Timing is crucial in recorded speech. Beyond removing extra pickups, mouth noises, and verbal crutches, I adjust the length of pauses and breaths, down to individual syllables when needed, always preserving the speaker’s own style and mannerisms. The result flows more naturally than the original recording.
Through my early work producing commercials for radio and TV, I developed a keen sensitivity to the balance between music beds and voice-over narration, and to the timing and character of fades. Balancing those elements produces the smoothest, most natural-sounding continuity for the listener.
In many production houses, this important final step is often overlooked. Achieving a consistent volume level, while controlling dynamic range and tone equalization increases intelligibility and ensures that a listener never has to adjust the volume or tone controls during the program.
“A listener enjoying playback through earbuds in a quiet room should never have to keep re-adjusting the volume within a single program. That’s a problem the mastering engineer could have prevented.”Dennis Leake