Accents in Voice Overs – British Accents part 2

General Language

In part 1 we had a look at the RP, Yorkshire and Scouse accents. In this blog we will continue on and look at more of the accents found within the British Isles.

Brummie

The most famous of the Midlands accents is the Brummie accent from Birmingham. The term derives from Brummagem or Bromwichham, which are historical variants of the name Birmingham. Whilst Brummie is not the only accent or dialect to be found in the Midlands, it is more well known than it’s neighbours in the Black Country or Coventry.

Some examples of Brummie words and phrases:

Bostin(g)- meaning amazing, brilliant or excellent.

Shrapnel – this commonly refers to loose change

The outdoor – an exclusive West Midlands term for an off-licence

Characteristics:

  • Words like “pie” and “tried” are pronounced like “poy” and “troyed”
  • As in Northern English accents, the vowel in “puppies” and “blood” is pronounced higher in the mouth than in Southern English accents, sounding a bit like “pooppies” or “pawppies”
  • The diphthong in “about” and “house” is raised, with a prononunciation ranging from IPA æʊ to ɛʉ (“heh-oose”).
  • Words like “most” and “homes” are pronounced with a very low-starting diphthong, typically IPAʌʊ although it can start even lower, making “goat” sound like “gout” to outside ears.

Notable speakers of the Brummie accent include: Ozzy Osbourne, Jasper Carrott and Adrian Chiles.

You can hear an example of a midlands accent here courtesy of James M.

 

Geordie

The Geordie accent is found in the North East of England in the Tyneside area, predominantly in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. The origins of the term are still up for debate, but in many respects Geordie is a direct continuation and development of the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxon settlers of this region. The Geordie accent has been voted the ‘sexiest accent in Britain’.

Some examples of Geordie words and phrases:

Howay- broadly meaning “come on!!”

Canny – meaning pleasant

Netty – toilet

Characteristics

  • Foot Strut Merger – the syllable in footand could is pronounced with the same syllable as strut and
  • Non-rhoticity – non-pronunciation of the post-vocalic ’r’ , in words such as bark, firm, permit.
  • The /ai/ dipthong as in kite is raised so it sounds a bit more like the Standard British “kate.”
  • The /au/ dipthong as in “about” is pronounced like “oo” in strong dialects. So about can sound like “aboot.”

Notable speakers of the Geordie accent include: Cheryl Cole, Ant & Dec, Paul Gascoigne, Sting

You can hear an example of the Geordie accent here courtesy of Laura E:

 

Cockney

The Cockney accent originates from the East End of London and can be considered the broadest form of London local accent. Cockney is characterized by its own special vocabulary and usage, and traditionally by its own development of “rhyming slang.” Rhyming slang, is still part of the true Cockney culture even if it is sometimes used for effect.

Common Cockney rhyming slang phrases

“Adam and Eve” – beleive

“Apples and pears” – stairs

“Plates of meat” – feet

Characteristics

  • Raised vowel in words like trap and cat so these sounds like “trep” and “cet.”
  • Non-rhoticity: see explanation in Brummie
  • Trap-bath split: meaning that certain awords, like bath, can’t, and dance are pronounced with the broad-a in
  • Glottal Stopping: the letter t is pronounced with the back of the throat (glottis) in between vowels; hence better becomes “be’uh”.
  • L-vocalization: The l at the end of words often becomes a vowel sound Hence pal can seem to sound like “pow.”
  • Th-Fronting: The th in words like think or this is pronounced with a more forward consonant depending on the word: thing becomes “fing,” this becomes “dis,” and mother becomes “muhvah.”

Notable Cockney speakers include: Michael Caine, Sir Alan Sugar, Amy Winehouse

You can hear an example of the Cockney accent here courtesy of Arthur Smith

 

 

We have a wide selection of accents and dialects available in the Voice Over section, so whatever you are looking for we can provide you with the most suitable option for your final product. Please view our sample page here: https://adelphistudio.com/voice-overs/.

Adelphi offices

Adelphi Studio offer subtitling and voice over services globally from our offices in the UK and the USA.

All US, Canadian, and South American enquiries should be directed to our US office while all other enquires should go to our UK office.

UK Office
Tel : +44 (0)114 272 3772
Email: sales@adelphistudio.com

US Office
Tel : 916 414 8714
Email: us@adelphistudio.com

Decrypting Voice Over Jargon- Glossary of Terms

Uncategorized

Working in the Voice Over industry we are suckers for a good bit of technical jargon!

