Robotic Voices

You hear them more and more. Their metallic sound, cold and neutral and of course outlandish. Robotic voices are conquering our public spaces, a vocal matrix of instructions and messages, avant-garde of the new controlled society. I hear them every time I drive out of the parking lot at the Lyon airport: "Merci pour votre visite, bonjour". The message is clear, but the inhuman sound is also perceived by my mind as an android sound. I wish it were so pleasant, even funny and sophisticated as C3PO the protocol droid from Star Wars. No way near.

But hey, let's not reject this technology. As you can probably hear in your own computer, some synthesized voices are very close to the real thing. Google has made an impressive progress with its plugin that can emulate human speech. Just try this, write define, then write any word. You can then look up both the meaning of the word and listen to the right pronunciation.

Will this technology ever replace the job of voice talents, well not entirely. The human voice carries more than just information, it transports emotions that a machine can't reproduce. But voice artists and studios beware, one day not so far in the future, the technology might surprise you. Some companies are developing that software that can read any script in most languages with the rhythm, intonation and pitch you want. But then to avoid a ridiculous expression, there always be a human being behind the puppet.

Copyright release

Every time a voice is recorded to announce or sell any product which is intended to be distributed in a particular market a copyright release should be paid to that voice talent by the contractor company. This implies that the artist gets a compensation for releasing the right to use his voice in that particular work, for a particular time frame and territory.

As this often happens most of the times this is not even written in a contract, is not considered when the service is sold to the client, or when the voice is hired. This is the case of small-scale productions, when budget is too low to lose time in redtape that is useless both for the client and for the voice. Because a copyright release or buyout document should be legally registered to have any value, it should respect the country particular legislation in that area. But who is going to bother for an IVR project of 390 euros ? But this is no excuse, the voice or the agency, or the studio should inquire if the product has a large audience, in which case a simple written document, even an email should act as proof of that copyright release.

For up-scale projects like TV or cinema spots, the voice contractor should be clear as to where and for how long the ad whould be broadcast and the voice should get the right compensation within the fee. The agency should have a document handy for the voice to sign or accept, or in any case should provide that information to the artist, so that he is aware that his voice will be used in a particular market. Again, such a document doesn't need to be a convoluted 20 pages, but it should outline how, when and where the voice of the artist will be exploited.

As Creativecommnos.org puts it "a proper copyright release form has to encompass the owner of the copyright, the designated licensee of the copyright, the conditions of the licensing with all the limitations and the exact name and definition of the copyrighted work that is the subject of the copyright release form."

Sombreros for the Summer

What's new under the sun? Well, some friends, who happen to be our clients and/or providers, have received a surprise very handy for the coming summer: a genuine Panama hat that will not only give them shed, but also enhance their natural elegance. The Pamela Panama also for the ladies was sent. This is just a message that the well being and relax associated with a the legendary sombrero are very important to do a good job too! But above all a small memento of friendship and gratitude for our 10 year anniversary. Yes, ladies and gentlemen we have manage to survive our first decade under one of the toughest business environment in Europe. Regardless of what the French government here says, the fact is that the state administration acts as a hostile force against small companies through their social and fiscal regulations. That discourages investment, employment and growth. Hey but I don't want to talk politics, this is not our country after all, we are world citizens as we proof every single day: Spanish-Dutch, Italian-Ecuadorian, Latins from France, etc...

By the way, maybe you can't read it but on the Panama you can see our logo PrimeVoices

I need Spain

March has been a rather hectic month for PrimeVoices thanks to a series of interesting recordings: a superb ad campaign on Croatia in nine languages, a very effective campaign on Spain as a tourist destination and last but not least a challenging commercial on Italian shoes for girls, challenging because it was actually a song performed by very young actresses in Finnish, Hungarian, Danish and Czech, what an exotic combination it was. We didn't get lost in translation. In fact our Hungarian associate got inspiration from his Finnish colleague, because, yes you guessed it right, those two languages have same roots.
It's quite encouraging when all of a sudden you get an email or a phone call asking your services as voice agency and studio for great brand names, that means they recognize your savoir-faire, that prime voices tries to be just that, get the best voices in multiple languages, organise them, direct them to get really what the client expect: vibrations, emotions, involvement, committment, not just a nice sounding voice.
With the Spanish ads, I need Spain, we had a really great moment. The French and MidAtlantic accented English actors were at our main studio connected real time through ISDN to a studio in Madrid...

