Can you critique my sound.........Please!

Hi guys,

I’d appreciate anyone out there having a listen to my sound and giving me feedback about what sorts of things I should do to it in the post production phase.

I’m working on the premise that it’s better to start with the best recording possible. I’m using a Shure PG42 plugged into my Macbook. I’ve built a little booth for myself, it’s not sound proofed but I’ve acoustically dampened it as much as possible. I’m trying to explore my microphone technique, in particular my distance from the microphone, and I’m also trying to up my water intake as I’ve noticed, with some frustration, that I’m inclined to have a clicky mouth.

I’ve paid myself up to Voices.com for a year and I want to give it my best shot. I’m a little mystified as to whether I should be applying Noise Reduction, Normalization, Equalization and Compression. I sense that it’s best to tinker about with my recordings as little as possible and to try to focus on having my “raw” recording as good as it can be. I was told recently by the guy who recorded my showreels, that the subsequent recordings that I’ve done on my home set-up lacks a little “presence”.

I’m using 0S x 10.11.6 and Audacity 2.1.2

Thanks in advance.

Brendan Fleming

http://www.brendanflemingvoice.com

I pushed your commercial through the ACX AudioBook mastering suite…

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/audiobook-mastering-version-4/45908/1

… and it came out the other end slightly harsh, so I applied DeEsser at the default settings (attached clip).

I’m sure the golden ears will have other suggestions. I’d be submitting for paid work.

The mastering suite applies a rumble filter > Set RMS (Loudness) > Set blue wave peaks. That’s all it does. No fancy compression or other tricks.

Koz

There is a free DeClicker plugin for Audacity here , it will get of most of the clicks on the default settings .

I think you’re a bit too close: when you say “isn’t just four walls and a roof” there are noises like a bicycle-pump

“presence” is code for the high-frequencies : those above 4kHz.
If you boost those frequencies you’ll need to De-Ess. There is a DeEsser plugin for Audacity here