Are you an AI voiceover? - How to record voice overs for YouTube

[@nmbr73]

Oh yes, I totally ran into that trap of writing all too sophisticated scripts. I'm not used talking to a camera and thereby must rely on a script - as soon as I press record I'm not able to say a single sentence - I act as if I'm having a stroke or something - it's crazy. So I put a lot of thought in what to write on the subject matter of the video - and when I read it for the voice over it turned out to be terrible. Now I'm just typing what I'm thinking (typing does not have that effect the record button has on my brain) - and this seems to work very much like talking, where you are just saying what you think (not a native English speaker, so idk if these sentences makes any sense; + complying with the cliches about Germans: I already had a beer). It forces me into short sentences with very common words. When reading such a script it sounds mean and stupid - but when reading it out loud it sounds normal (maybe because normally I just sound mean and stupid?!? 😀). However, I would have liked to have see your video two years ago - it could have avoided me making a lot of mistakes and learn lesson the hard way. For the AI voices I strongly believe that they will do the exact mistakes you where mentioning very soon - and thereby it will be even harder to distinguish them from natural voices. In the early days (Alexa, Siri, you car's nav) they seemed to mainly just chain the sounds a word is supposed to be made of. But todays deep learning algorithms are trained on the actual voices of real people - and thereby they will learn to replicate the breathing sounds and such. That's because these deficiencies are part of the source material and the AI will adopt them as "this is how it should be" - it cannot decide "this is how it sounds, but thats incorrect and so I will ignore it". However, as always: an excellent video / thanks for sharing your knowledge!

[@uncle-english]

you really spoke like you were sharing something that you couldn't wait to share sounding sincere and enthusiastic is a wonderful thing

[@metalheads-golf]

Hi Wayne,... I wish I would have any budget to get someone doing voice over. I wouldn't have to look for whom I would choose. Loving it. 🤘🏻😎🤘🏻

[@3D_CryptoCamo]

I have really enjoyed your content! Thank you!

[@TransplantHelper]

You mic use is always top notch. No question if you had 10 videos a day I’d watch them all. Are you filming on the DJI??? Looks great

[@HasanNiz]

I always click off videos with robotic voice-overs as well, with the exception of Internet Historian (and his other channels), it adds comedic effect

[@WayneRECs]

Ha, that's actually pretty funny!

[@briangschaefer7048]

Great video Wayne. Thank you :)

[@Rounder-One]

Often, an outline is better than a script. Know well what you want to say, become very familiar with your message, but best not to read word -for-word. The only way to get away with reading a script is if you are an actor. A really good professional actor. Or a pro VO "actor."

[@OldManRunner]

Great points. Well made. Super helpful. Thanks!

[@GeologyDude]

Wayne, you have such great information and insight. thx much again. I just recommended you to another YT creator

[@MathieuTechMoto]

You deserve way more views !

[@dentaltv]

Always love watching and listening to your channel

[@feetfirstspeks]

THE single biggest downside to so many voice-overs that I come across regularly on KZbin is talking like a machine gun! Often this happens with younger adults. Talking too fast is exacerbated by the peculiar fashion of cutting out the spaces between sentences. In my opinion, pacing your narration properly is a big deal, and it's one of the benefits of computer voices that you can adjust the speed.

[@GeologyDude]

Interesting topic with great points! I know that I actually mistook a professional human speaker, on a faceless YT video, as an AI voice. Another viewer of the video agreed with me in the video comments section. The owner of the site later corrected us about this mistake. I was quite surprised that the voice was real.... Sometimes, a voice can sound too good, with too evenly paced speaking, to seem real.... I am like you. I tend now to immediately stop watching videos that I think are AI narrated. It is because AI generated videos are becoming so common, and I know that highly AI generated videos often contain 30-40% inaccurate information. Because some KZbin channels are now publishing up to 100 videos a day (essentially made of all AI content that receives almost no human review for accuracy), I believe that the inaccuracies of many of the AI produced videos are really degrading the quality of information online.... Your comments are helpful about the need to overly process your own narration in videos. thanks!

[@WayneRECs]

That's a great point and one that vo people struggle with today. Sometimes audio can be too clean. It's a trend that I've noticed over the past few years. It used to be that vo folks would meticulously clean up their audio, but now super clean audio sounds too artificial. When it comes to YT, paid vo people often are in a bind to conform to their end client's creative vision. And sometimes, that is counter intuitive to the vo person's actual skill set. As a result, sometimes you send out recordings that you personally don't like, but it's what the client wanted and then ultimately, the end product is out of your hands.