Battling mouth noise

Mouth noises are a major problem for some voiceover talents, a minor problem for others; but everyone deals with the problem some of the time. The subject came up during an exchange with my friend Brian Haymond today. Brian, by the way, is a very talented voiceover guy as you can hear from his demos which are on his home page. (By the way, Brian blogs here and here.)

Brian and I were discussing audiobooks and he made the following comment:

I just know how many times I have to re-record something because mouth noise or something has gotten into the recording. I’m probably much pickier on that stuff than most…I try to provide crystal clear audio even though virtually all of the time there will be a music bed. But when it comes to audio book…my goodness, I bet the audio has to be pristine as well?

Brian,

Yes, the audio has to be really clean because while there are musical bridges and such, the majority of the time it’s just you in your listener’s headphones or car audio or iPod or whatever.

There are ways to minimize mouth noise, stuff that I learned at the audiobook class with Pat Fraley this summer. I take breaks when I need to. Keep a bottle of filtered water (cool but not ice cold) near and have at it. My wife sits in and listens while I record, so if I flub a word or miss something she can tell me. I just do a quick pick-up and keep going. I don’t make a huge number of mistakes so an hour of recording takes maybe an hour and 15 to an hour and 20 minutes to complete.

Then, I make a pass through the audio to clean up the pick-ups and any obvious problems. Save it into segments about 20 minutes long each and upload the uncompressed audio to my web server. The publisher downloads the files, lets me know when he’s got them all. They take care of all of final mastering and production.

Wow!!! Yea, I use an apple (really is a life saver on mouth noise), I always have room temp water (I drink about 80 ounces a day). That’s a great idea to have your wife sit in!!! Love it!
Brian

Brian,

It’s so helpful to have someone there to catch what you miss and saves a ton of punch-in and/or audio replacement time afterward.

I used to use the apple thing, but Pat Fraley gave us this little misting bottle with filtered water in it at the audiobook seminar I attended in LA. A couple of squirts as you start a session and mouth-noise-be-gone. Amazing. That, having my wife sit in with me and keeping your mouth open between sentences are the three tips that have made the biggest difference since I got back from California in July.

Now those are some cool tips…I will log that into my “keeper” file…thanks!! Question: Misting is better than just taking a drink?

Brian,

The way Pat and Hillary explained is that…mouth noises are created by the little bits of saliva in the corners of our mouths. Drinking water doesn’t really deal with that. The misting does because it applies a small amount of water directly to the area creating the noise.

Be well,
Bob

I’m sure you can find these little plastic misting bottles at a dollar store or pretty much any place that sells cosmetics and the like. If you find this suggestion helpful, leave a comment and let me know.