Maybe it would help to hear some super exaggerated examples of what you’re talking about with lip smacks and S sounds. Those are things I must just be taking for granted and not really hearing.
There is enough room tone, but it’s not clean.
Harrumph, shuffle, shuffle, tick, clink. “A match made in…”
I’m looking for pure shshshshshshsh rain in the trees noise. Hold your breath and stop moving.
Did you get the little wind sock to fit over the H2? Try one with that on. That may help tame the crispness a little.
Koz
Dueling posts.
I’ll do that boost thing. You don’t need the noise reduction, either, but you’re really close to a violation, so I put that step in.
Without the ceiling light, you may not need the extra noise reduction, either.
As we go.
Koz
It sounds like you tripped over the hassock on the way to your desk.
Koz
Oh, right. Mouth noises.
I can show them to you. There’s two serious ones just before 17-1/2 seconds. The second picture is the blue spikes reduced (and the tick sound suppressed) with DeCrisper1.
I can barely hear them, but I know the eagle-ears on the forum are going to be right on this.
Koz
See the blue blob just after 18.3 seconds? It’s very much smaller in the bottom clip. That’s “Goddaughter LeSSSlie.”
Koz
I can’t say I hear it in the recording, though I’ve been very conscious of how much I’m lisping since I’ve had to wear this dumb ‘flipper’ (partial) while waiting till April for my implant. I had not bothered to change to the jerry-rigged contraption I’ve created that looks like hell but will fill in the space formally occupied by my deceased front tooth. (You should hear the SSSSSSSS’s without it!) It takes a few minutes and uses up a lot of adhesive, so I didn’t bother with it for this sample. So I guess, let’s withhold judgment on the SSSSS’s for now and assume it can be corrected by the narrator.
If it’s still too much, you’re thinking you’re handy-dandy filter will take care of it?
PS I amplified the volume on both tracks and I COULD hear the difference. Good. I can monitor myself now.
you’re thinking you’re handy-dandy filter will take care of it?
Among others. There is also a “DeEsser” tool that tries to decide whether the “essing” is objectionable as it goes through the show. I tried that and the show was still a little too bright and hard for my taste.
Did you get Mastering 4 to work? DeCrisper is just a different setting for Equalizer, the first step in Mastering. You can install different equalizations and even make your own (which is what I did).
You can look at Equalization as super fancy tone controls Treble and Bass. Only instead of two knobs, it has 30, each one affecting different musical tones.
88 keys on a piano? Each one a different tone?
Koz
Onward and upward. I have figured out how to hear my SSSSS’s and lip smacks and all that endearing junk. I just plug the damn headphones into the zoom, crank up all the levels and there it is. I recorded some samples and found that yes, I can hear car noise while inside the walk-in closet. I’m experimenting now with the on-suite bathroom. Small interior room, much better soundproofed, but lots of hard surfaces. Any tips on cheap and/or free things on hand that I can hang from the walls that will help? I have egg crate mattress pads, blankets, comforters, pillows, towels.
Here’s the bathroom with pillows and egg crate foam thrown everywhere.
Oh, that’s good stuff. I can’t hear the room at all.
“There were smaller gold coins…”
I don’t have any trouble hearing the clock, though.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
I have a nice Ikea clock in the third bedroom with the microphones. I always damage the first sound take just then remembering I have to lock the clock in the closet. “Oh, for !@#$%.”
Here’s the bathroom with pillows and egg crate foam thrown everywhere.
Now all you have to do is remember where everything is so you can put it all back in exactly the same place chapter after chapter. ACX expects everything to match.
I used plain Mastering and threw in very gentle Noise Reduction of the Beast (6, 6, 6). I won’t post until you get rid of the clock.
You shouldn’t leave too much silence at the top. RMS (loudness) is an average over time. If there’s too much dead space you can throw off the tools.
The tonal balance is perfect (in my opinion). How did you get rid of the SSS sounds?
I can listen to that [settling in with a cup of tea].
Koz
I found this brilliant solution! Who would have guessed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq2yoVwpRs8
I’m putting together a little tent blanket. Two fuzzy blankets. One’s in the wash, I have no idea where it’s been. But the tent should make a stable environment, sound-wise, while avoiding all the conveniences in normal daily use.
You’re making your own tiny soundproof studio. How long do you think he/you can stay in there? My guess is about five minutes before you have to come out and gasp for air. Are you air conditioned?
There is a version where you make a tunnel for the microphone and hang a blanket behind you leaving a space in the middle open for air circulation.
You also have to display your script. I do it on paper which means I need a quiet light inside, but if you do it on a tablet, that would seem to be the best of all worlds. Lights up with no noise. He has a quiet laptop. That’s where you can make noise by accident right in there with you. Eeeeeeeee. If you use your H2, you won’t have any noise problems.
How are you reading your script?
If you get a version that’s quiet and you can stand to live in, post pictures.
You can be the poster child for two different techniques.
Koz
Here’s one with hardware store plastic pipes.
Koz
I have built my little bathroom blanket sound studio and have some samples. I’ve recorded the same line at four different volume levels. At setting #7 it seems I’m not reaching the sound level required overall, though there’s little background noise or SSSS’s and other mouth noises. All the way to #10 and the waveform seems to be ideal, but there’s noise. Which volume level should I record at? Seems like cranking it up, then removing the noises with filters would be best. You tell me.
Here’s #10 again, this time I’ve played around with noise reduction.
I tried to analyze #7 and I couldn’t do it because you didn’t leave the two-seconds of Room Tone silence anywhere in the piece. You immediately started moving furniture around at the end.
“…in midair than on the floor” Clunk, Clank, Bang!
If anybody ever tells you how easy it is to be a theatrical performer, you can disagree.
Koz
I tried to noise reduce #10, too and I had trouble because the noises at the beginning and end don’t match.
I think you’re just too impatient to get this over with.
[Pause, quietly] “Her genie shoes with curved…as she danced more in mid-air than on the floor.” [pause, quietly.] Stop. You have over 22 seconds to mess with. I call it 20 because it’s easy to remember, but a mono sound test actually runs out of steam at just over 22 seconds. There’s no great hurry.
Where are these volume numbers coming from?
Koz
Okay, re-recorded it all.
The volume numbers are on the Zoom H2N. I’m trying to settle on what volume setting I should use. I wasn’t aware that these samples had to be twenty seconds. I thought they just can’t exceed 20 seconds. I just picked out a sentence, thinking it would give enough time to sample the quality at that volume setting.
Not sure what you mean about the noises not matching at the beginning and end of #10. Sound the same to me. I guess you mean the initial #10. Is the second one I uploaded okay? I remember setting the menu options so that it wouldn’t automatically set the background noise to what it wants it to be. I forget the term.
At volume setting #7:
At volume setting #8:
At volume setting #9:
At volume setting #10:
And here’s #10 with some noise reducation and amplification:
I thought they just can’t exceed 20 seconds.
That’s correct, but you can slide over a bit longer and the forum will accept it.
Some clean background sound is super important. Noise causes the most troubles in home theatrical recording. At the exact time when the end of the presentation should fall silent to background sound for one or two beats, you started re-arranging furniture.
~~
Use 9.
As near as I can tell, the step up to 10 causes problems, but 9 setting seems to be the sweet spot.
This is 9 Mastered but no Noise Reduction
And this is 9 mastered with gentle 666 noise reduction. First three readings and sentence 2/3 down.
So that will pass ACX technical standards and I’d be shocked if they didn’t love your voice.
Koz