Mark Cashman from Cashman Commercials has compiled a list of commonly used terms, to help those who may be new to this field, or for those who want to brush up on their technical terms.

Here’s a good selection to get you started…

ADR: Automated Dialogue Replacement in a film. A process where actors replace dialogue in a film or video.

Ad lib: A spontaneous spoken addition or alteration to a written script.

Accent: Pronunciation common to a certain group of people. (see our previous post on British accents : http://adelphi-blog:8888/accents-in-voice-overs-british-accents-part-1/)

Announcement: A commercial or non-commercial message. Also referred to as a spot.

Announcer: The role assigned to a voice-actor that usually has non-character copy. Abbreviated as ANN or ANNC on scripts.

Articulation: The formation of clear and distinct sounds in speech

Audio: Transmission, reception or reproduction of sound.

Audition: A non-paying, trial performance for voice talent where voice-over copy is read. Usually takes place at an agent’s office, an ad agency, a casting director’s office, or a production company’s studio, and usually the best actor is selected for the final job…usually!

Availability: Literally, the time an actor is available for a session. Advertisers or producers will call an agent to find out about an actor’s availability.

Back Bed: The instrumental end of a jingle, usually reserved for location, phone numbers, legal disclaimers, or any other information the advertiser needs to add.

Bed: The music or SFX behind or under an announcer’s voice.

Bleed: Noise from the headphones being picked up by the microphone or from other ambient sources, like other tracks.

Booking: A decision and commitment on the advertiser’s part to hire you for a session. The client calls the actor or actor’s agent to book an actor for a job. Your agent would say, You have a booking at 1PM tomorrow.

Boom: An overhead mic stand.

Booth: An enclosed, soundproofed room where voice talent usually works.

Branching: Recording one part of a sentence with variables within that sentence as a means of customizing a response. Often recorded for multimedia games and voice mail systems. Also known as concatenation.

Buy-out: A one-time fee paid for voice-over services on a commercial. Common in many non-union situations and industrials, as well as CD ROMs, dubbing, looping and A.D.R. work.

Cadence: How breaks are placed between words.

Call Time: The time scheduled for an audition.

Cans: Another word for headphones.

CD-ROM: Compact Disc-Read Only Memory.

Character: The person an actor is cast as in a spot.

Cold Read: An audition where an actor is given no time to rehearse.

Colour: Subtle speech nuances that give texture and shading to words to make them interesting and meaningful.

Commercial: Also referred to as a spot, it is a pre-recorded message which advertises a product or service. Sometimes abbreviated as COMML.

Compression: Reduces the dynamic range of an actor’s voice. Engineers apply compression to cut through background music and sound effects.

Control Room: Where the engineer and producer (and many times, the client) are located. This is usually a separate room from the booth.

Cue: An electronic or physical signal given to an actor to begin performing.

Cut: A specific segment of the voice-over recording, usually referred to during editing.

Dead air: When a voice-over pause is too long.

Demo: A demonstration of an actor’s voice talent.

Dialogue: A script calling for two people talking to each other.

Director: The person responsible for giving an actor voice-over direction in an audition, session or class.

Distortion: Fuzziness in the sound quality of a recorded piece.

Drop off: Not ending strong at the end of a word or phrase.

Drop out: A minute moment of silence inside a recorded word or phrase.

Dubbing: This dubbing is the process of dialogue replacement in a foreign film, as in dubbing a French voice into English.

Earphones: Also known as cans, headphones or headsets. Worn during the session to hear your own voice as well as cues and directions from the engineer or producer. Also used to converse with the client during an ISDN or phone-patch session.

Echo: A repetition of sound.

Editing: The removal, addition or re-arrangement of recorded material. Voice elements can be spread apart, slowed down, speeded up, clipped, eliminated, etc. to achieve the final take.

EFX: Effects. Another term for SFX.

Engineer: The person who operates the audio equipment during the voice-over session.

Equalization: Also known as EQ, it is used to stress certain frequencies, which can alter the sound of a voice.

Fade: To increase or decrease the volume of sound.

Fade in/Fade out: When you turn your head away from the mic or towards it.

False start: Situation where a talent makes a mistake within the first line or two of copy. The take is usually stopped and sometimes re-slated.

Feedback: A distorted, high pitched sound, usually emanating from headphones or speakers. Many times caused by problems with the console or headphones getting too close to the microphone.

