2023.09.27 - 1000 - The End Thanks for the loan of your ears, for one-thousand consecutive daily episodes. All of my contacts are here: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.09.26 – 0999 – The Diction-ary of Voice – V and W **V Verbal tic – the repeated use of words or phrases such as “like” or “y’know what I mean?” Velum – the soft palate at the back of the roof of the mouth. The back of your tongue touches the velum when pronouncing letters such as ‘k’. Vocal elements – the various ways (such as inflection, pause, pace and phrasing) that one can make the spoken word more engaging he techniques for making a voice interesting and effective Vocal fold –...

2023.09.25 – 0998 – The Diction-ary of Voice – T **T Tag (or ‘slogan’) – the branding phrase at the end of a commercial Take (as in ‘go for a take’) – a recording. Also see ‘pickup’ Take a level (or ‘take a bit for level’) – the instruction given by an audio engineer to a presenter to ask them to say some words so the volume on a mic channel can be checked Talk back – the push-to-talk microphone in a gallery/production area, via which a director / producer will talk to you while in the...

2023.09.24 – 0997 – The Diction-ary of Voice – S **S Scratch Track - a temporary recording that is a ‘place-holder’ for the final voice-over. Not ‘broadcast quality’ it is used to help producers feel the pacing and style of a project before a final voice over is added Self op (‘self op studio’) – when the presenter controls their own technical equipment, they are ‘self operating’ Session – the single block of time (say, an hour or a day) spent recording with the voice actor, who is often paid...

2023.09.23 – 0996 – The Diction-ary of Voice – R – Part 2 Riding the gain (or ‘riding the mic’ or ‘riding the levels’) – the constant adjustment of the input levels as the sound unexpectedly (and often unprofessionally) varies in volume dramatically Room Tone - the ‘indoor ambience’ or background noise in a room, which should be as close to silent as possible ROT (‘rot’ or ‘R.O.T’) – a recording of what went out on air: Recording Of/Off Transmission Royalty Free Music – music that can be...

2023.09.22 – 0995 – The Diction-ary of Voice – R – Part 1 **R Rate – the speed of someone speaking or reading Rate – the amount paid to a voice-over for a day, hour or script Raw audio - unprocessed recorded audio Read (or ‘take’) – a recording of a script (or the ‘copy’) Reaper – a DAW Red-line the meters – to push the audio volume level to the maximum Render – saving and/or converting your audio so others can access it Residuals – payment over and above the initial payment, based on the...

2023.09.21 – 0994 – The Diction-ary of Voice – P   Polyp - usually unilateral (one vocal fold) mass that grows off the surface. Can be hemorrhagic (filled with blood) or not, and’s usually due to voice misuse or overuse.  Pop – when a plosive sound is too close to the mic and causes distortion Pop guard (or ‘pop screen’, ‘pop shield’, ‘pop stopper’) - a fabric, foam or metal shield between the mic and the mouth to help disperse ‘breath blasts’ from plosives and so reduce the likelihood of...

2023.09.20 – 0993 – The Diction-ary of Voice – P - Part 2   Pharynx – the area between the larynx and the nasal cavities Phonation – the process of making sounds into words, which articulation turns into recognisable speech Phonemes – the different smaller sounds which when combined form a word Phrasing – delivering groups of words within a sentence to enhance meaning Pickup – when you go back to re-record a small section of content, such as a sentence, because of a slip, trip or...

2023.09.19 – 0992 – The Diction-ary of Voice – N and P   **N Name check – saying your name on air Narrative non-fiction – a true-story podcast Narrative voice - the voice you use for the storyteller/author part of the story, rather a character voice Nasal sounds – speech sounds heard in words with m, n and ng letters: ‘many nice singers’, when the back of the tongue is raised against the roof of the mouth (the soft palate) thereby closing off to sound the resonance chamber of the sinus...

2023.09.18 – 0991 – The Diction-ary of Voice – M   Marking copy – different markings on a script (underlinings, arrows, circles) to show which words require different voice presentations such as inflection, characterisation or changes to volume or speed, difficult passages, odd pronunciations and character thumbnails Mask – using sound to cover a bad edits or to smooth a transitions Mastering - the process of preparing and transferring an edited and mixed audio file from which all copies will...

2023.09.17 – 0990 – The Diction-ary of Voice – L   **L Labiodental – very few sounds use the sound created when the upper teeth rest on the lower lip, but say ‘very’ and ‘few’ and you will hear two Lapel (or ‘lavaliere’ or ‘lav’) microphone - small microphone attached to clothing of a presenter or guest Laryngology – the study of the professional voice. An ENT is not a laryngologist, who can give sophisticated diagnosis and treatment of voice disorders Laryngoscopy - the process of using a...

2023.09.16 – 0989 – The Diction-ary of Voice – I   **I Impromptu (or ‘ad libbed’) – a comment made ‘off the cuff’ without a script or prior rehearsal Inflection – the lifting or lowering of the pitch of an individual word or different parts of a word to indicate significance (see: ‘cadence’) Insurance takes - when the director wants one more take, ‘just in case’ Integrated loudness - the average loudness across an entire recording Interdental (or ‘linguadental’) – the speech sound when the...

