And are you disapproving of my doing Noise Reduction Profile and then Noise Reduction for the mouth sounds?
You don’t like “Amplification” either?
What about “normalize”?
I’ll send you one more recording with the mic stand on the carpet after the construction ends outside.
And just to wear my obsessive engineer hat for a minute. The microphone has natural, internal noises, too (ffffffffff), so you can’t whisper into your beer, even in a studio.
Koz
the mouth sounds?
That’s different. There are other tools for that such as De-Essing and De-Clicking.
You don’t like “Amplification” either?
What about “normalize”?
Normalize and Amplify are sisters and do the same thing but with different adjusting techniques.
I need to leave for a while.
Koz
Ok. After you talked about “hot” mic’s, I did some searching it seems dynamic mics all push a little lower volume.
So I will not send back the mic.
I WILL do what I can to reduce the noise.
I’d love you tell me about the de-essing and de-clicking and whether I should deal with noise reduction at all now that I know about the refrigerator, etc.
Or should I forget about noise reduction as well as amplification and normalization?
Have I thanked you today?
I’m in the field and can’t be wordy or verbose. I don’t think De-Essing, etc is a normally available tool. I need to find them.
Koz
You can’t forget about Noise Reduction. Your natural recording environment demands something be done to reduce background noise.
Your noises happen to respond to custom, by-hand reductions, plus stiffer than normal Effect > Noise Reduction plus the rumble filter as part of the regular AudioBook Mastering Suite.
You’re trying to record quality voice in the middle of a boiler factory.
I think this one is current.
https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/updated-de-clicker-and-new-de-esser-for-speech/34283/1
Noise Suppression affects sibilance, so don’t even think of correcting wet mouth noises before you resolve noise.
Special, custom, RMS-Normalize was designed to conform your work to one of the audiobook standards, pretty much no matter where you start from. People using the AudioBook Mastering Suite are warned not to ad-lib, leave things out or put extra stuff in. Each step is attuned to the others and all work in harmony.
It doesn’t work particularly well in your case because you’re recording in a boiler factory.
Koz
Nobody wrote you have to record right there. At work, I had one conference room that was really quiet and I had a very strong request to get in there if I had an important recording. There was a storage closet on the ground floor that produced good recordings—as long as you didn’t need more than two people in there. Piles of expanding files, legal documents and cardboard boxes along the walls make terrific sound proofing.
One of the forum posters “broke into” her office after everybody went home and they turned off the noisy air conditioning. It wasn’t convenient, so she stopped doing it…but it worked.
Koz
So if we could just keep this simple, after I’ve done all I can do to physically adjust the environment:
which AUDACITY EFFECT or other tool are you suggesting I use to eliminate any remaining noise and/or rumble?
And then for the saliva clicks?
after I’ve done all I can do to physically adjust the environment:
Then you perform another 18 second test run and post it. I’m customizing and posting detailed corrections to the recording environment. Generic corrections don’t work for you.
Once we succeed, you can’t change anything.
There is an obsessive comment here. If you change something that makes your environment quieter, then some of your corrections may not be needed, and it’s best not to apply any more patching than you need. But that’s splitting hairs.
After you apply the custom corrections to your target performance, then you can mess with sibilance, click and smack corrections.
I know they seem like noises to you, but those are Performance problems, not Recording problems, and I didn’t hear any serious problems in your posts. It’s possible to listen on speakers or headphones that boost mouth noises artificially and the generic audience won’t care. You never said how you were listening.
And that’s when you wander out of my world. I’m not a Wet Mouth Noise Elf. Baby steps.
Koz
I can’t find them right this second, but I posted two different April First stories. the first one was to the video forum where I introduced New! and Improved! software that would take whatever sound you shot and turn it into whatever you wanted. One wag on the forum claimed he could leave the microphone in the car when he traveled to an interview and still get a good show out of it.
The second was much more fun. I introduced (at the next April First) Weapons Grade Noise Reduction Software. I took the recorders out on a wide, busy street (in real life) for a voice recording. I took all of the the trucks and motorcycles out of the performance in post production without harming my voice using the special software. That was clever editing. I did no such thing.
As far as I know, there’s still no good way to produce a theatrical voice performance from a noisy shoot. You can produce a cellphone call and wine-glass Skype Voice. They’ve been able to do that for a long time now, but nobody’s going to pay you for a cell phone call.
Koz
I found an illustration for the head-mounted microphone.
That’s an actual TED talk. They had growing pains, but they finally got the sound sorted. I used a similar microphone in my podcast engineering test. Plain living room with no special considerations and no noise problems.
Koz
Apparently, I pulled the April Fool stories down.
This is one of the sound files from that series. We determine that’s a Harley Motorcycle.
Tell me you couldn’t use software which does that.
Koz
ok Koz.
Yes please. I’ll take that software.
And what kind of mic is that?
As close to silent as it gets!
In reality, that was me standing at a very busy intersection. Most of the thumping is unintentional. That was a breeze I hadn’t counted on in my “extensive” planning. That’s why you never, ever blow into a microphone. It drives them nuts, and if they go too nuts, they can stop working. Forever.
There’s a reason the dialog is overly simple. I recreated the dialog with the exact same portable recorder in my dead-quiet, soundproofed third bedroom. Then I mounted both sound tracks in Audacity, matched the dialog and faded between them. Poof. No more Harley.
I did three of them. One at a construction site and one in a busy coffee shop.
-=-
I don’t know which microphone that particular one is, but mine is a AKG C555L.
https://www.akg.com/Microphones/Headset%20Microphones/C555L.html
In my case, the microphone is directional and I turn it so it aims to my lips. If I want to wear the headset on the other side, I have to turn the microphone. It comes with a foam ball like his. More importantly, it’s a full-on entertainment microphone. It’s designed to be plugged into a sound mixer or a theatrical radio link, so there’s nothing simple or cheap about it.
This is the engineering test Denise and I shot. I’m wearing the AKG. Many mistakes. It’s heavily cut to take out all the Ummms and Ahhhs and all the “Can You Hear Me OK,” and false starts.
Denise is three times zones away over a Skype link. So yes, you can do well with Skype if you’re paying attention.
http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/clips/DenisePodcastMoreHeavilyCut3.mp3
-=-
Is that sound check in the conditions you will be using for your performances? There have been people who perform between refrigerator cycles. If you unplug the fridge, set an alarm/timer somewhere. There are performers who do that, too.
Koz
Since the plug is behind the refrigerator, yes I waited for the cycle to end.
I’m pretty much out of pocket for the weekend, Koz.
Please don’t go to too much more trouble.
You’ve already helped immensely by helping me identify things.
Mixed success. I got the performance to pass with much less fuss than before. Your voice is cleaner with fewer distortions (attached).
First three lines and sentence 2/3 down.
This is an incomplete list of the corrections. It’s not step by step. I’ll do that later.
I know that seems like insanity, but 3, 4, and 5 are the standard audiobook steps. Everybody does those.
is your mystery “motor or something,” we will probably never find.
is a very gentle noise reduction, a small fraction of what I was using before. I almost don’t need it.
You picked up one interference tone that wasn’t there before. Do you have something on in your studio that’s new? It wasn’t there in earlier sound tests. That’s wall power problems in the US. Electric Heater, Lamp Dimmer, Bad plug in the socket. Some CFL light bulb replacements can do that. I’ve never had an LED lamp do it. Some fans can do that, but it’s less likely.
-=-
But the real Mixed Success is now that your voice is much cleaner and clearer, I can hear your wet mouth noises. Isn’t that great news!?!
I need to find which forum elf is good with those.
Koz