I am trying to record a bunch of voice narrations for some YouTube videos. I did several recordings at a local recording studio. They were good, but quite expensive. I need to do quite a few more, so I am trying to see if I can come close to studio quality at home. I have a Samson CO3U USB mic and a CAD EPF-15A Pop Filter. I’ll be doing the recordings in a quite room.
So far, they have come out pretty good, but not quite as good as the studio. I have uploaded 3 recordings to this Dropbox folder.
Is there anything I can do in Audacity to get A or C closer to B?
No. But there’s quite a bit you can do to the room. You have echoes from the walls and floor. A and C have that “recording in the bathroom or kitchen” sound. That and noise are the curse of first-time home recordists. You have the noise licked.
There are no effective post production filters or corrections for echoes or reverb.
There are products you can buy to provide some echo suppression. This one claims you can take it on a plane with you.
I made a “home” version of that from hardware store parts.
For a while there, Home Depot had pre-cut 24" pipes which could be pressed into service. See Text.
Microphone spacing is a big deal. In general, a Hawaiian Shaka for direct recording.
Or a power fist with a pop and blast filter.
Heavy Is Good in soundproofing. Those moving blankets weigh 17 lbs each. Someone posted a design podcast for making acoustic wall panels out of heavy bath towels. I really need to go find that post. He posted before and after sound tests.
You sound close enough by just making the room “go away” when you perform.
We can do a quick evaluation when you get closer by posting a ten second sound test.
Wow. So if I build a cage like that with the mic and pop filter at the back, I just need to stick my head into the opening?
Microphone spacing is a big deal. In general, a Hawaiian Shaka for direct recording.
That’s about the distance I have been using in front of the pop filter.
Heavy Is Good in soundproofing. Those moving blankets weigh 17 lbs each. Someone posted a design podcast for making acoustic wall panels out of heavy bath towels. I really need to go find that post. He posted before and after sound tests.
We have some heavy bath towels and we may have some of that black foam padding around or I can get some.
You sound close enough by just making the room “go away” when you perform.
Are you referring to the recordings I posted?
We can do a quick evaluation when you get closer by posting a ten second sound test.
Audacity will not save a sound file. It will save Projects which are combinations of files and folders that allow you to save timelines and edit configurations (but not UNDO). They’re perfect quality but they can be brittle and they only open in Audacity.
Audacity will Export standard sound files.
The audio on a CD is uncompressed WAV 44100, 16-bit Stereo.
The audio for television sound is uncompressed WAV 48000, 16-bit stereo.
MP3 is the compressed format you use when you want to play the work on your portable music device or post something on-line where sound quality is less important than file size. You can’t edit or change an MP3 without causing sound damage. Never do production in MP3, although everybody on earth wants to.
Note that ACX/Audible wants submission for audiobooks in MP3. They have some very strict methods of making them to avoid some of the most common pitfalls, restrictions, and distortions.
When I submit to the video editors, I use WAV (Microsoft) 16-bit Stereo, 48000. Those are excellent quality and they will open anywhere on all three computer platforms.
One place nobody ever thinks of Exporting WAV is right after you get done announcing. That’s the raw backup. Save it somewhere safe. That’s your rescue if something nasty happens and destroys your edit and the production copy of your voice. Not a problem, I have a WAV copy right here on this thumb drive. No need to go back to the microphone and quiet room.
Packing foam doesn’t work that well. It’s job is to take up space and not weigh anything. Soundproofing’s job is to be heavy. To get in the way of the sound. Sound has to push its way through.
Anything you do does something, but the best stuff is heavy.
Do you have a carpeting store near you? Hit the dumpster after everybody goes to bed.
I just need to stick my head into the opening?
Yeah, basically. At worst you might need a third blanket hung up behind you, but probably not. Don’t back up against a plain, blank wall. Leave some air behind you.
Please note my design has room for a letter size paper script if you push the microphone slightly to the side.
I’m going to try making one myself. I think I’ll use a wooden frame with some of those acoustic panels glued to the inside.
A couple of questions.
I have a Samson C03U mic, a pop filter, and something called a “spider shockmount”. That’s a basket suspended inside a slightly larger basket by tiny bungee cords so that the mic kinda “floats”. What value does that provide? Is it worth it to me to allow for it in the design of my sound booth?
Does it matter much if I am speaking directly into the mic? I don’t have text 100% memorized, so I need to read it from somewhere. I have been placing the mic beside my laptop and reading with my head slightly turned toward the laptop screen. But with the sound booth, I won’t be able to get the mic a close, so my head may be turned away a bit more. If that is a problem, I could put the text on an iPad and lay that down in front of the booth. Would that be good enough, or do I need to also add some sort of mount so I can put the iPad on top of the booth?
