is this audio good enough?
I submit a clip initially and used a teleprompter which made me sound robotic and I had too much reverb in my room
I have substantially treated my room and sound more conversational in this attempt.
Would this sample pass the QC?
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yD4hv7yXHkyyEFXYzCqOjQDXBxxX_axE
Any other feedback re voice, accent, etc is also welcome.
Thanks for your time.
John
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Hey John! Took a listen to the audio and this is what I heard. The Accent is fine, its who you are so just be natural. I couldn't hear any reverb so it sounds like you treated the space fine. Now heres the critique... its not very loud but there is a very slight hum throughout the audio, almost like its coming from the preamp being turned up a little to high. Just edit the parts where your not talking out by either muting it completely or use a plugin for very low frequencies on just a few seconds of room silence and that should do the trick. Almost every time you opened your mouth to speak you can hear some distinct (mouth noise) make sure you are plenty hydrated before you hit record. There are some audible breaths in-between your reads, unless its requested by a client or your recording an audio book, you should be removing those. Either fade them out or cut it completely. I don't know what your DAW is but they all have the capability. Now when it comes to the reading itself, it does sound like your reading a written speech, not very conversational. Without emotion the read will sound robotic, imagine your just talking one on one with your best friend and your trying to tell them some juicy inside information. Reading is easy but acting is hard. Hope this helps you out man I want you to succeed!!!
Also im not a Voicebunny staff member haha
thanks for that, I really appreciate you taking the time.
I kept it simple and just using audacity. I have ardour and reaper but my workflow is noise reduction, limit then normalized to -3db
I love reaper thats been my go to DAW from the get go. If you can't naturally remove the ambient noise then I suggest using the ReaFir plugin with that.
the version of reaper i have is a demo on linux. ill have a play around with it. cheers
If you had to describe my voice would you say it sounds deep, nasal, articulate, bold, energetic, foreign, flat, heavy, etc,etc,etc... ???
Hi John!
Bunny Team member here. I have several comments for you.
Quality wise, the recording sounds quite boomy and nasal. This is because you are recording too near to the microphone and with incorrect mic technique. Try to record farther from the mic and to keep your nose outside of the main capsule. Keep in mind your mouth should be right in front of it and your nose should be above to reduce the chances of having too much nasal sound in it.
There's also a lot of hiss noise in the recording. It's much easier to pick it up at the beginning of the file before you start talking. This sounds quite digitally generated, but it could also be coming from the space as I also pick up room echo in it. How are you recording? Can you let us know which equipment you're using?
Lastly, the recording is clearly not edited which is not ideal. At the end, you can even listen to the mouse click which should've been edited out. I personally don't like Audacity as editing/fading is not very controlled. If you have Reaper, I highly suggest you switch to that one!
im recording in a padded cubicle and yes i have my mouth and nose on the pop filter when recording. it sounds reasonably insulated inside the cubicle.
I am using an MXL550 via a behringer U-PHORIA umc202hd.
I have edited through this workflow, noise suppression>limiter - 6db >normalise - 3db.
Hi John
Thanks for letting me know!
So, have you tried using a different interface? I have seen that the U-Phoria is quite noisy as several Pros here have shared very hissy recordings using this piece of equipment. Also, I am aware the MXL550 is quite nasal so this could also be boosting your nasal sound.
Now, as you mentioned you used noise reduction and other processes, this could also be impacting the recording. Keep in mind noise reduction plugins usually filter out the files a lot to reduce the noise which is not ideal and can end up impacting the frequency range of a file. Can you please share a 100% raw file? Meaning no processing whatsoever?
Thanks!
Hi Angela,
All the files I have are processed so I just whipped up this raw unedited file with a free online script for sample purposes.
RAW https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AK9BD_aPwOmsaUwZ_LaV9Bo3Uj3j0wnt
After Noise Reduction https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wQlNgCos47nxLEITvLchuywJryBLM-BW
noise reducion + Normalisation https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xZJ1H4G4UYcqTfU9cjrIxSkol_yBi2Af
Im really appreciating the input from everyone.
Thank you for sharing, John!
Checking the RAW recording, I definitely find several problems that need to be addressed. The noise reduction step is definitely not helping a lot so I believe it's better to take care of the audio issues without the need of noise reduction.
1. There are a lot of plosives in the recording as well as this strong nasal sound. I believe this is, as I mentioned before because you're recording way too near to the microphone's capsule. Please record farther away from your mic and make sure your nose is outside of the microphone's capsule. You should locate your mouth in the middle of and the nose towards the upper part. This will definitely help. Also, make sure you add a pop filter! This will surely help you reduce the impact of the wind and reduce plosives.
2. There's background noise in your file as well as some room echo. This more likely is because you're lacking some acoustic treatment. The noise is actually hissy and sounds like a computer fan. For this reason, I believe it's important to locate your microphone far from your computer or, if possible, in a separate space. Like, try to isolate the mic from the sources of noise as much as possible!
3. The recording has a lot of breath and mouth noises and the mouse click at the end is very loud. Make sure you edit your recordings by cutting and fading properly so your audio is as clean as possible. Keep in mind these mouth noises are quite distracting so it's always key to edit them out properly.
Hope this helps :)
- I changed my room treatment.
- connected my behringer UMC202HD to a windows machine ( I was using Ubuntu Linux)
- installed the specific driver, made a new recording and that hiss is still there.
This is very frustrating. Do you recommend I replace my usb audio interface?
Hi John
I personally believe changing the interface for a higher quality one would be a good option. I have seen that Behringer is quite noisy and a good number of our Pros who come with quality issues have been using this same interface as you do. You may want to review the possibility of trying another one.
If you're interested in this, we created a guide on choosing a good interface and gave some recommendations. You can find it here: https://help.bunnyinc.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/203362904-Tip-4-Choose-a-good-interface-for-your-needs-
Hope this helps!
Ok - I sold my Behringer and bought a Focusrite Scarlett solo.
Here is a clip with noise reduction only: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1efoo-8UFIazGhZnzmbqLA2cHaeFiFxFk
and here is a clip with noise reduction, normalisation to -3db and then another noise reduction: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lXzKY0GVrgvhRuZZn2exQFnb-pgu8bSk
I also got a second chance to submit a sample so will the above be good enough to pass?
Hi John
Can you please share a 100% raw file? Without any noise reduction? Thank you!