Constructive Feedback on Rejection
Hello!
I just got my second rejection letter from VBunny, so I wanted to upload my most recent audition to get more detailed feedback so that I can improve. My most recent submission received the following feedback:
Hi - the quality of your submission does not meet our standards at this time.
Here are the issues found in your application:
Room echo and abrupt editing at the ends of phrases (such as at 00:09 and 00:13) throughout your recording.
Please provide as much additional feedback on the recording as you can, and don't worry about hurting feelings or any of that crap. I just want to get better, be consistent and professional. Anything that will help me accomplish that is more than appreciated. Thanks a million!
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Hi Joseph,
Thank you for sharing!
Firstly You have a very warm and welcoming voice, paired with an enthusiastic delivery. Unfortunately, the recording has a lot of hiss and room echo. Additionally, the ends of some of your sentences are cut very short.
What interface and gear are you using in your recordings?
Hi Joseph
Thanks for sharing! Glad to give you all my feedback.
First of all, your voice overall is really nice! You have great enunciation and a warm and nice tone I really like! Good job on that front. However, the quality is, indeed, lacking a bit.
The issue that worries me the most is the critical level of room echo and hiss. The hiss is definitely coming from your equipment as it sounds consistently high throughout the whole recording and increases on the 's' sounds. Which equipment are you using? Can you let me know which microphone, interface, etc. you're using?
The room echo is coming from an inadequate acoustic treatment of your room. It's important to keep in mind that as much as having great quality equipment, having a well treated space is key to achieving good quality. You can have a $1,000 microphone, but if it's used in a space that isn't well treated, you may not be able to get the best out of it. There are great options to improve your that are not that expensive while you are able to build your own booth. We created an article for it that you can get some ideas from. You can read it here: https://help.bunnyinc.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/203461624-Tip-5-Basic-acoustic-treatment-is-not-rocket-science
Also, the editing of the recording is too harsh as our QC team mentioned. Some areas are cut way too early which leaves the afterimage of a word to be completely cut out. This makes the take sound unnatural and abruptly cut. I can also sense some editing clips which are created due to not fading the cuts correctly. It's important to ensure you always add fades, both in and out, when you edit. This will ensure that the sections transition smoothly between each other and keep the flow of the overall take.
Let me know which equipment you're using so we can see if there's a way we can give you some recommendations along that line.
Thank you for your responses!
For equipment, right now I'm using a 3 or 4 year old Blue Spark Mic, and it's connected to my MacBook with an Icicle xlr to usb converter.
For room acoustics I just moved to a new location and have a reflection shield on the way, which seems to be the same method described in the link you attached!
Due to the age of my mic I did assume I would probably need to replace it, but wasn't sure what would be a solid next step in terms of a mic. Not to mention I would like to have an actual audio interface rather than the icicle, but even when it comes to that I am uncertain what would qualify as good. I would also like to get my money's worth, ya know?
In regards to your comment about editing:
I understood what they meant about the early cuts since they put in a couple of time stamps where the cuts happened in the recording, so I'll just need to be more careful about that moving forward. But I'm not really familiar with how to use fades effectively, so any advice or links you could provide would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks again!
J
Hi Joseph!
I don't think the problem is the mic, the hiss will most likely come from the Icicle xlr to usb converter. I suggest you try a an AD/DA converter, much better if it's firewire and has decent preamps.
Best,
Juan.