0533 – Don’t Interfere With the Sound Engineer

2022.06.17 – 0533 – Don’t Interfere With the Sound Engineer

A quick word to be kind to your sound engineer. This is the person in a voiceover or dubbing studio who is likely to be doing the technical side of things such as setting up your microphone, monitoring levels, doing the actual recording and playing back those recordings to a client. Another role will be turning on your talkback (the intercom system between the director and you in the studio) so you can hear (or not) the conversations about your read between a client and a director. They will also pass on their expertise to a director, for example on the tone of the voice, what ‘take’ is best, whether different versions can be cut together and so on.

As well as other studio staff, the engineer is your friend. They can make you sound good!

Always treat that mic as ‘live’, so no swearing or complaining or criticising the script, the client, the pay or the coffee, even under your breath. You don’t know who is listening…

As your microphone is always likely to be on, don’t tap it, or cough or burp into it as it will go straight into their ears.

And ensure you eat something (but not a huge meal) before you go into the studio. OK you may be nervous and not feel like it, but it can happen that stomach growling or rumbling[1] can be picked up by a sensitive microphone in a sound-proofed booth, and compromise recordings.

[1] Borborigmus is the fantastically onomatopoeic word meaning "a rumbling sound made by the movement of gas in the intestines".

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.