Differences in quality control standards with different projects
I'm very confused about the quality control standards on VB. For example, yesterday I submitted two bookings. The first was approved almost immediately. The second was rejected twice for "white noise". However, both projects were completed using the same settings and concurrently... and they sounded the same as far as quality.
This happened to me again tonight. I submitted audio for a booking and it was almost immediately approved. Then, almost right afterward, I submitted audio for a contest... and it was rejected by quality control. Again, they were recorded one right after the other using the exact same settings.
Do different VB locations have different standards? Are they listening to the audio at different levels or with different settings for their monitors? This is sooooo frustrating and it's making me think about no longer submitting anything as I'm concerned about getting bad stats and screwing up my studio settings in an attempt to make various QC staffers happy.
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I feel your pain! I'll be interested in what VB can share. I've heard in the past, that the VB QC staff are all pros in the recording/sound business, so they know what they are listening for, but I, too, have experienced the same variable results. I keep hoping they'll give us a coach's red flag (American football reference), so we can challenge the ruling. However, I've also heard that once a read is actually rejected (even if the rejection was a mistake), there is no way to submit a new read or a correction. The system just won't allow it. Our only hope is that they request revisions more, rather than outright rejecting reads. Cross your fingers!
I'm sorry you've gone through this too, Cat, but am glad to know I'm not alone. I sent a message to the help desk and they requested that I send them the different samples that were approved and rejected so they can discuss this with their team. I haven't heard if anything has come of this but I did send them a variety of samples from the past few days. Hopefully this will help them fix the problem of varying QC standards and they will share their solution with us so that we may be informed.
Hi Staci.
Thank you very much for your inquiry. We have been working hard to standardize our QC standards and these cases help us see where we may be failing. Can you also share the samples here so other members of our community can take a listen? I will follow up and give you a reply here once I have looked into this deeply.
I also apologize for the delay in replying! We've been quite busy lately and I was out of office for some days.
I look forward to your reply and your share! :)
Hello, Staci.
I'm Juan, Head of Quality Control for Bunny Inc. Thank you for sharing your concern with our community. I think other Pros may find it of interest too.
Let me start by explaining how VoiceBunny’s QC works.
On the one hand, the team strives hard to ensure our clients always receive professional audio recordings for their projects. This requires a trained and very strict ear when reviewing the deliverables. We also keep the due date in mind so we can deliver within a set timeframe.
On the other hand, the QC team puts a lot of effort into providing clear and constructive feedback. We love working with true professionals, and we also love working with Pros who have great talent and are doing their best to become true professionals. Getting there requires practice, time and most importantly, absolute dedication.
Quality Control and Talent Management teams are always ready to help and offer support. However, it is our job to point out the weaknesses in the deliverable. If you are an online voice-actor recording yourself in your own studio, the responsibility is that much greater because you have to be able to produce - as both artist and engineer - recordings that can compare with the best. The best is what we promise our clients and that is what they expect.
Listening to your projects, Staci, the most common reason why we return your recordings to you is because of excessive hiss. Also, a couple of revisions we’ve requested you to complete have been as a result of the volume being too low. We suggest you revisit the settings on your equipment. Setting the gain correctly is vital to achieving the proper signal-to-noise ratio, otherwise, your recordings will be hissy and get rejected. Reviewing the parameters of your preamp and interface every now and then is always a good practice.
The level of hiss may vary even if the parameters of the recording chain are left untouched. How loud you spoke while recording, the studio environment (even temperature!), the mixing process... so on. Sometimes it’s on just the right side of approvable, other times it isn't.
What I consider important above all is that you trust us. It's in our highest interest to have a good relationship with our Pros. We want to make the work we do fulfilling for everyone.
I invite all of you to take our feedback positively and see it for what it is: an honest attempt to deliver the best voice overs. Use our advice to your advantage. All our QC agents are experts in the field and have years of experience. They can take your career to the next level.
We look forward to receiving your next deliverables.
All the best,
Juan.
VoiceBunny's QC team.
Dear Angela and Juan,
First of all, I'd sincerely like to thank you for taking the time to respond to this thread. After the website issues you've had today, I'm sure it's been a busy and hectic day for you both.
