// Frequenty Asked Questions //

Voice Over Narration

For voice over narration, speech must be attractive to the ear, but a pleasant timbre is not enough. The speech, how the words are presented, must be clear, easily understood, and should not have any traits that distract a listener from the meaning.

Everyone's speech is affected by where they are from, by regional and cultural accents and dialects, as well as idiosyncratic language particular to the individual. Ideally, vocalizations for voice over narration should fall into a mainstream, middle ground, as unaffected by individual mannerisms as possible to maximize the number of people who can easily understand it. But just because speech is without accent or regional inflection doesn't mean that it should be bland. Voice over narration must be rich in emphasis and tone.

In order to do voice over narration, a voice actor must know how to shape their speech. Modifying or eliminating characteristics which may make it hard for a listener to understand them, while at the same time producing an interesting and dynamic delivery.

In addition to clear and easily understood speech, voice over narration must also be fluent, articulate, and accurate to the source material. Errors in pronunciation or accuracy must be avoided. Voice over narration must be word-for-word, and care should be especially taken with proper names, foreign words, and phrases in foreign languages to ensure that they are pronounced accurately and naturally.

Voice over narration requires a voice talent to be comfortable reading whatever is required of them, all in a conversational tone free of stilted, mechanical, monotonous, or repetitive patterns of speech. Female voice over talent Janet Ault has done hundreds of voice overs in all types of media including radio, television, e-learning, corporate industrials, voice messaging and voice prompts, audio tours, store-casting, jingles, interactive kiosks, characters, animation, and radio imaging.

	"Janet is not only a terrific voice talent, she is great to work with. Be it a teen girl, or grandmotherly type, I know that Janet can handle any voice request I send her way." Mike Chase Production Director Skyview Networks - Scottsdale AZ