Post Recording Echo

[kozikowski]

The first person speaking in that podcast is Waaaaaaay too close to the microphone. Is that the headset? Pull the microphone capsule away from your lips and twist or slide it so it's about 45 degrees to the left or right and about one or two inches from your lips. If you spit, you should not be able to hit the capsule.

You don't cure that in post production. That's baked in.

One of the performers has what I'm guessing is computer fan noise in the track and it's pretty annoying. eeeeeeeeeeeeee. You maybe able to get rid of that with the Noise Removal tools -- in Audacity 1.3. Production tools are way better in Audacity 1.3, especially Noise Removal. You can have 1.2 and 1.3 on your machine as long as you only use one at a time. Audacity 1.3 Projects will not open up in 1.2, but if you Export As WAV all the time, that shouldn't be a problem for you (or me. I don't use Projects at all).

All in all, it comes together pretty well. You got this production thing down. You might be able to polish it up just a little bit by running the final WAV through Chris's Compressor.

http://pdf23ds.net/software/dynamic-compressor/

If you change the compression value to .77 from .5, it will simulate the compression of a radio station. It will take the wild, erratic volume swings out of the show and give it a more polished presentation.

I try to stay out of content, but the intro in that clip was done by somebody up and energetic and fun. The next voice wasn't any of those things.

Koz

[Joseph Witchard]

Thanks And the second voice was me :p

I have both Audacity 1.2.6 and Audacity 1.3.9. But when I open the wav files in 1.3.9, they sound worse than in 1.2.6. A lot of crackling. I know the tools are better, but I'm afraid to use the new version because I don't want to add the crackling to the audio.

[steve]

when I open the wav files in 1.3.9, they sound worse than in 1.2.6. A lot of crackling.

In Audacity 1.3.9 (Preferences > Devices) try switching between "DirectSound" and "MME" to see if one gives better results (probably DirectSound).

If that makes no difference, try changing the "Quality" preferences from "32 bit float" to "16 bit".

[Joseph Witchard]

I'll try these tips out. Thanks

EDIT: kozikowsik, which option do I change on that compressor plugin? It gave me many options, and I didn't see one specifically called "Compress". There's "Compress Ratio". Did you mean that?

[kozikowski]

Yes. It's the first number. Reset from 0.5 to 0.77.

There's nothing wrong with 0.5, but it gives a little tighter show at the higher number. Oh, and there is one oddball problem. This will make no sense. Chris works best when there is about ten seconds of "something" at the beginning and end of the show. Anything. You can cut it off later just before delivery. His Look Ahead modules see dead silence at both ends of a finished show and freak. I apply him before I do the final cutdown of my shows so he has something at both ends to chew on I don't care about.

There is one more filter that makes editing much cleaner and smoother. Effect > Normalize > Remove DC. Don't let the filter do anything else. DC or battery voltage causes pops and clicks at edit points for no apparent reason. All my productions are very rough edited, cleaned of DC and then leveled out with Chris. Then I go in and do surgical, word-by-word editing.

<<<A lot of crackling.>>>

Crackling is not good. It usually means the computer isn't up to managing the show, especially if the noise changes with everything. Sometimes it's worse when the show is long, sometimes when the humidity goes up....etc. Clean out the hard drive. Error check and defrag your brains out. Find someplace to put work so your hard drive isn't over half full. That might speed things up enough to get you going again.

<<<the second voice was me :p>>>

As a voice talent you're a terrific Producer.

Koz

[Joseph Witchard]

<<<His Look Ahead modules see dead silence at both ends of a finished show and freak.>>>

Which ones are you referring to specifically?

<<<Crackling is not good. It usually means the computer isn't up to managing the show, especially if the noise changes with everything.>>>

Do you mean while recording, during editing, or both?

And thanks for the compliment

[steve]

Oh, and there is one oddball problem. This will make no sense. Chris works best when there is about ten seconds of "something" at the beginning and end of the show.

His latest version (1.2.3) addresses this problem so that workaround is probably not necessary.

[Joseph Witchard]

Are you talking about the Dynamic Compression plugin?

[kozikowski]

<<<Are you talking about the Dynamic Compression plugin?>>>

Yes. One of the ways Chris gets such a smooth performance is that he looks ahead to try and predict what the show loudness is going to be before needs to do anything to it. Most processors just take it as it comes and they can be surprised.

That works really well except the two ends of the performance where there is no show. Prediction data turns to peanut butter and has to be managed as known damaged data. Apparently he did that in the latest version.

Did you find out whose computer fan is getting into the show? eeeeeeeeee

Koz

[Joseph Witchard]

Not yet. There's really no way to tell, is there? I mean, all three of us have our computers running.