podficcer's voice
May. 17th, 2018 08:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaixoThe usual. Cut to save y’all’s dashes.
Since I’ve started doing podfic, I’ve become intensely aware of how people speak on the radio. I listen out for the puffs of ps and the sibilant sounds of Ss. I’m aware of people breathing over the mics as if they’re in a yoga class, and the point where silence goes from a natural, comforting pause to something more ominous.
Since the idea is learning this craft by doing, a big part of it is by modelling people’s behaviour, and since I listen to various radio stations, both local and international I’m just noting what the professionals do. Especially women, because that’s my lane, so to speak.
I do notice for women on the bigger news networks, their voices are low (about two octaves lower than a normal woman), smooth and on this side of smoky. It’s the same thing for DJs on late night (on adult contemporary stations, for day stations, not so much), that their voices are in the kind of tones you would use for a skittish child.
My voice… well. It used to be lower than it is now, but after K-18 years of attending Catholic school, where I’d be admonished to ‘lift your voice’, and then teaching children where your voice has to be jolly with encouragement, this is where it is at the minute. It’s sharp, high, streaky and ‘bright’. In addition, I’ve lived in more than one country, so certain words are all over the place.
Long story short, it doesn’t translate well into podfic, but ESL learners appreciate the fact that they understand my English when I speak, because my words aren’t slurred. I do remember speaking with a podficcer who observed that podficcer’s voices IRL are different from their recorded voices, and I can see (or hear) why. When you have a voice in your ear, you do want to be even, soothing (as that voice can get it) and slow enough for you to absorb everything.
After a bit of searching, I have found the ideal voice to model from. It’s the shipping forecast. The pitch is low, the read is slow enough to be understood, but not too slow where you’re thinking beyond the reader’s voice. I can start thinking about this now, because I’m understanding the technical bits of podficcing. Enough not to be tied up by the process, anyway.
But then, I haven’t stumbled into the music parts of podficcing yet, but that will come soon enough, I think. One podfic in the future does have a song that plays a part in the fic that's unavoidable.
Since I’ve started doing podfic, I’ve become intensely aware of how people speak on the radio. I listen out for the puffs of ps and the sibilant sounds of Ss. I’m aware of people breathing over the mics as if they’re in a yoga class, and the point where silence goes from a natural, comforting pause to something more ominous.
Since the idea is learning this craft by doing, a big part of it is by modelling people’s behaviour, and since I listen to various radio stations, both local and international I’m just noting what the professionals do. Especially women, because that’s my lane, so to speak.
I do notice for women on the bigger news networks, their voices are low (about two octaves lower than a normal woman), smooth and on this side of smoky. It’s the same thing for DJs on late night (on adult contemporary stations, for day stations, not so much), that their voices are in the kind of tones you would use for a skittish child.
My voice… well. It used to be lower than it is now, but after K-18 years of attending Catholic school, where I’d be admonished to ‘lift your voice’, and then teaching children where your voice has to be jolly with encouragement, this is where it is at the minute. It’s sharp, high, streaky and ‘bright’. In addition, I’ve lived in more than one country, so certain words are all over the place.
Long story short, it doesn’t translate well into podfic, but ESL learners appreciate the fact that they understand my English when I speak, because my words aren’t slurred. I do remember speaking with a podficcer who observed that podficcer’s voices IRL are different from their recorded voices, and I can see (or hear) why. When you have a voice in your ear, you do want to be even, soothing (as that voice can get it) and slow enough for you to absorb everything.
After a bit of searching, I have found the ideal voice to model from. It’s the shipping forecast. The pitch is low, the read is slow enough to be understood, but not too slow where you’re thinking beyond the reader’s voice. I can start thinking about this now, because I’m understanding the technical bits of podficcing. Enough not to be tied up by the process, anyway.
But then, I haven’t stumbled into the music parts of podficcing yet, but that will come soon enough, I think. One podfic in the future does have a song that plays a part in the fic that's unavoidable.
