Application not approved due to lack of professional equipment.
Hi,
I've submitted an apllication recorded with a Shure SM27 microphone. My interface is Fire face 800 RCA Interface and my DAW is Pro Tools 11.
It's not the first time I tried to apply to work with Voice Bunny. Last time I used the exact same equipment. The reason my application got rejected was due to much Reverb on the recording. I've worked on my recording space and fixed the problem.
But now, using the same equipment and getting the same audio quality, I got this feedback: the recording sounds "as if the audio was not recorded with professional equipment"
I would like to get some feedback so I can understand the problem and improve if possible :)
I leave here the audio file via We Transfer - https://we.tl/t-2iQKyfPZyK
Best regards
Luís Santos Mascarenhas
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Olá, Luís!
Thank you for joining this space, we appreciate the effort. We certainly understand that such feedback can be a bit confusing, but please bear with us.
Gear wise, we seem to be doing more than fine! You certainly have the needed tools to produce great sounding audio, so kudos on that!
Now, what I can hear in your sample is the following:
1) Room Echo - There's still room for improvement in this regard. Audible reverberations are still present in your recording. There needs to be an improvement of at least a 50% reduction for us to deem your audio acceptable.
2) Processing - What some people hear an 'unprofessional' sound signature is this: digital artifacting (audible in the first 3 seconds of your sample), which may come from a noise suppression/reduction plugin or other subtractive EQ of the sort. If you in fact treated the waveform to try and reduce echoes or other noises, please remove it.
3) Frequency Imbalance - Your audio presents a muddy sound (probably due to proximity effect) with the low/low-mid range being too present.
4) Levels - Your levels are uneven with one big peak and the valleys way below our preferred -3 dBFS peak level.
Please try to follow these suggestions and let's produce a new sample for us to evaluate:
A) Try to improve your acoustic treatment/mic location. You need to address the echoes and reduce them by 70% so a bit of experimentation will yield an ideal result. Follow this link for advice on how to solve room acoustic issues: https://help.bunnystudio.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/203461624-Tip-5-Basic-acoustic-treatment-is-not-rocket-science
B) Set your ecording equipment (preamp/interface) to a level that prints a signal of -9 to -6 dB maximum while recording.
C) Normalize your best recording to -3 dBFS Peak Level. You should not hear any noise (like a balloon letting air out [hiss]), your echoes should be minimal, and there shouldn't be any presence of ambient noise. Use manual leveling or automation to even out your speech levels.
D) Scrub through the waveform and listen for mouth noises: clicks, salivation, cheek noise, and breaths. Mute those sounds carefully and use fades if necessary. If you need guidance this process, follow this link: https://help.bunnystudio.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360006728219-Why-should-I-use-fades-
E) Double-check: is your file the best version, with excellent quality? Go ahead and submit the revision, we're eager to hear what you can do! =)
If you can include pictures of your setup in the next post, it'd be very helpful for us to come up with relevant suggestions that can aid you in solving the issues pointed out in this review.
Cheers!
- Héctor Adolfo Ituarte (Bunny Studio QC Agent)
Hi Hector,
Thanks for the helpful feedback :) I'll apply this tips in the next opportunity.
Cheers!
Luís Santos Mascarenhas