Feedback about my application sample. Seek enlightenment.
Hello everyone! My name is Morris and though not a veteran in the world of Voice Overs, I do have a couple of completed gigs under my belt to begin with, which ain't too shabby.
Anyways, I like to share the BunnyStudio Team's feedback about my application sample, their response being:
- It sounds as if the audio was not recorded with professional equipment. Please ensure you are using a professional microphone and equipment to record properly.
I found the feedback odd since I have done work for commercial ads and stuff. For clarification, my equipment/DAW are as follows:
- RODE NT1-A
- Behringer U-Phoria UMC22
- Audacity (I did notice that some artifacting were introduced into the final exports no matter how clean the raw recordings are; they are visible in the higher frequencies via Spectrogram. I usually would have removed those through post processing.)
-
Before exporting -
After exporting
Certainly not top-of-the-line, but definitely no slouch to be considered non-professional equipment. Is there a specific bar that one needs to meet which I am not aware of?
Also, to further clarify; as per the deliverable instructions no post-processing to the recording was done, not even normalizing. Here's a link to my submission : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SBQ-NVOc72byLr4rU-agA97Z0EiUsi2K/view?usp=sharing
It would be great if I can have some enlightenment to that sole feedback, or anything that I have missed and/or need improvements with.
Thanks in advance!
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Hi Morris! I hope everything is going well!
The quality definitely matches the nice equipment you have, but I hear different issues that could cause an application to be revised or rejected, first there is a bit of room echo that can be heard (probably the main cause applications are rejected). The other issue is that there are some plosives, but those could easily be fixed by applying a low cut filter around 150Hz (-12dB per octave). Please give it a try and upload a new file so we can keep reviewing them together!
Kind regards
Daniel
Hello Daniel,
Thank you for reviewing my post and apologies for the late reply; I've also shared this issue in another thread post so as to keep it simple, I'll re-direct that other post (https://help.bunnystudio.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360010194740-Rejected-due-to-non-professional-equipment) to here instead.
Samantha Hutton also agrees with your assessment with a few more points:
So for starters, these are the steps I have taken:
Room Echo / White Noise
https://drive.google.com/file/d/107bGKBPGgoYp9_c_5Ot9vwl89u9apqCL/view?usp=sharing
Plosives / Mouth Noises
It is no surprise that being further away the occurrences of said sounds are lesser, but not completely eliminated. I then tried to do said low-cut filter : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-8xfkrg81Hw7vEGR4xYMEEz2Ri7jSijm/view?usp=sharing
Love to read what you folks think about it.
Regards,
Morris Seng.
Hi Morris!
First of all I hope you have been having great holidays!
That last file you uploaded is the best yet (I hope you noticed how all of the plosives went completely away with that filter!! You can cross that issue from the list right away!)
Also, there is definitely lower background noise, but the room is still audible. You are making great attempts and I can still suggest a couple of things that you can try within your actual setup. First, is the blanket you are using thick? Usually thicker materials absorb sound sooo much better. Acoustically it is always better to have a thicker, porous material if your goal is to absorb frequencies, so in this case using maybe a thicker blanket, or multiple layers of blankets would work so much better (maybe if you have a wool blanket that you use on specially cold nights, you could try with that, I just want to help you use whatever you have before you go out and buy anything).
Another thing that will definitely help is to try and "close" the space that you are recording in, for example putting a PVC tube (or even a broomstick) on top of the doors and throwing a blanket over it could help you create a little closed room when you record that could help you isolate your mic from the room a bit more (because you have quite a good mic, it tends to be sensitive and capture so many subtleties and nuances, and that unfortunately includes the room sound).
I'll be here ready to check some further samples, and happy new year in advance to you!
Kind regards
Daniel
Hello Daniel, and hello everyone!
HAPPY 2021! The new year has come and I hope you all are having a blast. I wish everyone a hopeful year ahead.
As for me, I'm back again with my attempt once again; pardon the late update. Things have been extremely hectic on the day-job side.
Anyways, here's another Voice Sample I did with a tweaked recording space; got some more thicker blankets, but honestly the entire set-up ain't that great to set-up and take-down; will have to consider more practical alternatives. I have been considering Vocalboothtogo.com for their VOMO portable booth.
Well, here's an audition recording I did for a recent gig with said recording space :
Do note that I did do post-editing of these recording; essentially EQ-ing, Noise Gate for the gaps in between, Normalization, and Compression (the latter two being the final steps).
Regards,
Morris Seng
Hello Morris and Happy new year!
I'm glad you got to work on your setup again! As you said, sometimes the complexity of a home-made solution can become an issue, so in those cases one of those portable booths could work well. I haven't had the experience of trying one of those myself but it looks like they use nice materials and that it could work well! Reviews are definitely your frineds there.
Regarding the new samples, they are much better! The signal is cleaner and room echo is practically gone! Just a few tips, be careful when normalizing and compressing, compression can show room echo a bit more, so it might be better to dial it down a bit, and also be careful with gainstaging, the signal is sounding a bit too hot (not distorting yet, but sounds like it's really close). I think with those few final tips you could give a shot to a new application!
Kind regards
Daniel
Hello Daniel,.
Thank you for your continued feedback. I've just initiated the request for reconsideration. I suppose they may refer to this thread, or will it be another 'test'?
On another note, about gainstaging my last few recording samples have been to -3db, but I also learned that Audacity has the "Loudness Normalization" (perceived loudness of -23.0 LUFS) which to my ears sounded more natural-sounding in terms of volume, compared to the standard 'Normalization'. I also humbly think that unless absolutely necessary, in some cases compression may not be necessary as certain words or phrases will need the slight amplitude for expression, especially so in character acting. I'll likely use it if there are certain too-high amplitudes that clearly needs to be toned down.
Regards,
Morris Seng
Hi Morris!
You should be receiving a new application link within 30 days!
Regarding the compression comment I completly agree, it is not neccesary most of the time, and it should be a post-production consideration in most cases.
I hope everything is going really well!
Kind regards
Daniel
Hello Daniel!
I like to take this opportunity to share that upon submitting my second application VO sample today, my account was shortly accepted and now I am one of the newest addition to the BunnyStudio VO talent pool. Thank you Daniel for your advices to my queries.
I'm currently in the midst of uploading my VO samples into the account to build up my sample reel.
Regards,
Morris
Hi Morris!
I'm really happy to hear that, congratulations! Remember that if you need any feedback or help, we will be here ready to help you.
Kind regards
Daniel