…the dulcet tones of STEVE?
Yes. Steve.
This past Wednesday, I recorded a voice over at a tiny professional recording studio. I walked in with a script in hand, was greeted by an energetic young brunette engineer and escorted to a little room, with a closet sized room in the corner that was lined with acoustic foam, a music stand, and an adjustable height microphone with a round spit shield in front of it. She handed me a glass of water, asked me if I am claustrophobic (I lied and said no), gave me some instructions about how the session would go, then closed the door. I could see her and multiple monitor screens, essential for me to follow each segment of the recording as we recorded the script in bits.
There was a choice to wear the headphones or not. I chose to wear them — I wanted to hear my voice. We began with a long sound check as the engineer monkeyed with the levels, brought out a little more of the bass in my voice. I have to say, it was pretty cool to hear myself!
Breath control was more difficult than I anticipated. I managed to make it through most of the takes without snorting in the microphone or breathing heavily like a deranged pervert. There were a few repeated bits as I worked on inflection, as well as slowing down and adding pauses, cleaning up a few places where I slurred or dropped a pronunciation. Some of the challenge for me is simply forgetting what is left of my southern Illinois accent.
I made it through 90 minutes, a bit tired when the session was finished. The engineer seemed impressed, told me that I sound like the guy who narrates some of the How It’s Made videos. That made me feel good. However, when I listened to the finished product later on that night, I still felt happy about the job that I did on the voice over, but realized that I am far from professional. It was a good experience, though.
The voice over was for the first of a series of product training videos the company I work for is producing. My employer is based in Hungary and I was chosen because, and I quote, “Steve sounds very, very American”. That’s a compliment, right?
If my voice over actually is used, I will post it here. Here is the link to the audio files, if you are interested in hearing this dork’s voice — SteveSuckedAndItIsRecorded