I'd love to see a comprehensive editing / mastering tutorial - the creation of a commercial demo so that music mixing is included too? In Audacity? A girl can dream, lol. [Note: I have watched the two webinars available on this channel, but something where the skills are being explained and performed from an authoritative source in a beginner-friendly way is what I'm dreaming of.]
This should be required watching for anybody doing voice-overs, podcasting, etc. There's nothing more irritating or distracting than boomy low-end on a voice over. I love that you talked about HPF right off, and I'd argue you could even go higher to get rid of even more frequencies. VO's, IMO, should sound exactly like the person is in the room talking to you: as natural as possible.
Thanks for the kind words, Brian! Totally agree with you. This step is one that gets missed by a lot of amateur talent and it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. All the best -Randy
Thanks for the vid. Is there one that breaks this down even further? I'm not very versed in this field so there was a lot vocabulary and concepts I didn't understand. Eg: Notching, boosting, etc.
I feel like just cutting off the high and low end is all you need when you have a good mic. I get muddiness when I boost where you boosted and it just sounds more crisp when cutting the high/low freq
That's totally fair! Every setup, voice and room will require their own steps to make them pop. Boosting a tiny bit of low end can be useful if your mic is farther away like mine was. For voice over, when your microphone is closer to your mouth, you'll have a lot more proximity effect which naturally brings up the low end in your voice.
Great video very informative and quick. How can I get my voice to sound more base. When im listening to my voice audio in my podcast I have no base in my voice what’s good on there and how can I get more base in my voice? My audio sounds bland. Thanks any help much appreciated
Great questions. One of the best ways is to decrease the distance between you and your microphone. The proximity effect is a great tool for adding some warmth to your voice. Added advantages are that you generally will have less noise in your signal if you're nice and close to your mic. You can also use an EQ to slightly increase the 150-300Hz range, but I strongly recommend using caution as boosting on an EQ can be damaging to your audio -Randy
Can I send you a digital recording off my smartphone. When ever I record the recording is of my current surroundings and in the background its recording at a house where my ex husband lives plus at the homes of my 2 adult children so all 3 of these locations are recording in the background of my single recording I can hear my recording clearly but the background recordings are not easily heard I can make out some of the voice s and what is being said but it's very hard to say the least. .
It can take a while to figure out where the resonance is coming from. One tip is to use math. Most resonant frequencies will come from the dimensions of your space. Find a wavelength calculator online and input the demensions of your room to figure out where the standing-waves or resonant frequencies are coming from. This should help isolate the standing-waves.
Yes, most often it will be slightly compressed. You're right, it does take out some dynamic range, often 1-3dB of the range, however most of how we perceive loudness is actually through tembre, not amplitude. This means someone yelling will still sound like someone yelling even if the total volume is slightly less. Compression is used to bring peak volume down to allow more subtleties (breaths, etc) to be more impactful. Hope this helps! -Randy
Ooo that's a tough question! If I had to pick one to live with for the rest of my life, it would be the FabFilter ProQ3. It's a wonderful EQ, very transparent, includes a spectrum analyzer overlay so you can see in realtime what the EQ is doing. It is also very quick and easy to learn. There are cheaper options, but that would be my go-to subtle EQ.
Hey Kris, a lot of the challenges with bass voices comes from the reflections in the space, so it's tough to say without hearing it. But generally speaking, this same process should work for you. I'd just recommend being mindful of the low end between 100Hz and 200Hz. There may be some additional buildup in this space caused by the reflections in your room. Unfortunately, dealing with those reflections is really challenging in the low range, so proper mic placement will be key! You may find it balances your voice nicely to put a "shelf" on the low frequencies (in addition to the low end roll off around 80 or 100Hz). The shelf will help pull the whole low end down 2-3dB. Hope this makes sense -Randy
How to achieve the "classic rock station voice and announcer voice" that seem to boost base, lots of resonance and sometimes you hear "phasing" in advertisements for the radio station itself?
Hey Michael, the classic rock station voice is typically a mid scoop. That's what gives it that tightened low-end and top-end. If you were to take a nice wide-Q on an equalizer and take 3-6 dB out at around 300-500Hz, you should be able to achieve a similar result. Hope this helps! - Randy
if you want to teach new bees knock of with the in house jargon or at least explain in la mans terms and share what program or plugin you have open warmly Johannes New Zealand
