It’s often said that audio is 50% of video, but its impact can feel even greater. While great visuals capture attention, audio quality helps engagement, clarity, and the overall professionalism of your message. Yet, it’s frequently treated as an afterthought.
We believe audio deserves just as much attention as visuals – Harry, our Animation Director, is also a bit of an audio nerd and loves to bring animation to life with sound. This post explains why professional audio is important for effective video content and includes three important components: sound design, professional voiceovers, and music licensing.
The Impact of Good (and Bad) Audio
How does sound affect the viewer’s experience?
Setting the Mood & Emotional Connection
Music, tone of voice, and even quietly added background sounds can shape how a viewer feels. The right audio can build excitement, convey empathy, create urgency, or build trust. The wrong audio can break that connection. In fact, a TechSmith study found that poor audio quality was one of the leading reasons people stopped watching a video.
Sometimes, we find that clients will choose a music style because it’s their favourite genre, but it’s important to put your personal music tastes aside (sadly, not everyone likes The Doors) and let the professionals choose something that will strike the right tone with the audience.
Building Trust & Credibility
Clean, well-balanced audio signals professionalism and attention to detail. Negative issues like background noise, echo, inconsistent volume, or distortion make the content feel amateurish and can damage your brand’s credibility.
Ensuring Message Clarity
What good are amazing visuals or a brilliant script if the audience can’t clearly understand what’s being said? Muffled dialogue, that’s full of odd reverb, audio that peaks, or overpowering music, can obscure your core message entirely.
Keeping Viewers Engaged
Poor audio is a primary reason viewers click away. High-quality, immersive sound keeps your audience focused and watching for longer, increasing the chances your message will stick.
Element 1: Sound Design – the Audio World
Sound design is the process of adding and manipulating audio elements, going past dialogue and music, to enhance the story and visuals. Think of it as all the background things we hear around us, or could hear.
Sound design is particularly important in animation, such as explainer video productions, where there would be no sound ordinarily. Typical video design for these kinds of videos includes:
Sound Effects (SFX). Think of UI clicks, swishes, or subtle impact sounds, or the specific click of a button in an animated UI.
Foley. Re-creating everyday sounds (footsteps, doors closing, something breaking, body movements), and the sound close-up actions for added realism, especially in animation.
Ambience. Background sounds that create a sense of place (office chatter, city traffic, gentle nature sounds).
Why does it matter?
Good sound design makes the video world more immersive, especially with animated videos, such as 2D animation that can be otherwise flat.
It adds texture, emphasises actions, guides the viewer’s attention, and works hand-in-hand with music and visuals to create a richer emotional impact. It transforms what can be a flat viewing experience into something far more engaging.
A corporate video created with stock footage will often have music and voiceover, but professional sound design can lift these everyday clips and make what can be otherwise cheesy stock footage feel more believable.
Element 2: Professional Voiceovers – The Voice
A voiceover (VO) delivers your narration or key dialogue. While it might seem simple to record
this yourself, we often get asked about this. We find that the cost of VO in an animated video production is not a huge proportion of the overall budget, and it’s well worth the money. Using a professional voiceover artist offers significant advantages:
Clarity & Professionalism
Trained artists possess excellent diction and pacing. They know how to deliver lines clearly and naturally, eliminating distracting habits.
Tone Matching
Need a voice that’s authoritative yet warm? Friendly and engaging? Empathetic and reassuring? A professional VO artist can precisely match the tone required for your brand and message; they can even try a sentence in a few different styles to see what works for you.
Emotional Resonance
It’s not just about reading words; it’s about performance. Skilled artists bring scripts to life, injecting personality and emotion that connect with your audience on a deeper level and telling a story. In the studio, we often do what’s called a ‘dummy read’ where we voice it here quickly to start the project going; even when we try our best, it can sound flat and uninspiring. Swapping the audio for the professional read always gives the video such a powerful boost and warmth, even when reading tricky line or long lists – they are the professionals!
