QC rejected because of reverb
I got a rejection on a speedy I managed to snag supposedly because of reverb -- but I swear, especially for my 2nd take, I cannot hear any reverb in them whatsoever, and I've listened to them ad nauseum with my Audio-Technica headphones. I have my entire recording area, which is a small walk-in closet with no windows, covered in acoustic foam, including on the table that I place my microphone on. I've submitted other recordings with this exact setup and have gotten no complaints, so I don't understand why it got rejected this time (the only differences were that it was submitted in the wee hours of the morning and was a speedy?) If others hear reverb, can you please explain exactly where it is in the recording and how it can be made more obvious to hear? Otherwise there's no way for me to avoid this problem in the future because I literally can't hear the problem. Thanks for the assistance, everyone!
1st take:
https://app.box.com/s/yt3a6g5bern6gfw90w0w0dk0cj4jkre2
2nd take:
https://app.box.com/s/z9pvznolh736o3t8abn9kvuifq8jr4nc
Here is a sample of a recent recording that was accepted with the same setup, so presumably it doesn't have that reverb:
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Howdy! My name is Aaron, I am a fellow voice actor.
I was listening to your recordings, and while they sound really good, unfortunately there is some audible reverb in them.
I hear it the most in your loud vowel sounds, as well as some of the really big plosives that stand out.
Don't worry though, this is a typical "small room" recording issue, so there are tons of ways to tackle solving it!
You may need to experiment more with acoustic treatment, not so much with foam but perhaps something more substantial to treat the bass and low-mid frequencies. I personally use heavy curtains wrapped entirely inside of a small room, as well as thick, soft objects like pillows and stuff, works like a charm for me.
Additionally, I use a dynamic microphone that makes it easier to experiment with different mic positions and angles, since there is a strong rejection field with dynamic mics.
Here are some additional thoughts that might help clarify what I am hearing:
- It sounds like you are not using any sort of noise gate, as I can hear every background sound and breath. This is pretty impressive actually, I almost didn't notice this at first which means you already have a very well controlled breath technique. Personally though, when I use just a touch of noise gating to simply eliminate these absolute lowest volume sounds, I notice it usually begins also cleaning up the "small room reverb" effect that is going on here, as well as the very harshest attack point of the transient from harsh plosives. Seriously though, just a TOUCH is usually better than nothing, (specifically speaking for Bunny Studio projects, as other clients may not require this level of detail.)
-I could be totally mistaken, but are the AT headphones over the ear style? If so, I recommend getting in-ear buds for monitoring this issue. Specifically, I use the Skull Candy in ear buds, because they are an affordable representation of a consumer-level scenario where such reverb could even possibly become an issue. I know this because when I test all of my high end speakers and monitors and headphones, these simple little earbuds always win at revealing the issues the best. These headphones are the ones I listened to your samples with, and I think you would benefit from trying out a pair!
-If I was going to wager, it sounds like there is either a heavy bit of compression or normalizing happening, or perhaps you are utilizing a condenser style microphone? Although this can be useful for certain voices, I feel like your voice is more dynamic and could really benefit from being processed more dynamically.
Final thoughts:
While I do think your 2nd take was less noticeable, it sounded like maybe you were also leaning closer to the mic and that was causing a whole other set of problems?
Addressing the issues at the source like I mentioned should clear all that up beforehand!
Lastly, for the one that was approved, it sounds like a few things are happening. It sounds like you were perhaps more warmed up for that recording, or at least seemed to be making your vowel sounds with a much more breathy approach. For me, I sometimes also will have to do extensive nasal draining and breathing exercises to strengthen my nasal breath. Combined with a slightly more dynamically controlled delivery, and the reverb is much much harder to hear in that recording, although still technically there. My usual way of warming up the related underlying voice muscles for this is trying to hum a background note while practicing warm up lines.
Apologies if I am say off, as I am honestly just guessing based on a few quick listens, but I could also do a more in-depth frequency analysis if you think it might help?
Hopefully all of this is clear enough to be at least somewhat helpful, as I am actually still just waking up and getting warmed up for my day... coffee here I come haha! ☕️👌🥸
Seriously though, it is a long road to learn all these skills and your variation of them, but you got this! 🙌
Let me know if you have any questions, but otherwise, happy recording! ✌️😁
-Aaron M.
Thank you so much for the in-depth and thoughtful reply! It has been very helpful and is giving me ideas as to what I can do to resolve these issues. Indeed many of the things you noted are true; I don't use any sort of noise gate currently, and I use an AT4040 XLR condenser microphone.
