Accents, Styles of Speech, and When to Use Them

By Josh Shirt, versatile Voice Over Artist

In my life so far, I’ve lived in the North and South of England and in the Northeast and West of the USA, and sometimes I make changes to the way my voice sounds to fit in or to be better understood.

In my job as a voice over actor I change my voice regularly too. This practice is akin to code-switching and it’s a key part of my job and to a lesser extent, my life, as I’ll go on to explain.

So, what is code-switching?

Code-switching is defined by Britannica as a “process of shifting from one linguistic code (a language or dialect) to another, depending on the social context or conversational setting.”

Basically, it allows an affinity with a given audience. By code-switching into a shared accent or dialect it’s more possible to be accepted and welcomed, rather than being stereotyped or ‘othered.’

Recently I caught a BBC radio programme about code-switching among young black professionals who work in white-majority spaces:

“The term code-switching was first used to talk about bilingual people and how they switch between two different languages and identities, but then it was later described as African American students who code-switched between how they were expected to speak in the classroom and how they spoke at home.”

– BBC radio programme “Seriously…”. You can listen here.

This got me thinking about my own experiences – not with switching language, but with using different accents and dialects – shifting the sound of my voice depending on who’s listening to it. As the program explores, in real life, this isn’t painless as it can cause an identity crisis, but when you’re a voice over artist, switching the sound of your voice can be a useful tool.

My background

I grew up in Derbyshire in the North of England, and I went to school in the neighbouring county of Cheshire.

My native accent is a regional Northern English accent, a kind of hybrid of the counties of Derbyshire and Cheshire.

I started recording voice overs professionally in 2005 and at this point my voice had a strong Northern English lilt.

The first voice-overs I recorded were for Northern audiences. The use of “real” voices was becoming popular in radio broadcasts and commercials, rather than the conventional “stiff-upper-lip” BBC presenter sound of days gone by.

It was a decade after Brit Pop, and I imagine that this shift in conventions was helped by the rise of Oasis and the proud, gritty Mancunian accents of Noel and Liam Gallagher. Radio commercial producers in the North wanted their adverts to have this proud, bloke-next-door sound (in a country separated by a “North-South divide”, the Northern accent is a symbol of proud working class roots) – and at the time, it’s naturally how I sounded.

Here’s my voice in 2006:

In 2007 I moved across the Pennines to Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

At this point, I knew that my accent was perfect for edgy commercials airing in the North, but it seemed less desirable in the South of England and beyond (with the exception of commercials that wanted the friendly approachable character many say they perceive in voices with a Northern English accent).

So, as I started to pick up larger projects, I started to change the sound of my voice to suit the audience. For example, I’d start to soften my vowel sounds so that my accent was more generic for commercials airing in the South of England, and as more people heard my bright, neutral Northern English accent, more work followed.

In 2011, I moved to London. During recording sessions I was sometimes asked directly if I could Southernise my vowel sounds, in effect, to speak with a Received Pronunciation (RP) English accent (“the accent traditionally regarded as the standard for British English”- Wikipedia).

Soon I started to do this automatically; because my native accent was already neutral Northern it was a relatively easy transition for me to speak Southern, RP English.

RP English is often referred to as BBC English and it’s highly desirable for professional projects with a universal and/or international appeal.

It’s the sound of Hugh Grant and Roger Moore in the movies.

Here’s an example of me speaking with my RP accent:

Nowadays

Today, I live in the USA, and I find that Americans seem to understand the RP English accent most easily.

Because I have both a regional Northern English accent and an RP British accent in my “toolbox”, most of the time, I speak with something closer to an RP accent here in the USA.

It has its perks when meeting American strangers — most Americans recognise, understand, and are even charmed by the RP accent, and for me it makes my life easier as I’m not asked to repeat what I’ve said when I’m going about my life and doing day-to-day things like buying milk or groceries.

I’m convinced that the movies have trained the American ear to the sound of RP English. Think Colin Firth, or Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard. British icons have permeated American culture for decades, and as such, the accent is understood and enjoyed, or perhaps it’s simply because everyone loves the stirring sound of David Attenborough!

So, in my life in America I speak with something close to RP English a lot of the time. But, put me back in the pub in Derbyshire with old school friends, a pint of Boddie, and some crisps (American: chips) and my Northern accent “ull come rite bak, luv”.

My voiceover recordings

If you need a voiceover artist with an edgy Northern English accent or professional RP accent them I’m here to help.

