So basically I’ve been using Audacity for 2 years and always had these irritating noises pop in at random times, which then forces me to go back and re-record it…and makes it very time consuming.
I used to use a Yeti, but started thinking maybe that was the cause. So I purchased an audio face, plus a cardioid condenser studio XLR microphone and still have the same issues.
Is this something with my PC or audacity? I at first thought it was clipping, but I’m not sure clipping sounds like this?
I was listening on headphones. To be clear, the Noise Gate removed noises between your sentences but leaves the natural room noise between the words. If you have a very noisy studio, that can seem like odd noises coming and going.
That’s why I wanted a clean sample. You may not be able to produce a clean sample. You may be stuck with Windows , Zoom, or Games voice processing.
There’s a little bit of “Essing” in there, too. Harsh SS sounds, but that’s nothing compared to the noise pumping.
If you follow the posted format, the file will be under 2MB and you can upload it directly to the forum. The upload icon is the heavy bar with up arrow.
If you can’t do that, there’s always recording in your car. One of the production people at work routinely showed up with good voice tracks for our productions. I know he has a noisy home so I asked him how he did it. He said, “My Toyota.”
My apologies, I fell asleep. I still have the Yeti, but thats not what I was using in that clip. I am recording in a bare room unfortunately. I’m pretty bad at the audio, I dont know much about recording. How do furniture moving blankets work? I was thinking of buying those acoustic panel things and see if that helps.
I dont think I could do it in my car since I’m recording to my PC.
So you think the room echoes are causing all the problems? And what should my noise gate be set to?
“Acoustic Panel” are the key words for “Cost a lot and don’t do much.” You can buy actual acoustic panels but you have to cover the walls with them. There is no put one here and there. Take out a loan.
Echoes and reverb are your voice bouncing off the walls, floor, and ceiling and coming back to the microphone late. That’s the “Announcing in a Bathroom” thing. They’re crazy hard to get rid of later in effects and filters because you’re asking the software to remove your voice from itself. The blankets work because your voice has to move the blanket to get to the wall and then move it again back to the microphone. It doesn’t make it.
There’s only two ways to deal with echoes, stop the walls from bouncing your voice, and get the computer to announce everything—forget the microphone.
There was one desperation method I saw someone show. Throw a blanket over you and the microphone. You have to come out every so often to breathe but that does work. I’m looking for the video. A guy set up in his bathroom started announcing. It sounded just like his bathroom. Then he crawled under a blanket while he was announcing. Instant sound studio.
“Off.” Noise Gates have a lot of problems. They cause pumping and keying distortions that are impossible to remove later. Some audiobook companies will automatically reject your work if they hear one working. They also switch into and out of “Blackness of Space Silence” which sounds funny. Dead silence can cause you to be rejected, too.
I applied Audiobook Mastering to your sound test and got it to pass ACX Audiobook Standards. Now we just need to clean up the last few problems.
But without Noise Gate, the audible hum of nothingness will play in the background. Like that dead air sound. Isn’t it better to be completely mute with no background noise?
You can have reduced background noise, but do it with simple Noise Reduction not a keyer. Noise Reduction can take out the noises between the words and between sentences. Much more natural sounding. I think that keyer switching on and off business is what’s causing your noises.
If you insist on using a keyer, do it after you clean up the performance the regular way so you can’t hear it working.
I can show you that after you figure out how to get rid of the echoes. That one is kind of a big deal.
There was a YouTube show a while ago where some guys recreated a television news set. They did a terrific job and even had the lighting come out right. It caught my eye because I was working in televison at the time.
They were golden right up until one of them said something. Instant kids recording in a bathroom.
So by keyer, you mean noise gate? I’m an amateur sorry. My process up to this point had been running noise reduction before I do anything else and then noise gate after that to kill the audible hum in the background.
I shot that on my phone in my quiet office. No fancy microphone and no computer. If you boost the short strip before my voice you can hear the hissss.
This is the same thing after mastering and noise reduction.
That will slide right into audiobook acceptance and the fuzzy rule is if you can get them to accept it, you’re pretty much golden everywhere else.
Once you get that settled we should deal with presentation. You’re reading like you’re learning English. I have an audiobook from someone who read it in Arkansas. That totally doesn’t bother me. I can listen to a story in that voice.
