I thought I had one of these pictures.
That’s an insanely beautiful and stylish death trap for voice.
Not just for recording, either. If you have one of those, did you notice you have trouble understanding people talking from across the room? Ikea has a whole display area devoted to area and throw rugs designed to suppress that cathedral echo effect.
Koz
Thanking you so much for investing so much of your time and effort to help me. I record in my closet studio which is absolutally perfect as I have spent time with clothing sound panels etc so that isnt the issue. The normalisation effect came with my current Audacity… Looking as the Niquist effects list there is no sign of RMS Normalisation so I assume the one I got is the same. Anyway I want to avoid Niquist as far as possible due to the antiquated plug in download system that is just frankly pathetic…
I use a cheap Chinese condenser Mike going through a cheapish Behringer interface. Not abbey road but it works. All the cables are short and brand new.I record onto a external hard drive as well. I really dont know what else I can do?
Thanks.
Gary Pressman.
I shall be sending you a sample as soon as I can…going by your guidelines. Do I use the insert image? Or insurt URL?
Hi Koz and co… Pl;ease find attached my test track to you… On the analyze test my noise floor was 64 db.
Anyway I want to avoid Niquist as far as possible due to the antiquated plug in download system that is just frankly pathetic…
It’s “Nyquist” and that takes care of Audacity ACX Mastering. Depending on your requirements, you will need three Nyquist plugins: ACX-Check, RMS Normalize and DeEsser.
There’s no way around those that doesn’t involve insanely detailed adjustments and weeks of work.
Again, my disclaimer that our mastering process is not the only one. It’s the one in my opinion that gets the job done with minimum of tools and still retains the sound quality.
Koz
I got your test to pass technical requirements-barely.
Note the noise, after very stiff noise reduction, is -61dB and the requirement is -60dB. That’s not a lot. Your voice is just starting to sound a little hollow and further corrections will make you sound like a cellphone and are not recommended.
One easy way around this is either talk louder or get closer to the microphone. The noise measurement is the difference between your voice and the background. Make your voice louder and poof, the problem goes away.
There is a performance trick you might try. No question the recommendation is to speak directly into the microphone in front of your face. But you can get a lot louder without many bad effects by speaking across the microphone. Move the microphone much closer and push it sideways so it’s off the corner of your mouth and not straight ahead. Half-way between your nose and ear. You have to be much more careful not to move around much as you do this, because almost any movement will cause a volume shift.
I don’t hear any other sound problems.
I used Mastering according to this formula…
https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Audiobook_Mastering
Scan down to PROCESS for the actual tools.
…and normal Audacity noise reduction at 12, 6, 6. Yes, that is high. Normal, gentle noise reduction is more like 6, 6, 6.
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/noise_reduction.html
If you try that newer microphone position, do post another test.
Koz
You didn’t say how far from the microphone you were. The recommendation is a Shaka without a blast filter.
…or a Power Fist with one.
Also, putting the microphone even with or above your nose is recommended. A desk microphone is not. Higher is less likely to pop your words and it lets you see your script easier.
Koz
I note you have well-behaved noise. That’s probably your affordable home microphone. It’s relatively easy to get rid of.
There are some sound noises that are painful and difficult to remove.
Koz
Hi Koz.
I have a pop filter in place and and in the recommended distance from my Mike… Nyquist is REALLY frustrating because obviously I need those plug ins but my computer is 64 bit, would that make a difference?. I import into Audacity but the file cannot be opened. I could you send you images of the box that pops up and maybe you could help…I shall try the new mike position that you recommended and try again then send you a new sample. I can download the plug ins but after that everything goes south and I really need a way through with installing these…
Thanks a million.
Here is a picture of the box that pops up when I try to import the ACX check into Audacity. Also is a audio sample with my mouth much closer to the microphone and with noise reduction set to 12.6,6.
Damn the box somehow went upside down in transit. Anyway here is what is says.
Audacity does not recognise this type of file c/user/owner/downloads/Acx,check.ny
Try installing FFmpeg for uncompressed files also try file, import, raw data.
I got as far as getting the plug in into my enable box under and this is what pops up
I’m not sure I’m following this any more.
Acx,check.ny
That’s not the correct filename. I have attached the RMS Normalize and ACX Check plugins.
rms-normalize.ny (810 Bytes)
Acx-check.ny (9.01 KB)
Koz
Hi Koz…Thanks for the download links. Now please can you walk me through installing them into Audacity that is on a external hard drive on my windows 10 laptop. Please could you talk newbie language to a er newbie!
Thanks so much.
See this page in the Audacity Manual: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/installing_effect_generator_and_analyzer_plug_ins_on_windows.html#nyquist_install
WC
Audacity that is on a external hard drive on my windows 10 laptop.
That’s not the best idea. Audacity should be running in your internal drive. You can keep all your archive and bits and pieces in the external drive, but Audacity has to manage fast, split-second decisions. Real time, multi-track playback almost demands an internal drive.
Same problem with Network Connected Drives. It looks like an internal drive, but it’s really on the other side of the house with a network connection, or much worse, a WiFi connection in the middle. Those are a problem with Audio (and video) production. Large companies and schools run into this. You can have a large repository somewhere in network land, but you have to edit locally.
Koz
Hi Koz. But ACX advise never to record onto computer due to fan noise etc? Which is better?
OK I am on the Nyquist download page that you sent me it says I have to place the file into. Users<Username<\AppDate\Roaming\audacity\plug-ins
Where do find that? Is that a process or a actual type site on my computer? I cannot find that above heading or how to access the above anywhere. Sorry to be such a pain.
Regards.Gary
Hey Koz… Just downloaded and successfully installed the RMS Normalize and ACX Check… Thanks to you …Sorry about the newbie ness on this thread but you have had the patience of a saint and have helped immeasurably… Wow…Going to thank you in the credits of the book when published…
Thanks once again…
Gary
Going to thank you in the credits of the book when published.
The sainhood would be good, although Gregory the Great would have to share his seat.
There’s some rules about the microphone. If you can tell that you’re computer is on just by listening, you’re going to have a bad time. That’s the objection ACX has to recording on the computer. And that’s only the most obvious problem. Some computers distort your voice and create other quality problems.
The noise specification, quieter than -60dB, means your room noise has to be 1000 times quieter than your voice. I’m not making that up. That’s rough to do at home and most ACX Check failures are from noise.
That’s why one recommendation is don’t use the computer to record your voice. Use a stand-alone voice recorder. All the computer sound problems vanish. Boop, gone.
All the makers of USB microphones wish I would just shut up and go away.
Koz