Please take a listen to my showreels and contact me if I can help with your project.

ISDN (or Integrated Services Digital Network) is a communications technology from the late eighties, when phone lines and landline telephones were the main method of telecommunication.

In the nineties came dial-up internet, and people would use a modem with their analog telephone line to connect to the internet. However, the connection was slow, and in the process tied up the entire phone line meaning no phone calls could be made or received at the same time.

ISDN provided a way around this problem. It allowed a voice conversation and data connection to happen at the same time and it also offered a higher bandwidth allowing faster connections to the internet.

This is how most businesses use ISDN, but professional voice overs use it in an entirely different way – as a CD-quality phone line that connects their home recording studios (via the use of an audio codec) to studios around the world, allowing their clients to listen in and give direction, and also record their voice performances. The sound quality on a correctly configured ISDN line is almost as good as being in the same room as your client or collaborator.

The Death of ISDN

At the timing of writing this, ISDN is being phased out in the UK. By 2025, it will cease to exist and no more new lines are being added from 2020.

Broadband internet now satisfies the data requirements of nearly all businesses without the need for expensive, slow and outdated ISDN technology.

What Does This Mean for Voice Overs?

Thankfully, there are now many reliable alternatives to ISDN that have been tirelessly tried, tested and improved over the past decade. Audio professionals can also use their broadband connections to link up with each other for podcasts, radio interviews, or voice over recordings, and these broadband-based connections are often free!

Free Alternatives to ISDN for Sending Audio / Recording Live Voice Over Sessions via the Internet

Source Connect Now and Clean Feed are both applications that run in your web browser and allow you to connect for free with others who’ve also loaded the application.

The audio connection is reliable and of excellent quality and can be made fail-safe with the following steps:

• As a voice talent, presenter or interviewee, run an audio program in the background that also records your microphone. This way, if there are any audible data glitches or buffering problems during the web-based audio link, you’ll still have a pristine copy of the audio to pass on by e-mail after the recording session. Audacity is a free digital audio editor that will do this job well.
• Connect your computer to the internet using an ethernet cable (You may need an adapter if you are using a newer Mac). Ethernet gives you a higher bandwidth and more stable connection compared to connecting by WiFi to the internet, which is likely to help your audio connection run more smoothly.
• Select a connection rate that’s not too high. 128K mono is perfectly suitable for most voice recordings, and it won’t overwhelm your bandwidth: The less data you send to less likely there are to be problems with the link.

Premium Alternatives to ISDN

If you’re an audio engineer who’s making a lot of connections to international voice artists, or interviewing people from around the world, Source Connect (full) is a popular way to go.

I’ve used it in my studio and it allows even more stable internet-based audio connections. Its main selling point is that producers can take the audio directly into their DAW (digital audio workstation) and edit on-the-fly as they record a voice talent. This is a big plus point for producers who need to quickly record a lot of audio (e.g. for eLearning courses or audio books). By contrast, with the browser-based free versions, often just the recording is taken during the live connection and it’s then replayed and edited at a later date – taking twice the amount of time.

ipDTL also offer a range of paid-for services that facilitate pro audio connections. SIP audio in particular looks very useful for both voice calls and top quality audio connections – a one-stop shop for the small audio business owner.

Loop Back

To use a phrase from the days of ISDN, now seems like a good time to loop back to the beginning of the article and mention that if you still need to make an ISDN connection, even during and after the phase out, IPDTL also offers an internet to ISDN service, where you can call an ISDN number from your internet browser and send audio from whatever is connected to the audio input of your computer; in my case an audio interface phantom powering my Rode condenser microphone.

So, ISDN for voice overs lives on! (but only for as a long as the physical ISDN lines still exist).

Connect / Contact / Communicate

If you’re looking for a professional voice over actor who has a professional home studio and offers Source Connect, ipDTL and Clean Feed connections, look no further.

I am available for voice overs every week day and can work with you via the internet wherever you are in the world.

Please get in touch to discuss your project.

As an entrepreneur and self-employed person, I’m well-versed with the steps of establishing a new small business: At first there’s the emphasis on a good company name and domain name, then comes the mission statement and company logo, and soon the business cards are being printed.

Next, you’ll be asking yourself ‘how does my business sound?’ and how best to communicate a memorable message about the product or service you’re offering.

If you want your business to be the best, it should both look and sound the best.

