2023.09.19 – 0992 – The Diction-ary of Voice – N and P

**N

Name check – saying your name on air

Narrative non-fiction – a true-story podcast

Narrative voice - the voice you use for the storyteller/author part of the story, rather a character voice

Nasal sounds – speech sounds heard in words with m, n and ng letters: ‘many nice singers’, when the back of the tongue is raised against the roof of the mouth (the soft palate) thereby closing off to sound the resonance chamber of the sinus cavities

Natural – a delivery which in itself is not noticeable

Nodules (‘nodes’) - bilateral (both vocal cords) callouses that form on the vocal folds due to voice misuse or overuse. Usually these are reversible with corrections in vocal technique

NPC – Non-playing character in gameplay

NSV - Non-Scripted Vocals: any kind of vocals which don't actually contain scripted dialogue, for example, pain hits, exertions, breathing and so on.

**O

Omissions – when a speaker leaves out certain sounds in their speech omitted such as “cal-forn-ya’ (California)

Omnidirectional microphone – one with a pick-up pattern that is equally sensitive to all directions

Optimum pitch (or ‘home tone’) – the tone at which someone is most comfortable speaking; their natural pitch

Overmodulation (or ‘over-modding’) - distortion caused by too loud a sound

Over-the-top – a presenting style for emphasis or excitement. Not always done deliberately or appropriately

**P

P2P – ‘pay to play’, online casting sites

Pace – the speed of a read

Pad – extra talking usually ad-libbed to “fill for time”that is, until a pre-determined end-time is reached

Pan pot – the ‘potentiometer’ is an additional dial (rather than a fader) on a sound channel. Turning it to the left or right (‘panning’) will cause more sound to come from (or be recorded to) the left or right channel of a stereo mix

Patter – informal, adlibbed, unscripted talk

Peak - the maximum instantaneous level of a signal or audio waveform

Per hour – the hourly rate based on the length of time you spend at the studio (rather than ‘per finished hour’, when the level of pay is based on the duration of the finished production, which is usually much less especially in audio book production)

Per project - a flat rate for a script, regardless of the time spent recording or producing it

Per session - a flat rate for the time spent in the studio regardless of the number of projects recorded

Per spot - charging a flat rate for each commercial spot, regardless of the time spent recording it

Pfh - per finished hour (see ‘per hour’)

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