Please Review New Sample in New Room
Like many others - I've switched studios during the current crisis and am working with some pretty limited gear. AT2020 XLR Mic connected directly to Mac using Audacity with one USB into my XENYX 302 mixer. Not much for preamps but I know VB likes as little effects as possible.
I'm in a pretty quiet carpeted room w curtains and lots of cushions around me. I've normalized to -3.0 db and put 80 hz high pass filter on just to round out any slight boomyness.
Most of my work before was pretty similar but was using a Neuman TLM 103 in a previous studio I don't have access to anymore.
Let me know if I can improve on this sample and or if it would be passable for future work on VB under the quality control.
Thanks!
-T
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gSgO5DJt7Is8vK7IYYzNR0j05IzuKlTi/view?usp=sharing
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Hi, Ted!
First of all, we're sorry to hear that! It's hard to work with other gear and to have our trusted tools out of reach. We feel you.
Thanks for sharing the sample! One can definitely hear the difference between the mic's character, eh? Your audio has still some boominess and a very sharp sibilant range that covers the 3 to 10 kHz range, which you can notice in the pure 's', 'sh', 'tion' sounds and even in some hard consonant sounds (like at in the first word [together]).
I processed your sample with manual correction of the frequencies which might not be the easiest thing to do with Audacity, hence I'd recommend downloading a Reaper trial (now extended to 90 days due to COVID) or a trial and discounted subscription to Adobe Audition.
In short, I applied some more low-cut (at around 94 Hz cutting about 2 dB), plus the manual de-essing through spectral edits and finally manual levelling before normalizing to -3 dBFS Peak Level. Also, I cleaned up some mouth noises here and there, also through spectral edits.
As for your sonic ambience, it's completely fine and aside from what's been annotated, I don't see a reason for rejection/revision request!
Stay strong and keep us posted!
- Héctor Adolfo Ituarte (Bunny Studio QC Agent)
Great - Thanks for the quick reply.
I have actually downloaded a free version of Pro Tools - Will I be able to get that similar processing with the 7 eq High Pass and Low Pass Filter on Pro Tools that you rendered on your end and of course normalizing at -3db?
Hi Ted,
Yes, it is achievable with Pro Tools too, all these DAWs have similar tools to work with. In this case, it will be a matter of you practicing and getting to that "sweet spot" where you'll be able to do similar corrections as what Hector did.
Please, have in mind, those should be small ones, and definitely not noticeable, we highly recommend not processing and overprocessing your files.
It is better to try to get it as good as possible from the recording, than trying to fix it in post.