By choosing a professional voice over for your corporate message you can ensure it’s conveyed confidently and professionally. As a result your company will also be conveyed confidently and professionally.

Professional Voice Over vs Do-It-Yourself Recording

Sometimes, people choose to cut costs by asking someone in-house to record their voice over, but there are drawbacks of taking this approach:

• The audio quality is usually questionable; room tone and background noise can affect the clarity of your message.
• The tone of voice may sound flat and uninteresting and this can reflect on your company – imagine if your company logo was made from 90s clip art!
• The meter may be incorrect for the script. If read too fast or too slow, the audio will have an amateurish quality.
• If a professional studio isn’t used to make the recording, any amendments needed at a later date will be difficult to match to the original audio and can stand out like a sore thumb when you edit them into your video.

By contrast, here’s what a professional voice over will give you:

• They’ll have a professional broadcast quality studio where pristine audio will be recorded with no background noise, pops or clicks or room tone / reverb.
• You’ll get an engaging read! Professionals are paid to sound anything but “flat and uninteresting”.
• If the video has already been created prior to recording the voice, they will keep in mind the length of your video edit and record the script to meet any time limits, while at the same time sounding fluid and captivating. (Note: Usually it’s best to record your voice over first and create your corporate video afterwards, to fit around the voice over).
• Because most professional voice overs have their own studio, if you need your recording amended at a later date they will be able to provide a recording that’s virtually identical to the original. The new recording (perhaps because you updated the price of your product or have a new special offer) will seamlessly and quickly edit into your original corporate video and will save you money on re-recording the entire script again.

My Credentials

The main types of business communication I usually record are:

Elearning and Training Videos

These require a clear yet engaging tone of voice as the audience often listen for many hours and need to retain the information.

I’ve also written about choosing a voice for your e-Learning course.

Corporate Videos and Animations

Created for:

• A company’s intranet.
• To represent a company at trade shows and conferences.
• For communicating longer informative messages to the public. These communications often make up the bulk of a companies YouTube channel content and / or social media posts.
• Business to business communication.

The voice over style is often aspirational and upbeat in anticipation of the future, or natural and conversational.

Down to Earth Communications (appropriate during COVID-19)

A down to earth tone can be more appropriate for some corporate messages, especially when relating to changes in uncertain times.

Advertising on YouTube, Facebook, Linked In, Instagram or Twitter

When advertising, you’ll need your voice over to sound attention-grabbing and as exciting as the other competing commercials on the TV / radio and streaming sites.

The voice you choose can also give your brand character, whether that’s by choosing a regional accent, a sincere conversational tone or a super cool delivery.

Need a Voice Over Recording?

Please get in touch if you would like my voice to speak for your business. I offer 24 hour turnaround on most scripts and supply ready-to-use audio by e-mail.

First Things First: Choosing Your Voice Talent

Before we get into directing, let’s look at the crucial initial stage of recording a voice over – choosing your voice talent.

When choosing the best voice for your commercial, listen to a few different voice artists’ showreels. Ideally you want to hear close to the tone of voice you’re looking for before you contact and book your voice.

If you’re planning on recording a live session with the voice talent, also satisfy yourself that the voice over has experience of live recording sessions and a long line of happy customers. It may sound surprising, but some people cannot take direction well and don’t sound in the studio as they do in their demos. This is an unexpected scenario that can leave you out of pocket as you find and record a different voice over instead (but usually still have to pay the first one).

You can take the risk out of this situation by asking your preferred voice to record a few lines of a demo before you book them. This is a service that myself and many other pros offer free of charge.

By checking off these points, once you’re in a live session with your voice over, you’ll be able to trust them and their ideas – and because we do this all the time we’re worth listening to! We’ll likely be able to deliver your script exactly as you want it, quickly and with little fuss, leaving everyone happy.

That said, should you have a specific tone, pace or style of delivery in mind you’ll absolutely want to play a part in directing the session. So, here’s how to prepare to direct your voice talent.

