We talk a lot about voice tracking so I thought I would share my experience.

Until recently, all my radio work has been live. High school play by play and hosting a sports talk show.

Recently my boss asked if I would VT weekends. I said, "of course-more experience the better" Wow, it's much more difficult than I thought. It's hard to have the same energy as doing a live show. To those who voice track-and do it well-my hat is off to you!!

that's why most don't....

"...do it well"

ain't as easy as the suits want to think!

PDX Coug.....I SO know what you mean. Until a couple of years ago, I could count on one hand how many times I had voicetracked. I do it fairly frequently, nowadays. I STILL don't think that I am very good.

For me, it's all about being "in" the radio station: hearing it around you/crankin' up a song in a studio/da da da....VT does not allow you these pleasures. It IS more difficult.

Why do stations do VTs?
Wouldn't they receive better feedback from the audience if they were live.
When I call a station and want to do a shout out and I hear it two hour later or the next day I feel treated tin the same manner as when I call a technical service and somebody accross the pond answers; I am not given the attention I deserve. Therefore why should they receive my attention.
I think the day will come when VTs will be done over seas by someone with an accent difficult to o understand.

Right Jay, next the Voice Tracking will come from India, then radio will be really great!!! That's pretty funny! And, unfortunatly it actually sounds like what might happen. Just another way to reduce operational costs!

And I got used to Voice tracking a lot for many years. In the beginning it was VTing mon thru fri middays on one oldies format back in the late 80s and early 90s, but got to do live Saturdays and some work also on the Top 40 FM station down the hallway , so I was "live and memorex" so to speak. So then comes the 21 century and it becomes ALL voice tracking more and more and me listening to every break to make sure it sounded sincerely 'live'...it was hard to do it right, but possible to compete with yourself and others as a live personality. There are tricks you may have control over when VTing. Station management valued my doing all that for a long time. Management changed ,times changed and then no one cared much anymore and so thats why I dont do it now.

My advice to you is to do the very very best job that you can when voice tracking. Its your reputation at stake. It is *you* taking pride in the production of a personality, localized to fit your market's listeners. Take pride, because that is about all you have left when all you do is voice track in broadcast radio.

"My advice to you is to do the very very best job that you can when voice tracking. Its your reputation at stake. It is *you* taking pride in the production of a personality, localized to fit your market's listeners. Take pride, because that is about all you have left when all you do is voice track in broadcast radio."

Nicely said, Kennewickman. When working for CC a few years back, I VT'd middays for four stations from Santa Barbara to Yakima. I incorporated phone calls, local bits, all the same stuff I did when live. It usually took me twice as long to track a shift as other jocks, but when it came to ratings, I almost always soundly beat the "local & live" competition in the markets where I tracked.

And because I took the time and made the effort, I was offered gigs from PDs who thought I was live. You NEVER know who's listening, whether you are live or tracked...so ALWAYS do your best, regardless.

No need to outsource VTs to another country. Wages are low enough here.

For many years, I voicetracked one station while doing another live. Often, I was on AM and FM at the same time. Kinda like the old SNL bit with Dan Akroyd doing the live AM/FM Dj bit. (Bonus points - what were the call letters of the FM station in the bit?) Anyway, the advantage of being on both at the same time was we could drop in weather reports with current temp, as well as other breaking news. BTW, I always left little flubs in. It just sounded more live.

Before PC automation, we used to voicetrack to a cart, holding the sec tone to ramp up an intro. We produced some of our own music reels so we'd record intros at a lower level so it wouldn't fight with the voiceover. When we switched to a PC, we couldn't do that anymore. For me, no talking up intros took alot of the art out of VT.

It sure is a strange feeling to listen to yourself do a show...

Ridiculous! VT is psychotic.

If I was a manager I would pump the computer full of the latest top 40 and ram it directly into the commercial breaks all night. WHat a load.

If the corp doesn't want to hear someone why would I as a listener? Don't waste the time.

Lander,
You nailed it. When I am live, I feel so much more "in to it". I feel alive, I am more energetic, I love interacting with callers or my color man if I am doing play by play. VT'ing is something I just need to keep on doing and trying to improve on every week because it's not as easy as the suites think it is. It humbled me in a hurry!

It's interesting that this topic never seems to go away.

Thankfully my wife and I have only voice tracked for one station for the past 6 1/2 years. We do put a great amount of effort into making it sound "live." I don't think I'd want to do more than one station. If I did it would be weekends only.

