0980 – The Diction-ary of Voice - C Part 2

Get A Better Broadcast, Podcast and Voice-Over Voice

2023.09.07 – 0980 – The Diction-ary of Voice - C Part 2

Clipped – when a recorded signal has gone past the 0db threshold (or any other maximum recording level set by the engineer) and the computer software has no more ‘headroom’ to record. This is often heard when a voice actor shouts, or when the microphone is too close to a speaker, or in a field recording, when a large vehicle passes by. To the ear the sound is heard as distorted. On a DAW, the waveform has its top ‘cut off’ and appears flat rather than in various peaks and troughs. Clipping is undesirable and should always be avoided by reducing the input sound.

Clipped - when audio is missing the beginning or end of a sound element or word by a split second

Co-anchors – two presenters working together in partnership with an on-air role divided between them

Cold copy – a previously unseen script. You may be asked to ‘read cold’ or ‘read a cold script’

Comb filtering (also called ‘phasing’, or ‘colouring’) - when two versions of the same sound play at slightly different times (measured in milliseconds), for example when two mics are live / recording and the voice of one speaker is heard not only though their mic, but also very slightly through the other. This can cause some frequencies to be cancelled out and slightly distorts the true sound. It can be fixed by reducing the possibility of one voice being picked up by two mics: lowering level of the second mic, moving them further away from each other, having a screen between them, or most simply, turning the mics slightly so each pick-up pattern works in an optimum way

Coming out – ending a broadcast or recording: “we’re coming out in 30 seconds”

Compression (file) – file compression reduces the file’s size. Very different from compression of sound (below)

Compression - a process applied to audio recordings, which 'level-off' the peaks and troughs of a waveforms. This is done with a ‘compressor’ (below)

Compressor - a device or plugin/tool in a DAW, which automatically boosts quieter sounds and supresses louder ones, so there is less variety in the levels, according to a set threshold. Doing this will mean that the listener has less manual work to do in adjusting levels when hearing the audio. Using a compressor is an art and over-doing it will make the whole track, well, over-compressed and restricted

Condenser microphone – a mic which reproduces sound with the help of an electric circuit and so needs a small amount of power to operate, either from a battery or from the recorder. See ‘Phantom power’, and ‘Dynamic (microphone)’

Contractions – I’d suggest you’ll want to add abbreviated words to scripts so they’ll sound conversational

Control room (also ‘gallery’, ‘ops’ or ‘operations room’) – the room outside the studio where a director or producer may sit. Sometimes used to refer to the area where the main servers for a radio station are housed

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