I'm thinking of getting a noise gate now (just doing research on what would be a good one, do you have any recommendations?) and I believe I have a set of black-out curtains I'm not using that maybe might help (I'll see if we have some spare pillows as well). I'll try some of the in-ear earbuds I currently have at home and see if I can hear the reverb with those.
As for the dynamic mic, pardon if this is an obvious question but when you say dynamic voice, what do you mean? Is it in terms of pitch or inflection or something else? I've heard of dynamic microphones but I had the impression they were better for lower male voices rather than higher female ones, etc.
Thanks again for your insightful reply! If you have more insights, I would greatly appreciate hearing them.
Ah, great follow-up question, I will do my best to try to clarify exactly what I mean!
Essentially, your rule of thumb about low male voice = dynamic mic / higher female voice = condenser mic is generally not a bad one, and one I have even experienced in my studio as well. That said, I think this is also a bit of an oversimplification.
In general, I am talking about the volume of different things in the recording space.
The obvious volume source is the voice, which I can talk more about, but essentially there are also "volumes" from your surrounding environment as well. They can come from literally anything in your recording space.
Seriously - I was even testing the difference between recording while wearing a baseball hat versus not, and although subtle, the difference is real.
Things that might more apparently affect the sound though would be flat, hard surfaces, loose objects that have the potential to vibrate, certain shapes that resemble speakers (like cones), or anything that could resonate or cause sound to bounce back in an undispersed way.
So for example, if you leave an empty coffee cup in the wrong spot in your recording space - it might affect the tone of the natural reverb that is in the room, resulting in a more noticeable and seemingly unpleasant timbre of the voice.
This is why I estimate that compared to the average female voice actor, you have what I would call a "more dynamic voice", a.k.a. you can speak with a larger volume range.
This may just be your superpower as a voice actress... but also may be contributing to your recording issues!
From my experience, if you do not have a VERY well-treated recording space, condenser mics can cause issues because any imperfections are pretty much eternally baked into the recording, leaving only the most surgical of engineers to turn that into a commercially usable product.
In contrast, by recording at a somewhat lower volume with a dynamic mic and your dynamic voice, with nominal acoustic treatments as I mentioned, it is likely more possible to make a recording where the difference between the background noise and the intended subject (your voice) is actually increased, resulting in a more commercially usable product once cleaned up with simple editing and gating.
Oh geez, I wanted this to be quick but now I am getting into gating, and let me tell you... this is possibly a whole other conversation.
But, for brevity's sake, I will try to sum it up by saying this - most DAWs should have some sort of built-in noise gate feature or plugin. Reaper, the recording program I use has a pretty good stock one that can get you going if you set it up right.
I custom-built my noise gate using an advanced engineering technique, for me it is more powerful and useful, but may not be needed for you if you can get the job done with a regular noise gate.
But with this general approach that I am describing, the noise gate only removes the absolute lowest volume sounds, cleaning up the spaces in between your actual dialogue.
Again though, this is really powerful stuff! If done right it can make your natural reverb of wherever you are recording seemingly disappear.
Lately, I have gotten to the point where I don't worry about the air conditioning kicking on, or if someone is walking around loudly upstairs above me, I know it won't even show up in the recording because I have tested it so much and found the best way to reject almost any noise that is not happening right there in front of the microphone.
As a disclaimer, I have to say: in your case, it could all just be something yet revealed in your audio processing causing me to think I am hearing something that perhaps I am not, but until you test out some of this theory and see if you get different or better results we won't know, will we?
Okay, and on that note, if you do make a new recording of this sample or whatever with anything I have suggested I would love to hear what you come up with!
And thanks for helping me get my engineering brain clickin' away, glad to help in any way I can.... you got this! ✌️😁
Alrighty! I've spent the last couple of weeks fiddling with my recording space and have downloaded and learned some bare bones basics of Reaper. Here is a new recording I've done with a slight noise gate (around -40 something db) in Reaper along with some thick curtains I've hung in front of and behind my recording space.
https://app.box.com/s/odnlet1rktibsf6jk3h5khbns6az77j2
(I just wanted a quick thing to say to test this out, so it ended up being a project email from Bunny Studio haha). I *think* the quality is better, particularly the white noise that used to be in the background due to the noise gate, but I might hear some reverb still in some areas, maybe around "project status"? Or do you think the reverb is fixed? The one thing I haven't tried yet is getting a dynamic type microphone, which I'm still doing some research as to which kind to invest in, but assuming all of the above is still not solving the problem, that's going to be something else I consider.
Thanks again for all your assistance, and I look forward to what you think of this new set-up!