13166: Breathe Easy
Hey there, hero!
This one is worth listening to without the distraction of video. Wear headphones or earbuds, seat them properly and listen.
And, I’m gonna warn you. I tear up a bit in this podcast episode.
Because of the power of human breathing.
How breaths are used run the gamut from comedic to tragic to frantic to romantic.
And I’m on a mission to give you a permanent permission slip around your breaths, as a part of your work that needs to remain, and not be deleted.
De-breathing plugins. Not a thing you need.
Disagree? Agree? Breathing heavily over this subject? Let me know in the comments below.
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Raw transcript:
Raw transcript:
there is a sound that we make as human
beings that
somehow has become vilified among
voiceover Talent it has created an
entire
industry of technology that gets rid of
this sound
and I’m out to fight that urge you may
have that urge a lot of people do they
parrot what they hear
and I want to talk about this and I want
to talk about it in a way that hopefully
will settle this for you and we’ll do
that in this episode of the vo Heroes
[Music]
podcast I want you to listen to this
sound that is one of over a hundred such
sounds exactly like that some longer
some shorter
that helped create the 2024 Grammy
award-winning song Best Song of the Year
from the Barbie movie what was I made
for by Billy
ish that was a human
breath and I hear people in the world of
VoiceOver in the world of on camera work
in the world of
narration just excoriating breathing
breaths because they have to be gotten
rid of they have to be eliminated they
have to be minimized there are plugins
that you get for you can get for every
digital audio workstation that exists
that help you de breath in fact some of
them are called de
breathers and I am on a mission to help
you be at peace with the notion that you
need to breathe when you work you need
to breathe when you do voiceover and
those
breaths should be audible they should be
able to be heard heard it’s part of us
as human beings and somewhere along the
way this notion of getting rid of all
your breaths became a metric for Success
you have to get rid of the breaths now
where did this come from I I don’t know
somewhere along the way somebody got rid
of their breaths and they thought oh
that’s nice and clean but the truth of
the matter is is that breaths are
essential the audience listening to you
is at ease when you’re breathing you can
use
breaths to create
dramatic comedic uh interesting other
kinds of of presentations of your sound
consider the the the passage in a book
where the mom says I don’t know what I’m
going to do today I’ve got I’ve got to
I’ve got to take the kids to school I’ve
got to go shopping I’ve got to pick up
the dry cleaning I’ve got all this and
and and I don’t know how I’m going to do
it so there are a number of different
breaths in
there and I wouldn’t want to get rid of
any of them in fact if you do get rid of
your breaths unnaturally you make the
audience unnecessarily nervous like when
is this person going to breathe it
doesn’t sound
right and you may be sitting there
thinking to yourself oh no David I know
better I know that audiobook narrators
they take breaths out of everything that
they do all right all right let’s take a
listen and find out listen to this
sound yeah that is one of about 40
breaths in the uh in the retail sample
of one of Scott bricks books just went
to Audible and I I captured the sound of
one of his uh one of his here’s the full
sentence next to a window Bridgeman
could read the data now Scott Brick is
arguing
ably one of the most prolific and most
accomplished and best Audi book
narrators in the world I’m proud that
he’s my friend I’m I’m constantly amazed
of what he’s able to do and guess
what you hear him
breathe you hear every narrator
breathe unless you have some sort of a
I don’t know bronchitis some sort of
lung problem you’re you’re in the midst
of an incredible cold or flu uh and you
you have this awful whee going on that’s
one thing but the typical breathing that
we hear and that we are used to should
not be removed from our
work it’s a color of our vocal paints
it’s like saying to to an artist oh yeah
you can’t use that really uh bright red
that you want to use because you know
you want to get rid of that you want to
dreed your
paintings does this make sense to you I
hope so I want you to hear I got an
exercise for you go to Audible and just
at random start with the first book that
you see on the front page and start
listening to a
number of retail samples that’s a sample
that you click on and see if you don’t
hear breathing listen for the breathing
listen for it I know you’ll hear it and
I want to set your mind at ease that you
don’t have to go out of your way to get
rid of your
breaths I never do I’ve done pretty well
at what I do I want to use breathing
just like I want to use
vocalizations and whispering and yelling
and shouting and all other colors of
what I do on my palette I want to use
all those
I hope you do too let me know in the
comments below if you’re saying to
yourself you are so out of your mind
David you have no idea what you’re
talking about I don’t care how how
successful you are you’re just wrong
when it comes to the whole brething
thing I paid $75 for a de breathing
plugin for my DAW and I’m not going to
think to myself I’ve wasted my money it
drives me crazy when I hear bro let me
know in the comments below hit the like
button if you like what you’re hearing
uh hit the Subscribe button if you want
to subscribe to the channel the
notification Bell you hit that and it
will it will tell you when the next
episode comes out breathe easy please
I’m David H Lawrence the 17th I thank
you so much for watching and for
listening and I will see you in the next
episode of the vo Heroes
[Music]
podcast
(from YouTube)
*sigh*
’nuff said.
