Audio troubles, feedback appreciated
Thanks so much for helping troubleshoot. My first audio sent, had compression noted for rejection.
The only edits I did were normalizing to -3dB and fade ins to clean up the audio. Is it the pre amp
that makes it sound more compressed?
The second submission, is what I was hoping to attach here, but I'm not seeing how to do that. (Sorry!
please advise)
I use a Rode condenser mic with a Focusrite pre amp, no plug ins or sophisticated clean up
tools. I use Cooledit Pro, the grandmama of Adobe, so it doesn't have all of the bells
and whistles, but it gets the job done for VO. My headphones are AKG, but middle road, not high end. In broadcasting work I have generally used RE20 mic's-- which result in a much warmer vocal sound.
Is it just not possible to get that with the Rode mic? I think my performance is always in need of improvement, but my understanding from the rejection is that pops were heard at edit points and it made the audio not sound fluid. I hear it now. How can I rectify?
On a side note, for the nice person who responded to my reply about rabbits and carrots,
as a house rabbit lover (my bun Elvis is turning 8 in August!) Bugs Bunny created the idea
that eating carrots is good for real rabbits, but the truth is hay or leafy greens are proper diet options
for good health. Like many humans, rabbits tend to love things that are bad for them, and carrots
for house buns are serious carb overload and can cause health problems. Love your buns, give 'em cilantro. :-)
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Hi Catherine!
We'd be happy to help here! You can share a Google Drive, Dropbox, One Drive or other cloud service's link with your recording or recordings if you'd like us to compare the submissions you've sent. Make sure you set the sharing preferences to open so we can all listen to it and give you our feedback!
The difference of the mic should be, basically, only within how the voice will be capture and perceived. I mean how warm it is, or how bright or dull, but the overall quality meaning noises, clipping and clarity usually doesn't come from the mic. If the mic is a mid-high end, it should give you a decent quality sounding voice over file. Hopefully, we'll be able to give you some insights as to what is wrong :)
On the thing about the rabbits, that's so cool! I really didn't know that! The weirder thing is that they like the carrots even though it's bad for them. I thought we were the only ones who would end up eating unhealthy stuff just because! Give hugs to Elvis from me <3
Thanks, Angela.
Elvis sends hugs and ear wiggles back to you! His fav is papaya treats, which help with
digestion (even though they're carb-y too) and he'd hop to the moon for them if he had to. lol
Rabbits are smart, social and very loving and entertaining family members.
I have uploaded the audio to my google drive
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0Bx4T1ulqXBt8S2dlNWlTekktaDQ?usp=sharing
I appreciate the feedback and I'm looking forward to making the necessary corrections
and resubmitting an audition. I listened to some of the talent featured on the site and hear
the great quality required.
Be well,
Catherine
p.s.--it's really funny that voicebunny assigned me "the hoppy" because Hoppy was my
first rabbit maaaaany years ago. lol He was awesome too.
Hi Catherine.
Did you use a noise reduction plugin? It sounds heavily filtered especially at the end of each edited section. If you used a gate, the attack and release are very short which is causing the first letter of the words to be chopped and/or faded out. We can deduce the word, but they sound incomplete. If you edited the takes manually, you may be cutting the takes too near to the edge of the word and using longer fades which results in the last letter to be removed.
Also, the take sounds very robotic. The pacing is quite unnatural taking into account the flow and rhythm of the voice at times. It sounds as if you recorded each line, or word, separately which causes an important lack in the cohesiveness of the idea. This is also evident in the intonation. There are areas where you use a more upbeat tone, to switch to a flatter one and then switch again which breaks the flow a lot. It sounds quite unnatural and hard to follow resulting in the message from the recording to be hard to understand.
I know this script is for a phone recording, but all the takes we want to provide our clients must sound conversational and naturally paced.
Our seasoned Pro, Tommy Griffiths, hosted a webinar with us on how he approaches a recording. He's very specific and gives a lot of details on how you can achieve that cohesiveness and naturality I was mentioning is lacking in your delivery. You can find it here: https://goo.gl/gSVTdD
Hope this helped!
Thanks, Angela.
I don't use any plugins. I'm not well versed in what a gate is, my editing
only involves fades. Clearly I need to take a class in proper editing. :-)
All great tips. Excellent advice from Tommy.
Hi Catherine!
I understand. The filtering is quite present, too. Are you adding anything to your recording or is that the clean recording?
Hi, Catherine!
Yes, I think the quality issues maybe due to the equipment you are using. In general terms there is a loud, constant noise throughout the read. The noise could come from the pre amp gain and mic.
You may want to speak a little farther away from the mic, it sounds too close and the mic's capsule can't take all that energy.
What interface do you have? Same Focusrite?
If you haven't add any processing at all, then I believe it's the mic that has a boost in the mids, but in general the frequency response is not pleasant. It sounds opaque and dull. It lacks the crisp and richness that is so pleasant to the human ear, and makes your voice stand out.
Have you considered trying a different mic that suits your voice better?
Let me know what you think!
Best,
Juan
Hi Juan,
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I agree about the mic. I know what you mean about
the richness and crispness that's desired. I just borrowed a different
mic, and I notice that the overall recording level is low--like I have to turn the gain on the Focusrite
all the way up. That can't be good... Is the frequency response something that is adjustable or is it set
by the pre amp or software?
If you have equipment recommendations, please let me know.
I'd really like to sort this out and get the best sound possible.
Thanks for your time!
Catherine
Hey, Catherine!
Well, each microphone has it's own frequency response. That's why some mics work better for certain applications than others. Although there are versatile mics out there, it's good to find one that meets your budget and that works great for what you need.
What you say about the preamp is right. There are some mics that require a lot of gain to reach optimal levels. If your preamp can't handle that amount of gain, you'll be forced to crank the gain up and that will result in noise. That's why it's so important to have good equipment at every stage of the recording change.
Take a look at this article, it'll give you more insight on the matter: https://goo.gl/FXmUB5
Kind regards,
Juan