Feedback Received & Acted Upon, What's Next?
Hey VoiceBunny and Bunny Inc.
First of all I'd like to say thank you for the feedback I received on my audition. My first attempt was unsuccessful for the following reason;-There is an audible room echo (reverberation) impacting your recording.
There were no additional comments. SO I acted upon the feedback and I believe successfully treated my recording space to drastically improve my work.
- Original Audition: https://soundcloud.com/user-786375336/james-bunny-audition
- Audition Redo: https://soundcloud.com/user-786375336/james-bunny-audition-redo-1
NOW I have already applied for reconsideration and perhaps my post here can aid in that process. Please critique and provide feedback for the redo recording. Personally I'm fairly content but ultimately biased. Feedback will be used to make any necessary changes until the best result is achieved.
voice actor #SFJPLL4
Thanks to VoiceBunny's somewhat basic feedback I acted upon it and will produce much higher quality recordings moving forward. I thought I had very little to improve, coming here opened my eyes and made me better.
(PS. VoiceBunny one thing I would've loved with the initial audition is a bit more feedback than what was given. Positives and negatives, not an essay, just a sentence or two showing the human touch.)
All the best,
James
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Thank you, James, for sharing your work with us!
The recording has definitely improved a lot. However, let me address a couple of issues that I've found:
1. There's still reverberation, although much less noticeable, throughout the recording; a few sound reflections are affecting the file. You can notice them particularly when pronouncing the vowels (e.g. secs 10 "our..." 17 "on...", etc.).
2. There are breaths that are quite distracting; they can easily be cut out and edited using some fadings.
Thank you as well for your suggestion. We'll definitely have that in mind. Notice that, although we'd love to give more detailed and specific feedback, given the number of applications we receive, our QC team addresses the main issue and provides the reason behind the rejection. After that first step, this is the space we have so we can provide further feedback on your work.
Hope this all helps!
Best,
Oscar
Thanks for the reply Oscar!
The standard here is truly inspiring. You've made me and I'm sure others question everything they thought they knew about their own ears, voice and recordings.
I swear you guys have doglike hearing, I'm actually curious as to whether you simply listen or digitally analyze the audio as well. It could of course be a trained ear due to years of listening to thousands of recordings.
It is INCREDIBLY hard to achieve that 'perfect' recording in my opinion. The process involves a mixture of insanity and immense perseverance.
And it is quite clear that VoiceBunny only accept perfect. The balance of noise / plosives / sibilance / pronunciation / performance etc is a heck of a challenge.
Let me know your thoughts on this one...
https://soundcloud.com/user-786375336/james-bunny-audition-redo-3
Hi James,
Another voice actor here, just curious about your set-up. #3 seems better to me btw, particularly with regard to level, but I seem to hear some close order reflections, perhaps from a hard surface.
I am curious about what mic, mic pre-amp, and interface you are using with your computer. Also what size roo you are recording in, and what you are using for acoustic treatment of walls, floors, etc.
Are you using any compression? If so, be careful how much.
Really like your delivery. Best of luck honing the technical stuff so you can start getting VoiceBunny work.
Regards,
Joe Brown
Hi Joe,
First of all thanks for the positivity!
My mic is a Rode NT1, the pre/interface is an Audient iD14 going into my DAW Cubase Pro / Magix Vegas Pro.
The recording area is a somewhat small space with acoustic paneling placed around and hard surfaces covered with soft, thick materials. The ambient noise is fairly low but the mic does sit on a desk with material under it.
Sound is an incredible beast to tame correctly and I'm still learning. Too much space and you encourage reflections, too little and you risk sounding boxy or boomy. The 'sweet spot' of natural space and somewhat acoustically dead capturing a direct voice is quite the challenge.
I appreciate the feedback very much and I'm definitely self confident. In terms of treatment there isn't much, light noise suppression, light eq/comp and leveling. My perspective is get the recording as good as possible at the source with the right room acoustics and vocal technique. I'm extremely driven to get this right.
I'd love to hear some of your work if you wouldn't mind sharing Joe!
All the best,
James
Thank you, Joe, for your valuable contribution, and James for explaining in depth your set up.
