Mouth click help
Hello, I would really really appreciate anyone's help on this. I keep doing voiceovers and about half the time they come back for excessive mouth clicks. I'm wondering if there's any tips that you can give me to avoiding this problem. I'm wondering if I'm too close or too far from the mic, too much or too little gain, do I need to speak louder? I do stay hydrated and I've tried the tricks with apples etc, but I still consistently have this issue. Is it something in my processing that I'm doing or not doing? I've attached an example that was rejected for mouth noise. Again, I appreciate any help. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u_ZRenpUKRk00c3l3Bhfur_9Kdr_PzcI/view?usp=drivesdk Thank you!
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Hi,
Thanks for reaching out, we're always here to help.
May I suggest you visit this link where we have specific tips on Mouth Noises? Give that a read, I'm sure you will find a lot of help there. You can try and record a new sample applying some of the suggestions there, then send that sample to us so we can give you feedback if you want.
Hope this helps
Hello,
I read the post and have tried applying the tips. I still get tons of mouth noise. I'm thinking it's more my setup than an actual issue with dry mouth. Do you have any other suggestions? I'm at a total loss.
Thank you
I tried raising the gain. Do you think it helped? Thank you for the input.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=12L4j3s2uHFV3L-SYQ6hbRDrS3TADvMLK
So, it seems like it's helping with the mouth noises, but... are you using any processing, such as noise gate or deverb? Sounds to me like you are, and maybe the settings are affecting your audio quality.
How about you tell let me know your recording process, you go into the DAW, you set your gain, you record, and then what? Editing, EQ, processing, let me know, that way we can figure out if it's something DAW related or hardware.
I go into the DAW, set gain, record and then I
1) Normalize the track to -3db
2) I put on EQ
3) I put on a noise gate
4) I edit out any obvious clicks in between words. There aren't usually many in between because the gate catches them.
5) I'll fade in between and cuts I've made
Below is an image of the settings I use for the Gate and Equalizer
Thank you so much for the guidance!
Hi, Sara!
Thanks for reaching out and sharing not just your samples, but all of that very helpful information you've posted! It's so much easier for us to dispense advice once we're not "in the blind" anymore.
The order of your processes does alter your final results:
When dealing with post-processing, plug-ins and such, there is an order we should follow for best, fastest and consistent results.
First and foremost: find a gain setting and stick with it. Mark it on your interface/preamp, glue the knob down or do whatever you need to so that you never let go of the sweet spot where your gear records clean sound at a level that works for intelligible speech, without white noise/hiss and or picking up much of room echoes/ambient noise. This is not hard to do and it seems you're already there by now. Also: make sure your recording at the best sampling rate your system allows. We recommend recording and editing at a sample rate of at least 96kHz/24-bit so that the processes to be applied have a lot more headroom (digitally speaking) to operate.
Next: normalize your audio to 0 dB and on that channel turn the Noise Gate on in the channel. This is your working waveform. Noise gates can be a very useful tool, but setting them up does take a lot of expertise/practice and the very least, a bunch of experimentation. I'm sure the plug-in you're using will allow you to save some presets. This is useful because one's levels can differ at a recording stage depending on the material, intention or volume. These functions will no doubt impact the performance of your gate, for its working is fairly simple: when you set a threshold for it to operate, it will not allow sounds of said amplitude or less to go through. I'm sure you can hear your mouth clicks and breaths and see how loud those sounds are. That will give you the reference point at which to set the gate and adjust it from there. You might find that aggressive settings will cut off parts of your speech (transients), so experiment with as many styles of recordings you have and save at least two presets on which you can rely for your everyday needs.
The next process on the rack hierarchy is the EQ. First, evaluate your raw sound and make a very careful decision about what kind of EQing you'll be applying to your audio: always begin subtracting offending frequency imbalances and try not to add anything that's not needed. Again, save presets on your plug-in for different needs and read styles, for a kill-all EQ setting is a rare occurrence: VoiceBunny requires very natural audio while some of your other clients might require a more aggressive setting. Having presets saves a lot of time.
Now: bounce or export this waveform in the same 96K/24b quality. It's editing time! Grab that waveform you've bounced/rendered/exported and listen to it. This is the waveform in which you want to make cuts, splices and edit out whatever remaining noises, mouth clicks, and breaths are left. Fading the starts/ends of theses splices does yield great results in 'gluing' the edits together, so keep on doing so: it's a great technique!
Once your file is completely edited and ready for primetime, listen again! Are there any more adjustments to be made? Is something not to your absolute liking? Think like a client does: would you pay for this audio? If your answer is not a resounding 'YES!' from the very first moment, go ahead and make the necessary adjustments!
I hope this quick guide helps you out in finding a fix to all your audio woes, so let us know if it does and especially if it doesn't! Post samples and keep us in the loop on what you did to achieve that golden sound we're all constantly pursuing.
Cheers!
- Héctor Adolfo Ituarte (VoiceBunny QC Agent)
Thank you so much for your detailed reply. This is extremely helpful. I'm going to take the info you've given me and report back once I've implemented it.