Foley: Also known in the business as a Foley Stage, this is a special sound stage used for source sound effects. Used to record up-close sound effects for film or video, where the Foley artists match sound with picture, such as walking, running, doors opening or closing, glass breaking, shots firing, etc.

Front bed: The opposite of the back bed, where the announce is at the beginning of a jingle.

Gain: The volume of a voice, or a fader on the console.

Gobos: Portable partitions positioned around the actor to absorb or reflect sound, or to isolate the actor from another on-mic actor.

Hard sell: Approach used for high volume retail clients. One producer refers to hard sell as: I’ll stop shouting when you start buying!

Highs: The high frequency sound of a voice.

Holding fee: The money an actor receives if the client wants to hold a spot for airing at a later date.

Hook: Starting out on a high note on the first word of a spot to grab attention and immediately dipping down. Also used to describe the chorus section of a song.

In-house: A production produced for the client in the client’s own facilities.

inflection: The raising or lowering of voice pitch i.e a way of reinforcing the meaning of a word by changing the way it is said.

ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network. Special high-quality lines that allow voice recording to be digitally transmitted from one recording facility to another.

Jingle: A musical commercial.

Level: To set a voice at the optimal volume for recording. When the engineer says, “Let’s get a level”, the actor will start reading the copy at the level they’ll be speaking throughout the spot.

Library music: Pre-recorded music that producers use when the budget doesn’t allow original music. Each piece of music requires a fee to be paid, usually on an annual basis.

Lows: The low frequency of a voice.

Marking copy: Placing different marks above, below, around, in between and circling words on a script. Best done in pencil, because direction or emphasis may change.

Master: The original recording that all dubs are made from.

Mic: A common form of the word mike, as in microphone.

Mix: The blending of voice, sound effects, music, etc. Final mix usually refers to the finished product.

Monitors: The loudspeakers in the control room.

Mouth noise: The clicks and pops a microphone picks up from a dry mouth.

MP3: The name of the file extension and also the name of the type of file for MPEG, audio layer 3. Layer 3 is one of three coding schemes (layer 1, layer 2 and layer 3) for the compression of audio signals. Layer 3 uses perceptual audio coding and psycho acoustic compression to remove all superfluous information (more specifically, the redundant and irrelevant parts of a sound signal. The stuff the human ear doesn’t hear anyway. The result in real terms is layer 3 shrinks the original sound data from a CD (with a bit rate of 1411.2 kilobits per one second of stereo music) by a factor of 12 (down to 112-128kbps) without sacrificing sound quality.

Multitrack: A machine capable of recording and replaying several different tracks at the same time.

Music bed: The soundtrack that will be placed behind the copy, or mixed in with it.

Outtake: A previous take that hasn’t been approved and accepted.

Overlapping: When an actor starts his or her line a moment before another actor finishes theirs.

Pace: The speed in which an actor reads copy.

Paper noise: Sound that the mic picks up as you move your script. Set it on the mic stand and leave it alone. If you have two pieces of copy and no stand, hold one page in each hand. If you have more than two pages, you may stop, place the next page in front of you, and continue. The engineer will accommodate you, as they don’t want to have to edit out paper noise.

Patch: To make an electrical/digital connection for recording and/or broadcast. Also referred to as a phone patch or land patch.

Phasing: When sound reflects or bounces of certain surfaces and causes a weird, disjointed effect in the recording.

Pick-up: Re-recording a section of copy at a certain point. 90% of your read may be a in the can, but there may be a phrase, sentence or paragraph that the director feels could be done a bit better, clearer, faster, slower, etc. The director tells you exactly where they want you to pick-up” your line(s)—where to start from and where to end at. Read a sentence or phrase before the pick-up starting point, as well as the ending point. This is done to help the engineer better edit the pick-up, matching phrasing and levels.

Pick-up session: An additional session to complete the original. There may be copy changes or character changes in a spot before it finally airs. This is usually due to the client changing their mind before they commit the spot to air.

Playback: Listening to what has just been recorded.

Plosive: Any consonant or combination of consonants that causes popping e.g P’s and B’s.

Pop: When voice sounds are registering too hard into the mic. Usually caused by plosives.

Pop Shield: A foam cover enveloping the mic or a nylon windscreen in front of the mic. Mitigates popping.

Post-Production: Also known as post. The work done after the voice-talent has finished recording the session. This includes mixing in SFX and music.

Producer: The person in charge of the voice-over session. Many times the producer is also the director.

Promo: A promotional commercial spot used by TV and Radio stations specifically to increase audience awareness of upcoming programming.

