PLEASE REVIEW NEW SAMPLE
My last submission was rejected due to 1) Excessive background noise in the audio.
2) Inadequate room acoustics treatment. Please install a set of proper acoustic foams to eliminate unwanted room reverberation."
I have since upgraded my set and have made a new recording.
DROPBOX LINK TO NEW RECORDING:
backgroundhttps://www.dropbox.com/s/tu1bus40xr3dlzt/Voice%20Bunny%20Audition%20Redo.mp3?dl=0
Could you please provide feedback on my new audio? Thank you!!
Best,
Daisy
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Hi Daisy!
Thank you for joining us in this space! Hopefully, we'll be able to get you in the right track to Bunny Stardom.
Unfortunately, your audio sample does ache from room echo. This is in part due to the natural acoustics of your recording space. Reflections of your voice can be clearly heard. Also, it appears as though you're reading a bit farther from the mic than the ideal, which also contributes to the echo issue.
Addressing the background noise note I'd say it's more of an electric hiss/white noise issue, which stems from incorrect gain settings in your gear and which we can begin to tackle now:
Improper Gain Levels at Recording Stage
Keep in mind that high gain levels in our recording gear (usually the pre-amp or interface) will negatively impact our final result. Think of this in photographic terms: an overexposed picture. The camera captures too much light and no amount of editing will be capable of making the photograph usable. The same thing happens in audio: if we print a take that's too hot from the beginning, the natural sensitivity of the mic will be augmented by the amount of gain used, causing the noise floor to be raised. This will show as a wind-like sound (white noise), that will be raised if further processing (such as EQ, compression, and normalization) is applied.
You can hear this artifact as a quiet 'shhhhhh' or 'ssssssss' noise in your recording that doesn't vary between the spoken and silent portions of the audio.
Let's try recording empty takes while playing with the gain settings in your interface (wearing good headphones while doing this helps a bunch). If I had to guess, the sample you submitted was made with the dial set at more than 50%. That’s what causing the faint hissing sound commonly referred to as white noise. Once you find a proper gain setting where no white noise is audible (probably at around 33-45%), you can try recording a new sample, addressing your microphone at around 3 to 5 inches maximum.
But Héctor! This makes my voice really quiet, what gives?
Well, that means we're ready to normalize our sample take! Follow Audacity’s guide on that subject and bring your audio to the Voice Bunny standard of -3dBFS Peak Level:
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/normalize.html
Now, listen to the recording and check if any white noise is still audible. If the answer is ‘yes’, go back to lowering the gain in your interface and repeat the process until the crisp clear audio you desire is obtained. Once that result is achieved, post the sample here and we’ll proceed with evaluating its quality. Also, it would be really helpful if you could attach a couple of photos of your setup. This will help us to evaluate your recording space and try to figure out how to get rid of that room echo without too much guesswork!
- Héctor Adolfo Ituarte (Voice Bunny QC Agent)
Thank you for your quick response!
Yes, after re-listening I definitely hear the white noise. My microphone gain was all the way at ZERO when I recorded it, though. For the new sample, I kept the gain at zero and stood closer to the mic (3-5 inches away), as opposed to 12 inches, where I was standing last time.
When I tried normalizing on Audacity to (-3dB), the hiss actually got worse! So I kept it at (-1dB) because that is where I heard no hiss.
Please let me know what you think of the new sample below:
NEW SAMPLE RECORDING:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gqw14u02xsh1lak/Voice%20Bunny%20Audition%203.mp3?dl=0
PHOTOS OF MY BOOTH: (I am in the corner of my office, with a moving blanket closing me in, creating a "booth" feel. I don't have any acoustic foam up, just a carpet underneath my feet and the blanket surrounding me.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jjg64n37we4hmq1/20190823_175942.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/krr1mvhcjaapiqa/20190823_180028.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fmplxno2q8dilkw/20190823_180015%20%281%29.jpg?dl=0
Thanks!
Hey Daisy!
The room echo situation was vastly improved by changing your distance to the mic. 12" apart from the capsule is not a good setting and I'm glad you corrected that!
Now, onto the (potentially) bad news:
I can see you have a Blue Yeti mic of some kind. This type of microphone is not recommended by Voice Bunny for professional voice over for a number of reasons, one of which in fact applies to your case:
It's not normal to have the gain all the way at zero and still present white noise in addition to what sounds as electromagnetic interference.
If you crank the volume up really loud (careful not to damage your ears) you might be able to tell that along with that faint 'ssss' sound' there's a weird digital/electronic quality to that noise. This is electromagnetic interference and it is usually caused by USB ports with poor grounding or isolation within a computer's motherboard. The explanation for this is long and usually a per-case scenario, but generally, computer manufacturers cluster the I/O of a device along with other components on the IDE channels as they connect to the motherboard, which will cause power-hungry devices such as hard disks to cause interference while they're spinning performing read/write operations (the likes of recording audio) or sometimes even the CPU power draw can cause this too.
Unfortunately, there's no escaping bad grounding at that level and sensitive equipment like a microphone will either pick it up or have its signal polluted at the connection point (USB port). The only thing left to do is to try all the different ports of your computer, along with different combinations of USB hubs in the hope that one lucky combo will get you clean power (the standard 5V 150mA one could expect from a USB A port) and have the mic stand far enough from your computer to eliminate the risk of the capsule picking up the electromagnetic waves that could also interfere in your signal: which is also complicated since USB microphones can only be used (as per general recommendation) with cables that don't exceed 6' in length, because voltage drops at longer distances.
Check your PC and see if its USB ports are blue or black. Blue is a color code used for the USB 3.0 standard, which is a high-speed connection. A trick that sometimes helps is daisy-chaining two USB hubs from one of these ports: first, connect any USB 3.0 hub directly to the computer and second in the chain, connect a regular 2.0 hub from which you can then connect your Yeti. This serves a buffer to use the higher power draw and a usually dedicated IDE channel from your computer's motherboard to provide a clean input for your mic and other 2.0 interfaces which can malfunction when connected directly to faster ports.
Finally, be sure to always use the mic in the cardioid pattern* and check once again which gain on the mic combines better with the input volume level in your pc (both systemwide and in the DAW if it applies), as one of these might be higher than desirable.
*Fig. 1: Recommended Yeti settings.
TL;DR
If you wish to save a lot of time experimenting and just go for something that will work, hit us up and we can make recommendations on what gear to use to get the best sounding results because a Blue Yeti just won't cut it for this gig.
Happy experiments and a great weekend for you!
I'm happy to hear what you guys suggest using. I've never worked with an amp/interface before, so any info is very appreciated and helpful to me.
Hi Daisy!
You can definitely try with a Cardioid Condenser XLR microphone (for instance, the Audio-Technica AT2020) and a Focusrite or PreSonus audio interface.
It will basically depend on your budget. My suggestion is to stick to whatever you can spend right now and get the most out of it before considering to purchase fancier equipment.
Hey Daisy!
Totally second what Oscar said! If I had to purchase an interface to begin recording it would be this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QHURUBE/ref=twister_B07CYRYQ8G?_encoding=UTF8&th=1
I have the 4 channel version and can attest to the quality, reliability, and ease of use, plus more importantly: the absolutely clean pre-amps that this little box includes and provides for less than USD $90. From what I saw on Amazon, you could even purchase this as a combo with the needed XLR cable and the AT2020 suggested by Oscar for 200 dollars.
Not a bad way to start a VO business on a shoestring budget!