either a voice talent or on camera actor, or even a singer or music group. That voice or collection of voices resonated with us somehow and planted those memories.

In today’s new norm of separation, your VOICE has the ability to bridge the gap and may, for quite a while, be able to professionally replace the connection of the handshake or the hug. In these times of physical distancing, our voice already has an increased importance with staying closely connected to family, friends, business associates, clients, and potential clients.

The intimacy that the human voice conveys has tremendous power and impact, that is now even more important in business communication. Communication professionals and content creators will need to tap into the skills you’ve developed in abundance moving forward.

The business world has already seen a tremendous surge in targeted consumer and business podcasting as well as distance learning. Sales of Audiobooks are booming right now. And the trend toward creating pre-produced educational content, instead of using live instructors in a group setting, will also expand for business and education over the next year in order to avoid the impact of the current COVID19 contagion.

Voice professionals will be in more demand as we move forward. The best part of this is that each of us has our own unique voice and sound. And it communicates so much. Not with just the actual vocabulary, but intonation, pitch, attitude…emotion. Your voice says so much. It conveys so many emotions. It creates a common bond…a human connection.

SCIENCE CONFIRMS IT

Is there some science that back all this up? You bet.

There are studies that show babies recognize their Mom’s voice even from inside the womb. https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=97635&page=1 Even that early in life, we can already distinguish who is speaking. These sounds stir emotions, quicken heartbeats, create bonds – all by the sound of one’s voice. The connections are real. It’s all a part of a bond, that even with physical distance, your voice maintains that human connection.

The human voice can even create emotions without really saying any words. Such a range! Or the very same words you say can vary in meaning by the emotion expressed. All with your voice. The human voice creates emotions. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_human_voice_can_communicate_24_emotions

In this article there is a wonderful interactive map, that when activated you hear different emotions communicated through vocal sounds. By hovering your mouse over the particular emotion, you hear vocalized sounds that convey particular emotions. It is incredible! Especially as you move from emotion to emotion and the parts in between. You hear it morph into another emotion.

TRY INTERACTIVE MAP OF SOUNDS

You have to try it! https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/vocs/map.html# . This clearly demonstrates the ability and range of human sound.  Our vocal chords convey meaning through the sounds we are able to make. This is the amazing ability to CONNECT. It is why the voice is so powerful in reaching and connecting with others. The human connection. We convey meaning, and express emotion with our voice.

It’s up to you to tap into all that your voice can convey to deliver a message with impact and warmth and honesty. Now is the time to be ready to use all your tools and share your gifts in order to help the business world communicate and CONNECT to their employees and customers like never before.

ABOUT MIKE LAPONIS and TIM KEENAN

Mike Laponis is a Southern California based Voiceover Talent, and Audio Producer. He is currently a Professor of Communications at the University of La Verne. His website is MikesVO.com

Tim Keenan is the owner of Creative Media Recording, a full service, Southern California audio production company serving independent producers, corporations and ad agencies. At Creative Media is the senior audio engineer, casting director and an active voice talent.

A Lesson From My Dad

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My dad was an old school mid-western Internal Medicine Physician who loved to tell medical stories and share anecdotes. He also had lots of little sayings from his childhood like “Waste Not, Want Not” and the like. For many years he also lamented the fact that Americans had no understanding of the “Infectious Theory of Disease” – medical rules of the road he learned all too well in medical school and as a practicing physician.

All of us are guilty at times of just trying to “push through it” when we’re sick. Many just go to work or go about our daily lives without a second thought.

I was reminded of this when just few weeks ago (it seems like so long ago, now!) a subject matter expert came into our voiceover studio to be interviewed for a business podcast. He chatted, shook everyone’s hand and then got all set up in the voiceover booth with the host. As we were getting levels set he said, “I hope my voice sounds okay. I’ve got a bit of a cold.”

My first thought was: I was glad that there were no voiceover talents here for this session because getting a cold could wipe them out from work for days. Then I ran out and washed my hands, all the time thinking of my dad’s frequent admonition. There is no such thing as “a bit of a cold.” Germs are germs, folks.

This is a vital axiom we are coming to learn all too well during this Corona Virus Pandemic. My sincere hope is that the one good thing that’ll come out of this will be a greater awareness of not wanting to transmit whatever illness we may have on to others. And maybe our first instinct will now be to stay home and away from others as much as we can when we’re sick. In the future we may be able to avoid those annual colds and sniffles.

As I watched clerks scrubbing the counters between customers at our local Target, I realized that this could be the tipping point. And we may become especially conscious when we’re hanging around the elderly or people with “underlying conditions.” This crisis has now made us hyper aware that the impact of what may only seem like “just a simple cold” to us — might have catastrophic effects on those around us who are more vulnerable.

A look at the new Marantz Pro TURRET

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One of the best things about attending the annual NAB Convention in Las Vegas each April is that I get to check out, first hand, some cool new gear like microphones and outboard audio gear. NAB is also a great place to get introduced to the trends in video production so I can stay in step with my clients.

This year one piece from Marantz Professional really caught my eye. It is the TURRET – an all in one, freestanding HD webcam camera & microphone package that is perfect for wide range of users – including voiceover professionals, podcasters, online presenters, streaming video pros and more.

For VO pros this is a tool that will allow you to communicate during live directed sessions with your clients during a voiceover session via SKYPE, Zoom, etc. – allowing you to keep your focus on recording audio on your main system & microphone.

The new Marantz Turret

Presenters will love having a professional rig for their live streaming projects, video tutorials and online sharing segments, etc. – all while communicating from their presenting space with a professional look AND sound.

Marantz is known in the broadcast and production world for their professional hand-held portable audio recorders. This is a great compliment to that line-up. I loved the “all-in-one” aspect of having a professional HD camera and LED adjustable Light Wheel system plus semi-professional Marantz quality condenser microphone with pop filter all in one unit with one USB cable is pretty slick. Buttons on the main pedestal allow you to control the camera, microphone, headphone volume and lighting from one location.

The TURRET is not on the market quite yet so look for it to be released later this year.