This is what the Filter Curve curve looks like when you get the right one.
It actually goes down to the left more than that, but that was the handy pix.
Koz
I can understand every word, but IMO there is too much bass: a resonance @ ~130Hz,
and despite the booth, some reverberation from the room.
With EQ and compression/expansion it’s possible to cut bassiness & reverberation …
Rather than using Audacity’s native effects, I used plugins added to Audacity …
The [u]free[/u] version of TDR Nova plugin does equalization and multi-band compression, (compress bass only).
The [u]free[/u] edition of Couture plugin does expansion, (reduces the room reverb a little bit).
Acon’s DeVerberate is not free. Kills reverb, but it adds computery artefacts. Use sparingly, if at all.
[More acoustic treatment to your room will produce better results than than any De-verb plugin]
As I get this, that wasn’t the vocal booth.
When I had done this particular recording ( the video in the link), I was doing so in a very lightly treated room.
So announcing in a box.
Koz
That explains it. The standard 100Hz roll-off is not going to help much: room is resonating at ~130Hz
https ://manual.audacityteam.org/man/spectrogram_view.html
Just to give you an idea of what my Filter Curve EQ looked like (used in the video), this is how everything was set.
This was the last one that I came up with, I had used it for a future project.
This was one that I had been using, for an older video (or 2), taken from Josh Meyer’s tutorials for Audacity via YouTube.
Just to be clear, are the 2nd and 3rd sample, independant of one another? I’m assuming that you used TDR Nova, then Couture on top of it. And that the 3rd sample was Acon’s Deverberate was a complete separate sample, on top of the original? “On top” meaning effect added, in case that’s the wrong way of wording it.
I actually used TDR Nova, amongst a number of other plugins, and even though I’m certain I’m using it incorrectly. I think I might have used this for that same video.
Trebor, I don’t know how I’d compress the bass only.
Here’s what my audio workstation looked like a few months ago, when I made that video.
Side profile of my desk, the green outline is where my AT2020 was placed.
Front profile of the desk.
Showing you the accoustic panels, that were placed behind the mic. The left side of the wall, directly behind the mic/computer.
The right side of the wall, directly behind the mic/computer.
Now, on one of the sides (on my right while seated) there’s a thick curtain covering a window, there was a closet behind me, and directly to my left (pic not included) I had a wooden panel with a blanket covering it; when seated, it walled off the rest of the room.
I included these pics, so you can get the idea of what I meant by a “lightly” treated room. I did add the off cushion on my desk, to help offset some of the reverb; which likely did nothing.
Here’s a look at the newer setup.
Here’s the audio booth, with my HP laptop and Scarlett 2i2 placed on top of a wooden cabinet. I have the XLR cable running under the door/opening of the vocal booth.
Showing the bottom of an Amazon mic stand, in the booth (sorry about the lighting).
I took the AT2020 mounted on the Amazon mic stand out of the vocal booth, to show you what general area I’m talking into while recording; within the center portion of the red outline.
And my current knob settings on my Scarlett 2i2; Air off.
I’m going to be doing some recording over the course of this weekend. I’ll submit a new audio sample, and hopefully, a) it will sound better b) at least you’ll have a better understanding of what environment/set up I’m currently working with.
I’m probably confusing you guys, giving you an old audio sample, when a number of things have changed since that recording. My apologies, and also a big thanks for your help.
Recording on the computer seems to be a logical and desirable process. you already have one, right? But they can cause problems.
Can you tell if the computer is on just by listening? You probably already know what a bad idea that is. We’ll just move the computer further away. Maybe not. You can’t ever get further away than one USB cable—about 6 feet. Also if you get too far away, you won’t be able to run the cable to the monitor which you need to make sure your volume is reasonably consistent.
Do you use sealed on-the-head headphones during recording? That’s very highly recommended to keep your announcing volume in check. If you do that wrong, ear pad leakage can cause feedback and peaking problems.
I see we’re playing message tag. Make another test with all your blankets and pads in place and submit it with no effects, patches, filters, or corrections. It should be WAV and under about ten seconds stereo or twenty seconds mono.
You should not be able to see the hard, wooden table top. See the doubled-up furniture moving blanket.
The rest of that room is soundproofed. That was a radio broadcast.
also see:
You might also crumple up an actual newspaper in front of the microphone as a test recording. Make sure not to overload anything. That sound is remarkably flat and well-behaved and can be used to reveal problems.
This microphone is intentionally designed to have a crisp “presence boost” at around 3000 Hz with no other distortions.
Koz
This EQ will make the 130Hz resonance worse, (it may even be the cause).
