Accreditation Criteria

The two areas evaluated for accreditation are vocal delivery and technical delivery.

VOCAL DELIVERY (Performance and Technique) –

I. Performance:

  • Articulation and speech clarity appropriate to the copy
    • sounds of words are present and clearly communicated
    • no unnatural or distracting over-enunciation
    • end of words neither dropped nor punched
  • Vocal dynamics
    • good use of the four voice variables (pitch, rate, volume and quality) in varying degrees to add interest to speech without creating discernible or distracting speech patterns
  • Dramatic interpretation
    • hitting the copy points
    • effectively communicating key concepts of the copy
    • exhibiting energy appropriate to the copy
    • evoking emotion and mood appropriate to the copy
  • Vocal style
    • natural read, which is more common; or
    • stylized read appropriate to the copy, e.g., when voicing an Anime character

II. Technique:

  • Good breath support
  • Absence of vocal tension
  • Absence of mouth noise
  • Delivery within natural vocal range (not straining to be higher or lower than the voice talent’s natural register)
  • Controlled sibilance
  • Controlled plosives
  • Consonants not over-aspirated
  • Consistent distance between mouth and mic
  • Natural flow without awkward breaks

TECHNICAL DELIVERY (Quality and Technique) –

Although your performance demos will be technically evaluated, you will be asked to also provide a clean custom demo recorded pursuant to SaVoa’s instructions (technical demo). The technical demo will be used to analyze the quality criteria below. The quality of the technical demo will be evaluated by a special section of SaVoa that uses instrumentation and software to determine the acoustical properties of the submitted file. This quality test is designed not only for peer review, but also to provide you with a valuable analysis of your recording space.

I. Quality (technical demo):

  • Audio level (finished work ideally delivered at or under -6dBFS. See T1)
  • Noise level (absence of ambient noise. During recorded “silence,” a cumulative noise floor of -40 dBFS or less is deemed sufficient for broadcast standards. See T2)
  • Room decay (reverberation, echo or ring should be below .07 sec with a decay of 85% from first test impact to a sound level at .07 sec. seeT3)

II. Technique (performance demos):

  • No distortion from poor mic placement or other reason
  • No apparent over-processing
  • No indication of overdriving the mic
  • No digital clipping
  • No obvious pickups
  • No indication of poor or absent pop filtering

T1 Best practice dictates that finished dry reads, whether or not edited for content, should be delivered with a maximum volume level of -6dBFS. This level gives the production engineer ample signal to work with and lessens the chance of distortion on the delivered file.

T2 Ambient noise and noise floor: This cumulative sound, ideally at or under -40dBFS, will be measured against ITU-R 468-weighting noise curve. SaVoa is using this international curve as opposed to “A” weighted for two reasons: (1) We are an organization that serves voice over artists delivering to the international market; (2) the 468 curve is widely considered to be more accurate when measuring noise that it perceivable by humans.

T3 Reverberation, ring or echo are the secondary sound waves that are recorded because of insufficient absorption or diffusion in a recording environment. The lingering presence of these decaying sounds can cause problems in post production. One problem is when two sources, for example, two voice actors in different locations, are edited into one commercial. The difference in reverberation can cause stark contrast in the spacial quality of the two voices. This may hurt the perception of reality when the two voices are supposedly in the same place.