I get a lot of complaints about my VO being so harsh sounding, especially from Program Directors at new client stations. I have to admit, when listening to my voice tracks without benefit of music, it does sound pretty nasty. Bright to the extreme and the compression is crazy! Well, there is method to my madness.
I learned a cool thing about the frequencies of music several years ago. Most of the accompaniment of any song, regardless of what the solo or featured instrument is, pretty much stay out of the way of the frequencies that instrument uses. This is true whether it features a solo horn, guitar or even human voice. The bass is generally below E (below middle C), the rhythm instruments like drums, piano or side guitar are either completely above E (above middle C) or only get into those middle frequencies very sparingly. This leaves a nice, big fat hole in the middle of the spectrum for the featured instrument. So, when you take out the lead to add a voice over, that voice becomes the lead instrument. It’s just the natural way music is constructed.
Working mainly with pop, rock or dance tracks most of the time, I also noticed that once you take away the original lead instrument, the bass line becomes the driving force behind the music. This is not universally true, but it’s true a lot more often than not, so, as an experiment, I tried putting a high pass filter on my voice to keep it from fighting with the bass line. I played around a bit with the frequency, but finally settled on 400Hz. (Just under A below middle C.) As I was doing the subsequent mix, I noticed a bit of magic happening. I didn’t have to duck the music levels as much, sometimes, not at all! The overall mix sounded louder without an unholy amount of compression and the overall impression of the production was much more energetic.
To quote Muhammad Ali, I “float like a butterfly (over the music) and sting like a bee (with the delivery).” Since that fateful day, I stopped almost all compression on any music and effects, other than a some limiting I use to control those pesky spiky peaks, which expands the overall musical sound with a much broader stereo image. All of a sudden, my production was truly sounding larger than life.
Now, people listening to my VO with music, will still notice its brightness, but it doesn’t sound nearly as harsh. It’s just not fighting with the bass line for dominance in the production. And, as is often the case, the human ear starts to make adjustments of its own. Within just a couple of seconds, the VO starts to sound more or less normal. I have to laugh a little at the PDs who stubbornly tell me to give them the flat response read and then want to know why their production doesn’t cut the way production at Z100 does.
For fun, I thought I’d bring you up to date a little with what we’re doing at Z100 these days, sound-wise. So, here for your listening and dancing pleasure a few of my latest pieces.
Have fun! 
And one piece I did for WRDW/Philadelphia: The Hangover 2
Back in the days of limited bandwith on phone lines they only transmitted from 300-3000hz. That’s the spectrum containing the most important information of the human voice. That’s the hole we’re looking for. If it’s not big enough, try diggin’ with a sidechained multiband compressor.
That said, I prefer to recieve vo’s without processing. This leaves some creative room for me and “my sound”
Enjoying your blog from just south of Hjorring, Denmark
Actually, it was the scientists at Bell Telephone (or more specifically, Western Electric – Bell’s laboratory) who decided that those were the “most important frequencies” for voice communications and so designed the limitations of what the telephone was capable of transmitting. Technically speaking, the equipment of the day was capable of doing much more, but to conserve on the bandwidth used in transmission, they set those limits.
However in this application, it’s not the bandwidth of telephones that concerns me, it’s the structure of the music and sound effects that are paramount. This is why I do not limit the frequencies above 400Hz at all. Otherwise, it would sound like I actually “phoned it in.”
-Dave Foxx
Hi Dave,
When a client says “harsh”, I assume he’s referring to the processed voice track?
Oh yes. I had one PD screaming at me, “How do I make this sound anything like normal?” (Along with a number of select words not suitable for printing…LOL.) Once I explained the rationale, he tried it and now is an ardent supporter.
It’s not for everyone, but people who try it generally like the result.
Well, I like your processing Dave. I rarely use the unprocessed bits unless I need a specific sound. A little bit more compression here and there to expand the lower frequencies and I’m all set. Good job!!
Wow. Who is the PD that screams at the mighty Dave Foxx… the imaging voice on the biggest pop station in the country?
Someone should have told led zepplin to not be so loud… turn down the guitars.
I bet your V/O is the only positive of said “pd’s” station.