Quality Control review for reinstating profile
Hi there,
My account was disabled due to QC issues. I've done some tweaking and am hoping you can give a listen and provide feedback.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15KZohG2C9ByMh9m7GhVRRh3x-fbVTQ82/view?usp=sharing
Thank you!
Kathy Fetterolf
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Hey, Kathy!
This test makes me soooo proud I couldn't put in words: congratulations! You've made amazing improvements and even though you're still learning the editing process in Reaper (which you'll dominate soon I know!), this audio shows how hard you've worked.
These are my observations:
The phrase 'top-notch voiceovers' shows that the gate is cutting off the 'p' in top and the 'o' in notch. This can be easily fixed with two steps:
1) Take the raw recording and split it so that you can raise the volume manually and make everything roughly the same level. Where to split? take peaks, valleys, and lows in your waveform as a reference. As the image shows, you have a drastic level difference between parts of the read. This is what I call the 'wind-up' effect: you're colder and more cautious at the start of the reading, which causes you to read at a lower amplitude. The peaks in yellow are mostly from vowels, which you start to emphasize at almost one-third into the reading. Identifying this is key both while reading and while editing, because if you can control your breathing so that you don't burst out vowels while trying to emphasize you won't need to edit them in post. If they made it into the take, the best you can do is to carefully select them and bring them down in amplitude (using splits in Reaper, being careful that automatic fades are not active).
2) Adjust the gate settings: I have a new FX Chain for you that includes a touch of EQ too, but which you can turn off if it doesn't sound right. Gates will do this sort of thing, cutting off quiet sounds in our speech along with the noises and such, so a bit of fiddling around may ensue, so don't be afraid and just play with the plug-in. As with the peaky vowels, it's also important that we identify if something was not properly enunciated or if a sound was held back while recording because those will be the ones affected by the gate. One can always switch off the gate and verify that the sound is there albeit quiet and all so that through manual editing it can be made louder as to prevent the gate from cutting it out when turned back again.
3) Editing: at 00:13.04 a breath can be heard, but I'm sure you'll be taking care of pesky sounds like that with your soon to amazing editing skills.
As far as your sound quality and technical requirements, girl you're golden! I wouldn't hesitate in booking you once you reign in that diaphragmatic speech (so that vowels don't peak as much). As far as editing goes: it's only a matter of rinse-repeat until your audios are squeaky clean! Once again, huuuuuge kudos for the improvement. I'm sure you'll be joining our ranks and scoring jobs in no time!
Cheers!
Hello, Hector! I can't thank you enough for all of your help. I am getting the hang of Reaper and wanted to share with you the fruits of our labor:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nBOaeU2nfVqj5V8ZcBzeHr9XDxb3Hop3/view?usp=sharing
I think it is coming along, and I am looking forward to hearing what you think. I am hopeful I am getting very close to being reinstated and maybe someday soon reading something other than this project (haha!).
Thank you again!
Kathy
Hey Kathy!
I'm really glad to inform you that I'll ask the Bunny Mangers to reinstate your profile. This audio has only three loud vowels and a lack of normalization, but those are the type of things that you'll be able to solve quickly in a revision request, thanks in part to this exercise which teaches one to deal with constructive criticism, as it is part of the daily grind as a full-fledged pro.
Please, keep practicing in the meantime and become more stringent about quality every day, so that you can rip apart your recordings and learn what can improve at every opportunity. This trade begs of us so much more than just reading well or having a pretty voice: it's very competitive and we as pros need to be the toughest QC agent so that our stuff is always tip-top.
I'm very, very glad and thankful for your dedication and hard work! Especially because this phrase "... the fruits of our labor" lets me know that you understood what many pros fail to grasp: this is a team effort! The sour task of evaluating and making recommendations is just a component in a successful project, and I reckon you're more than ready to deal with our feedback doing regular projects
I'll be super proud and happy to hear you recording for our clients, hopefully very soon! Once your profile is reinstated and you begin to take projects, you can continue to use the community and we'll help you out gladly.
All the best from your friend,
- Héctor Adolfo Ituarte
Hi, Hector! Thank you so much. I am so excited! Also, question... you've noted a couple of times that my tests here weren't normalized. I went back to your tutorial... so when I double click on the waveform and get the panel, I click Normalize, and it doesn't usually go to 0. It goes to a number, and I've been subtracting 3 from that number. In rereading your instructions, I think I misunderstood. Am I supposed to set it to -3 no matter what it says? Or am I doing something wrong that it doesn't start at 0?
Thank you!
Kathy
Hey, Kathy!
Please forgive me for not answering before, these have been some hectic days. How are you and yours? Hopefully staying healthy and safe in these uncertain times. Please, receive a virtual hug from everyone at Bunny Studio.
Yes! Normalization in Reaper works under that logic: it'll normalize to 0 dB and one must subtract the 3 decibels using the slider to leave the waveform normalized at -3 dB. Here's a pic-by-pic demonstration of what that looks like:
Fig. 1) Waveform in RAW state, before normalization.
Fig. 2) Normalized waveform: notice the increase in amplitude:
Fig. 3) Waveform with 3 dB of amplitude subtracted from the levels attained after normalization:
Fig. 4) Proof of concept: playback levels indicate that the loudest peak is at -3.2 dB
So, in sum, this is how you can ensure your normalization is successful. If it's a waveform with already large peaks, I'd recommend taming those before you normalize the entire waveform, so that the process can work effectively across the quiet parts of it.
Let's do one last exercise before reinstating, shall we? =)
Hit me with your best shot and let's get this done, I'm rooting for you!
- Cheers!
Hi, Hector! Thanks, as always, for all of your help. I am learning so much. Here's a new test -- hopefully showing everything I've learned?!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GBcjyIaw-zpdeDVjCdMjL7fxs1KfcWA9/view?usp=sharing
And a virtual hug to you too -- crazy times!
Kathy
Amazing work, Kathy!
You have proven that hard work and attention to detail pay off, well done!
I can tell you've learned well and plenty on how to achieve optimal results, I'm very proud of our labor. This sample is more than enough for us to recommend your profile to be reinstated. I'll be letting our Bunny Managers know about this decision and wait on their response.
Thank you very much for all of your efforts and congratulations once again.
Stay safe and healthy!
Hi Kathy,
Thank you for being so willing to improve and take every suggestion Hector brought to you.
As a result, your profile has been reactivated, we're very excited to see all your progress and we wish you all the best with new projects.
Please, take care of yourself and your close ones on these odd times.
Kudos to your hard work!
Thank you so much, Johnny!
As you can see, Kathy: hard work (and smart work) pays off! I'm looking forward to assessing your audios in projects for our clients. Rock this gig as you did this learning experience!
Cheers!