Great, thanks. I’ll have a play.
I thought you meant leaving the mic where it is but rotating it some 30 to 40 degrees on its axis.
That’s dangerous. This is a directional microphone. Its desirable characteristics work straight in front of it. Any other orientation and the volume goes down and the tonal quality changes. More importantly, the sensitive direction of the mic doesn’t vanish, you just point it to somewhere else in the room. We already have trouble with it picking up sound other than the performer. It should always point at the performer.
You don’t have to go full oblique, If you find that a partial orientation works, then use that. Again, most P Popping goes straight in front of the/your/her lips. Don’t put the microphone there.
how much bass was removed.
There is a caution about that. Step one in mastering—Filter Curve—also removes bass tones (on the left) It’s not good to have two different effects fighting each other.
Only judge the sound quality after the final action, and it’s super important to listen in a way you trust. There’s nothing quite like delivering a product with sound damage that only your client can hear.
And in case this gets lost, the goal is to accurately reproduce the talent’s voice. No extra points given for the large number of effects used.
Koz
Yes, I do see the distinction. Thanks.
There is a caution about that. Step one in mastering—Filter Curve—also removes bass tones (on the left) It’s not good to have two different effects fighting each other.
“Step one… Filter Curve”? It’s possible that I’m missing out a vital mastering stage. What I’ve been trying (and I think I got the sequence from this forum, though I may be mistaken) is this:
- Effect: RMS Normalise (-18dB)
- Effect: Limiter (-3.00dB)
So unless I’m misunderstanding something (which is of course entirely likely) Trebor’s recommendation would be the first and only bass cut.
It’s possible that I’m missing out a vital mastering stage.
It’s possible you’re missing all of them.
It’s a Mastering Suite. A harmonious grouping. Shouldn’t take them out of order, add any, or leave any out.
Limit to -3.5 rather than -3.0 because the conversion to MP3 can cause volume errors and violate the ACX Peak specification.
Filter Curve is there to keep microphone USB errors and room rumble from throwing off Loudness Normalization.
These are from the mastering instructions.
Koz
True. I don’t know where I got my sequence from.
I’ll work through your list and the settings you give and see what that does.
And here is the result, still as a WAV file. The bass boom is still evident though perhaps not quite as much. Following Trebor’s advice perhaps I’ll experiment slightly with the filter curve setting, though a new mic position might presumably also have an effect in that area.
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And the same but with more bass roll-off as the first stage, in line with Trebor’s recommendation:
.
Not all, surely?
Pretty much. You show limiting to -3dB which is dangerously close to the limit and likely to trigger a violation. The Loudness setting at -18dB is at one end of the allowable range -18dB to -23dB.
The numbers in your post are the absolute limits, not the goals. It’s hard to deal with the blizzard of numbers, techniques, and tricks, but you are replacing the recording engineer and entertainment producer. If you ever wondered what they did…
Audiobook Mastering is not the only way to do this. One poster was able to bring performances in using completely different tools, but this collection has worked very well.
“ACX has accepted my book!!”
Koz
COWS mastered 16th.wav
That seems good. I think enough of the errors are gone. Go with that.
Did I post how to send a test to ACX?
ACX-Auditions.txt (1.5 KB)
Koz
Points given for making it through in one breath.
I can’t do it, either.
Koz
My ACX Test was about having an absurd conversation at a lunch counter between persons one and three. We were falling apart throwing lines at each other, but the person in the middle (scrambled eggs and toast) wasn’t reacting at all. Person #2 would make a terrific poker player.
Koz
Excellent, thanks!
You might not have seen my second attempt when you posted, but I suspect you might feel that I’ve over-compensated for the boom in that one:
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Did I post how to send a test to ACX?
Not in this thread but I’ve seen you mention it elsewhere; thanks for the handy link.
Have you been going backwards and patching older forum posts? That’s a terrifically bad idea. Most of the elves don’t go backwards and you will just be creating two different messages in the same thread.
Wait. I said… And then you said… But you didn’t… But I thought…
I think the posting I liked is it. There is a fuzzy rule about using the least number of effects, corrections, and filters to get the job done. No awards given for high number of filters, and you have to remember what you did for every chapter forever.
That and you’re a business. The least time spent creating a quality product the better. The goal is walk into a sound studio and walk out with a finished product. Full Stop. Not record a messy product and spend hours patching it together and rescuing it.
Koz
Yes, that one time. My apologies.
Thanks for confirming that the first of the two recent tests is the one to go with.
And huge thanks to you and Trebor for helping me (and my absent friend) to get there.
Just to add:
My second posted test used no more effects than the first: I simply changed the parameter of the Filter Curve slightly to come closer to Trebor’s version. I take your point about needing to remember the setting though, and so I saved it, in case you considered it a better result.
I simply changed the parameter of the Filter Curve slightly to come closer to Trebor’s version
And you can do whatever you want, but know the ripples.
The standard 100Hz rolloff curve comes built-in with the Audacity install, and it’s available as a plug-in with earlier Audacity versions. Same curve. If you make your own, you should save it as a custom curve against a failure where you have to start Audacity over again fresh. Like your machine stops working. I believe there is one Audacity version where you can’t import fresh, custom curves. It was a program defect.
That would be a surprise.
Koz
Yes, that’s clearly good advice.
I shall follow your recommendation and use the first mastering, but I’d value your opinion. If you did listen to my second test (“COWS mastered with extra bass roll-off 16th”) did you think I had reduced the bass by too much and made the voice quality unacceptably thin? Not simply thinner than the first, which it obviously is, but too thin to be acceptable in its own right? Many thanks.
I need to play Real Life for a while.
Koz
What’s that?
What’s that?
That’s the program where I wash the dishes, start the laundry, pay bills, and return a few calls.
Koz
The extra bass rolloff is too sterile and gutless in my opinion.
Koz