That being said, this same situation has happened to me once again. Today I completed two bookings, both of which were approved by Voice Bunny QC. Immediately after completing these projects, I thought to myself, "Hey - the Voice Bunny QC folks are happy with me tonight so I'll submit an audition!" Guess what.... Using the exact same settings, the exact same environment, in the exact same temperature and with the exact same tone, vocal volume, read, etc., my audition was rejected for "echo". Seriously? Okay... so I resubmitted to try to meet the seemingly arbitrary QC standards. Rejected again! I've submitted a third audition for the same project with the hope that whomever felt my two booking submissions were acceptable would be the QC person to review my audition. This is absolutely crazy!
Look, I truly do appreciate your talents, your input, your advice, your protectiveness of your team and everything you do with regard to Voice Bunny. However, I respectfully request that, rather than trying to pick apart my work and blame this on the alleged variables of my recording studio (which is treated with acoustic panels and supplied with a Shure SM7B, Alesis mixer, etc.), you PLEASE at least look into the possibility that the rejections might be coming predominantly from one source or area than several difference sources or areas. Considering the experiences I've encountered, I highly suspect that QC standards or equipment for reviewing audio vary from one station to another. If my auditions are being rejected time and time again, it seems only logical that my bookings should be rejected, as well... not that I want that to be the case. Lol!
Please look into this for me and other VB Pros who are trying to do right by you and your clients. We've heard and are grateful for your tips and suggestions but this issue clearly needs a different response. In the meantime, I'll wait to see if my third audition gets rejected or not. *sigh*
Sincerely,
Staci
Hi Staci!
I appreciate your report a lot. This all help us improve and pinpoint what could be happening here. It is indeed odd that your Bookings get accepted but certain auditions don't. I'd like to take a look at it so would you be able to share with me the projects via email? I don't ask you to share them here as our projects are private. You can reach me out at support@bunnyinc.com
Thank you!
Thanks so much again, Angela! I'm sending an email with some samples shortly. I'm very curious to see what you think. I suppose it's possible I'm missing something that others are picking up but before I make an appointment with an ENT, I'd really appreciate your feedback.
Sincerely,
Staci
It happened again last night. I auditioned for a project and my submission was rejected because "this recording contains full of unwanted room reverberation". I've listened to my audition and compared it to the others that were approved and I seriously can't hear any difference between them. Am I going nuts? Do I need to get my ears checked? Or is it possible that the variances in QC are happening again? I've discovered that the project expired or was cancelled but I'd still like to know what other people are hearing that I'm not.
Here is the project link: https://voicebunny.com/projects/1-backup-for-fo-revised
My submission can be found here: http://www.andersonmediaworks.com/RejectedAudio.html
And by the way, I had a booking today that just got approved... and it sounds the same to me as my rejected audition from last night. Thoughts? Here it is: https://voicebunny.com/projects/1-palma-director-27s-cut
Hi Staci - they sound similar - but the rejected one does appear to have a little more reverb. In my humble opinion, you sound a little louder and more percussive in the delivery of some of the syllables in the rejected audio,which is giving you a little more reverb than in the approved audio where you are delivering it much more softly and gently.
The approved audio also has quite obvious background hiss which I can hear clearly in the gaps.
What's your studio set up like?
To get rid of all reverb, maybe try adding a little more sound dampening material. From professional foam panels... to carpet - duvets / comforters - blankets - anything!
And see if you can use a little more 'noise reduction' when processing your audio files.
Hope some of that helps.
Best wishes
Kevin James Pond
Hi Kevin,
Thanks so much for your thoughtful and helpful reply! I'm glad you think they are similar (and I'm not going completely crazy) but your further suggestions and observations are even more appreciated. I've got Auralex in all the key places, though I could perhaps add some to the ceiling. Also, my Shure SM7B doesn't put out as much volume so I'm often finding myself needing to adjust the settings on my mixer or to speak louder to accommodate. When isolating the issues, it's clear that the white noise is not coming from the mic or the mixer. I suspect the hiss may be a ground loop issue, which I will be investigating further.
Anyway, thanks again for your response! I appreciate your time!
Cheers,
Staci
Always glad to help a fellow pro. And thanks for your reply.
I can only dream of Auralex at the moment :)
Although I did invest in a http://cadaudio.com/products/accessories/as32 which has helped my raw audio quality immensely.
Speaking louder is not going to be a long term solution for you, so addressing your volume output is important.
Best wishes
Kev
Hi, Staci and Kevin!
