The sound design of a spot is probably the most complicated part of making advertisements as the sound must work with the image.

Choosing good voice-over artists is a crucial to having a quality spot. They could be used for actual voice-over work or for dubbing.

Also, we will have to devote a great effort to effects and sound design, which are both key parts of a great final product.

In many cases, music becomes a primary advertising tool. How many times have we found ourselves humming along to a commercial tune?

Finally, the postproduction for spot sound will wrap all of it up for a resounding success.

We detail all of these points below.

Voice selection for a spot

One of the key ingredients in advertising is the voice-over artist or dubbing actor.

You can choose a voice-over artist through the samples in our catalogs, Voces de Cine and Voces a la Carta, or you can leave it to our professionals to recommend you an artist.

Another possibility is to perform a specific voice casting: in this case, different voice-over artists will come to the studio and audition with the advertisement message. Depending on the cost, this option might be advisable and worth considering.

Recording the spot voice-over

For a TV spot, it’s best to already have the picture footage. This way, the voice-over artist can synchronize each word and inflection with the rhythm of the images. If you don’t have the image, we will have to guide the artist in time and intonation, then in post-production, edit the voice-over to fit over the image.

In order to record an audiovisual spot, the picture is projected in the recording booth so the voice-over artist can align himself with it. In order for this to happen, the recording booths need to be adaptable for any type of digital image and able to facilitate the client’s work.If you already have music, it’s important for the artist to have it in their headphones as they are recording. This way, they will be able to match their rhythm with that of the music.

All of our recording booths are equipped for digital image that we can receive and send directly through our exclusive FTP system for clients.

Recording a spot voice-over through RDSI/ISDN

Another available option is to record the spot voice-over through RDSI/ISDN, a point-to-point connection system which allows us to connect in real time to any recording studio in the world.

The sound studio should be equipped with RDSI technology and codexes such as APT-X, EAPT, Mpeg1, and Mpeg2.

This way, from any part of the world, a client that needs a voice-over artist from our catalog will be able to make the record in real time. In the same way, this type of connection gives us the opportunity to use any international voice-over artist , independent of their location, in real time.

At Voces de Cine, we use RDSI/ISDN connection systems.

Music for TV ads

Music for a Radio ad is an important factor to its success.

We’ve seen thousands of cases where the music for a radio ad becomes a big success. For this reason, the music selection process is very important.

We have many possibilities for TV ad music selection:

Library music for advertisements

The sound studio has an extensive music library classified by type, rhythm, style, singing, or non-singing. The difficulty lies in choosing the music as a sound studio can have thousands of different tracks. The sound technician must be able to select, according to our specifications, the music that best suits our project. The disadvantage of these compositions is that they are not exclusive so any client will be able to use the same composition for their spot, radio ad, audiovisual, etc.

The use of this music is made possible through a broadcast license that varies according to the number of copies, broadcast territory, etc.

At Voces de Cine, we have more than 50,000 high quality music tracks in our library and our technicians will find the best one for your project. Also, we will take care of any and all broadcast licensing for your selected music.

Musical composition for advertising

This is the most creative option. We can have musicians work over the idea of an ad and write original music for it. This option gives us the possibility of creating exactly what we need and opens to the door for creativity. We can highlight the ad message by giving the voice-over a special rhythm. In this case, the total cost of production normally includes the exclusive use license.

Voces de Cine has many writers at its disposal for writing original music for advertisements.

Cover

A “cover” is a new recording of a previously made musical theme; being more or less, our take on the original. Using covers is the most usual method for adding music to an ad. When working with commercial music we are assured that the listen will remember our music, and in re-recording, we are able to adapt it perfectly to our ad.

In this case, we must negotiate the rights with the writer in order to make the cover.

Sound effect design for a spot

Another key ingredient a commercial’s sound design is sound effects. A sound design technician’s job is to do anything sound related, from designing a solitary sound to accompany a logo, to making a full soundtrack with sound effects and ambience.

Our sound technicians have access to extensive sound effect libraries, specialized recording rooms, Euphonix edition sound equipment, and most importantly: plenty of sound design and editing experience. These are all the tools that bring the best sounding advertisement to life.

The sound technician specialized in sound effects

An effects technician is able to recreate an any environment that we may need by use of sound. For this, they have different systems of synthetic sound creation, a special recording space for sound effects for anything, a large collection of sound effects and a battery of sound modules capable of modifying, under thousands of parameters, any sound we process.

Our sound technicians come from the film and advertisement world and always give a cinematic touch.

Processing the voice-over for a spot

The voice-over will be processed to modify the voice and give it a better presence or to reduce a character’s prominence. The voice can also be processed to adapt it to a given situation through artificial reverb which emulates the voice’s reflections of the different materials in the recording space.

Post-production of a television spot

This is the last, though certainly not the least, facet of sound design. It involves assembling all the different pieces that we previously attained into a finished product. On one hand, we have the voice-over, on another, music, and lastly, sound effects. All this must be synchronized to perfection with the image.

The voice-over will be processed to modify the voice and give it a better presence or to reduce a character’s prominence. Moreover, the voice will be processed to best fit the situation through artificial reverb which emulates the voice’s reflections of the different materials in the room. The voice-over should also be treated with equalizers to enhance the voice’s various nuances.

Finally, it’s time to make the mix. Mixing is a super important process in which the sound technician integrates the voice-over, music, and sound effects, equalizing all the different sound levels. Voces de Cine’s sounds team has the three post-production studios at their disposal equipped with digital systems and Genelec monitors for the best listen possible.