Can only get away with a bass-boost like that (to increase the gravitas) if you are recording in an acoustically dead room: one with zero reverb. (Most room-reverb is in the bass frequencies).
If you omit that type of EQ that alone could solve your excessive bassy-ness.
Correct: #2 is “TDR Nova then Couture”, (the order matters), the 3rd is Acon DeVerberate alone.
You may not need to do this if you omit the bass-boost EQ(s)
RobDo.xml (42.9 KB)
If you omit that type of EQ that alone could solve your excessive bassy-ness.
And there you have the reason we almost always insist on a pure, clean sound sample to analyze, not something you already worked on.
Koz
I’m confused Koz, we haven’t been sending each other any messages; as far as I know.
On page 3 of this thread, I showed you pictures of my new recording setup; as well as my older setup. I have my HP laptop, resting outside of the recording booth, so my environment will be noticeably quieter. The video (YouTube) that I showed, specifically the audio used in it, was done roughly 6 months ago, under inferior recording conditions.
Here’s a sample of a new recording, with no added effects/patches/filters/corrections, just a hair under 20 seconds. It’s a WAV file (Mono, 44100Hz), signed 16-bit PCM on export.
The knobs on the Scarlett 2i2, shown in this pic (below), were in the same positions when doing this recording.
Okay, thank you.
I just added your preset to TDR Nova (thank you for that), and I’ll be looking to go back to the full audio (that I used for that specific YouTube video), and cleaning it up. All of that bass makes my ears bleed, and it’s even worse than that in older videos that I’ve uploaded onto YouTube.
Trebor, would you have a specific preset for the Couture plugin? If not, any suggestions on the settings I would use; similar to how you applied them in that sample (FLAC file)?
Also, just to be clear, the #2 TDR + Couture (together), is an option to use on its own, whereas #3 AconDeverb only is a secondary/alternate option to use; and not TDR + Couture + AconDeverb?
This was my last audio chain, for the audio that I had used in the video.
- Noise Reduction
- Normalize (0.0 dB)
- Noise Gate
- edit
- fix pauses/spacing
- convert from Mono to Stereo
- DeClicker/DeEsser
- amplification
- Graphic EQ
- Compression Dynamics (Ny)
- Normalize (-3.0 dB)
- TDR - Nova Edge
- FinalLoud3
Recording settings on Audacity:
- Mono
- 44100 Hz
- 32-bit float
Export settings:
- 48000 Hz
- 16-bit PCM
I used 16-bit PCM on export, because I was using Filmora X (now v.11) at the time, and there were frequent micro pops that would show up for 32-bit float files, once I laid the track down on that editing software; despite my already cleaning that up by using Find Zero Crossings through Audacity prior to export the audio files. I also understand - after my asking them directly - that once you upload a video onto YouTube, that the audio is set to 16-bit; even if the file was initially at 32-bit.
FinalLoud3 is a plugin, used to target -14.0 LUFS (for YouTube) and -1.0 dBTP. I generally hit the -0.1 on Content Loudness for YouTube, which I suppose is good, but I feel that my actual audio is still on the quieter side compared to other YouTubers’ audio for their videos.
I took note of something that was said in another thread, and that ideally, you’d like to add as few effects as possible; which is what I’m hoping to do since I’ve upgraded my recording environment. I’m sure that I’m LOADED with errors in the way that I’m approaching this.
I have the old version of Couture: the current version one looks different from this …
Correct : #3 is Acon DeVerberate alone. #2 is TDR Nova followed by Couture.
(Acon plugins have demo versions so you can try-before-you-buy).
R0bDo-2.xml (39.6 KB)
I know you’re having way too much fun with this, but I applied simple Audiobook Mastering and very gentle noise reduction and the sample passes audiobook technical requirements.
If you were louder, you may not even need the noise reduction. The sample as posted is too quiet. As you perform, the Audacity blue waves should, on occasion, reach about half-way. The bouncing sound meter should occasionally reach -9dB or -6dB.
With the possible exception of that one punched emphasis just after about 11 seconds, I would have no trouble listening to a presentation in that voice.
Do you get consistent green flashing knobs on the 2i2? I bet you don’t. Just for a test yell (never blow) into the microphone loud enough to get the red knob. I bet you have to get seriously louder to create overload. That gives you an idea how much announcing range you lave left
If the volume control on the 2i2 is all or most of the way up, you might try that oblique positioning trick (B) to get a little louder. That will give you a volume boost without increasing mouth noises.
So we’re done. You can continue with the other tools if you want, but we should note that if your shows catch on, you will need to apply them all, all the time.
Koz
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