I think I’ll use a wooden frame with some of those acoustic panels glued to the inside.
Please note that in neither of our designs is there a hard box. In mine it’s pipes and blankets and in theirs, it’s a floppy support system. No rigid panels anywhere. Also, if you didn’t gasp at the price of the panels, it’s probably someone’s knock-off product and not actual acoustic foam.
There was a poster who designed his own Kitchen Table Studio and oddly got a talking in a small box sound.
Turned out he did a terrific job designing sewn fabric panels with heavy rockwool sound deadening material. So far so good, but he ruined it by encasing the rock wool in foil so that the first thing his voice hits is the rigid foil, not the soft rock wool.
The two posted designs work by having the first hard thing the voice hits is the walls of the room, not anything in the booth itself. You can force plywood panels to work by poking 3/4" to 1" holes in it at random so there is no repeating pattern.
The two posted designs fall apart easily for storage.
Fitting you, the microphone, and the script in at the same time is a trick. If you do use electronic display, it has to be dead quiet. No fan noise or electronic radiations such as WiFi, Cell Service, or BlueTooth. That’s where the Macs shine. They’re quiet and you can turn everything off but the screen. Whatever you use needs to have Solid State Drives and not older spinning metal drives. Spinning metal makes clicking noises.
You don’t have to be straight-on to the microphone. Sometimes an oblique placement is good because that gives less P-Popping and other wind distortions. “B” in the illustration.
Anything between A and B should work, but whatever you choose, you can’t change it once you start. There is a tonal difference between A and B and everything has to match.
The spider mount keeps building, floor, and desk vibrations from traveling up the mic stand to the microphone.
Note the cable has to be floppy, too. Not tight. If you don’t use a spider mount, you have to come up with some other method to isolate the microphone from the desk.
A warning about USB microphones. You can’t be further from the computer than about 6 feet or so and you can’t extend the cable without tricks. This means whatever you plug the microphone into has to be dead quiet. If you can tell the computer is on just by listening, it’s the wrong computer.
USB microphones can have electrical problems, too. There is such a thing as having the computer and microphone not get along with each other giving a USB whine sound.
If you think all these precautions and efforts are silly, remember that the ACX specification for noise, -60dB, means your studio noise has to be 1000 times quieter than your voice, and that’s a minimum.
And if I haven’t said this in a while, we’re struggling with the first ACX acceptance test, technical competence, basic volume, and noise. You still have to pass the theatrical test where somebody listens to the work to see if you can read out loud without scaring anybody. You may need to get good at editing out tongue ticks, lip pops and sibilance (Essing) problems.
There was a poster who assured us he was going to edit his book word by word. He’s probably still on his first chapter.
Technical note. The C03u is a side-fire microphone. You speak into the side grill just up from the company name. It doesn’t matter if it’s right-side up or not.
Wow. I assumed that the soft sided designs were because (a) they are simpler, (b) cheaper, and (c) more easily collapsible.
In the studio, the walls were covered with soundproofing material, but behind that was probably sheetrock. I was emulating that. I take it the difference is the distance the sound has to travel before bouncing back, right?
I’ll abandon the wooden box for the PVC. It will also be simpler and cheaper.
Also, if you didn’t gasp at the price of the panels, it’s probably someone’s knock-off product and not actual acoustic foam.
I posted links to two products on Amazon. Here’s another from a vendor outside Amazon:
They are all similar in price (about $3-4/sq ft) and weight (about 2.5 oz/sq ft). Since I am only buying a few sq ft, the price is only $20-$30 – hardly gasping range for me.
The two posted designs fall apart easily for storage.
This isn’t a big deal for me, but it is a side benefit.
Fitting you, the microphone, and the script in at the same time is a trick.
What are the dimensions of your box? The Porta-Booth Plus is about 16x16x16. I was planning on something like 12x12x12, but now that I’ll be using PVC, I can easily make it larger.
If you do use electronic display, it has to be dead quiet. No fan noise or electronic radiations such as WiFi, Cell Service, or BlueTooth. That’s where the Macs shine. They’re quiet and you can turn everything off but the screen. Whatever you use needs to have Solid State Drives and not older spinning metal drives. Spinning metal makes clicking noises.
I have a Surface Book. It has no moving parts. And the top detaches to become like a large iPad.
