How do they do It ????

[Naptalene]

I work in the music studio in a post facility.
The other engineers often joke about "the muso's riding 0db"
so I know about my limiting etc.......

I got seps from an ad done in England (or France.....ummm....)
and the levels on these voice overs were insane!!!And I'm talking percieved level here. Not a big black block in Pro-Tools.

The voices sound bright - but not sibilant - and hard yet tight, with enough weight to punch through. The best description would probably be Russel Crowe's voice in gladiator and Lawrence Fishburn in the Matrix trailors. I had to hammer the music mix to match meters to percieved volume........ this upset me . I'm talking MasterX into Maxim into eq etc.

I thought it sounded too harsh for my liking, but clients want you too match the sound. I got there, but I'm sure it was the long route.Knowing how to get this sound when it's needed would be a killer weapon in the arsenal.

Is there some valve comp. type thing that guys are using (It sounded border line distorted in a nice way) or such?

Please help, I want to rule the world and this is bugging the crap out of me.

[lasso]

eq - bassexpander - compressor - deesser - exciter - limiter.

Everything overdone.

Seriously, I work with voice overs too...most of the heavy shit comes from the voices alone...I just did a Finnish voice over and man I tell you....his voice was scarry....without any eq or compression his voice was louder than hell.

So take a great sounding voice and you're 80 % there.

My two cents.

Cheeeeeeeeeeers (with lots of low end rumble)
Lasso.

[Naptalene]

Didn't think about the bass expander......twit!Otherwise that was close to my chain so not too bad.

Cheers for the input.