Every industry has its own terms. In the world of voice overs, videos and animations you will encounter quite a bit of slang. Sometimes it can be hard to keep track! Below we have listed the most common terms and their meaning for you.
Advertisement budget
This is money reserved to use a video for commercial purposes in order to increase its reach. For example, buying ad space to show the video on TV, or as an online ad, or pre-roll, on platforms such as YouTube or Facebook.
Bedje
This refers to the background music you often hear on a voice over or intro. You might not always realize the music is there, but without it the video would suddenly be very dry.
Billboard
These are pieces before and after a TV show in which sponsors announce their involvement. At the start of the show, it will be something like: “This show is brought to you by…”. And at the end: “This show was brought to you by…”. Those two sentences together are a billboard.
Bumper
A bumper is a short clip that can be seen before you can view the actual content. On YouTube, these clips are called bumper ads. It is one of six ad types that the platform offers to advertisers. A bumper ad involves a six-second video. It plays before the platform shows the chosen video. The viewer cannot skip a bumper ad. The cost of the ad is usually determined per 1,000 views, but the rate depends on several criteria.
Buy-out
When you book an actor, presenter or voice over, you might encounter the term ‘buy-out’.
It goes without saying that you pay these professionals for the job they do for you: for their time and for the product they deliver. But, you also want to publish the product they have made for you. Sometimes a person whose image is shown, or whose voice is heard, charges separately for this. That is what the buy-out is. The name gives it away: you buy something. And what you buy is the right to share someone’s work with a (large) audience.
How much the buy-out is, depends on the country in which you want to publish the video and on where the voice over is from. Some countries have unions and fixed buy-out rates apply. Moreover, it depends on the length of your video and the number of versions of your video.
If you are working with someone from our pre-selected database, the buy-out is always included in the fee of organic web videos. You are free to use recordings from these voice overs worldwide and in perpetuity.
Are you using your video for commercial purposes? Then there often is a separate buy-out. In this case, we make a custom agreement on the fee with the voice over.
Are you working with a voice over from our extended database? Then buy-out fees are always custom agreed upon, also for organic web videos. That is because we do not have fixed prices for our extended voice overs.
Company movie
Company movies are also referred to as corporate movies. These are videos in which a company presents itself. Think of matters such as: What kind of company is it? What sets the company apart? Who is the company for? What kind of products or services does the company make/provide? How large is the company? Who works there? What is the company culture?
A company movie can be very informative, but can also be a teasing impression that makes you want to know more about the company. We categorize company movies the same as we do web videos, such as explainer videos, presentations, pitch videos and internal videos. That means we charge the same fee for these.
Creative control
If you want to direct your voice over live during the recording session, you can do so with creative control. Although you work together remotely, you can join the recording session live via a video connection. Such a listen-in session usually has a maximum duration of one hour. Do you need to use more time? This is of course possible, but for an additional cost.
Cut down
A cut down is a shorter version of an existing video. You often see this with commercials, where a 10 or 15 second clip is cut from a 30 second video.
Sometimes, multiple cuts are edited together, e.g. per topic.
Editing & mastering
The editor cuts and pastes the recording into one smooth take. Wrong takes, breathing sounds and pauses that were too long are removed from the recording. During the mastering, our sound technician fixes up the sound levels and makes it sound perfect for sharing!
Timed to the video
You will hear this term when a voice over recording needs to precisely fit an already existing video. After the editing process, when the timing can no longer be changed, the voice over recording needs to match up exactly to the video: not too fast and not too slow.
Guide voice
A guide voice over is a temporary voice over recording made by the producer (client) to base the editing on. This audio guide can also be the lead for a voice actor when recording the final voice over. A guide voice over is sometimes referred to as a ‘dummy voice over’.
A guide voice over is often recorded by the producer. They can also use the Voicebooking Voice Over Generator.
Impressions
This term is most common with online videos. It refers to the number of times a video has been watched. Not all clicks count, a video has to play for at least a few seconds before it counts as an impression.
Do not confuse the number of impressions with the reach of the video. Impressions are the number of times a video is played, including multiple views by a single person. The number of impressions can therefore be much higher than the reach.
IVR
IVR is an abbreviation for Interactive Voice Response. You will encounter this when you call a number and receive instructions by a computer-generated voice to make a choice, e.g. ‘Press 9 to speak to an employee’.
