Upgraded with a Kaotica Eyeball, asked to revise and resubmit
Hello,
Pretty new at this, and am limited in my recording spaces so I decided to upgrade my setup with a Kaotica Eyeball. I first applied a couple months back and was denied due to audible room echo. I didn't really understand at the time, but after recording again with the eyeball, I absolutely notice the difference.
That being said, I reapplied and got the same feedback. This time though, I really can't hear anything in the background so I guess I want to make sure I focus on making the right changes for the re-submittal. I record in an office which isn't really soundproofed, and only have access to a glass desk, but I had hoped that the Eyeball would be enough, but admittedly I'm learning much of this as we go. I can probably make a few revisions to my space, but I'm a bit limited in what else I can do overall.
I'm happy to share my first and second auditions, but I'm not super clear on how to do that. Looks like I can only link pictures?
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Hi Chris!
Aaron here - you can attach any link from Dropbox, Drive, Soundcloud, or wherever (as long as it is a shared or public link) by using the little "chain" button, "Insert/Edit Link" which should be just to the left of the "Insert Image" button!
Happy to give you my feedback too, once you have shared anything here.
Until then, take care!✌️
-Aaron M.
Thanks Aaron!
Here is my first attempt
- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hnYgVdyq4-LPoWYY4hx6HGKf5E6tT39k/view?usp=sharing
Here is the second that I just did yesterday
- https://drive.google.com/file/d/13DwwEkI9euQh_E4COI--6DbZj21QQmWn/view?usp=sharing
Wow, awesome Chris, thanks for sharing!
First off, great work! I think you have a very relatable and friendly-sounding voice!
Overall, I do believe that from a "technical quality" standpoint, the second audition does sound better, so I am not going to focus too much on the first one (unless you have any specific questions about it.)
That said, I think I can hear where the quality control team's assessment came from.
Not to say your quality sounds bad in any way- it actually sounds really close to where it needs to be!
Here are just a few minor things I can point out from my end:
Those are what I am initially noticing so far after listening to this just a few times this morning, so I would love to hear if anyone else has any thoughts on what I am hearing too!
Either way, like I said, your delivery sounds pretty excellent in my opinion, once you can improve in some technical areas I am sure you can go far with Bunny Studio!
Making a space "acoustically treated" does not have to be a complicated task, either! You can be creative and take alternative approaches to build your space- I definitely did when I first started, and there are tons of ideas online for mobile rigs, pop-up studios, etc.! If I were to guess, I think your first task is trying to create simple ways to just minimize being surrounded by any hard, flat surfaces.
After that, anything to help absorb, and cover any remaining surfaces, ideally something you can set up and take down quickly if it is not an area you can leave set up or change very much - this approach will go far! My podcasting buddy even just uses a simple, thick blanket draped all around his microphone and it does amazing wonders - also acts as a supplemental pop-filter, which could help even a little more with those pesky plosives!~
My own space is a unique design made from super thick curtains hanging around a central area in the middle of the room, allowing for a lot of comfort and unexpectedly high efficiency from my recording sessions.
You may have to figure out something totally unique, but if you can, you may be surprised what some more experiments with heavy blankets and such can yield!
Ok, I gotta run, for now, I hope something from here helps you in some way!
Also, feel free to email me directly if you want to go over any more additional revisions, (aaron@lunarfifth.com) always happy to chat more about technical stuff or anything creative or VO-related.
You got this!
🙌
-Aaron M.
PS - Final thought -
I wanted to lastly mention, I am listening to this simply on my Skull Candy in-ear earbuds (Smokin' Budz 2, I believe) - people often underestimate in-ear headphone brands like this, but they have incredible sound isolation, amazing frequency response, and give me a consumer-level preview to what is going on - just wanted to make sure I told you what device I was listening back on! Take care. ✌️
This is a amazingly helpful Aaron! Thank you for taking the time. I've began cleaning out a small closet to convert into a small studio. These tips will help tremendously for when I have another opportunity to apply. Thank you again!
So I very haphazardly turned a closet into a small studio space, and here's the outcome. Based on the spectrogram, it looks like my base noise level is cut in half at least. I also edited this one to remove any audible mouth noise that I could recognize. This feels like a much better attempt overall. Thoughts?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lEsrK3FhdwW87xzBPIfzA25Tes7h0Gvl/view?usp=sharing
Hi Chris!
I hope you don't mind me jumping into the conversation, but I listened to your first, then most recent submission--they're like night and day... you've done an excellent job on cutting down on the room noise!
However, I still hear some hiss that you might want to address, and mouth noises that are audible particularly between phrases... but a much-better sounding attempt overall.
Cheers,
Chuck
Chuck!
Thank you for chiming in and I'm happy to hear that. I've made a few further modifications to my space, but I feel like there are still improvements to be made. I'm still getting some sound and I'm not sure if it is just the mic I am using or if there is still more soundproofing needing to be done.
I'm wondering, and this question may sound very basic, but other than just be conscious of the mouth noises, is there a good way to work on getting rid of those? Any hints or tips in that regard? I am aware of my "s"-es sounding a little too sharp from time to time, so I'm working on those, I'm assuming the mouth noises are also just a thing to be aware of when actually speaking, right?
Thank you for the input though. I'm glad you noticed the improvement and hopefully soon, the next submission is another night and day difference!
Hey Chris, mouth and breathing noises are something that you can consciously reduce between sentences and phrases, but the ones your mouth makes while you're actually speaking aren't as easy to control.
The easiest way to reduce many mouth noises and clicks is to exercise you mouth before you step into your booth. Make funny faces and stretch your mouth. Use you tongue and run it all around the inside of your mouth and over the front and backs of your teeth. It may look funny, but it's an excellent way to warm up your mouth to wrap around those difficult syllables.
