I'm new to this. Could you help me improve my recordings?

Hello. I have just started recording videos for the first time in my life, mainly for educational purposes. I am making simple home-made videos using a Shure MV5 microphone that sits in front of me in my desktop, which is the best I could afford. My greatest issue right now is that my bass sounds too boomy and it seems to reverberate in the end of some words, but I may have other problems that I’m not aware of, since I’m not good at listening and identifying stuff.

[Here is a video where the “booming” can be easily perceived] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xjLo3rF6KY&index=12&list=PLGUS2DqMEMAAaI-a4rPHlNSbgjbRbdI4g)

I have been trying to learn how to edit with audacity, and I tried reducing the booming using the equalizer. However, my sound either becomes too muffled or the equalizer doesn’t reduce the booming enough. Here is a video that I have edited on audacity

To be honest, I kind of like the changes in this second video, but I don’t remember which EQ options I used and I failed reproducing this same effect. In [this video] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i4ySlb4i2A&index=10&list=PLGUS2DqMEMAAaI-a4rPHlNSbgjbRbdI4g) the bass doesn’t sound that bad to me, but I think it could be better.

Today I recorded a new video and I used a High Pass Filter, [this is how it looks] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF7RTtfEk3k&index=14&list=PLGUS2DqMEMAAaI-a4rPHlNSbgjbRbdI4g). I think it is an improvement, but I’m not sure.

Can you guys help point out mistakes that I’m not seeing, and also can you tel me if you think the changes I made have improved the bass and the general quality of the audio?

I would be thankful if you could also suggest any changes you would suggest that I could use to improve even further.

There’s not much can be done in post-production to reduce the reverberation of the room.
One solution is to use heavy-curtain / blanket / rug to block your voice bouncing off the walls getting to the microphone.
Another solution is to put the mic in a box lined with acoustic foam.

Thank you, I’ll see if I can set a box up, it would be easier then covering walls with a curtain.
Do you have any opinions on the quality of the last video? Do you think it improves the issues presented on the previous ones?

Thank you! I’ll see if I can get one of those boxes. Do you think the last video improves a little compared to the other ones, or is the High Pass Filter not helping enough?

You had me frightened for a while. I assumed you were going to appear on camera as part of your video. Sound in that case is much more difficult.

I don’t hear any boomy bass sounds. If you have a music system, it’s not unusual for those to have boosted crispness and boomy bass. It makes your music sound great, but it’s less handy when you want to judge production quality.

I think if you got rid of the echoes in the big, bare room, the voice would work just fine. I know it’s tempting to think we can push a button and make you sound perfect, but you hit one of the sound problems where there’s no button.

You should be about a Hawaiian Shaka away from the microphone.

If you need to raise the microphone to get it closer to your face, you can do that with a home vibration and rumble filter.

Use several books to get it higher. Note I have a moving quilt on the desk That might help with the booming sound. A doubled blanket or several towels will work, too.

Forget the craziness of the sound shoot. Look at the blue mat on the table.

It’s conventional practice to have the microphone straight in front of your face. You won’t be able to see the screen if you do that, so put it half-way off to the left or right. That might help with the voice ticking and popping, too.

Koz

The ideal curtain set-up is like a small tent, to create a sound booth, rather than covering all the walls with curtains.

[ Improvised solutions can be as good as store-bought … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsUTEIqoFOo&feature=youtu.be&t=2m40s ]

Which brings us to the Plastic Pipe Studio. One of the posters jammed some plastic water pipes into a 2M square studio and then threw some blankets over it. She’s recording audiobooks now.

I have those pictures…somewhere.

Koz

I did keep the URL, so I got them again. Click on them.
PVCStudio-1.jpg
PVCStudio-2.jpg
I did it with wooden sticks and moving blankets.

The little ropes are to tie the corners together. Lots of shoots went through that “studio.”

There are cheat tricks, too. You don’t have to soundproof all the walls, just opposing ones. Do the floor, the wall behind you and either left or right. That’s not perfect, but that will help get rid of the “recording in a kitchen sound.” People were writing me checks to do this, so I did all the walls and the floor.

I’m not kidding. See the pad on the floor?

Koz

Hi Koz. Thank you for your thoughful answer.

Raising the microphone with books seems like a neat and useful trick.
I don’t think I could fit pipes or wooden bars in my room very well. Maybe a DIY soundproof box would work? I could even try to give it a higher floor so that I wouldn’t need the books.

The book and towel isn’t just for height. If you have a microphone with no sound isolation (like yours and the one in the picture) it may pick up noises from the table and the floor. The Big Kids have shock mounts where they put heavy rubber bands on the microphone to keep noises down.

Smaller microphones don’t have room for that, so a good alternative is the towel and book. That will get rid of table and floor noises. If you live far enough away from highways, that may not make any difference, but I live next to a busy street, so my floors make noise.

Also, if you don’t do that, you may have keyboard and mouse click noises in your show coming up through the table.

That’s what the white spidery thing is on the back of the microphone. They’re rubber bands. If I tap the microphone, it will wiggle.

Koz

If you don’t use the books, how were you going to get the microphone close to your face?

Getting closer to the microphone may help with echoes, too.

Koz

If I would make a soundproof box I’d try to pad its floor with something in order to make it higher. But I’m not making one now, so I’ll stick with the books for a while and see how it goes :smiley:

Since you have live walls, you can view the wall as a source of sound. The idea is shrink the distance to your face and increase the distance to the walls.

We’re going with your microphone. I did my podcast test with a head-mounted theatrical microphone (not gamer headset). The room is irrelevant.

Koz