As a growing VO artist (And Reaper User), Who started on Fiverr 5 months ago, I've watched EVERY one of Mike's videos (2or3 times) and my business is picking up! My clients love the professional sound! I owe Mike A LOT OF CREDIT! His information is PRICELESS! Thanks Mike!!!
I can tell you where the equalizer got its name. The first equalizers were used by telephone companies to extend the frequency response of early telephone lines - which didn't have very good frequency response. The boosted frequencies at the ends of the spectrum were made "equal" to the midrange frequencies by the equalizers, and the sound of the phones was was imnproved
This is an old video but a big tip when fishing around with an EQ. If you hear an area that you think is a bit too prominent, say 500, 630, 800 where things sound boxy, in order to figure out where it is, take sliders on a graphic EQ one by one and boost them individually or take a parametric and set a narrow Q and boost it while moving the frequency back and forth through the range. If you have a hot spot it will "ring" as you pass it by. What I mean by a ring is it will jump up more prominently than adjacent frequencies because the boosting you put in will exaggerate against the more balanced adjacent frequencies. Once you found that ring, experiment with the width of the Q until you figure out how broad the area is that needs the tweak. Then you can use that width and frequency to dip or attenuate it a bit until you even things out. With a graphic EQ the "Q" is achieved by dipping the adjacent sliders generally to a lesser degree. Narrowest is a single slider, a softer dip you would bring the two adjacent sliders down about midway to make a V or a U shape if you drew a line between the sliders. This is the fast way to figure out the frequencies that are causing unwanted affects. I honed this skill while dialing in house EQs in clubs and learning how to hear the room resonances (or sound system crossover point/gain imbalances) I wanted to correct for. Once you have an ear for doing this, it's also how you can max the gain output level of stage monitors before they feed back. Always remove or attenuate before you boost. You can't create what isn't there, but you can always remove it. Generally something that sounds wrong is due to a frequency range that is too hot and interfering with the rest of the program material. Removing it, essentially boosts what remains.
You explain in a very simple way what to look at in a EQ software, as a voiceover artist perspective, to make your work sounding good. i'm fairly new to voiceover works and this video is sooo usefull to me! Thanks Mike!
FINALLY! Someone who hits the nail on the head for tailoring voice over sound! Thank you, Mike! I was watching your video on comparing the Electro Voice RE20 to a SM7B to try to EQ my large diaphragm condenser mic into imitating the sound of the RE20 (which I have been around in radio work for many many years), and in that video (or another one) you mentioned 'watching your video on EQ settings. So I went to your RU-vid page and clicked the Search icon and typed in 'EQ' and here we are. My condenser mic, which is an M-AUDIO LUNA, may not sound like an RE20 still, but using your settings of rolloffs, boost and cuts it sounds SO MUCH BETTER now! Just what I was looking for and yet couldn't seem to find on my own (probably because I was one of those that was looking for that BIG BOTTOM END BASS that really isn't necessary after all). So, again, thank you for explaining things the way you did.
I know I'm 4 years late on finding your videos but damn, I'm so glad I did. You're informative but not overcomplicated and the way you explain things, even the more in depth stuff doesn't make me feel overwhelmed. So thank you for taking the time to educate us on all the different aspects that will do so much to help further our own VO careers or hobbies. Another A+ video.
I'm watching these out of order and I completely I thought this was a different person. Then I covered the bottom half of his face with my finger and I was like oh yeah that's that other guy 🤦🏾♀️
You sound really good in this video. I just spent a few hours in my studio trying to remove the boominess from my voice. My last house had a full recording studio which was properly acoustically insulated now I'm trying to record in a closet full of clothes and it still comes out sounding boomey. I'm new to voiceover recording but spent a couple of decades working with music and I can say that the first thing I always do is shelf off anything below 60 and anything above 11. The human ear can't even hear those tones anyway. My experience with recording my own voice has been to try and shelf out a lot of the boominess from my recording space and my natural voice. Then I take out as much of the highs as I can before it sounds muffled. then I tweak the mid-range sections until I can get the clarity that I want to achieve. Everyone's voice is different though. But as a rule always shelf off at 60 and 11.