Preparing to Direct a Voice Over Session

• Before the session, read the script aloud to yourself. While it might make you feel self-conscious at first, the more comfortable you are reading the script (placing emphasis and pause where you want it), the happier you’ll be to relay your aims to the voice over artist during the recording session.
• Reading aloud also allows you to check that your copy is written to time. Adverts for the TV and radio are cut to exact times — usually 19 seconds or 29 seconds for TV and 10 seconds or 30 seconds for radio — so you need to know that what you have to say isn’t too long for your air time slot, and that it can be read at a comfortable pace within that time.
• Print out a copy of the script, or look at it on your phone and annotate it. The following annotation tips will help you remember to read the script as you intended when you’re in the session:
  • Underline words to emphasise them (but use this sparingly; if everything is emphasised then nothing is emphasised!)
  • Place a diagonal line between words to mark places to pause (e.g. “Often you want to pause / for effect.”)
• Before the session make a note of a read you like from the voice over’s showreel and let them know at the start of the session (e.g. “I like the tone of voice in your upbeat commercials showreel at 22 seconds”)
• When thinking of other companies’ advertising campaigns, are there any that sound the way you want your voice over to sound? If so, find the commercial(s) on YouTube and send a link to your voice over before the session.

When the Session Begins

• As voice overs, we love to hear about your project and your aims at the beginning of the session. Let us know:
  • Some general information about the product or service you’re advertising
  • Who your target audience is
  • Where they are located geographically, if relevant, as this could affect the accent we use to deliver your script, in order to resonate more with your audience.
• Next, in plain-English remind the voice over how you want the read to sound, for example: ‘cool and powerful’, ‘formal and professional’, ‘upbeat and friendly’, ‘natural, real and conversational’
• After the first recording, be honest with the voice. Tell them what you think – tactfully! For example, “That was good but it needs to be more upbeat”, “That’s getting there, but can you make it sound cooler and give it more attitude”, “It sounded too much like a hard-sell voice over and it needs to be more natural”, “I’d like to hear it with more light and shade”
• Soon you’ll have a number of versions recorded, and hopefully they’re getting better every time.
• Now is a good time to look back at the script you practiced before the session, is the emphasis where you want it? It’s normal to ask the voice over to re-record single sentences at this point, and then after the session, an earlier recording can be edited and modified by adding in these new sentences.
• As voice overs, we always expect to re-do key sentences and the tag line; this will give you a good number of options to choose from in the edit or when you cut to visuals.
• Important – With all of this said, it’s surprising how often a client will use a voice over’s very first take, even after exploring different alternatives. This is because, as actors, we do this all the time and our intuition is informed by the hundreds of scripts we’ve recorded over the years for many happy customers.

When to Stop Recording

Eventually, time will run out. It’s likely you’ll book a voice over talent for an hour, but that doesn’t mean you have to use all of the hour. In fact, It’s more common not to for short projects like commercials.

My tip here is simply: Don’t be afraid to call it a day once you hear what you like. Decisiveness is a good thing! Recording new versions for the sake of it will only make it harder to decide which one to use, and can lead to a loss of perspective about what you wanted to achieve in the first place.

After the Session – Editing & Post-Production

• When faced with all of your voice over takes, decide on a clear favourite, test it with your music or visuals, and then consider editing in any stand alone sentences that you recorded as alternatives.
• If you need more light and shade and you have a good range of takes, try taking a paragraph from here and there and combining them into one recording. This can sometimes give a more captivating sound to the overall read.
• On the flip side, sometimes you’ll not want to do any editing. A voice over read that’s recorded in a single take can sound very comfortable and natural, and edits will only interrupt the authenticity of the performance given by the voice talent.
• At the end of the day, use your ear – whatever sounds best, use it!

My Credentials

Thanks for reading this article, I hope you found it useful.

I’ve written it from my many years of experience working as a professional voice over artist. I’ve recorded literally thousands of live sessions, either via remote connection (Source Connect / ISDN / Clean Feed / SIP Audio) or in person. Some examples include recording with Microsoft in LA, ITV in London, and on a day-to-day basis connecting with clients in their homes or offices who are creating new marketing content.

People often comment on my ability to take direction very well.

Finally, if you don’t want or need to direct your session, I can also supply audio by e-mail. All you need to do is e-mail me a script. I will supply two or three takes recorded in my professional home studio. I offer 24 hour turnaround on most jobs.

I look forward to hearing about your project.

In this blog post, I go behind the scenes of creating audio for e-Learning courses.