I certainly miss being "live" on the air. Everything everyone has said is very true about the energy and interaction.

I have a digital phone hybrid in my home recording studio and have used it for artist interviews and for big contest winners.

Weather and time checks are done at the local level during news and weather updates.

I'm actually converting our audio files for tomorrow mornings show as I type. I usually have them done earlier but it was a hectic day at HT CO.

We take great pride in our show and have developed a nice chemistry on the air. We have gotten positive feedback from listeners through email and when we have done emcee work for big concerts that hit Coos Bay. (which ain't many)

It's kind of weird waking up to ourselves when we do visit, and it's good to hear the music and other elements that surrounds the show.

Plus I've been producing once a month a feature I've done at most of the stations I've worked called the NW Spotlight. I feature artists from all over the NW in a variety of genre's. That is deeply satisfying because not many stations are allowed to do that and I'm given total control of content.

Hey this business is still fun, different...but I still pinch myself I get to crack the mic...while in my pj's.

I agree with Roger - It IS hard to sound live with VTs.

I remember about twenty years ago, I had to record tracks on cart for one hour of programming early Sunday mornings (which were played back by a board op, ironically) and it was always a challenge to make it sound the same as being actually on air.

Today the automation systems help a bit by playing the extros and intros and in some cases, allowing you to change the segue points - sort of a virtual "running your own board".

One thing that gets lost is when you are expected to knock out a VTed show in an hour. The thinking is not how good, but how fast. When there is a lack of effort it shows, and there is no room for quality when you are expected to get in and get out to save the company 7 dollars.....


nothing like hearing a VT that is buried under the intro because the computer equalizes the audio levels.... I VTed very little because I was told I took too long. The station went so far to make up generic liner cards for the VT breaks. coupled with the usual promos it sounded cheap and amaturish. The quality showed when you heard a card on Sunday for an event that ended Fri or Sat. Though I detest the laziness that accompanies VTs They can be done well. Chris is an example. His advantage is he is allowed to put in the time and effort. For the most part, everyone else finishes their live shift or production then jumps in to cut their mid day VT show... in and out.

"How wonderful", said Mr. GM as he reported to the regional manager. "Look, we saved 21 dollars today". "Good boy", said the home office. "Now cut another ten percent from your budget".

No need to talk about it on the air when you can tell people "For more information, check out our website"..... I don't have time to check out your web site.

Roger- I simply don't know how a jock could do VTing in hour if it includes show prep and other elements. I know I have an advantage because I can literally take all day to get it done. My tracks are due on our FTP site at 5:30am everyday.

I may do show prep then take a break to get other work done. Come back and finish up show prep. We then record tracks. I may take another break and then come back and edit the tracks and convert them to mp3 files and upload. If we get in all done at once it's usually a 2-2 1/2 hour process. Sometimes a little less.

But we have found our groove and we're always looking for something new to add to the show to keep people listening, Also since we are mainly a smooth jazz format we don't need to talk up intros.

Having a local owner is also a blessing for us.

There used to be a real snobbery among theatre actors, who swore they'd never do movies or TV because it wasn't live, they couldn't feel the audience and get their reactions. It was just a canned process of repeating lines over and over. They would have to shoot out of sequence and they'd never get the flow and the emotions right.

Eventually those who wanted to remain actors got used to the pre-recorded media. Some even thrived. And if you watch the Tonys (OK I'm the only one who watches the Tonys) you'll see that the only names you recognize are the movie and TV folks who take a break from their real jobs to do a little stage work.

Voicetracking can (and should) be done well - it's just another aspect of the industry, one that all jocks must master if they're going to stay in the biz.

That said, I do believe you must have some live experience in order to be a credible tracker. The problem now is that newbies are being trained as trackers without having the opportunity to be live and don't have a sense of what live sounds, and more importantly, feels like, so they can't recreate it when they track.

BTW, very accurate theatre actors/DJs analogy, TDanner.

Dawgz, you are dead on!

Imagine getting a job as a board op, with the hope of one day being allowed to VT the Sunday morning slot.

Pinch me...

It all about what came before. The best voicetrackers have spent years honing their craft doing a live show.

VT can be fun it's the reverse cowboy of DJ positions. It's really how good you do it that makes it fun.

Chris, do you and your wife do the show together?

(I think you've said that's the case.)

For you guys, who posted about struggling to put energy into it, why not get somebody in the room, you can do the show to!