I'm glad we are having this conversation :)
Staci, I also have the Shure SM7B mic. I love it, it's amazing. Now that you mention it, I think the hiss may come from the preamp. That mic requires A LOT of gain to achieve optimal levels. If the preamp you are using is the Alesis mixer you mention above, that could be where the hiss is coming from. For that particular mic, I need around +60 dB of gain. To achieve that level of amplification you need to pair it with a good pre. I personally use the UA 710 solo and I have to set the gain and level around 1 o'clock to get a level with which I'm comfortable, without raising the noise floor. I suggest you think about upgrading the mixer for a more powerful and clean preamp to get the most out of that beautiful mic. Anything along that price would be a great purchase. Otherwise, an ART could be a good middle point.
Regarding the recording space, I agree with Kevin, it stills sounds too "live". The sound is bouncing around and then coming back to the mic, hence producing that reverberation. There are different types of foams, perhaps the ones you have are not absorbing enough energy for the room and it's characteristics. What's the room like? Tell us more about it so we can think of ways to help you with that :)
Now, about some projects being approved and other rejected. I understand the discomfort that inconsistency may cause. As I've mentioned before, for VB it's very important to provide its client the best voice-over for their project. With time, we've gradually raised the bar for the quality standards to achieve that goal. Now, that's a process that must be done gradually too.It requires an alignment between the talents and QC.
Now, some projects like Bookings cannot be rejected as the client chose that particular talent. QC tries to achieve the best possible quality without delaying the project so the clients are affected. In other cases like for IVR's, where the quality of the audio will be degraded due to the conversion to the required format, we can be more permissive.
Although we strive for consistency in 100% of the cases, we need to understand that we all hear differently. Even if all the expert agents use the same headphones (Sony MDR 7506), due to age and other factors, their criteria may be different, so there will always be room for discrepancies. While QC continues working on unifying the decision-making, it's crucial that the talents take the feedback positively and take action to improve the quality of their work; otherwise, we'll be caught in this loop.
I hope this explanation helps clarify the situation and provides insights from different perspectives.
Kind regards,
Juan
Hi Juan,
First of all, I'd like to apologize for my delayed response. My aunt, who I help care for part time, had a serious stroke and as her Power of Attorney and "daughter figure", my attention has been on her. Not looking for sympathy or condolences. I just wanted to explain why I went MIA on you. :-)
Juan, when I first read your most recent message, I was elated! You offered so much helpful advice and also were kind enough to confirm a few of my suspicions and explain the possible QC differences in bookings and contests. This makes so much sense! I also did a little more investigating into my setup and, sure enough, I discovered you may have hit the nail on the head about my preamp.
Though I have one of the "higher end" Alesis mixers (if there is such a thing), it's clearly not as top quality as those going for $800+. Since I couldn't really afford to spend that much money right now (I'm suffering lost wages due to the extra care I'm providing for my aunt), I did a lot of research online and found something that looked promising.
(Here's where I start to sound like a commercial but I really am being sincere.)
I bought it and... WOW! What a difference! I'm talking about the Cloudlifter Mic Activator (the CL-1, to be exact). It provides 10+ to 25+ of amazingly clean boost to low output dynamic and ribbon mics like our SM7Bs. It does require phantom power and it won't work with condenser mics but it has been terrific with my setup and makes even my lil' ol' Alesis sound like quality piece of equipment! I guess I shouldn't have been so skeptical about it, considering 80% of the reviews for it said it was a "must have" for an SM7B. Plus, it cost only a fraction of what a "quality" mixer would run, even with the extra mic cable I had to buy for it.
Now I've been able to substantially lower the levels on my mixer (where the hiss/white noise/hum was originating) and still get more volume out of my beloved SM7B. I'm so happy with it that I'm tempted to share info about it with the community but I wanted to check with you first to see if you've had any experience with this little miracle worker. I don't want to give out advice that you or Angela or any other VB staff member might disapprove of.
In the meantime, I'm anxiously awaiting my next opportunity to use the CL-1 for a contest... which hasn't been available since I bought it. Lol! I'm 99% sure my auditions won't get rejected for hiss, white noise or hum anymore. :-)
Anyway, thanks again to ALL of you for your thoughtful replies and concern - Cat, Angela, Juan and Kevin! I really appreciate the bunny bunch of you!
That's great, Staci!
If you have the time, you can share a recording with us here so we can also listen and compare the different. The SM7B is, indeed, a mic that requires a lot of gain to work so getting a device like the CL-1 is definitely recommended to avoid extra noise from the preamplifier. We actually got a similar device from a company we're friends with called Simply Sound Co. We tried it out and let me tell you! It worked wonders!
We're going to write a review and share it here so you can take a look!
Hey, Staci!
I'm really happy to hear that! :D
Looking forward to your next deliverables!
Best!
Juan.