Also, don't forget to hydrate. Sipping on water constantly through the day can go a log way to keeping your mouth from drying out and making smacking noises.
Hi everyone!
Just wanted to pass by to quickly say thanks to Aaron and Chuck for all your help towards Chris!
The tips and advice shared are great!
Kind regards,
Daniel
Chuck, I totally agree with everything you said!
Much better attempt, overall, Chris!
👏
That said, I think that the bottom line for you really does come down to becoming a sort of expert with editing your vocal audio.
Instead of going on and on about it through theoretical text though... how about I just show you what I mean?
So, here is a sample I made from your audio where you can hear the difference between what you made vs. how I would have edited this.
Please do not take this the wrong way, I only am showing this to you as an example of what could be possible with your current raw audio!
The first part of the sample is the original audio you shared, but around the 40-second mark, I switched the editing style to sound like what I would do!
The ONLY thing that may not pass Bunny Studio inspection, in my professional opinion, is the really faint hiss that becomes a tad more apparent with really critical editing.
In my experience, too much hiss is from either recording at either too high or too low of a volume - so if you are recording at really low levels, try turning way up, and vice versa! That's the most common starting point for fixing hiss for me, at least!
I only say and do this out of kindness and support for my fellow artist, and I pray you to receive this as such! I also have completed over 1500 projects successfully with Bunny Studio alone, many of which are accepted on the first try, and I am recognized as a Top Pro, so I only offer this advice as someone with this experience. 🙏
In reflection of listening to this sample with my editing style, I think that you really would benefit from doing custom slip-editing on your voice!
This is something that I do for every project in order to "fine-tune" the delivery speed and energy.
And, that level of scrutiny should be applied to any work you share with anyone, just as the last bit of friendly advice!
Especially with Bunny Studio, you will always be expected to deliver files edited to the point they could be sent to the client and broadcast to the world, so there cannot be 30 seconds of you clunking in and out of the closet on the ends of the recording, just have to tell you that!
But dude- please figure this stuff out because the world needs to hear your voice, man you do sound great... very natural! 🙌
Looking forward to your next installment! I hope this helped in some way.
-Aaron M.
Amazing feedback and embarrassingly, this is the first time I'm realizing that I uploaded the WRONG recording. I did have an edited version with out the loud clumsy entrance and exit of the closet doors. That being said though, I do need to get much better at the editing side of things and I can appreciate the edits you made to my file. I do welcome that criticism with open arms and it's definitely going to go toward me making more improvements.
I'll continue to play around with the tools I have at my disposal and look up ways to become more aware of what I can do within Audacity. Also open to hearing suggestions on other software to try/incorporate for someone who's still figuring this stuff out. I'll have to look up what it means to slip-edit as that's a new term for me.
You're feedback along with Chuck's regarding the mouth noises is incredible helpful, so I thank both of you for taking the time to help me be the best at this that I can!
Here is another attempt with almost everything in my house shut off. Fans, A/C, Air Exchange, ETC. I'm in my Blanket covered closet with the door shut and an additional blanket between me and the door. I'm using my blue yeti X mic with a Kaotica Eyeball over it with the mic stand propped up on a folded towel. I feel pretty good about this one, as I don't hear any sound difference between the recording and the second the recording ends. Looking at the Spectogram shows me my lowest noise level as being the lowest I've seen on any of my recordings. The only post editing I've done is clipping the front and back, and eliminating dead space in between. And I've also gotten my noise profile and applied it to the entire recording. I noticed a couple of mouth noises in the second half of the second section, but I'm at least noticing those more now and it feels like their less common.
Questions I have though are:
1. Is it loud enough?
2. Are there any other tools I should be considering with Audacity that would continue to optimize?
3. Whenever I use normalize, it does get much louder, but also much noisier, so I'm not sure if I should be using that or if I should be recording with more gain, and then applying the noise reduction.
Thanks again for your input on this, I feel like I've made giant leaps thanks to your help!
Hey Chris, I think you forgot to link the audio of your latest recording. :)
There are 2 types of noise that end up in *everyone's* recordings. The idea is to reduce each as much as possible. The first is the background noise in your recording environment. From what you've described, you've done a lot to achieve this. The second is the noise inherent in your recording chain, from mic to computer to everything in between. As long as everything is working properly, the background hiss level shouldn't be a problem if you record at a healthy level. The louder your input signal, the bigger the difference in loudness between your voice and the background hiss... but be aware of recording TOO loud, as you don't want your audio to clip and distort.
Keep in mind that when you normalize, it's boosting the level of everything in the recording: your voice, background noise in your room, and any hiss generated by your system. That's why the most important thing you can do is to maximize your signal-to-noise ratio, and not rely on trying to fix problems after the recording is made. I listened to Aaron's cleaning-up of your audio, and you can distinctly hear the effect of the noise reduction he applied, as it only reduces background noise below a certain threshold, such as when you're not talking. I'd concentrate on increasing your signal-to-noise ratio as much as possible so you can avoid using noise reduction completely.
Thanks Chuck!
You're right, I realized as soon as I hit "send" that I forgot the attachments, I added them right after, but likely due to the close proximity of both messages, that message is pending review *facepalm*. My next attempt was going to be to turn the gain up a little bit, speak more naturally and step back from the mic, and see how that turns out.
Hello! I've been toiling away and trying to upgrade and modify things to get that professional sound. I'm still waiting for my third attempt at a Bunny Studio audition, but I recorded this today as a final version through a different site and I think this might be my best effort thus far. Care to take a listen and see if you agree?
P.S. I shared links above on September 29th that were "pending approval" and are still in the "pending approval" status. Not sure if they'll get approved or not?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zMEfBaABqVdaDZpsgkGyU9zkgD4KdpD_/view?usp=sharing
Link for message above.