I didn’t know about the WiFi. I can turn those off. I can also print the text and have paper, but the guy in the studio told me not to bring paper into the studio because paper makes noise. He had me send him the text in advance. He put it on his iPad and put that on a music stand in front of me.
You don’t have to be straight-on to the microphone. Sometimes an oblique placement is good because that gives less P-Popping and other wind distortions. “B” in the illustration.
Great. I’ll turn my head slightly to read and try not to vary the angle.
The spider mount keeps building, floor, and desk vibrations from traveling up the mic stand to the microphone.
I doubt that there are any significant vibrations to worry about, but since I have the mount, I might as well use it.
I guess I can put the whole contraption on a heavy blanket like you did in your design. Right?
Note the cable has to be floppy, too. Not tight. If you don’t use a spider mount, you have to come up with some other method to isolate the microphone from the desk.
The mic’s USB cable is about 9’ long. The PC is about 1’ away, so the rest is just laying loosely on the desk.
I’ll make a PVC frame, buy some acoustic foam, sew it together into a 4-sided box (open front and bottom) that fits over the frame.
As I said in the previous reply, the mic’s USB cable is almost 10’ long. Is that a problem if the PC is only 1’ away?
USB microphones can have electrical problems, too. There is such a thing as having the computer and microphone not get along with each other giving a USB whine sound.
I don’t hear anything remotely like that. In fact, I don’t hear any noise at all from the PC. It’s all solid state and I have it on an inclined stand so there is air flow all around it. I have never heard the fan come on – if it even has a fan.
If you think all these precautions and efforts are silly, remember that the ACX specification for noise, -60dB, means your studio noise has to be 1000 times quieter than your voice, and that’s a minimum.
Not at all. I am very grateful to you for the technical information. If I can get this to work, it will not only save me quite a bit in studio fees, but give me a lot of flexibility. The project is a bunch of verses for a series of satirical poems. I send the narration files to the person making the video. Then we talk on the phone. There are always last minute tweaks requiring a new narration recording. If I can just do it myself, instead of having to schedule another studio session, the turnaround time can be cut from days to minutes.
You still have to pass the > theatrical > test where somebody listens to the work to see if you can read out loud without scaring anybody. You may need to get good at editing out tongue ticks, lip pops and sibilance (Essing) problems.
If by “you” you mean me, I did post three recordings of one of the narrations for some friends to evaluate. Here’s the link:
One was done in the studio, one was done at home using the PC’s mic, and one was done using the Samson mic.
Technical note. The C03u is a side-fire microphone. You speak into the side grill just up from the company name. It doesn’t matter if it’s right-side up or not.
I’m not sure what your point here is. I have been speaking directly at the top of the C03U about 4" from the pop filter, which is about 2" from the mic.
So what? Did it stop working? I bought it about 10-12 years ago for another project. I’m sure there are better/newer mics out there now, but is there any reason why I can’t use this one for this project? It’s not abandoned by me. I’m not planning on requesting support from Samson.
No reason. The C03U is a reasonable mic in it’s price range. I don’t know why it was discontinued but I’d guess that it didn’t sell as well as Samson hoped (whereas the significantly cheaper C01U remains very popular). Being a dual diaphragm mic, the C03U will be more expensive to manufacture than the single diaphragm C01, so Samson probably couldn’t drop the price enough to make it competitive in a saturated market.
I have been speaking directly at the top of the C03U
That’s different from speaking at the side of the microphone toward the top which is recommended.
Everybody knows how a rock band microphone works (that’s from Shure Promotion. Read the tattoo)
So everybody assumes all microphones work like that.
They don’t.
The Blue Yeti is an insanely popular USB microphone. In the first issue of the instructions, many pages down and in very fine print they admitted it was a side-address microphone. Nobody read that far and I have seen respected performers using it wrong.
The latest version of the instructions has this illustration.
This is the problem. This is a quote from the top of page nine of the instructions.
Specifically, when you point a cardioid mic directly at the sound source (on axis) you will get the best frequency response, how- ever when you start pointing the microphone slightly away (off axis) you will notice the low frequency response dropping off and the microphone will start to sound thinner.
For most vocal applications you’ll want to position the microphone directly in front of the artist. The same may be true for miking instruments, however, you can make some pretty amazing equalization adjustments by slightly changing the angle of the capsule to the sound source.
They almost, but not quite, tell you where the front of the microphone is, and with directional microphones that error can make a big difference.
Aha, now I see what you meant. I think I have been doing it right. I put it in its stand upright as in the drawing, not the rock singer. I have the Samson name facing me so I can see the little green power on light.