PSA: Public Service Announcement. Commercials produced to raise awareness of current issues, such as smoking, drug abuse, pollution, pregnancy, etc.

Resonance: The full quality of a voice created by vibrations in resonating chambers, such as the mouth and sinus areas.

Reverb: A variation of echo. It’s an effect added to your voice in post.

Rough Mix: The step before the final mix. This is when the producer and engineer fine-tune levels of voice, music and sound effects.

Run-through: Rehearsing the copy before recording. Like a dress rehearsal.

SFX: Shorthand for sound effects. Also seen as EFX.

Session: The event where a talent performs a script for recording purposes.

Session fee: Payment for the first commercial within the session. If an actor does two spots, they get a session fee plus payment for the other spot. If the same actor does a tag, they get a separate tag fee. And if they record only two tags, they get paid session plus one tag.

Sibilance: A drawn out or excessive S” sound during speech. Some sibilance is joined with a whistle. This is a very annoying sound, which some engineers mitigate with a sound tool called a de-esser.

Spot: A commercial. Originated from the days when all commercials were performed live, in between songs played on the radio. The performers were on the spot.

Studio: The facility where all recording and mixing for a commercial takes place.

Sync: Matching a voice from a previous take. Also refers to aligning tracks to start or end together.

Tag: Information placed at the end of a commercial containing a date, time, phone number, website address, legal disclaimer, etc. A different announcer sometimes reads the tag.

Take: The recording of one specific piece of voice-over copy. All takes are numbered consecutively, usually slated by the engineer.

Talent: A broadcast performer, entertainer or voice-over artist.

Talkback: Refers to the button connected to the microphone in the engineer’s console. It allows the engineer or director to talk to the talent in the booth.

Tempo: The speed at which copy is delivered.

Time code: A digital read-out on the engineer’s console referring to audiotape, videotape positions. Used in film dubbing.

Tone: A specific sound or attitude.

Track: Either to record, or the actual audio piece. We’re ready to track, as opposed to Listen to this track.

Trailer: A commercial that promotes a film or video release.

V-O: Short for voice-over. Also seen as AVO (announcer voice-over). It’s the act of providing a voice to a media project, where the voice is usually mixed over the top of a video and or music/SFX. Voice-over was the term originally used to describe an announcer’s voice on a television spot, referring to the process as voice over picture. The more accurate term now is voice acting, which is the art of using the voice to bring life to written words.

VU meter: A meter on the engineer’s console that indicates the level of sound passing through the board.

WAVE File: Also known as .wav. A common uncompressed audio file format.

Wet: A voice or sound with reverb added to it.

 

So there it is! A list of commonly used terms in the Voice-Over industry! If you are interested in having a Voice Over recorded, please visit our website, where you can also view samples of all our Artists, and fill out the form for a Free Quote! https://adelphistudio.com/voice-overs/

 

 

Adapted and compiled from the following sources:

• James Alburger, The Art of Voice-Acting; Focal Press (1999)
• Susan Blu & Molly Ann Mullin, Word of Mouth; Revised Edition, Pomegranate Press (1996)
• Terri Apple, Making Money in Voice-Overs; Lone Eagle Publishing Company (1999)
• Alice Whitfield, Take It From The Top; Ring-U-Turkey Press (1992)
• Sandy Thomas, So You Want To Be A Voice-Over Star; In The Clubhouse Publishing (1999)
• Terry Berland & Deborah Ouellette, Breaking Into Commercials; Plume Publishing (1997)
• Chris Douthitt & Tom Wiecks, Putting Your Mouth Where The Money Is; Grey Heron Books (1996)
• Chuck Jones, Making Your Voice Heard; Back Stage Books (1996)
• Bernard Graham Shaw, Voice Overs: A Practical Guide; Routledge Publishing (2000)
• Elaine A. Clark, There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is; Back Stage Books (2000)
MARC CASHMAN creates and produces copy and music advertising for radio and television. Winner of over 150 advertising awards, he also instructs voice acting of all levels through his classes, The Cashman Cache of Voice-Acting Techniques in Los Angeles, CA.

Cashman Commercials © 2005

New Service for E-Learning – Articulate Storyline Localisation

General

Here at Adelphi we are always looking to expand the services we provide to ensure we keep up to date with new technology and software, which allows us to be able to offer the best options for our clients across the globe.

We have recently just added Articulate Storyline 2 to this growing list of services we provide.

What is E-Learning?