Jingle
A jingle is a short music track or melody. This form of sound branding often serves a commercial purpose, for instance, you will often hear it at the start and end of a podcast episode.
Lip sync vs. Time sync
When a voice over script has been translated and needs to be recorded again in a different language, the new recording needs to fit your video exactly. With lip sync, the translated script fits so well, it looks like the speaker in the video is actually saying the translated words. You can hardly tell from their mouth they are actually saying something different.
Lip sync recording is a very precise and time-consuming job. Voice overs usually go to a studio to record, so the sound technician can help them.
With time sync, the recorded translation fits the duration and content of the video, but you can clearly tell the speaker in the video is not saying the words you hear. In this case, the translator still takes the length of the script into account.
Mastering
Mastering audio for film and video is the process in which audio recordings are prepared for distribution through visual media, such as movies and vlogs. The mastering process for film and video depends on the type of video and the way in which the video will be distributed.
Multiple video versions
If you are producing multiple versions of your video, we recommend sharing this information with your voice over. They might be able to offer you a package deal since their fees are normally per version.
Cleaning up audio
This means that wrong takes, breathing sounds and pauses that are too long are removed from the audio file.
Organic use
This term relates to web videos. It is the measurement of how many times a video is found online without it being pushed (promoted with paid media), which is also known as organic reach. This is also called ‘passive use’.
Pre-roll
This is an exclusively online term. They are the short clips of video you see before watching the video content you actually want to see. Sometimes you are able to skip a pre-roll and sometimes you are obligated to watch a few seconds, or even the whole thing. A pre-roll is used to advertise, this is “pushed media”.
Processing
This tool is used to make the audio file suitable for all devices.
Pushing
We use this term when dealing with a video for which there is an advertisement budget. As well as pushed media, terms like ‘paid video’ or ‘paid media’ are also used.
Raw audio
This is raw audio, meaning unedited audio. Before your audio is usable, you need audio post-production. That means everything goes through the compressor and the volume levels for the voice over, the music and the sound effects are properly adjusted.
Retake
A retake is a re-recording: recording something again. This happens whenever you are not fully satisfied with the first result. Usually, voice overs do not charge for a retake when it is an issue with tempo, tone of voice or pronunciation. If you adjust the script after the first recording, a retake is often not free of charge.
Sample vs. demo
Every voice over has a demo. This audio file allows you to hear their voice and what it has to offer in terms of sound and tone of voice.
A sample is a test recording of a sample from your script.
Both files are meant to determine whether a voice matches a specific project. The demo is a standard recording, whereas the sample is a unique customized recording.
SoundFX
FX is slang for “effects”. These are the sound effects that are added to a video. Think of swooshes, pings or other sounds. Music does not fall under soundFX.
Targeting
Targeting means you make sure a specific audience is aware of your content, such as a video.
Different types of productions
You can use voice overs for every kind of video or audio production. We have listed the categories we use below.
Web video and corporate video
Includes web videos, corporate videos, event videos, animations, internal videos and instructional videos (all exclude commercial usage).
Pre-roll/Internet commercial
These are online videos used for commercial purposes, such as pre-roll advertisements or regular internet ads.
TV commercial
These are commercial ads for television, broadcasted locally, regionally or nationally, and on both public and commercial networks.
Radio commercial
These are commercial ads for radio, broadcasted locally, regionally or nationally, and on both public and
e-Learning
These are recordings for interactive educational courses/modules. Tutorials and instruction videos are not in this category, they are categorized as web videos and corporate videos. Only when the tutorial or instructional video is part of an interactive module, can it fall under the category e-Learning.
VR/Gaming
This category includes all voice recordings used for virtual reality productions and games.
Voice response and voicemail
These are voice overs used for voice response systems, voicemails, answering machines or information lines.
Other
Voice overs that are used for a different purpose than any of those listed above, go in the category ‘other’.
Web video
A web video is a video that is shown online. It is not shown on TV or in theaters.
.WAV
A ‘Wav’ is an uncompressed audio file. That makes a .wav a large file. The audio information in a .wav file is shaped like waves. A .wav file is the type of audio file that sound technicians work with when doing audio post-production.