Rejecting after accepting
Hello you awesome QA folks. My question is in regard to accepting and then rejecting contests. I am new to Bunny Studios and feel like I have been crushing the opportunities you throw my way for speedies and contests.
This evening, I let my confidence get the best of me and I accepted a contest after quickly reviewing the script....then to my utter dismay, I read the requirements to read the script in the styling of a senior Albert Einstein in English with a German accent! Oh dear, I had 25 minutes to listen to Youtube interviews with ol' Al and hit the studio and editing desk to see if I could pull it off. Alas...my read was rejected (which I totally understand due to a terrible impersonation)
My question is, "If I accept and then stumble upon notes which I feel I may not be able to deliver in a totally awesome way, are my stats affected by clicking the reject button and putting it back in the pool?"
Thanks for any feedback.
P.S. I also had a note in the rejection indicating my room sounded boxy but I have not received that feedback in the last 7-submissions. Could this have been proximity to mic and trying to "over deliver" my Albert Einstein, who obviously (based on the audition I submitted) also spent some of his life in Russia?
Thanks
-Chris
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Hey, Chris!
Thanks for joining us in this space, we appreciate it. For the sake of uniformity, we'll be fusing both of your questions into this single thread, so that we may address all of your concerns in a better manner. How does that sound?
So, first things first: if you ever bump into a project that may pose this kind of difficulty (or others) rest assured that we appreciate the candidness and honesty if you 'flag' it and let us know that it might not be the right fit for you. This would save you and our whole team a lot of work and time, and our Bunny Managers will be thrilled to hop in and assist you in any such matter, ensuring that your stats and standing are not affected in the process.
As for the boxiness issue, I'm indeed picking up a bit of that in both samples posted on the other question. Would you willing to share with me a detailed account of your gear/setup (including pics if possible)? I'd love to help you resolve that tiny bit of boxy/hollow sound that's audible and I think we might be able to figure it out in a jiffy.
Cheers!
– Héctor Adolfo Ituarte (Bunny Studio QC Agent)
Hey Hector, Thanks for the quick reply. Sure appreciate what you guys do to help make your pros succesfull.
Here are some photos and details of recording space and equipment
-The room, is 3.5 feet wide by 5.5 foot deep.
-The walls are lined with moving style blankets and then covered with 1'' foam on all four walls
-The door has a 2x4 2" foam panel and is covered by a suspended blanket
- Front wall has a panel of 2" acoustic foam
- Ceiling is fully covered in 2" acoustic foam and is about 8 feet high
- Microphone Stellar X2 Large Diaphragm Cardioid Condenser XLR Microphone
- Recording to an H5 ZOOM
Thanks for your help!
-Chris
Hi, Chris!
Thanks for the super detailed info and the great pics, very illuminating!
Your room has just about the right amount of insulation/treatment, but what concerns me is geometry. Parallel surfaces will cause the slight boxiness heard in your audios, but I think we might be able to fix this through mic positioning. If you have spare blankets, try locating them in any of the corners farthest from the door (if no spares are available, you could use those farthest from the said corner instead.)
The second thing I'd recommend is flipping the mic upside down and pushing it into that 'reinforced' new corner. Try to set it in a position so that the capsule points down at you, at the point where your nose and forehead meet (where you can comfortably sit/stand while recording). Ideally, there should be around six inches from the back of the mic to the corner's nook and about the same distance from the walls to the sides of the mic.
Try recording test audio with this configuration, using a level of gain that delivers a signal of -9 to -6 dB to your H5 and upload the rawest of samples so that I can help you work on the acoustics and perhaps a vetted FX Chain that can help you deal with any sonic imbalances. What DAW are you using, by the way?
Let's hear what this can do for your sound =)
Cheers!
Awesome feedback, Hector! I have made the adjustments and added acoustic treatment. Just as I completed, I received a revision request for a reviewable Speedy. This was recorded with your recommended setup.
https://mystuff.bublup.com/ui/landing_page?item_id=001-i-5053daac-6988-4a6d-a44f-0c73c44c5bf5
I use Audacity for my DAW
Thanks for any feedback -Chris
Hey, Chris!
This is sounding much better already. I want to persuade you into trying Reaper for your DAW needs. If you'd like to take on this challenge, I promise to come up with a QC vetted FX chain tailored to your sonic needs, so that your voice shines through your setup. How does that sound?
