Feedback on Resubmission Sound Quality
Hi there! I recently re-submitted to VoiceBunny and received feedback saying I had room echo and background noise. I recently overhauled my recording space to address these exact issues from before, and I felt I had taken care of it. If someone could please take a listen to my submission and give more specific feedback on this, I would really appreciate. Link to audio is below. I'd like to get my setup done well enough to where this will no longer be an issue to resubmit in the future :) Thank you!
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Hi Sarah
The recording does have a very high level of room echo and hiss noise and there's also a lot of editing issues. The clip also has an excessive volume which could be adding, even more, hiss to the recording. I suggest you reset the volume of your preamp and add it little by little until the gain is appropriate for your voice.
Would you mind letting us know how you're recording? Please let us know which equipment you have and how you have your space treated. If you want, you can share pics of your setup so we can give you better feedback!
Hi Angela,
Thanks for the quick response. The sharp "s"-s I know can be a bit cutting, and I'm not sure if that's a gain issue? But it feels like any time I turn the gain down, the vocal sound quality becomes less clear, so I'm not sure if there's another way to balance that out. As far as editing, I take it you're referring to the clip offs at the end of phrases? I'm used to sharp editing for my clients, so that's a personal preference I can work on changing.
For the audio volume, I found that confusing on the VoiceBunny submission page. I thought my original volume was fine, but when I uploaded and compared it audibly to the samples provided on the submission page, it matched mostly with the "too low DB" sample, so I upped it by 3 DBs in Audacity to match the "ideal DB" sample provided on the page. I would have stuck with my original volume but was afraid I might get docked for the volume being too low, given what the samples indicated.
I use a Blue Yeti Pro USB mic and record/edit in Garageband 10.3.1. I feel sheep-ish sharing this now, given the feedback, lol, but here's a video I recently put up about making my home recording area. But hopefully I can get some specifics back on this on what I can still improve, and as I said in the video, I've brought on and maintained my own clients using this setup.
https://youtu.be/7r16sd67SxI
Thanks!
Hi Sarah
I believe the problem is the microphone. Keep in mind that USB microphones are not apt for professional voice over recording. USB mics are designed for podcasting, streaming and sketch recordings, however, the quality they provide is not up to professional recordings. These type of microphones are very hissy as they have lower quality AD/DA converters and preamplifiers to be able to have a cheap device that you can use without the lag that an interface can add when recording a podcast or streaming.
For this reason, I highly suggest you change your setup for an interface + XLR microphone. There are very good options that are not very expensive and that can definitely give you great quality!
That makes sense. My Blue Yeti did also come with XLR cords so you can use an interface with it. I haven't purchased an interface as of now, but do you think I would be able to use the same microphone and get better sound quality if I use it through the interface + XLR?
Hi Sarah
In my experience, the Yeti was designed to be a USB microphone for which I don't believe it will produce less hiss even if you use it as an XLR. I personally recommend you to purchase a mic that is designed to be XLR and an interface. I love Blue Microphones so you could try theirs! As per the interface, I'm a huge fan of MOTU.
Hope this helps!