Videyah! Online Video Marketing Blog: Online Video Marketing Guide: Audio Development

By: Videyah! | Friday, May 4 2012

Why Professional Audio Production Is Important?

Professional Audio Production consists of 5 steps: Voice over recording, Music selection, Sound effects & Foley, Mixing and Mastering.

Deliver Your Message Effectively With Voice Over

Once the script is ready, the temporary “scratch” voices are recorded by employees for storyboard reels. Later when the storyboard is approved by a client, professional voice over talent is recorded.

Selecting female or male voice over talent and recording them to make sure they deliver the message effectively. We usually record at least 3 different takes and select the ones that fit the project the most. Here is a video demo of visuals and Voice Over added.

Improve Likelihood of Purchasing with Music Selection

Music creates the right emotional tone for your project. Music includes a variety of genres: classical, jazz, rock, hip hop and more. It can also be selected by mood: ambient, happy, inspirational and etc.

Music variables such as appeal, fit, melody, mood and tonality can influence consumer attitude toward the ad and the brand, recall, pleasure and arousal, and purchase intention.

Looking for the right music piece can take time. The mood change of the project – fast vs slow, light vs dark many times requires combining a few music tracks to express the correct mood. So why is it important to spend time and select right music? Research shows that when music does not fit it can have an adverse effect on attitudes toward the ad. (Shen & Chen, 2006) and when music is used to evoke emotions congruent with the symbolic meaning of product purchase, the likelihood of purchasing is enhanced. (Alper et al, 2005). Watch this demo to see how music made this project more lively.

If royalty free music is not an option custom music, specially composed for the project, might be the only way to go to make sure it matches the mood and the script.

Improve Selling Power with Sound Effects & Foley

Sound effects & Foley includes recreating “live” sound elements and background like – traffic noise, opening doors, birds chirping and etc. Here is a good example from D.A.D.D.Y. about sound effects and foley.

Mr. Foley by D.A.D.D.Y. click here to watch it.

In advertising Sound Effects & Foley – such as sausages sizzling in a frying pan - can strengthen your message and make a positive impact to your selling power.

Action movies wowed us with sound effects and it is very enticing to add extra sound effects to make the project look/sound “cool”. However, sound advertising research (Saint Joseph's University, Journal of Media Psychology, Volume 12, No. 3, Fall, 2007) suggests that overload of sound effects or when they are being paired with different events through the presentation can be intrusive and distracting. However, relevant and integrated sounds help understand the materials and motivate viewers to pay more attention.

For special projects sound effect libraries might not be enough. In that case our sound engineers like to go to the field and record them. Watch the example how sound effects made this project demo look modern, high tech and progressive.

Don't Loose Viewers With Poor Mixing

30-second project on average can have 30-70 audio elements such as music, sound effects and Foley. Accurately matching sound effects to events in the presentation is extremely important since incorrect pairing can be intrusive and distract your video viewers. Therefore, high quality mixing keeps your project interesting and can increase completed video views.

Mastering - Make Your Audio Mix 0 Distortion

Mastering is the final step of the audio production process. Audio engineers produce a uniform level of sound to a music or sound mix with zero distortion. Mastering is the final step to tweak your audio mix and make it shine, no matter what form of delivery it is.