Technical Quality
Voiceover artists record in professional recording spaces using high-quality microphones. This high-end equipment eliminates echo, background noise, harsh ‘p’ and ‘b’ sounds, and other technical issues common in DIY recordings (like using your laptop mic or phone). They can usually match the original recording well if you need a pick-up later or an amendment, which is a huge plus.
The only time we would accept UGC audio is for a very particular feel in the video, for example, children recording something heartfelt, perhaps for a charity animation. Even then, the recorders must aim for best recording practices and avoid large rooms, etc. It needs to be as ‘dead’ as possible, for example in a small room with lots of fabrics / furnishings. If it sounds poor, it can still bring it down.
A thought on AI voices. We recognise that being a great voiceover artist is a skill, so we use real people for all our video productions. From what we’ve heard, AI still sounds robotic and not up to the mark, and we are unsure how ethical it is. People are used to it for voice commands, but a video production is a different and immersive experience.
Element 3: Music Licensing
Music is powerful for setting the tone and energy of a video. But you can’t just use any track you find online. This is where music licensing comes in – and it’s a potential legal minefield if ignored, especially for promotional purposes.
Most music is protected by copyright. Using a song (whether it’s famous or a more obscure indie track) without the correct permission is illegal. For a well-known song, you can get a master license or a sync license, depending on your needs. However, it can be expensive and time-consuming.
What is Music Licensing? It’s obtaining the legal right (a license) to use a specific piece of music for a defined purpose (e.g., web video, social media ad, internal training) and duration. Licenses often come with fees and specific terms of use. For royalty-free music, it’s not prohibitively expensive for a well-known tune, it can be thousands.
Common Music Sources
- Royalty-Free Libraries. Services like Music Bed or Artlist offer vast catalogues. “Royalty-free” typically means paying a subscription or one-time fee for a broad license. There are usage rules, but it’s much easier to navigate than other licences. In the studio at Digital Finch, we use premium, royalty-free music for all of our projects.
- Stock Music Sites. Platforms where you pay per track for specific licenses.
- Custom Composition. Hiring a composer to create unique, exclusive music perfectly tailored to your brand is often the best choice for strong sonic branding. However, it typically involves a higher investment.
Why Using Licensed Music Matters. Using unlicensed music can lead to copyright issues, your video being muted or removed from platforms like YouTube and Facebook, and even potential legal action and fines. It reflects poorly on your brand and isn’t worth the risk.
You can find websites with free, royalty-free music, such as the music you use on Instagram and TikTok, but it’s usually limited (only 1 minute) and overused. You also can’t use music from those platforms on your website video, for example. It’s always worth paying for royalty-free music for more choice and uniqueness.
How Digital Finch Ensures High-quality Audio
We understand that creating truly impactful video requires mastering the visual and the audio. That’s why we integrate professional audio practices into every project:
- We use high-quality recording equipment and techniques when we film on location.
- Our editing process includes careful sound mixing and balancing of any recorded audio and music.
- We partner with a variety of talented voiceover artists to find the perfect voice for your message.
- We include a sound design session for our high-level animated video productions to bring it all together for great impact.
- We carefully source and legally license all music and sound effects, protecting you from copyright issues.
Ready to Make Your Video Sound as Good as It Looks?
The power of sound is integral for high-quality video content. Professional voiceover, thoughtful sound design, and correctly licensed music aren’t just nice-to-haves; they are essential for creating engaging, credible, clear, and effective videos.
Ready to create videos that sound as great as they look? Contact Digital Finch today to discuss how professional audio can elevate your next project.
Quick Guide: Audio Checklist for Clients
- ✅ Write a clear script with pauses for natural delivery
- ✅ Choose your tone (e.g., warm, formal, fun)
- ✅ Approve voiceover samples before final recording
- ✅ Avoid recording in echoey rooms (no kitchens or bathrooms!)
- ✅ Don’t forget to license any music used—YouTube will find it if you don’t