Just upload a super raw recording made with Reaper and I'll guide you through the whole thing as soon as you do =)
Have a great weekend!
Hello Hector, Thank you very much for your help so far and I appreciate your dedication to the success of your voice actors. I downloaded Reaper today and began setting it up for VO. There seems to be quite a bit to learn in Reaper. I will spend the weekend with it and upload some FX free samples early next week.
Thanks again
-Chris
Hector, I worked with Reaper over the weekend. I have attached my first samples using the platform. I used ReaFir to capture and reduce any ambient noise and I normalized to -3 db...Other than that, there are no FX.
Here are the sample links.
https://mystuff.bublup.com/ui/landing_page?item_id=001-i-d2023c23-eb00-4777-9a8a-6624331fff4f
https://mystuff.bublup.com/ui/landing_page?item_id=001-i-92d9f62e-b7de-4579-a6ad-b579ebbba23d
https://mystuff.bublup.com/ui/landing_page?item_id=001-i-96319abe-e5bc-44fd-9c72-457590bb1da9
Thanks
Hey, Chris!
It's so amazing that you've already started taking shots at Reaper! Much appreciated, mate! I like what I hear, but could you please upload the samples without any processing or normalization? As Raw as they come, and in 48K/24b if you can record natively at such quality.
I'll try to make a video explaining my workflow in Reaper and create the needed FX Chain for you to have an easier time with it.
Thanks again for your dedication!
Hola Héctor, disculpe que me meta,
He estado intentando grabar con Reaper, pero no entiendo mucho, esperaré ese video que mencionas para tomar provecho del mismo,
Grabo con Adobe Audition, pero me llama la atención Reaper,
He estado siguiendo el hilo de esta conversación y me he beneficiado mucho,
Saludos,
Hector, I have attached some very raw samples. I edited a couple of my messed up lines out but other than that...nothing. There is a weird voice or audio thing at 27s on the self esteem clip which I would have re-recorded normally and I left in all of my breaths. I feel like you're seeing me naked!
Thank you for your offer of an FX chain video. You have been most helpful! Here are the samples.
https://mystuff.bublup.com/ui/landing_page?item_id=001-i-4496108b-a668-4b90-850c-a24019538e19
https://mystuff.bublup.com/ui/landing_page?item_id=001-i-4c62dae1-8220-4ef3-b693-086695178746
Bienvenido a la conversación Armando. Héctor está haciendo un muy buen trabajo al ayudarme a superar esto hasta ahora. Pensé que era un actor de doblaje profesional hasta hace unas semanas. ¡Ha sido genial!
- Chris
My spanish isn't great but...I mean to say Hector has been great and I thought I was a pro until I started working with him. I have learned a lot!
Si, se aprende mucho con los chicos.
Hello Hector. I got another rejection for boxiness on a contest. My sample is below. Could this be caused from my music stand? I'm a bit cautious to accept another contest until I have this resolved but I'm at a bit of a loss. My studio is small but I do not receive boxiness feedback from any of my other clients. I don't want to slaughter my stats with contest rejections.
Sample Link
https://mystuff.bublup.com/ui/landing_page?item_id=001-i-6e6efd08-10f6-4716-a02d-74983eb16727
Raper EQ photo attached.
Hi, Chris!
First of all, thank you for those super kind words in the previous posts, for patience, efforts, and trust in this process, it's been a thrill to read all of this!
My man, I'm also picking up a bit of reverb/boxiness in that sample. I've been reading through the tech specs for your mic and thought of a case we had with another pro in a similar setup a while ago. It took some time, but we were able to sort it all out in the end, so hopefully, this will be the case too.
At this point, I can only think about beefing up even further the treatment around the sides and back of the mic's capsule. You could use heavy coats, towels, or anything that you can prop up in those sections of the studio and we can take it from there. Analyzing your waveform, I could hear and see that the 'hot zones' in the spectrum are consistent with the frequency response for your particular mic. If you have the means and the chance to do so, I'd recommend upgrading to another super cost-effective mic that delivers in strides: the Slate ML-2. At just $150 USD it's affordable, comes with bundled modeling plugins and I've heard it work wonders from an ordinary closet in spoken word.
But, before making any purchases, let's try and make your Stellar work! Let me know how the adequations go and don't hesitate to upload those super raw samples so that I can work on them presets for you.
Have a great weekend!