Hello! I just got a new Rode NT1 and I’m having this weird issue that when I start talking for the first time in it as a “cold” mic during each chapter, the volume progressively gets louder over two seconds until it is full volume. I have no idea why this is happening. I’m running it through a Focusrite Solo as well. I can talk for a few seconds to “warm up” the mic and then go into my “Chapter 1 blah blah blah” and it’s fine. Does anyone have any ideas? Maybe it’s a weird noise reduction thing or ambient noise setting I’m missing but I have no idea. Another side note is that punch and rolling seems to work with a noise reduction so I guess a short pause in talking doesn’t cause the weird fade in effect. However, when I go back after proof listening and splice in an edit, the same fade in occurs. Super weird. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Sounds like Windows audio enhancements, which should be turned off, both in the recording & playback tabs,
see … https://youtu.be/sxnUjiGgBaI
When you record your voice on the computer you should make sure the computer doesn’t try to “help you.”
Windows machines come out of the box assuming you are a business user and are going to want to conference with other business users. The last thing you want is everybody’s office background noises in the conference. Windows 10 has Enhancements, both recording and playback. You should probably turn all of them off if you’re planning on serious theatrical recording.
https://www.intowindows.com/turn-on-or-off-audio-enhancements-in-windows-10/
and
Do you use Skype or other conference or chat programs? Zoom? Rooms? They can all change your sound settings. Make sure they’re all turned off
Do you use Interactive Games? Movie player or movie editor? Same thing. Make sure everything is off.
Clean shutdown your machine. Shift+Shutdown. Wait for it to finish. Start. Not plain Shutdown and not Restart. Those can leave settings behind.
That better? The machine should do nothing while you’re recording other than stop and start and some tricks if you like to correct mistakes with Punch and Roll.
Fair warning that you may need some of the special settings if your recording technique isn’t very good.
When you make a cold reading, how big are the waves on the timeline? They should be between this…
…and this…
If they turn into this…
…then you’ll have to fix or adjust your microphone system. That’s too quiet.
Koz
Do you get clean readings with Punch and Roll? The traditional way to do this is make a mistake, make a marker noise by either clapping or ticking a noisemaker toy and re-read the last whole sentence without stopping the recording and keep going. Go in later and delete the trash read by finding all the markers. This allows you to correct slight tonal balances and time spacing, and it makes sure you don’t miss any of the errors.
Koz
Thank you everyone for the comments. I will check the Windows enhancements later when I get home but I’ll address the other questions first. As far as punch and roll goes, it’s not really as noticeable but sometimes, it does happen where the first second seems a bit faded. I also tried to troubleshoot to see whether the mastering I was doing was causing it so I listened to the raw file and only amplified the beginning part. The fading effect seemed to go away for the most part. So is it possible when I’m normalizing my entire audio file to -20dB that it’s somehow fading in the beginning part and not amplifying it all evenly? My mastering process is essentially RMS normalize > compression > RMS normalize > high and low pass filter > limiter > noise reduction > EQ. Just a thought. Thanks!
You’re working way too hard. The published audiobook mastering suite has three tools in it. Rumble Filter, RMS (loudness) Normalize, and Peak Limiter.
I think most of your corrections are fighting the computer.
Koz