Qhat does "needs to be clearer" mean?
OK, this one i don't get. What does "need a clearer read" mean? Was it my pace? My diction? My accent? Was I slurring, stumbling, mumbling?
I've listened. It sounds, clean, clear and engaging. This a new client, so there were no previous accepted reads to compare to. There was no audio sample to sound like.
Community, let me know if it sounds unclear and help me hear it too.
VB Support/Quality Folks: I really need you to explain to me what is unclear about this read. I want it to be right. If I can't hear the problem or understand the requirements, I can't be successful (though my dozens of successful reads accepted by VB clients would seem to indicate that I at least have a clue).
project id: 71AD27359CDCB0BAE094
instructions: The correct pronunciation of
The objective is to let people know when Parenting UnChained is on the air
The audience is moms dads grandparents babysitters & teachers
It should sound similar to caring voice
I need only one take - yes
Rejection reason: we need a clearer sound, thanks!
URL: http://voicebunny.com/projects/1-parenting-unchained (mine is the first rejection)
Apparently I can't attach a file when I submit this post, so here's a link to the actual read: https://soundcloud.com/cat-lookabaugh/parentunchained-master
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Hi Cat,
My very small team listens to about 620 reads per week and since most of those are Monday through Friday, they are listening to over 100 reads a day. We are also experiencing a very high rejection rate from our clients right now that has forced us to be extremely picky. As you know, when we accept a read internally, the voice actor gets paid for it, no matter what. If the client rejects it, we must refund their money. High rejection rates mean we are actually losing money on projects, so the QA team is under a lot of pressure. I am not making excuses for a vague answer, but I wanted you to know what we are up against.
As far as this project is concerned, I have a few suggestions. The accepted read sounded more warm, friendly, and casual. Also, your setup is making your voice sound a bit thin and shrill at some points (I am listening in Sony MDR-7506 headphones, the same ones used by our QA team). Do you use any EQ or compression settings that could be causing this? I can also hear your edits due to your noise floor. These are small points, but our clients are very demanding when it comes to quality, so we must be also.
Ok...friendly, warm, and casual I can work with. Even better thiness/shrillness possibly caused by post-processing an hearing edits through changes in voice-floor is even better. If you have a chance and can actually time marks of those events, that would be extra helpful, but i will go back through and see if i can modify the processing. won't change the friendliness, but if i can answer the tool chain side, that's a big piece. Performance is another matter. In the meantime, i'll play with the processing and post the result to see what you think!
Let me ask you this, while I have your ear. I often hear talents offering two or three reads, even if the client specifies just one. In a case like this, would there be a penalty if i had done it once the way I did and then immediately after did, say, a warmer, friendlier version? Since it's sometimes very much a guessing game what the client or QC person is listening for, multiple reads seems to be a really great option to give the talent the best chance to guess right. Is that fair and appropriate?
Thanks, Tara, for helping me understand how to improve.
hmmm. alright. i think hear what you meant about the noise floor. The sound under the speech segments and the gaps-between-speech is pretty stark with the volume cranked. I think I can address that by examining my tool chain, to make sure I'm not picking up extraneous noises, and by re-recording the empty-studio-noise-floor clip that i ix into my recordings to avoid exactly this problem. obviously something has changed. I'll work on that before messing with my EQ. thanks, again. this is much better than "be clearer". -- Cat