Using a Voice Artist For Corporate Video Productions

Many corporate video productions are made using a presenter who does all the speaking. The image and voice of the presenter are recorded on set so there is no thought of a voice-over. There are times though when a voice-over is necessary and in many cases a real benefit to the production. If a presenter is being used, one of the main concerns is ambient noise and acoustics. The environment where the video is being shot has to be quiet and not have echo. This means many industrial videos are just about impossible with a presenter because of the noises from the factory machines and vehicles.
There may also be normal corporate environments that are just too noisy. These can include businesses that are too close to busy roads or having noisy neighbours or even construction taking place nearby.
This is where the voice artist becomes a necessity. Many of the business marketing videos made for small businesses, made by video production companies, make use of in-house client company staff to
be the actors and presenters. Many would believe that the same would apply for the voice recording for the corporate video. This is often a huge mistake. The reason being that if the viewer sees a spokes person for a company, they do not expect that the person is an actor or presenter. The average person has a less than spectacular voice but because you can see that the presenter is an average person, without performance skills, the average voice is acceptable. In many cases it is also a benefit to the marketing of the business as the person seems more relatable as an average person.

This however is not the case when the viewer cannot see the presenter. If there is a voice recording it is most often expected that the voice will be that of a professional voice artist. Hearing an average voice may lead the viewer to believe that the company making the video skimped on the voice artist and went the cheap route. This can damage the overall perception of the company being marketed. This would work against the marketing which is intended to impress potential clients.
The voice, if the video is done without a presenter, should be of the highest quality because not only is it expected, when there is no visual of the speaker, the mind of the viewer becomes more focused on the voice recording. This is a natural human response. When one sense is reduced the others are heightened.

This means that the voice artist should not just be good but be great. The one benefit of using a voice artist is that the voice can be heavily processed and still be accepted by the audience. This is where close mic techniques and processing equipment can take a good voice and make it sound great. Audio processing may be new to many people, even to some video production companies.
The first real use of voice processing was for FM broadcast radio stations. The intention was to make the radio station sound louder than others. The fight was on to create the loudest radio station. This took a wrong turn initially resulting in stations sounding very harsh although very loud. Along came the Orban Optimod. This was a processing device that not just compressed audio to make it loud, it offered multi-frequency limiting, compressing and processing to allow for, not only a loud sound, but a high quality and hugely impressive sound. It made the radio station sound "bigger" and not just louder. That is often why when you meet a radio presenter in person they sound a lot less impressive than when they are "On-Air".

This type of processing was however a live process and could not be used "Off-Air" unless the recording was run through the processor creating a second generation audio recording. This was not that great in the days of analog recordings. When digital recording came along, that all changed, and more importantly the processing equipment became way more affordable in the form of a computer program, as opposed to a piece of physical equipment. Also the processing could be done within the program without the need of an external recording device, This removed all the second generation audio problems. A voice artist in Johannesburg could now have their voice edited and processed in New York or anywhere else. Video production companies in Johannesburg could do the same to their voice recordings for corporate video.

This meant that the "power" sound of a radio presenter could now be put into a small business marketing video at almost no extra cost compared to the past. While it is still important to start with a good sounding voice, the final video product can now have a high end "broadcast" sound.



Many of the commercial production companies Johannesburg based, and around the world, used this to their advantage for TV adverts. This meant that they could stand out from the crowd and be loud enough to be paid attention to by the viewer. There was however a downside to it. That was that TV adverts were much louder than the TV shows. This resulted in very annoying burst of sound for the TV viewer. When a TV program cut from a gentle scene to an explosive washing powder commercial, the effects were in many ways negative because of how it upset the viewer. Many TV stations and video production companies learnt to control this but there are those who still do this unnecessarily.

The voice artist though has become the center of the issue as the voice quality, tone, accent and skills of the voice artist can lift a marketing video to great heights. This is more obviously noticeable in the movie trailers where a hugely powerful voice narrates the commercial for the upcoming movie. This kind of "giant" voice can be entrancing and can really draw in an audience.
This kind of big voice is not necessary for corporate video productions but it does show in a very clear way how the voice of a voice artist can make a huge difference to the overall wow factor of a video. Corporate video production companies Johannesburg based have begun to make more use of this to great effect.
For South Africans, the "big" voice sound is mostly limited to broadcast but many corporate video production companies are now using South African accent voice artist quality along with the processing to create high end videos. Processing is used in this video below to show how enhanced a voice can be for corporate video.