Start with your raw clip and make sure you can duplicate my steps. You have an odd low pitch tone in this recording and the clip won’t pass noise with it in there. It’s not any obvious problem I can think of—it’s not power related. That’s the notch filter step that’s new with this process.
Koz
Today I will work on it and get a sample back to you. Thanks!
I can use the Shure and the sound board, if you would like. I’ll try to do a sample with that too.
George
I can use the Shure and the sound board, if you would like.
I would like. The analog mixer is missing some of the noise and sound problems of the USB microphone. So even if the sound levels are off, it’s easier to produce a clean, clear sound file in post production.
Koz
Okay. I am attaching a version of that file which I corrected, following your instructions. There were a couple of points where I wasn’t too sure, as the menu in my copy of Audacity must differ slightly from yours. Here’s a picture of the menu for noise reduction, as I used it.
It still sounds a little tinny to me.
I am also attaching a raw clip using the Shure microphone and Folio Notepad.
George
You’re not in Audacity 2.1.0 are you? That’s a problem. I’m using all the up-to-date correction and filter tools. If you’re using an older Audacity, those settings are not going to translate well — or not at all. Audacity 2.1.0 includes greatly improved tools and services. If you have Audacity 2.10 or any version like that, it’s not “real.” It’s a bogus copy
http://audacityteam.org/download/
Koz
That could be interesting. I don’t know anybody that has a Lifter. You may have hit the magic formula for producing near-perfect recordings.
You should suppress the urge to edit older posts even though it’s allowed. We don’t automatically go back and look at older posts, so if you put something important back there, it might get lost to the ages.
Koz
I just checked. I have version 2.0.5. Will update A.S.A.P.
I don’t believe I’ve edited anything older than ten or fifteen minutes old. But I will definitely keep that advice in mind.
So, the Cloud Lifter recording sounds good?!
George
Not yet it doesn’t. I’m still juggling other posters and hope to get finished before I need to go to bed. The Lifter reportedly solves a low volume problem many analog USB sound systems have. If it does, then there is no reason not to produce a terrific sounding product. You already have most if not all of the room echo solved. That’s what kills most people.
You will need to pay more attention to the Audacity sound meters. You will find in 2.1.0, the meters are very much bigger and easier to see. It’s the main reason I dropped the older versions like a hot rock.
With the lifter in there you could not only produce a good recording with many sound peaks going up to about -6, but you could also overload (run the meters all the way up) and that’s not a good idea at all.
I think you asked about the settings on the sound mixer. There’s no good, simple answer. Many mixers work with their volume controls about 2/3 up. It rings bells with the older users when they see a mixer with the controls jammed all the way up or near the bottom. Something Is Wrong if you’re doing that.
Asking for knob settings is a little like asking where to set the steering wheel to drive to the Piggly-Wiggly.
As we go.
Koz
Okay, I installed Audacity 2.1.0 both on my wife’s Windows 8.1 machine and on my Linux Mint 17.1 laptop.
finished some of the new graphics to go with Audacity 2.1.0.
These are roughly what your recording meters are supposed to look like when your voice is normal volume. Keep a lot of it in the yellow.
Yes, I understand they bounce around and it’s hard to watch them and read the script at the same time. That’s what the recording engineer is normally doing, but if you miss it by too much, it makes the show recording very hard to adjust back to normal audiobook standards.
I’m remembering this. I can’t find a graphic big enough so I can read the Folio knob labels and tell you where they should go. Find a link with a picture large enough to clearly read the knobs and post the link. Or post the link to the instruction book or post a picture of the mixer you took with the knobs clearly visible. There’s no shortage of mixer pictures, but they’re all the size of matchbooks and I can’t read them.
~~
While we’re doing that, the last posting sounds like you have a cement mixer in the room with you. What happened to the nice quiet room with the blankets and duvets on the walls?
Open your submitted clip and look at the first 2-1/2 seconds of the clip. That blue rubble should be a straight line. Drag-select it, play it and turn up the speaker volume. Did you turn on an air conditioner or ventilation fan? That lead-in segment should sound like very quiet, gentle, rain-in-the-trees hiss (fffff). It’s loud enough that I’m having a hard time getting rid of it.
Without getting too messy on you, this should have rung bells while you were making the recording. This kind of problem should have been obvious in the headphones during the performance. That’s one of the reasons you’re on headphones during a reading.
How do you have the microphone suspended or mounted? Do you have a “rubber spider” shock mount for it?
I don’t have a good picture of this. It’s on my list of camera tasks. These will have to do.
Koz
Here’s a photo of how our microphone is supported. Under that towel is a stone pestle, we brought up from Mexico. It cradles the mike.
I believe that sound was from an adjustment on the mixer. I played with the knobs a bit and reduced it quite a bit. I went back to page five of this thread and, with the updated Audacity program, was able to unpin the meter and adjust the microphone settings higher. Here is a piece of the clip I did. I think it sounds MUCH better than any other so far.
George
It does sound much better, but I know there were earlier tests that sounded even better yet. Not the voice. The voice is fine. It’s the Room Tone, the noise when you stop talking.
I can tell you where to put the controls if I could see and read the mixer knobs.
In the earlier clip I had clear fans or motors running. Does your laptop heat up and turn its fans on now and again? The ACX people warn you about that and we have other people who have to take a coffee break and let everything cool down.