Some people (in voice-acting) will actually boost slightly wherever their fundamental frequency is, around 100 Hz for example, to make the voice sound more powerful and bigger, and as you mentioned, cut the frequencies below about 70 or 80. So, just wanted to throw that out there, as this setting I'm seeing here is quite a bit of low cutting, which would be ok if it was a narrower Q. This setting would work well for someone with a low voice, like you and me, but probably not at all for a woman, for example.
A ridiculously useful video, this!! Wonderful. I'm just setting up my own booth and I've been struggling to reduce some of that boomy "small room" feel and this has helped so much. While I'm a seasoned storyteller, I'm a fairly newby producer so this has been invaluable. Thanks Mike :-)
I love this video. It taught me where a good starting point is, then moving the sliders around and watching the yellow wave and seeing where my voice is. Other videos just say I ain't doin' this cause yo voice is different. Yeah, duh. But I needed to find out the way to determine where my 'stuff' is. Thank you. You looked so different in this video I had to check the name on the other videos, but I did recognize the voice. Thanks again.
You might look into the concept of headspace. if you don't roll off or cut off all of that high end or low end or whatever other frequencies you aren't using that means the less you'll be able to compress or normalize your mix. ( Basically wasted data) You always want to get rid of as much unused frequencies as possible that way you can get the overall mix to sound much more vibrant.
This was yet another extremely informative video for me, great work! Just installed that Reaper software since it seems to do what I want when it comes to - in this case - tuning down annoying room frequencies when doing work in the office or in lecture rooms that often turn out to be really horrible. What I still need to learn is to use "virtual audio cables" in order to make this work i real time for creating a sound chain (noise gate, compressor & eq) that goes into the input to communication software like Skype or Adobe Connect. Really a newbie on these technical parts...
At about 10:00 you decide to cut the 185Hz frequency to "demud" the voice. But how can I find what is frequency that I should "demud" for my voice and for the room I'm in?
Just a little tip, you can resize the stock Reaper plugins! If it looks to small for you to read, you just drag from one of the corners to whatever shape and size you want.
i can hear something in this video that i just recently fixed in some of my videos. Recording in OBS without the AAC audio encoder installed. That little chip and chirp in there drove me crazy forever.
Thx. I enjoyed the video. Found it very inciteful and insightful too. Your delivery is always well paced. There must a VO term to describe the flow you've developed? I'll have to chk the VO Jargon.
Dude! What the hell? Were you replaced by aliens? Are you on steroids? Lol. You look so different here, and your voice sounds much higher. What happened in the last year? I would have guessed this is from years ago. Totally different person. #chameleon. ;)
Hey, Booth Junkies! I wonder why on my Repaper EQ the range of the low frequencies of my recorded voice (50 to 600 Herz) oscillates in the amplitude range between 0 and +6, while on Mike's video the entire voice fequency range is below zero. I have same mic Sennheiser mkh 416, Audient ID 14 interface where the mic is set to 6. Is it something to do with the settings in Reaper or just my sexy voice timbre? :D But seriously... P.S. Mike, I would like to express my immense gratitude to you for your videos, you're a brilliant educator and VO professional!
Thanks again Mike! Hey Buddy, your 'watch a fat man sweat' video convinced my husband that we could do this narration thing and I now have a little, used Whisper Room. Would you like me to mention your RU-vid handle on my TV show, Marjohn's Musings? It is only a local cable program on Comcast Channel 12 or on www CapeAnnTV.org. but I've got fans. You would be in Episode 37, the first show of year four.
Done. MM37 will air on Channel 12 of Comcast's Local Cable here in Cape Ann tonight at 10pm. Soon after, a few days usually, it will go www on CapeAnnTV.org. I hope it brings you some click through. ;~)
Your voice lost something with the hi frequency roll-off but if there is noise up there, I can see that that would be a reasonable trade-off. The demudding at 200 hertz was a sure improvement. The frequencies that low mask the vowels that have no overtones in that region. Superfluous info, if you will. These low overtones eventually tire the listener whose brain has separate this chaff from the wheat (overtones in the two formant regions that differentiate the vowels.
