Voice-over: Perceptual and Acoustic Analysis of Vocal Features *Reny Medrado, †Leslie Piccolotto Ferreira, and ‡Mara Behlau Sa˜o Paulo, Brazil Summary: Voice-overs are professional voice users who use their voices to market products in the electronic media. The purposes of this study were to (1) analyze voice-overed and non-overed productions of an advertising text in two groups consisting of 10 male professional voice-overs and 10 male non-voice-overs; and (2) determine specific acoustic features of voice-over productions in both groups. A naı ¨ve group of listeners were engaged for the perceptual analysis of the recorded advertising text. The voice-overed produc- tion samples from both groups were submitted for analysis of acoustic and temporal features. The following parameters were analyzed: (1) the total text length, (2) the length of the three emphatic pauses, (3) values of the mean, (4) minimum, (5) maximum fundamental frequency, and (6) the semitone range. The majority of voice-overs and non-voice-overs were correctly identi- fied by the listeners in both productions. However voice-overs were more consistently correctly identified than non-voice-overs. The total text length was greater for voice-overs. The pause time distribution was statistically more homogeneous for the voice-overs. The acoustic analysis indicated that the voice-overs had lower values of mean, minimum, and maximum fundamental frequency and a greater range of semitones. The voice-overs carry the voice- overed production features to their non-voice-overed production. Key Words: Voice-over—Vocal Features—Voice—Perceptual Analysis— Acoustic Analysis. Accepted for publication April 27, 2004. Presented at the 32nd Annual Symposium: Care of the Profes- sional Voice, Philadelphia, June 6, 2003. From the *Pontifı ´cia Universidade Cato´lica PUC/SP, Brazil and Centro de Estudos da Voz CEV/SP, Brazil; †Pontifı ´cia Universidade Cato´lica PUC/SP, Brazil; and ‡Centro de Estudos da Voz CEV/SP, Brazil. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Reny Me- drado, 1320 North Veitch Street #903, Arlington, VA 22201. E-mail: rsmedrado@uol.com.br Journal of Voice, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 340–349 0892-1997/$30.00  2005 The Voice Foundation doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2004.04.008 340 INTRODUCTION When listening to the sound of a human voice, a listener tends to imagine or even infer some im- portant features of the speaker. Perceived features can range from gender and age, to more specific ones, such as physical structure, facial expression, and social educational background. Other aspects related to the professional group to which the speaker belongs may also be the subject of infer- ence. 1 Voice-overs are a professional group of voice users that evoke some particular interest from both naı ¨ve and trained listeners. 2–5 Voice-overs are pro- fessional voice users with specific skills who use their