Common Voice-Over Problems: 5 Pro-Tips

Voice-overs can very literally say a lot. All going well, the speech is in full service of the story, but what if the voice you hear is distracting from the message? Guestblogger, Myra Grünning explains what can go wrong and what you can do about it. Myra is a qualified speech therapist and speech coach and also works as a voice-over artist herself.

#1. Muscle Tension: Not too much, not too little

Speech and articulation thrive best at a very specific level of muscle tension. Too much tension can lead to a hoarse voice, a tired throat or cumbersome articulation. Too little tension can also lead to hoarseness, a weak voice that struggles to carry or slack articulation. So, before performing a voice-over, it’s wise to either relax or activate the muscles you need. But how do you do it?

You can relax your muscles simply by sitting calmly, making sure that there’s no tension in any of your muscles and maybe performing some breathing exercises. Your throat and voice can be relaxed using the following exercises borrowed from the Lax Vox technique: make the ‘brrrrr’ sound of a car engine; hum in a really low tone; or do what’s referred to as ‘chewing’ on your voice.
You can activate your muscles by doing something physical: stamping, jumping, or tapping your body. You can then activate your voice by shouting or even quacking like a duck.

It’s worth figuring out what kind of ritual you need to build before you perform, so that you can quickly warm yourself up and get ready to record. After all, time is money – especially in a recording studio.

#2. Breathing: Keep it relaxed

Breathing is usually an unconscious process, but can really get in the way of a good voice-over. If it does get in the way, it’s usually because of nerves or stress, causing you to breathe higher in your chest, making your breathing audible. Luckily, the sound engineer can usually get rid of any really obvious heavy breathing, but the job is much harder when the volume of your voice is inconsistent. So, for example, a sentence might start with loads of energy and slowly diminish to end with a softly spoken word. The final syllables may even fall away. This is called the ‘candle effect’ and, in most cases, it’ll mean that you have to re-record the line. In those moments, it’s essential that you feel comfortable in your body and that your breathing is low – in your belly. Relax your abdominal muscles and shoulders. Take the time to give yourself some literal breathing space. This will immediately make your voice sound more relaxed and full all the way to the last word and syllable of the sentence and will give you more control over your breathing and your voice.

#3. Articulation: Neutral?

Articulation is what happens when the sound of your voice is converted into speech. What can go wrong here?

Speaking with a clenched jaw, for example, where the jaws are tensed and held together. With a clenched jaw, intelligible articulation is much harder.
What’s referred to as an ‘unwieldy tongue’ can also cause trouble. Where the tongue tends to lie heavy in the bottom of the mouth and often sits between the teeth. This can cause lisping and weak articulation.
Speaking with a ‘potato in your throat’ is another one, and describes what happens when the back of your tongue is too tense. This heavily influences the acoustics inside the throat.
Then there’s over-articulation, which can be tiring for the speaker as well as the listener. This is usually because of a well-meaning misinterpretation of what it means to speak clearly and articulately.

It’s worth remembering that these ways of talking don’t just affect the speaker’s ability to be understood, but actually help form an image of the speaker in the mind of the listener. If that’s your intention then great! But as a voice-over artist, it’s worth being able to articulate in a neutral manner, which means paying close attention to the content.

#4. Nutrition: Try things out

When it comes to the influence that nutrition has on speech, opinions are divided. It’s often an individual thing whether or not eating a certain kind of food gives you any complaints just before you perform a voice-over or not. Here I’ll cover a few potential edible and drinkable culprits so you can find out for yourself.

Coffee: Coffee strips the body of moisture, so it dries you out. Instead, drink some water or herbal tea.
Milk: Milk stimulates mucus production, so that extra saliva might be heard back as clicks and taps on the recording.
Chocolate: There’s a lot of milk and sugar in chocolate and both can stimulate mucus production.
Menthol sweets: Menthol can actually irritate your throat, making it feel even more itchy.
Alcohol: With alcohol in your system, you run the risk of stepping over the boundaries and forcing your voice too much. While it relaxes your muscles, it also relaxes the gastric barrier, which can lead to acid reflux. Also, the vapours irritate the mucous membrane that protects your vocal cords.

Remember that not all food and drink makes direct contact with the vocal cords, otherwise you’d choke.

#5. Your mental state: ‘Not Now!’

Your thoughts and feelings have a big influence on the state of your body, and therefore on your speech. Under stress, a primal reflex kicks in to help ensure our survival: flight or fight. The muscles tense to make sure you have the power you need to run or to hit the ground running. This also applies to the neck and throat muscles. Think about those times when you had to record a piece and felt under-prepared, or when your client was sitting on the other side of the glass in the studio with a crowd of 20 other people, or when you were given just 5 minutes to get an assignment recorded. Your throat almost purses up. Pretty useful when you were being chased by wolves, but not so much now. Try to calm down and relax. Breathing exercises, positive thoughts and trying to distract yourself can all help.

What are your relaxation tricks when you need to keep balanced in the studio? Let us know in the comments!