Put simply, e-learning is electronic learning, which typically means using a computer to deliver part, or all of a training course whether it’s in a school, part of your mandatory business training or a full distance learning course. E-Learning is a highly cost effective way of providing training and courses, particularly with larger organisations, and also allows you greater flexibility, as it can be done in short chunks of time, meaning you can fit the training in when it suits you best.

About Articulate Storyline…

Articulate Storyline 2 allows you to create fully interactive E-Learning courses for your organisation or company. This powerful piece of software provides an engaging learner experience with video and simulations, audio and a large variety of user interactions. This software allows you the freedom to create an E-Learning course that fully suits your requirements, so please feel free to discuss these with our Project Managers to ensure we deliver the perfect end product for you!

 

 

What we offer…

Our Articulate Storyline Localisation service captures not just the main course text, but also all of the button and slider content too. We can also add voice-overs and subtitles to resources in your course and provide printed support materials through our in-house typesetting service. We work with your translations or can supply our own for you.

So, if you are looking for a cost-effective and engaging way to train your employees in whatever language, please get in touch with us at Adelphi, and we will work with you to create an E-Learning course that suits your needs!

Adelphi can provide all of the services detailed above for your e-learning requirements. Please visit our website at www.adelphitranslations.com or feel free to call us on (0)114 272 3772 for further information.

Accents in Voice Overs – British Accents part 1

General Language

There are many factors to be taken into account when choosing the correct voice for your product. One of these factors is what accent you want to use to sell your product/service.

There are a wide variety of accents and dialects that can be found here in the British Isles, and in this blog post we will be looking at a very small selection you may come across.

Received Pronunciation (RP)

Received pronunciation (or RP for short) is probably the most widely studied and most frequently described variety of spoken English in the world, yet recent estimates suggest only 2% of the UK population speak it. RP is identified not so much with a particular region, but with a particular social group, although it has connections with the accent of Southern England. It is associated with educated speakers and formal speech, and is possibly the closest to a standard accent we have here.

Characteristics:

  • Non-rhoticity, meaning the r at the ends of words isn’t prounounced (mother sounds like “muhthuh”).
  • Trap-bath split, meaning that certain a words, like bath, can’t, and dance are pronounced with the broad-a in father. (This differs from most American accents, in which these words are pronounced with the short-a in cat.

Notable speakers of RP include: The Royal Family, David Cameron (Prime Minister), Stephen Fry (TV Personality/ Author/ Comedian).

Here is an RP sample from our website courtesy of Phillip:

 

Yorkshire

Being based in Sheffield means we at Adelphi are most familiar with this dialect. With Yorkshire being the largest county in Britain, it is no surprise there are a number of different variations of accents found across the county. The most commonly thought of Yorkshire dialect is that of the heavily industrialized West Riding (West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire after 1974.) This is familiar to most, thanks to Radio and TV dramas set in Yorkshire. Recent studies have also shown that the Yorkshire accent is seen as one of the nations favourite accents, and is seen as ‘warm’ and ‘genuine’.

Characteristics:

  •  Vowel sounds in words, e.g. A is predominantly pronounced as a short “a” as opposed to the southern longer “aa” or “ah” (e.g. bath, grass, glass) and U and OO are pronounced “uh” (e.g. blood, cut, lunch).

Notable speakers of the Yorkshire dialect include: Dickie Bird (Sports commentator), Michael Palin (actor/comedian), Alex Turner (singer with the Arctic Monkeys).

Here is a Yorkshire sample from our website from Marie:

Scouse

The highly distinctive Scouse accent is found primarily in the county of Merseyside, and is very closely associated with the city of Liverpool and the surrounding areas. Up until the mid 19th century Liverpudlians spoke pretty much the same as their Lancastrian neighbours. The Scouse sound was created by the influx of people arriving through the docks from far and wide. The major influence comes from Irish and Welsh moving into the city.

Notable speakers of the Scouse accent include: The Beatles, Steven Gerrard (footballer), Paul O’Grady (comedian, TV presenter).

Here’s a Scouse audio sample courtesy of Ronnie:

 

Although this list is incredible short, and in no way complete, we hope we have shed some light on some of the different accents found in the UK. We have a wide selection of accents and dialects available in the Voice Over section, so whatever you are looking for we can provide you with the most suitable option for your final product. Please view our sample page here: https://adelphistudio.com/voice-overs/.

 

Adelphi can provide all of the services detailed above for your voice-over requirement. Please visit our website at www.adelphitranslations.com and click “Request a Quote” or feel free to call us on (0)114 272 3772.