Hi folks - I’m a newbie narrator and I’ve been gradually upgrading my equipment as money has come in, however, this latest Mic, the NT1-A, has me scratching my head - it appears to be picking up higher frequencies easier and I’m struggling to get the levels right, any advice for a noob greatly appreciated. Attached is the audio file I’ve seen @kozikowski mention before, no filters.
I’ve set the gain just before any clipping would occur when speaking loudly, I’m using the Behringer UMC22 interface. Mic vol set to 75.
I suspect I can EQ out the “brightness” by suppressing 3khz onwards, but any advice on getting a high quality production using this setup? Previously I had the Rode Procaster and before that the Amazon Basics condenser mic
#1. Kill the fan, (it really is noticeable). #2. Highpass filter 50Hz 48dB, alone it won’t produce an audible effect, but is necessary if you’re going to subsequently use threshold-dependent effects like compression / de-essing. #3. De-ess, (e.g. desibilator plugin), that attenuates the brightness only when you are sibilating.
Can de-ess using the high-band of a multi-band compressor plugin on its own. Gmulti is a good free one which works in Audacity on Windows.
(Currently only 32-bit versions of plugins work in Audacity on Windows, even of your Windows OS is 64-bit).
Yes. You need to do something about that factory running behind you. Effect > Noise Reduction always effects the quality of your voice and is to be avoided if possible. You should be announcing in a quiet, echo-free room.
Home producers fail background noise almost immediately. One of the two major jobs of a “studio” is keeping real life noises out of your show. Is that your computer fan? Heater/air conditioner?
Previously I had the Rode Procaster
Are we solving an actual sound problem? If you had this background noise with your Podcaster, you didn’t need a different microphone.
Apologies that was really silly of me, I’ve recorded again without the fan issue so prevalent - I was focussing on the mouth noise so hadn’t bothered with the fan
all* Windows audio-enhancements should be turned off.
This can be such a struggle that one of the recommendations is stop trying to record on the computer. You can use a stand-alone sound recorder (not voice recorder). The Zoom series works really well. People have used the Zoom H1, H2, H4, H5, and H6 recorders to good affect.
I was able to produce an audiobook technically compliant voice test with a Zoom H1n, a roll of paper towels and a quiet room.
