I must be missing something. 4 rejections so far...
I've been doing voice overs for over 10 years, and prior to that worked as a radio station engineer, so I'm not exactly a newbee. But I keep getting rejected. Twice for "overcompresed audio" (when I'm not using any compression), and most recently for "Distortion due to overloud audio throughout." I record with peaks at -6db, edit the loud breaths, and normalize to -3db. That's it. I use a Sennheiser 416 mic directly into a Zoom H-5 recorder, so I don't think the recording chain is to blame. I'm baffled.
Here's a link to my latest rejected audition:
https://soundcloud.com/user-428480045/228494b7cd96d0987f19/s-qh8xu
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Hey Glenn,
I too have had 2 rejected in as many weeks, I emailed and got this reply:
"We have been strengthening our quality standards so what could've been approved before, may not be approved now."
They then advised me to come here, to find just as many folk trying to figure out exactly what the problem is!
I haven't changed anything in my recording process and have complete 2 jobs in the same time with no complaint in that regard.
Still as baffled as you as to why they got rejected.
Fingers crossed for the one I sent this morning, and for you too!
Hi Glenn
Thanks for sharing your audio. I'm checking it and I have to agree there's no overcompression there. I believe the levels are a bit too high, but not overcompressed.
As we've been strengthening our standards, it has gotten a bit challenging to define what constitutes as overcompression. These changes have also brought to our attention some new challenges that we're facing and working hard to redefine. Also, the more strict we are, the more subjective some things may become, which is why sharing the recordings here for a second opinion are always useful and appreciated. Thanks for sharing!
What I can say is that the recording has some hiss noise in the background. I believe this could be coming from some excess gain as I do feel it's a bit too loud. I don't think the equipment is creating it by itself but rather because the recording level may be a bit unhealthy. What about you record with less gain in your preamp and then normalize to -3dB? That's what we usually recommend as normalization doesn't add any noise, yet too much gain can!
Hope it helps :)
Thank you very much for taking the time to listen and reply. Although regarding your suggestion, I do typically record with peaks at -6, and then normalize to -3. I'll continue to try to improve where I can, and hopefully one day get accepted.
We'll be happy to have you, Glenn! I usually recommend you to always reset your gain and increase it depending on when and how you're recording. It could amaze you how the atmosphere and even room temp can affect how audio reacts in a space!