Today’s Audio Journey is specific to radio presenters and looks at the art of voice tracking.
Modern techonology allows for more radio than you think to be “as live” as opposed to actually live. Some presenters are that good at voice tracking that it’s blatantly obvious it’s voice tracked but some are genuinely good at the art and the listener will have no idea at all they’re listening to a recorded show.
For those just starting out in radio voice tracking is recording links into your log ahead of the show rather than sitting doing the show live.
In most cases, whether using a client or a web browser (dependent on the automation software you’re using), you’ll be presented by your log as you would in the studio but instead of placing stop markers and doing links live you record your links in to the log and they play out automatically.
The basics of voicetracking are usually three click recording. Click 1 start the recording, click 2 starts the next item in the log playing and click 3 finishes the recording and you’ll be asked if you want to commit the recorded voice track to the log.
One thing I didn’t mention in the video is that you can adjust the segue if you mistimed your link!
Remember
- Sound natural, you need the mindset of actually being in the studio and the show happening live.
- Don’t strive for perfection, we don’t get perfection when we’re live so allow some imperfection in your voiceover to sound more natural.
- Make sure you’ve done your prep just like a live show. You’re recording your links in advance but you need content so you know what you’re saying in each link.
- Remember the idea is to sound live so make reference to the times which you can get from your log and if you’re recording the links on the day ahead of the show also reference the weather or current events.
You can make good radio even if voice tracked but only if you approach it with the right mind set.