You are right. Good to know. Thank you for the tip.
Hear, hear! When a narrator isn’t heard breathing, it can make the audience uncomfortable… and they might not even know why.
I’ve also noticed that some narrators and voice actors are *excellent* audible breathers. Their everyday mid- or post- or pre-sentence breaths aren’t too labored or too quick; they’re just beautifully timed, don’t bleed into or out of sentences or images, and complement the tone and structure of the writing.
It’s hard to describe, but it’s the best kind of soundtrack: the one we don’t know we’re hearing.
This was such a good topic. I had a publisher once ask me to make my breaths quieter. So, I played around and discovered that my breaths are quieter when I sit down and record (less projector-presenter-ish). That request encouraged me to analyze my acting/storytelling rather than get into software fixes. I might de-amplify a breath here and there, but I keep them in!
I’m listening to an audiobook now narrated by Meryl Streep. She’s so good that having no breaths doesn’t make me uncomfortable…. but as a narrator, I wish her producer had kept them in.
Couldn’t agree with you more. My wife and I both teach theater acting, voice for the stage and voiceover. Breath couldn’t be more important and is intimately tied to emotion and meaning. It sounds so weird when there’s no breath. I’m always surprised when students think they need to eliminate that sound. They are relieved to learn that it’s essential- on stage, on camera and in VO.
This is one of my favorite things you’ve ever posted about! ALSO! Breath is what distinguishes us from AI and that is a great thing in and of itself. Our breath is the foundation of the work we do and it should not be diminished in the finished product.
As to where it came from, I’m thinking it started with 30-second radio spots, where every second costs money, and the thought is that taking out the breaths increases the emotional energy of the spot. But I’m with you; taking them out for anything longer than that (and really, even for that) ruins the performance. I’ve even heard long-form content like podcasts where all the breaths have been removed, and as far as I’m concerned, they’re utterly unlistenable. I have unsubscribed from several podcasts and YT channels because of it.
Agree 1000%!!! The only time it’s a problem is when the breath wrong for the narrative situation. For instance, someone has a VERY audibly sharp and intense intake of breath when the narration or action has no intensity to it. Probably mostly occurs for new narrators who are nervous, and so their breath is reflecting their nervousness as a narrator instead of the timbre of the narration or action in the text.
Saves a lotta time too! Thank you David
I love breaths!
As to how the “let’s get rid of breaths” movement started…I bet it was the same people who think emotions are bad because they refuse to feel them. It makes them uncomfortable.
Thank you, David, for always speaking these beautiful truths.
Rightly said- most top singers and quran reciters have a tremendous hold on their breath and they breathe quietly. It strengthens lungs too-
I agree – it tells the listener that you’re alive and well. As a singer, when recording, I had to be mindful of taking big breaths up on top of the microphone. But this makes sense when reading as a storyteller. Gives a realistic and natural touch to it all. Thank you for fighting the good fight!
Amen! Hallelujah!