2023.09.15 – 0988 – The Diction-ary of Voice – H **H Haemorrhage (‘vocal cord bruise’, ‘hematoma’) - a collection of blood in the vocal fold that develops after considerable voice use and leads to severe hoarseness Hand signals – gestured directions given to a presenter to, for example, start or stop Handling noise - undesired sounds picked up on a recording caused by touching or moving the microphone Hard copy – a script that is printed out Hard sell commercial – a script that is presented...

2023.09.14 – 0987 – The Diction-ary of Voice – G Glottal – a softer ‘coughing’ sound when used in speech, often when used instead of proper pronunciation in words such as ‘hot’ or ‘water’ when the tongue has not been used to pronounce the ‘t’ sound at the end or middle of words. Interestingly (?!), those who use glottal stops in everyday conversation, may put the ‘t’ sound back in when they become a passionate speaker and want to be sure they have been understood. Think of a someone who at...

2023.09.13 – 0986 – The Diction-ary of Voice – F   **F Fade (in, out, up, down, under) - to gradually adjust the volume of sound from low to high or high to low Fader – an audio channel’s level controller Fade to black/fade away – to decrease the volume of a sound until it cannot be heard Falsetto - the vocal register just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave Feedback – the loud howl-round, looped sound when a ‘live’ mic is too close to a speaker...

2023.09.12 – 0985 – The Diction-ary of Voice – E Ellipsis – the marking on a script (‘…’) usually indicating that a pause is required Emphasis list - if an author wants to stress a point, they an emphasis list such as “the country was utterly, totally and demonstrably broken” Encoding - converting your uncompressed audio files into a format more suitable for certain applications, say from a WAV file to an MP3 Enunciation (or ‘diction’) – the clear pronunciation of a word Equalization (‘EQ’)...

2023.09.11 – 0984 – The Diction-ary of Voice – D Part 2 Dry audio – a voice recording without any music underneath (which would be a ‘mixed’ recording) Dry mouth – literally having little saliva in one’s mouth, making talking difficult Dub – to make a copy of an audio or video recording Dub - to re-record audio and sync it to a video which shows someone talking and whose sound is muted. Dubbing is used to re-record a translated soundtrack in another language for different markets and also to...

2023.09.10 – 0983 – The Diction-ary of Voice - D Part 1   DAW - Short for ‘Digital Audio Workstation’ (or ‘Workspace’), said variously D.A.W and DAW (as in ‘door’). The software you use to record, edit, mix and play back your audio. Either a computer which is dedicated to audio only, or a complete multitrack recording system (software) such as Protools, Cubase or Logic. Other examples include Audacity, Hindenburg and Adobe dB - abbreviation for ‘decibel’, pronounced “dee-bee” Dead air –...

2023.09.09 – 0982 – The Diction-ary of Voice - C Part 4   Cue – the instruction to a presenter to start talking or performing. This could be verbal or by a light or a audio ‘cue tone’ Cue – the short script read by a radio presenter or newsreader to introduce a guest or other live or pre-recorded item Cut – an edit of a piece of audio to remove a portion Cut - as a direction during a recording, to stop immediately Cyst - usually unilateral (one vocal cord) mass that grows within a vocal cord....

2023.09.08 – 0981 – The Diction-ary of Voice - C Part 3 Conversational read (sometimes ‘transparent read’) – when a script doesn’t sound as though it is being read, so, using an authentic, friendly or realistic style that gives the impression the voice-over is talking with the listener one-to-one, telling a story or convincing them from what appears to be their own experience. A tone that personifies everyday speech. It is ‘non-announcery’. Think: everyday conversation Conversational show - a...

2023.09.07 – 0980 – The Diction-ary of Voice - C Part 2   Clipped – when a recorded signal has gone past the 0db threshold (or any other maximum recording level set by the engineer) and the computer software has no more ‘headroom’ to record. This is often heard when a voice actor shouts, or when the microphone is too close to a speaker, or in a field recording, when a large vehicle passes by. To the ear the sound is heard as distorted. On a DAW, the waveform has its top ‘cut off’ and appears...

2023.09.06 – 0979 – The Diction-ary of Voice - C Part 1  **C Cadence - rhythmic flow of a sequence of sounds or word (see: ‘inflection’) Camera panic – anxiety about being in a video affecting someone’s ability to talk or act effectively (also see ‘mic fright’) Cans - headphones Cardioid – the pickup pattern of a microphone which is heart-shaped, with a larger area of sound detected from the front of mic and a little from each side and barely any sound from the back Character bleed - when...

2023.09.05 – 0978 – The Diction-ary of Voice - B Part 2   Binaural – a type of recording and/or processing that allows a 3D sound space to be conveyed over headphones Bit depth – refers to the quality of the recording, where higher ‘bit rates’ have a wider difference between the quietest sound they can record, and the loudest sound, and therefore allow you to record at lower levels. 16-bit is CD quality, 24-bit is preferred for recording, 32-bit uses lots of disk space. See ‘Headroom’. Bit...

2023.09.04 – 0977 – The Diction-ary of Voice - B Part 1 **B B2B / B2C – different marketing or advertising models. ‘B2B’ stands for 'business to business', that is, an advert for a product or service services that targets other businesses, while ‘B2C’ is 'business to consumer', where the (in our case) audio advert is slanted towards a personal consumers, and so might use different selling points, words and style Back-time – adding together the durations of remaining programme elements, and...