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Music and Voice-Overs: When to Drop the Music

Most podcasts start with a blast of music, before the presenter fades the volume. She then says a few words with the music playing gently in the background. When she finishes speaking, she either fades the music up and it ends or fades it out entirely.

This is known as a voice-over and is often abbreviated as V/O. The music in the background is often referred to as the music bed.

Usually the music bed will be from a royalty-free 'production music' library. Your track will not be a commercial top 40 hit.

Why use a voice-over?

While some people do voice-overs simply because everyone else does, there are actually some very good reasons to use them.

When listeners hear too much spoken word, they often grow tired and become distracted. Music can add energy and refocus your listener's mind on what you're saying.

This works either half-way through your spoken word podcast or at the beginning. If you want to create energy right from the start of your podcast, voice-overs can focus your listener's mind immediately.

But being able to affect energy levels is not the only reason voice-overs are so useful.

Using music behind your voice also affects your listener's mood. For example, if your podcast is about funerals, you can instantly influence the mood with a calm yet melancholic music track. If you're making a sports podcast, you might use an up-tempo music piece with an aggressive guitar riff.

Not everyone has what used to be called in the old days a "broadcast voice". Their diction may be poor or their intonation just lousy. Playing music behind their voice will often dampen the fact their vocals are poor.

Creating great voice-overs comes down to two things. Timing and the level of your music. Before I talk about when you should drop your music volume and start talking, let me say a few words about how loud your music bed should be, when you are talking.

How low should you drop your music?

The best instrument to judge the effective level of music behind the voice is your ear. You can't make the decision by looking at an audio editing software package and making a guess based on the wave-form.

Listen to the volume of the music and ask yourself, is the voice clear and easy to understand? If not, reduce your music. Beware that many people find it difficult to distinguish between voice and music for voice-overs broadcast on television and radio.

So use your ears when deciding how low to drop the music level. Err on the side of a lower music volume, rather than a high one.

When do you drop the music?

Dropping your music too late can slow the energy of your podcast and make it sound sluggish. And playing the music bed too long before your drop it, transforms the music from a communication tool into a performance piece. You don't want this.

Playing your music too long before dropping to a voice-over is like spending more time in the restaurant looking at a cardboard menu than actually enjoying your food. The menu should get you excited about the food and set the mood for wonderful cuisine. But the main act is the food, not the menu.

For serious podcasters, the main act is your content which is usually conveyed through the spoken word. Your music should create the energy and excitement that draws your listener to what you have to say.

Timing

So how long before you drop the music? Just a few seconds. To make it sound really good, though, it also helps to know some basic musicology in relation to the beat or time signature of the piece you're using.

I suggest that you listen to the timing of your music and drop the volume so your first words start on the first beat of the second or third bar. Don't do a slow fade but smartly drop your music at the 3rd or 4th beat of the bar preceding the bar you will speak.

Fade or End?

When you have finished your voice-over, should you fade the music off gently? Or fade the music bed up so the piece ends on a strong note?

I recommend a quick fade up so that the music actually ends rather than fades out. Depending on the length of your voice-over, this may require you to edit the music bed.

Editing your music to make it exactly the right length is tricky at first. But once you're in practice, it is very easy.

I think that in most cases, a gradual fade doesn't sound as good. Editing your music so it finishes a bar or two after your last words sounds much more professional.

Of course rules are written to be broken. There may be times when a slow fade actually achieves your editorial purpose. More often than not, though, you'll find tight fades actually make your podcasts sound snappier and more professional.

Good luck!

Learn more about how you can create phenomenal podcasts at http://podcastersportal.com . Podcasters Portal is packed with free articles, audio seminars and videos for the podcaster who is serious about content. Jonathan G Halls is a speaker and writer. He has taught thousands of people around the world how to make phenomenal podcasts. He has worked with professionals from some of the world’s leading media organizations and learning professionals across America who use podcasts as part of their learning strategy.

Jonathan used to run the BBC’s television, radio operations and new media training in London. He has worked as a journalist and talk show host. He has a masters and bachelors in adult education. His company Talkshow Media LLC focuses exclusively on new media training and is based in Alexandria, Virginia. http://talkshowmedia.com

A learning manager from Texas declared he faced an ethical dilemma with an interview for his learning podcast.

"Tell me more," I said. It turned out that he had interviewed a subject matter expert for a learning podcast he was producing.

The subject matter expert was a nice guy and made a few very interesting comments. But for most of the interview, he waffled on and on, constantly off topic.