I agree with Joe. That last recording sounds much better, although a bit compressed maybe? I'm able to hear a loud T at sec 09 and some noises -clippings?- around sec 17-18 (behind "on top of all of that...". It would be amazing if you could share a raw file, as we prefer to receive unaltered audios so our clients have room to manipulate them, should they see fit.
It is definitely tricky at first to get the right sound, but once you're able to do it, your workflow will be like a breeze.
Nonetheless, you're definitely on the right path. I'm pretty confident you'll pass the application process when you receive the next test project.
Hello James,
The easiest way to hear my samples is probably the VoiceBunny site. My ID is BLKMNJ8.
I've never used the NT1 (but hear good things about it) or the Audient iD14, which sure gets some great reviews. Makes me want to switch!, However, the rig I have seems to work fine, so guess I'll hang with it a while.
Sounds like you have the walls covered well. Any acoustic treatment on floor or ceiling? My space is a little small as well, so last year added 4" Roxul bass traps in corners and 2' Roxul panels on the ceiling above my workspace. I already had Vocal Booth to Go sound blankets surrounding the space (and recorded stuff was passing the VB QC team) but the traps and baffles made another large difference in lowering the noise floor and reflections.
Best,
Joe
As always thank you for the feedback and information gents.
I'm back again with another take... this time using a different microphone.
Mic 2 Raw: https://soundcloud.com/user-786375336/james-bunny-audition-redo-4-raw
Mic 2 Treated: https://soundcloud.com/user-786375336/james-bunny-audition-redo-4
Joe all I had to do was google your name. You have a fantastic story. As for your work I very much enjoyed it. You actually describe your style perfectly which is warm and believable but of course with an aged quality. Wonderful to listen to and excellently captured. May I ask which mic/s you're currently using?
As for my setup the floor has a rug over parquet wood and the ceiling has a few acoustic panels but not many and is about 2 1/2 meters high.
VoiceBunny has made me evaluate sound like never before. Having a different set of professional ears is invaluable and crucial in my opinion even if I am going a bit crazy.
Oscar and Joe let me know your thoughts on the latest recording. I'll be on cloud nine once I get this all dialed in! One thing I can say is I've learnt a lot in a short space of time.
P.S. The grind continues... I did another take with some adjustments. With this one with your support I'd like to critique myself in the style of VoiceBunny.
- https://soundcloud.com/user-786375336/james-bunny-audition-redo-5
Personally I find this take quite natural and neutral with minimal treatment and good leveling.
I don't have any other issues with the take. I'm content with the plosives, noise and sibilance, what do you guys think?
Cheers,
James
Hello again, James.
I personally think you've done a great job with the first recording. I noticed, however, a distortion at sec 09 "team", perhaps caused by a signal peak; a harsh plosive at sec 11 "pool"; and loud breaths at secs 22, 24, 36 and 39.
I also noticed that some of these problems disappeared in the "treated" version. Nonetheless, it sounds too compressed in my ears. I'd aim for that first recording with a bit of cleaning up.
We truly appreciate the time you've taken to consider and apply our suggestions. Awesome job you're doing!
Hey again Oscar!
Much appreciated feedback as always. I need your ears for another sample.
I took on-board the preference for a neutral/natural signal path and final presentation and the following sample represents a ready-to-go template which I think is pretty good.
The recording isn't so much about the technical performance flaws because they're there. What I would like feedback on is the overall sound. I feel it may be the best one yet.
https://soundcloud.com/user-786375336/james-bookamerican
Feel free to ignore my American accent, I was asked what I sound like when trying to do one.
Thank you!
Absolutely, James!
I must agree with you. This last one has definitely been the best one, in my humble opinion.
Just a small detail: you're leaving there an annoying loud breath after finishing every sentence. You can just delay taking that breath half a second, so it is much easier for you to fade it in post, or you can try to clean it up in your DAW.
Well done, sir!
James,
Agree with Oscar on that last take. The sound seems very well focused and I am no longer hearing reflections. Certainly trust Oscar's ears; they (or his headphones) are clearly better than mine, but this sounds the cleanest yet to me.
