I love creating visual production.  The kind of work that sounds so life-like, that when you close your eyes,  you actually see it.  It’s easy to do, but you’ve got to focus on what’s going on in the script. 

First off, do you have any characters?  Where are they?  Outside?  In a room?  What’s going on a around them?  The atmosphere is key to selling the idea to the listener.  It can be a busy as a street corner with traffic noise, or as subtle as the hum of the air conditioner and a light reverb on the voice-over.  Don’t have a character?  Imagine your station voice talent is speaking in a room…an office, perhaps….from behind a desk…the chair squeaks as he leans in to get your listeners’ attention.  Maybe he’s using a long pointer to illustrate the details of your promo.  There’s a light tap and the rustle of paper as the pointer hits the large banner with the station’s logo on it.  All of these things are visual, but with the right aural cues you can guide your listener along and make them see what you want them to see.

Next up, you need the right read.  Giving your voice talent the necessary direction to illicit the read you want is very important as well.  I’ve found the talents that I work with to be terrific actors.  With just the right direction they’ll put themselves out on the street, in the kitchen talking over the noise of a blender, or jumping into a swimming pool and saying the call letters as if they’re under water (my voice guy actually gargled water to get just the right tone for the Star 100.7 Pool Patrol promo!).     

If you put some thought into the sounds that are around you everyday, you can infuse them into your production.  Then your audience will surely get the picture!