Do you only have the one microphone plugged into the mixer? The lifter requires 48volt phantom power (I believe) and I need to make sure the mixer supplies that. Again, all I can make out is a button on the front called [something] power.
I’d kill for a picture of that mixer.
I got that clip to pass audiobook standards and still sound OK, but I had to work too hard at it. Too many filters and effects. You could die of old age applying multiple corrections to each chapter.
Koz
That doesn’t look like the Shure microphone. Wait, you said you got a different one from the rock band mic. I need to go back and look.
That’s exactly the idea with blankets and towels. Again, your vocal tones are perfect. Nobody can tell you’re recording at home except for the noise level.
Koz
Here’s your last clip fully patched and audiobook compliant.
Koz
Yes, the laptop fan did come on at times. Unfortunately, I didn’t pay attention to that. I will in the future.
Here are some pictures of the Folio Notepad.
Also, here’s a picture of the phantom power supply.
Connection is thus:
Folio mic jack to MicroPower PS400 “Mic Thru”
“Mic Input” of MicroPower PS400 to Cloudlifter CL-1
From Cloudlifter CL-1 to Shure SM7A mic
Note: it is a Shure SM7A. I understand that there are other Shure mics out there.
Thanks so much for all your input.
George
The Cloud Lifter is just another 20 dB of gain. It’s good for ribbon mics, if you need it.
I don’t know the Shure SM7a, but I do know the SM7b. It’s fine. Especially for voice. Combined with the Soundcraft Folio you should have enough gain. Adding extra devices will only produce more noise (hiss).
Your problem is gain staging. You need to have 1 setup and start fiddling the knobs until you can get the maximum out of that Soundcraft.
As you are trying it now, you’re switching your setup every time. You should only test one parameter at a time.
Once you know how to set up the Soundcraft, you can start treating the room.
And you really need a good pair of headphones…
I agree. This is a cousin to the system I have and it works without very much additional fuss.
Shut down the mixer and the Phantom Power generator. Plug the microphone directly into the mixer. No Lifter and no phantom power. Make sure “Mic Power” is not selected on the mixer and turn it on.
Mixer Settings:
– Preamp level on your microphone at 3:00 o’clock. Turn all the rest of them down as far as they’ll go.
– All the Trebles and Basses across the mixer should be centered at zero.
– All the FX Sends to zero.
– All of the Pans at “C”.
– Volume on your microphone at “0” (around 2:00 o’clock). Turn all of the others to infinity.
Most of that turns off the 4/5 of the mixer you’re not using so it doesn’t contribute noise.
– Mic Power Off.
– Instrument/Turntable buttons should all be Up (Instrument).
– FX RET Volume at zero.
– Tape Volume at zero.
I’m not totally sure what Tape Volume does, but I can try to look it up later. Leave it at zero.
– Master Volume around -10.
– Headphone volume whatever makes you comfortable.
You didn’t take a shot of the upper right. Where do you have the UCA202 plugged in? Is there a Line-Out or a Master-Out?
Right now, with no computer running, it should be possible to speak and get the yellow AVG lights to flash. Plug your headphones into the mixer and it should be possible to hear yourself very clearly. Never run a microphone and speakers in the same room (unless you’re in a rock band).
This is a grand place to stop. Did you get the yellow lights and can you hear yourself in your headphones?
Koz
Okay, here’s the latest. Thank you for all the details. I tried to follow them exactly.
Our headphones are Sony Dynamic Stereo Headphones MDR-7506. But I had plugged them into the jack on the side of the laptop, not to the jack in the mixer. Here is a picture of that upper right corner before I plugged the headphones in there.
I think I set everything the way you instructed, and, when I spoke into the microphone, for the first time I heard myself speak. However, the AVG lights did not flash, not even once.
I had not used the Behringer UCA202 to make the last several recordings. I have it and will connect it when and how you say. I stopped while the going was … grand.
Standing by…
George
Since we don’t have Audacity or the computer turned on yet, you should plug your 7506s into the mixer. The headphones come with 1/8" plug and a 1/4" adapter, right? You can plug into either socket? So shifting between the computer to the mixer should be no trouble — if you can remember where you put the adapter. Not that I’ve ever done that.
Advance the Headphones Amp control (lower right) and talk. You should hear yourself even if it’s not very strong.
Advance the red Preamp Level (up left) one notch. Advance the white Volume knob at the bottom of that stack (lower left) one notch. Keep watching those yellow lights while you do this and talking. Push the Master Mix Volume (lower right) all the way up. Talk. Any lights yet? your voice in the headphones should be getting louder and louder as you do this.
If there’s still no lights yet, run all three knobs all the way up and get closer and louder at the microphone until you get something. Warn people that you’re going to be yelling. Quick Note: You talk into the end of an SM7, not the side. The SM7 was designed to suppress sounds except the ones coming in from the end (the performer).
The attached podcast is using them more or less correctly. You shouldn’t get them wet.
The SM7a is a dynamic (moving coil) microphone and they’re hard to break. Yelling at close range is perfectly valid.
My little mixer would be off the charts overloading by now. Angry flashing red lights.
Let us know.
Koz
This is my mixer with those same three knobs labeled.
The up side of knowing how to run your mixer is then you know how to run most mixers. I got that picture from an ad, I didn’t take it, so the knobs are set wrong, but they’re in roughly the same places yours are.
Koz