2023.09.03 – 0976 – The Diction-ary of Voice - A Part 2

Alveolus – the area just behind your upper teeth and where your tongue darts to in the final sound of the word ‘sin’

Ambience (‘ambient noise’, ‘ambi’, ‘nat sound’, ‘sfx’ – ‘sound effects’) - The general sound at a location, such as traffic noise, a protest march, birds and wind in the trees, or the sound of a studio (such as the air conditioning, slight bizz of computers and so on. The sound can be used by itself or mixed under voice clips.

Amplify – to increase the signal strength to make a louder sound

Announcer – an on-air role of someone who has an authoritative or commanding way of speaking

Articulation – the process by which you use your teeth, tongue, mouth and lips, to shape sounds into words. Sometimes used to mean ‘clear pronunciation of words’ such as the right tone, volume, pitch, and quality. (See: ‘enunciation’, ‘diction’.)

Artifact - undesirable sounds around words, such as random humming noises

Aspirate – the release of a puff of air in the pronunciation of a word. The air is not as pronounced as a plosive might be on the initial sound of the word ‘pronounced’, but softer as in Santa saying ‘ho, ho, ho’

Attack time - the time it takes for a sound processor to begin adjusting the volume level, once the noise threshold has been reached

Attenuate - to reduce in force, or make quieter

Attitude – speaking style that shows how a character (or the speaking actor/presenter) would feel

Audacity - free audio editing software, a common first DAW (Digital Audio Workstation: the

program on which you can record and edit audio)

Audio book - the recording of a narrator reading a book

Audio drama – the audio recording of book or play in which several voice actors take part, together with sound effects and music. Sometimes called ‘fiction podcast’ 

Audio engineer – a term used by different studios and stations in different ways for different responsibilities, but essentially someone who uses sound equipment/software to record and edit. Possibly also a ‘sound recordist’, ‘audio editor’, ‘audio mixer’, ‘mastering engineer’ (or ‘engineer’), or even ‘producer’

Audition - Adobe’s paid-for DAW

Authenticity – a speaking style that shows credibility and generates trust

Automation - in a DAW, the ability to automatically change an attribute over time, such as dipping the volume, or panning a sound from left to right, or any other attribute you’d like to change. See ‘envelope’

AVO – Announcer Voice Over  

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