Check out the original videos here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ68EQSaU4E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh68Uam2zj0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTaGG69uU9Q

Impostare, or how to use the voice at its best

The Italians and Spaniards have a word for it: impostare, impostar...
This means the act of concentrating the strength of the voice on the vocal cords, so that the sound that comes from it is full and round, but mostly non hesitant and firm.

In other words it is a non natural exercise that needs training, that is why it's a job, because you need concentration, vocal skills and experience. If you have the chance to see how radio voices or professionnal announcers behave in front of the mike, you will see what I mean. Their voice suddenly changes to a sound that is completely different from the natural tone of voice of the person. It is a real transformation that you can not only hear, but also see. All of a sudden the voice talent changes is face and posture, he starts articulating also in a kind of artificial fashion, so opening the mouth, as if to pronounce better the syllables. And, yes, the actor can move hands and body, provided that he does it silently, to give that special concentration and emotion to the voice. At PrimeVoices we are very aware of that process, so we have witnessed at our studios many kinds of body languages, most funny of all was an Arabic voice that before the recording session started just lied down on the floor to breath and relax, then he started to made funny sounds as if to release the voice. The ritual ended with a massage of the cheeks to made them more flexible. The voice had a rather high pitch voice for a talent, but in front of the mike his voice turned out to be deep and solemn, we were really impressed...

Are voices responsible for a bad script ?

No, unless they are authors. But in real life this is not that simple. When the voices get a poor translation full of mistakes and not understandable expressions, it is a professional obligation to let the client know about the issue. If that is possible, it is good to suggest an improvement of the text if this is really possible, but on many instances, clients can't decide or they just say to you: sorry this text was validated by the company so we have to stick to it. If no solution is on sight, you don't have other choice but to insist. In the case that the text can be corrected on the spot, then what we do at PrimeVoices is recording two versions, one as it should, and the other as it is. We submit both recordings to the client and warn him that further changes should be paid. In other cases, the text is fine but not convenient to do a voice-over, as it is too long or too short, or just written in a convoluted way. If matching the pictures is a must, as it happens with all videos, then we have to apply some editing skills. When we get texts in English and then we do other language versions, we insist that translations should respect the timings, but it is rare that the translator work with a screen in front and TC.

The talent of the voice is measurable in mike-hours

Yes, absolutely. More than a naturally sounding voice, the voice actor is recognized as real talent thanks to many years of reading, announcing, performing in front of a microphone. So we can correctly argue that like the quality of pilots is measured in flight hours, the quality of the voice professional can be determined in the hours of lip service before its majesty the mike. I only understood this some years after starting my career as a radio journalist. At first I didn't know how to breath properly, how to keep the concentration and how to sound convincing and motivated, even in cases that I was not prepared to buy what I was recommending to sell with my voice. At PrimeVoices we have conducted thousands of castings in our ten years of existence. At first some people presented themselves at our studios with quite an usual argument: I want you to record my voice because everybody tells me that I it sounds very good.
It is delicate to express an opinion of someone else's voice, as the voice is part of your identity, of your personality, so we don't want any offence. But sometimes you have to be straight and tell him that his voice is not trained or sounds hesitant, etc. It's easy to recognize someone with real potential, so the best we can do is encougage him and advise him some breathing exercises, reading techniques, etc.
At the end of the day, you know that those voices that are "usable" belong to those who have a proven record of hundreds even thousands of hours. They are the right people for voice-overs and specially tricky dubbings and lip-synchs as you know that they are good, as they are quick and critical with their job, so you save studio time and you know that what you are giving the client is good quality.