I'm no expert, but I think you have the low-pass and high-pass filters confused. As I understand it: Low-pass filters passes (allows) everything lower than a certain frequency, while attenuating anything higher; the opposite is true for high-pass (passes everything high, and attenuates anything below). In your video it seems like you have them switched, but it's all just semantics. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-pass_filter 3rd image on the right-side of the page shows a high-pass filter. It's pretty confusing.
Well that's helpful and interesting and I'm sure perfect to send to a client, but I'm trying to do my own, whole post-production and post to the web and wish to get more bass out of my voice like halfway FM DJ sort of thing, while you've actually only removed bass to de mud... may I'll try boosting the bass just on either side of the 200hz de-mud dip? It's just hard to hear exactly what it's going to sound like until I compress so I have to do just keep experimenting (feel like I've been experimenting for 26 years). Cool though thanks
Money aside...is there a paid plugin you've had your eye on or thought of trying out? I can do everything I need with just about any stock plugin but there are some analog emulators that add a little something you can't get from stock Eq's. I guess anyone can answer this as well.
What is your budget? There are a lot of great analog-emulations out there, depends on your needs and price point. I would suggest a Pultec style EQ if you are branching out and needing an EQ to add smooth character and sheen.
Interesting choice. I guess nothing beyond a few hundred dollars, if need be. The Pultec EQs are more for mastering though. I was thinking something that sonically enhances the upper harmonics to add a little more brilliance (not too much - yikes) to the final mix when pairing a voice to a mic that isn't designed with a high frequency response, say like an SM58. Sometimes I can't control what kind of recordings I get and I have to work with the aforementioned. As far as finalizing plugins (on the master bus), I keep the chain simple for VO. Limiter then Loudness meter. That's it. On the tracks bus, I EQ where I need, deEsser, the slightest or no compression at all, then EQ again to offset what the other plugins exploit, and lastly I automate a deBreather when appropriate for certain jobs. I notice that this guy has his levels all over the place, but considering he's giving advice on the subject, not the engineering/technical aspect, it can be overlooked. I would think being in the industry for as long as he has, that he would have looked over the shoulder of a mixing/mastering engineer and picked up a few tips on plugins or hardware or even advanced/clever mixing techniques. Anyway, that was the motivation for my previous question. I've since learned a lot from forum discussions and trial and error. My skill level is intermediate to semi-advanced.
Engineers (including myself) use Pultec EQs all the time in mixing, for what it's worth. It certainly can be used for mastering, but not "more for" in my opinion. I mean, I think the 8200 is "more for" mastering than any other, but nonetheless; I use a Pultec on pretty much all my podcast projects because it handles my crappy boxy sounding voice nicely. :) If you're looking for a secret weapon / master bus sweetening high frequencies / type -EQ then I know just the plugin for you...the Maag EQ4. Trust me. The Air band is so damn sweet, no matter how hard you push it. It will change your life. :) www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/maag_eq4.html
Ah yes! That too is my secret weapon on vocal and VOs - the Maag EQs. That's something I learned about within the last couple of years and decided to pull the trigger on it the moment I demo'd it; that was an instant sale. That Air band really does wonders; not to mention the additive sub harmonics. Simply wow...but I wanted to hear it from the uploader!!! LOL. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I was hoping to have received your response from the uploader but I guess time isn't on his side. Great suggestion. It's nice to get confirmation from other sound engineers about tools used.
The "demudding" you talked about is something that is substantially, or even fully, removed with lessons from an advanced voice coach or teacher, (that's me of course). Your "placement" would be a bit higher with training, and most important, your breath pressure would be lower. (VoicebyMichael.com)
Please give the audio engineer mixing your VO a raw file so they can treat the audio properly. I hate it when i receive a Vox track from a VO artist, that have tried to 'make better'. You're eq curves aren't right; the low mids cut that you did is way too wide and you are pulling too much out of the top end.
Here we go again, MISLEADING TITLE! Why call the vid “The best sound” if you say you don’t have to perfect the recording because it will be sent to the people who will?! And instead of the best sound you just explain EQ basics, also misleading people. Equalization is a huge topic, and people should watch specific vids rather than this three-minute nonsense. Dislike!!!
