Spoken-word recording

[Recording David]

I might have the opportunity to produce a spoken-word CD in the near future. This will be the first time for this kind of project. Are there any hard and fast rules for spoken-word (like, should you compress on the way in or whatever) that make it differ from other types of acoustic recording?

I'd be interested to hear from people who have done this themselves.

Many thanks, as always.

[adamcal]

the bad news is the human voice is so familiar to us all, its so obvious when its not recorded right. It's not as easy as it would seem.

But the good news is that there are a lot of threads on the subject, do a search for "voice over" and you will get a wealth of infomation on the subject.

For me Im using either a MKH 416 or U87 into a Focusrite ISA110 with a touch of 2.1 on the way down. You need a very dead room for VO. Also if there is not going to be anything playing along with the voice in the backround, then every liitte noise in or out of the room will be problem. this is where a very directional mic helps.

The next problem to overcome is to get the talent to point their face at the mic, seems obvious enough, but just try to get them to keep it there. A vice may help, but then again mayby not.

Also the stand which they read from is important, you need a non-sold type, a solid square of wood will just refect, draping a thick towel will help, but a wire type will be better.