What to Look for in Your Voice Talent

• Firstly, choose a voice who records in a professional studio. You could hire Patrick Stewart, but if he made your recording in a shower cubicle using a smart phone you’d not be happy with the result!
• Next, voice overs who regularly record e-Learning content are the best people to work with. Like myself, they are usually masters of editing and processing audio. They’ll edit your recordings and split them up into separate files (often for each slide that your course specifies). This means their work will drop straight into your training course or e-Learning program and you’ll not concern yourself personally with any audio engineering.
• Hire voiceovers who have a good internet connection and are tech savvy. This way they’ll not struggle to promptly send you the the large number of audio files your training course likely requires.
• Check the talent that you hire are regularly available. When you’re creating a lot of audio, mistakes in the script often need addressing. Hiring a voice over talent who is available everyday will ensure that those mistakes can be quickly amended and your project isn’t put on hold.

Do It Yourself vs Paying a Professional Voice Over

Many people think that they can record a good-enough voice over, especially if the project is on a budget. Not surprisingly however, the recording quality and sound of amateur voice overs is below par most of the time.

Additionally, amateur voices aren’t experienced actors. Remember back to your early school days when someone came in to read at story time? Some people had a knack for it while others would read all words as though they were the same. Which did you prefer?

The bottom line is that a professional voice talent will give the most interesting delivery of your message. E-Learning courses (and nearly all kinds of educational audio recording) are, by definition, long. If the message could be conveyed in a quicker way then it would be. It’s important to respect the fact that your audience are going to be listening for a long time, and so they deserve to hear a voice that doesn’t grate or become tiresome – and even better that keeps them interested beyond the first few minutes!

As someone experienced in e-Learning and audio book acting, I am trained for these marathons of text.

I’m conscious during my performances of e-Learning voiceovers that they must maintain an interesting, clear and engaging tone, as demonstrated in this instructional video I recorded for Samsung.

Choose a Voice Who Can Act

E-learning courses usually have a variety of real-life scenarios aimed at demonstrating the case in point. These scenarios, designed to place the listener in a role play situation, strive to be believable so that the listener can experience and learn from the interaction. It’s therefore important that the voices they’re hearing can act!

Professional voices can often create and perform multiple characters as shown here in my characters showreel:

When you cast voice overs who are also actors your life will be easier:

• Your project will require less planning when each voice can play multiple characters
• Overall the number of voices you’ll have to hire will be reduced, saving you money.

My Credentials

If you’re looking for a voice that ticks all of these boxes, please consider me for your e-Learning project.

To date, I have completed many large audio projects, from audiobooks to training courses.

I Can Also Manage Your Entire E-Learning Project

As an experienced voice actor and trained sound engineer with a good knowledge of the UK voice over industry, I can also offer a one-stop-shop for your e-Learning project. If you would like me to cast multiple talented voices and record and edit your entire project then please get in touch to discuss your requirements.

When choosing the best voice over for a college or university advert, select one that sounds educated yet approachable.

Because universities and colleges are diverse places, you’ll probably want to choose a voice that has a clear and neutral accent that will be appealing to all prospective students.

It’s also worth choosing a voice that sounds young with an air of accomplishment. This way, undergraduate listeners will identify with the voice and they’ll also be encouraged that the college is reputable and prestigious.

Keeping the above in mind, here’s a radio commercial voice over I recently recorded for UTC Sheffield:

Clients choose my voice for projects that need to sound upbeat, intelligent and friendly, and because I have a neutral accent, my voice doesn’t conjure images of a certain place and it speaks to a universal audience, much of the same way that educational institutions do.

 

Voice Overs for Streaming Services, and How They’re Different

For the commercial voice over above, I performed a projected ‘announcer voice’ – designed to stand out in an ad break – but it’s a different ball game when I record for Spotify, DAX and YouTube.

On streaming services, the voice is not sandwiched into a large and loud commercial break (as it is on TV and radio) – instead it is often on its own. The listener is also likely on their own (perhaps listening during their commute or while working out). So for these instances, more of a conversational, one-to-one tone is appropriate.

It’s important that voice overs for streaming services don’t shock or agitate the listener by being too loud, yet they must still be interesting and charismatic.

 

Educational Voice Overs

Here’s a voice over narration I recorded for Imperial College London, informing and welcoming new students:

Voice overs for colleges and universities make up a large part of my work as a professional voice over artist. Perhaps my clients can tell that another significant part of my work is educating people: through e-Learning courses, audio books and English language courses for high school classrooms. In fact, in real life I also occasionally educate in the fields of music and technology!

Contact

If your project needs a British voice that sounds youthful, clear, friendly and intelligent then I’d love to hear from you.