I get stuck with these goofy web demos, seminars, etc... (boring material too)

Delivering (performing?) one of these is way better in a room with real people in it. Still pretty good done live over the phone. Absolutely horrible to record them, to be consumed later with any energy at all.

After reading this thread, I'm gonna go off and try involving somebody, some how. I suspect they don't have to do much to trigger that chemistry that happens when people are really talking. Maybe it will capture some of the energy that's so hard otherwise. At the least it will be different.

Maybe that's an idea applicable to the VT energy trouble as well?

Yes Missing my wife and I do our morning show together in our sound booth.

It's nice having a person to play off of which does add energy to our show, well at least for ourselves.

Something I've been doing for friends and family is sending bloopers (that did NOT air) from our VTing sessions. It's one of the joys of the job. We'll leave in some mistakes to keep it "real" sounding, but some are just so horrendous and then we get silly and then the innuendo's fly and it's all we can do to stay on task.

Ya, I hated getting buried in the intro on the digital automations. I had control of that on the analog autos like the Cetec/Schaffer. I took care of the the thing to begin with and ran the audio up on the Audiophile or insta-cart's playback so that my ( and other jocks) talk ups were appropriately 4 or 5 db hotter than the intros for proper talkover effect and understandability.

We all sounded LIVE...

most decent automation systems now have a check box in the setup configuration that will automatically duck the audio under voice tracks.

So with today’s digital automation, does the software account for the timber and different nuances of each voice or are we talking a pre-set?

I know that most automations do ..now... But first you must have people in the *cluster* food chain WHO CARE to set it up in the first place. Lot of times VT rules prohibit talk over intros these days. In fact that rule may even apply to *live * dayparts as well.

One thing that really 'ticked' me off once, but somehow I wasnt surprised. I was down in Portland Vancouver some years ago over a holiday of some kind or another, before KISN FM went to the Charlie format. For a time they had Ron Leonard doing a Midday. He also did a noon time request type show feature on 97.1 when it was Oldies. He was automated of course. He sounded great as usual, if you could even hear him ! He was buried in the intros so bad you had to be a pro to even discern what his talk set bits actually were! It sounded like hell ! Not Ron's fault ! That is a Programming/Engineering issue or thier automation was incapable of clamping the program audio down. What ever the problem was, I can tell you if had been the PD that, by God, would have been fixed pronto..or ...if the automation was incapable of being set up correctly, a no talk over rule would have been established... fast. That is the most annoying thing to me ....the jock's voice buried in orchestration.

The automation at Entercom Portland is certainly capable of ducking the audio under a VT.

I believe Enco, Audio Vault, and Prophet all have this feature. Not sure on the cheaper brands.

Alan is correct, someone with admin access must actually set it up first.

I'm unaware of any automation system that accounts for timber and different nuances of each voice. That would have to be done in the microphone chain.

I remember my son used to say to me...when he would listen to me and others on Oldies 95.7 back in the 90s and early 2000s...he would say....Dad, that computer down at your radio station ( it was a prophet Wizard ) makes you guys all sound alike. He was between 9 and 12 at the time. It was probably more like the audio processing , the Optimod..that he was hearing, and I told him so. He believed it was the computer because audio processing didnt mean a fig to him. But a computer and monitor, mouse and keyboard did, so it must be the computer...LOL....

I used to take him down there sometimes when I voice tracked. He would just sit there and watch me lay in those files, watch the log change, then lots of times be in the car with me hours later when they played back...he finally figured out how all that worked...So to him it was the computer that made us all sound the same...

I PD a little AM station and my morning show is mostly live Monday through Friday, 6-noon. But I VT Saturday mornings.

This past summer, my wife bought an old Silvertone radio, circa 1963 (in a green Bakelight plastic case) at a yard sale. AM only. Of course, I immediately turned it on to hear if it actually worked. After three or four seconds of warming up, there was noise, so I tuned it to my station.

It was a trip...the Hollies were playing "Bus Stop," and the sound was just as I remember from the sixties! Then I heard the VT I laid down. It was amazing...I heard what I would have sounded like had I been on air back then!

As much as I dislike VTs compared to live staff, I must admit that VT-ing offered me at least one unique and pleasurable experience.

When my wife and I occasionally go to Coos Bay for a station event like emcee a concert, we'll wake up listening to ourselves doing the morning show.

It's one thing to hear ones voice on a TV or radio commercial, but an actually morning show is quite a different trip.

Sometimes my friends will ask how the show is going and I tell them "Well I'm on the air for another 2 hours, think I'll go workout in the gym."