How important are pacing and timing in voice-over delivery?

Timing is important for many styles of voice over. Commercials, trailers and comedy reads all benefit from an experienced voice actor who understands those subtleties. For standard narration of large passages of text, such as training or audiobook narration, timing is less important than simply being engaging to listen to, but it is still a factor. 

I often explain that audiobook narrators are like marathon runners, and commercial or trailer actors are more like 100m sprinters. A trailer read might require 10 or 20 takes to nail the perfect timing, cadence and emotion. Audiobook narration is more forgiving, especially with timing, since a more natural read will likely have a continous flow, due to the actor only stopping when they make a noticeable mistake, rather than judging every single detail of their performance. 

For commercial or trailer reads, if you have a hard limit (e.g. 30 seconds or 60 seconds), it's best to check with your voice over artist before placing an order.

As a quick guide, 150 words per minute is a standard pace for reading out loud.

A quick tip - Don't forget that phone numbers and web addresses might look like one word, but every number, letter or word is spoken out (e.g. Double U, Double U, Double U or One Eight Hundred).

Also, do bare in mind that particular vocal styles, age groups, or celebrity impressions often work best at a specific pace. For example, a Matthew McConaughey or David Attenborough  impression would benefit from a slower performance for maximum authenticity, to capture that drawn out, expressive tone. Deeper voices often work best with slightly slower pace too. A low pitched voice requires the physical movement of a lot of mass and air!

As far as pacing, if your voice actor is also an adept sound engineer, they can often edit the voice over to remove unwanted pauses and breaths, in order to deliver an advertising read that captures the audience's attention, and delivers the right energy for the script. 

When considering timing (and most other aspects of voice over work), the best advice is to speak with the performer before ordering to explain what you are trying to achieve.

Timing is important in commercial voice over when a certain amount of copy needs to be read within a certain time, 15 or 30 seconds, for example. Sometimes this can be difficult if you have a lot to read in a short amount of time and you're still trying to sound natural and not like an announcer. Practice and coaching helps with this.

Pacing is super important. If you read everything at the same pace, it not only sounds unnatural, but it's boring. Mixing up the pace can keep the listener engaged, especially during longer scripts such as for e-learning content or audiobooks. 

These two factors are incredibly important, and their impact can't be overstated in this brief response. What I can say is that they can make or break any project. When done correctly, they can significantly boost audience engagement and create a perfect flow that resonates deeply with listeners.

Look at your script! You can tell everything from the words on the page. 

Always ask if the voice over needs to stop at a hard time like :30 or 2 minutes. 

The first thing I do is copy and paste the script into a Word counter and see how many words there are in the script. This will tell you how long the script actually is and can give you an idea of the pace and time you need to read. 

Generally 150 words = 1 minute of narration

300 words = 2 minutes 

600 words = 4 minutes 

etc.

There are 2 types of buyers: amateurs and professionals. 

Amateur's may not understand that you can’t possibly read a 400 word script in 1 minute! These buyers may use chat GPT to create a script and have no idea how to work with a voice talent. Or an amateur wrote the script and didn’t understand how to write for a voice talent. If you don’t ask questions about the hard stop, you may be doomed for a poor outcome. If you ask questions in your requirements about the hard stop or once you receive the script, you can probably avoid the poor outcome. 

Professionals understand how voice over works. They know how many words should be comfortable for that read. It’s just basic math. You still need to ask the questions in the beginning. A professional understands why you are asking. 

Music and visuals can also help you understand the pace and timing. I always ask if they are available. There is nothing worse than a script that you think has a chill vibe by the words, but the music and visuals are completely opposite of what you thought in your head! 

It can also depend on the part of the world your order is coming from. My definition of emotional and thoughtful is very different than from some parts of the world. So be sure you are on the same page and get a reference link. These days, everyone should be able to provide that simple guide. 

In TV commercial and paid social ad work, pacing and timing is paramount.  Consider that most TV spots have already been shot and edited or graphics done at least as a template for the VO.  Many times the Vo needs to flux in time to match graphics or "SOTs" on screen.  Learning to understand the different types of commercial requirements is essential as well.  Many social ads require a 14.5 second final edit.  So that means we can read wall to wall 14.5 seconds as their will most likely be some sort of sound up (music bed or que) and sound out.  Taking that in consideration, you will need to deliver a 13.5 - 14 second read to not get cut off when aired.  It's these tiny details that can elevate you above all other VO hobbyists and put you in the full time voice actor category.

Pacing and timing are very important and should be given their due focus while recording voiceover. Say for example you're doing a voice over for a tourism campaign and the vibe and mood of the film is luxurious, lilting, exotic and soothing. Then naturally the pace of the visuals will match the mood and imagery and the footage will be calm, slow moving and paced out. The voice over should match this with a slower read, creating that feeling of tranquility and peace where the viewer is made to feel relaxed and yearns to getaway on vacation to that exotic destination. So though the copy text of the script might be only 250 words the duration or running time of the entire video will be 4 minutes and 30 seconds. That's how paced out the voice over is...with breaks in between so viewers can take in the sights and sounds of the place as well and feel very much a part of the natural surroundings shown. 

On the other hand, 6, 15 or 30 second ad spots have very specific word counts and advertisers try to maximise their messages to convey all that they want to in an extremely tight timeline. Voice over artists have to make sure to speak fast, yet emotively and clearly without compromising on intonation, modulation, micro-pausing at the right time or emphasising certain key words, offers, dates or discounts. There's an art to delivering these TV or radio commercials or promos where every second translates to expensive airtime! Time is money as they say and it's up to the VO artist to make it count. 

For voice acting pacing and timing play a crucial role when bringing characters alive especially when impersonating voice ages. Young children's voices would need a slower, more deliberate speech and a higher pitch, so too with older character voices where a very slow delivery might be required with pauses, heavier breathing and stutters perhaps whereas playing a teenager would mean speaking 200 words a minute in a contemporary style that's relatable and trending in that age group. The timing and pace of the read is super important to nail these impersonations. 

Voice acting and voice over is creatively challenging and talents who have mastered the nuances of aspects like timing and pacing for different genres of voice over work are well on their way up that road to success in this profession. 

The most important thing is to maintain the flow of the content. Learning to use pauses, where to breathe and how to keep things flowing, even when you are reading bullet points. In terms of timing, many times clients will need reads to come in at :15. :30 or :60...so you need to get them close, but then you can use a bit of digital squeezing to hit the exact mark. Pacing can also be a function of energy level...so you want to get that locked down with the client via a sample read, and then you can be concerned about the clarity and interpretation of your read at the energy level they want.