My apologies for not listening sooner - it's just been that kind of week.
btw, is that the new mic you're using now, or back to the NT1? whatever it is, sounds like you've got the tech formula well under control. It's a track post engineers can work with as they wish, add compression, eq, etc. It has been a hard lesson for me to learn. I like do the post tweaking myself, but have learned to fight that impulse.
Best,
Joe
Fantastic to hear that from you Oscar and Joe!
That recording was just a test run but yes the breaths are an interesting one. I like single natural takes, but this will lead to breaths in the recording and very difficult to cut and edit perfectly. A complete stop after each sentence would eliminate that. There is a trade-off between natural timing, and editing natural timing. But if that's what it takes to get a perfect take then that's what it takes.
It is a different mic Joe!
Looking forward to my second audition! (whenever that is)
All the best,
James
I'm back again gentlemen.
I haven't stopped working on improving myself and as always would very much appreciate your feedback.
Using the audition script as before but now with a fresh take and updated signal chain what do you think...
https://soundcloud.com/user-786375336/best-bunny
For comparison, my original declined audition
https://soundcloud.com/user-786375336/james-bunny-audition
I think I've come a long way it a short-time, unfortunately I think my brain is now broken with how I listen to audio haha. I've become hyper-sensitive to noise.
All the best,
James
James,
I just noticed a question and a point in the thread that I failed to address. First your question about microphone:
I have an old AKG 414 which sounds great, but not of my voice! (I used it for choral music). For the last year I've been using a much less costly Audio Technica 2020. Before that, I used an ADK A51 ($100!) for a whole lot of v/o, but found I had to to de-ess quite a bit. The AT 2020 gives me some edge without hyping the sibilants. NOTE: I did a direct comparison with a Neuman (forgot which one) and the AT 2020 actually sounded better - at least on my voice.
The other point I wanted to address was your comment about making a complete stop after every sentence. I completely agree with your observation that it's hard to keep continuity and flow when doing that. I always do takes straight through (except when correcting for a mistake) and then address the breathes in editing. For what it's worth, I never entirely remove the breath because it seems to make the final result a little robotic. Instead, I take any loud breath down about 9db. Still seems natural and keeps the flow going. After all, a well placed breath is sometimes an important part of the performance. So far that has seemed to work.
Finally yes! You have done one heck of a job in a very short time. This new take certainly sounds quiet to my ear (trust Oscar more!), but now I hear some of that odd sounding timing between sentences in several places. Usually too little pause, like after "team" and after "match", and again after "customer support".
The quality of the v/o signal has certainly come a long way since the first take. Bravo!
Hi Joe,
During my searches the AKG 414 did come up as an industry beast although I've never tried one. Interestingly I also heard that the modern 414's aren't quite as good as the original?
That's quite incredible to hear that you're getting such good results from what is basically AT's entry level mic. But if it works, it works!
Debreathing as it seems to be called is a weird one. On one hand humans need to hear a breath but advertisers will find it distracting. The quest for perfection is actually somewhat dehumanizing in the sense that it's like we're trying to become like a text to speech bot. My latest recording was my attempt at the stop and edit technique. Editing in the natural flow is tricky.
One trick someone mentioned was pasting in your noise floor if needed for somewhat natural gaps rather than silence. Maybe that'd work, maybe not.
On a side-note through my quests, I noticed that a best seller audiobook on audible was narrated by its author who is clearly not a VO professional with classic errors all over the place. It's called 'Power Moves' by Adam Grant. It currently sits at number 1 and got me thinking that the general public clearly don't demand perfect technique every time. I would even say the performance is quite poor. I found it enlightening to listen through the different types of audiobooks out there.
In the number 2 spot was Michelle Obama's 'Becoming' narrated by her, and I must say performed very well.
Let me know your thoughts.
James
Hello, gentlemen.
I think you've done a fantastic job, as Joe's mentioned. Listening to how much your recordings have improved from the very beginning is remarkable. As Joe's said as well, there are some long pauses when it comes to finishing the sentences that can be edited. Apart from that, I believe you'll ace that test.
Thank you both for your help and your guidance.
Cheers,
Oscar
Hey Oscar,
How long does it take to get the re-audition opportunity?
James
Hello James,
You can expect to receive a new test project anywhere between 7 and 31 days from the day you requested it, as it is an automated process that depends on the number of petitions the system is getting.
Oscar