"I don't want to offend him by not using the interview or cutting it down too much, " he told me.

"But I'm worried his comments are too long and too vague. They may turn the listener off."

Can I Chop the Interview?

My colleague had raised this as a matter of ethics. But I don't believe it is about ethics at all. It's about accountability to your topic and to your listener.

It's actually an issue that worries a lot of media novices. How much of the interview should they use? And will they offend their guest if they either don't use it at all or only use a tiny part?

If you're facing the same question, or think you might in the future of your podcasting experience, here are two questions that will guide you to an answer.

What's your topic?

First, what is your podcast about? Second, who is your podcast for? The first is the easiest question to deal with so let's touch on that first.

What is the topic of your learning podcast? If you've been careful and written down a learning objective, you should be really clear about this.

If any part of the interview does not relate to your learning objective, or doesn't fully support it, you should consider cutting it out. This is what media pros do – they are very focused and disciplined when it comes to including content in media programs.

My suggestion is to be ruthless about reviewing your podcast and make sure you cut out anything that is not relevant. The more ruthless you are in cutting out irrelevancies, the less ruthless your listener will be about turning you off or allowing their mind to wander onto other topics.

Who is your podcast for?

The second question is more complex. Who are you producing your podcast for? Generally, it will be one of three people. Is it for yourself, your guest or your listener? Often we kid ourselves into thinking it's for one person when we're really motivated to produce our podcasts for someone else.

For example, we may say we're producing the podcast for our listener when really we're just propping up our ego or having fun playing with technology. Or we may be trying to impress the person we interviewed. Be honest because it's not always easy to see past what are our own deeper motivations.

If you are producing the podcast for yourself, well who cares whether you include all the irrelevancies or not. If you're happy, well there's a pat on the back. If you're doing this for the guest, well by all means play every single part of the interview regardless of how relevant or interesting it is. (People being interviewed are rarely bored by themselves and can often listen to themselves for hours.)

But if you're doing it for your listener, because you promised your podcast was about a specific topic, you really have no choice but to cut out any part of the interview that was irrelevant.

Don't be self-indulgent

I can't be more honest with you when I say how annoyed I get hearing self-indulgent interviews. While people like me get annoyed, others simply tune out because they're boring.

So, what does my friend in Texas do? He told me the podcast was for sales people in his company. So it wasn't for him or the guest, but his listeners. He had no choice other than to cut out the parts of the interview that were irrelevant to the sales people and the topic.

Which leads us to another issue that media novices need to learn to deal with. What do we do with interviews that don't make the cut? And how do we manage our relationships with people who were interviewed?

If it's not relevant, chop it

The first thing is to toughen yourself up and get used to throwing irrelevancies on the cutting room floor.

Producers who make serious content for mainstream TV and radio programs routinely use only 5 to 10% of their interview. For major current affairs programs on television, they will use less than a minute for every 20 minutes of video they shoot.

That's because they don't just cut the irrelevancies, they hunt for the very best part of the interview to ensure it has impact.

Chopping interviews down, by the way, is actually very good for your guest. If you chop out their irrelevancies and ramblings, you'll make them sound more concise and polished. It will improve their image. You see, it's a win-win.

Manage your guest's expectations

Second, don't make promises you may not be able to keep. One of the first things I learned about interviewing people, when I started out in radio, was to never promise a guest that I would use their interview. Or even just a part of it. I was always told to tell them it may be used. And that we were talking to a number of experts. Never guarantee anything.

Manage your guests' expectations and it will be easier to leave parts of their interviews on the cutting room floor.

Remember, you're interviewing your guest because they bring something to the topic of your podcast. If he or she goes off topic, your listener will be distracted and bored. So don't be afraid to chop your interview right down and use only the parts that are really relevant.

Good luck.

Learn more about how you can create phenomenal podcast content at Podcasters Portal – http://www.podcastersportal.com. You’ll discover free articles, audio seminars and videos designed to help serious podcasters improve their editorial content.

Jonathan G Halls is a speaker and writer based in Alexandria, Virginia. He has trained thousands of professionals from around the world to make phenomenal podcasts. Formerly, he ran the BBC’s prestigious television, radio operations and new media training in London. Today he runs his own company, Talkshow Media LLC, which focuses exclusively on equipping people to make leading multimedia content. He is considered an expert in media training. He is active in the American Society for Training and Development.

http://www.talkshowmedia.com