Filters

[mikeandthebear]

Is there are general order in which filters or other corrections should be made when correcting voice recordings?

[steve]

It depends on what corrections you need to make

[mikeandthebear]

We are working on CBT training programs. The voice overs often have small sections that need to be shortened, lengthened, pops removed, breathing removed, volume increased or decreased (over small sections), words deleted or added, trempo changed or matched and pitch changed. There may be a mix of two or three and sometimes more. Is there a general order to follow or some specific "this one always first (or last" that we should follow?

Thanks

[kozikowski]

Most of that is straight editing and the order of the tools doesn't mater all that much. You need to worry when you're making corrections to the quality of the work and the tools interact. Noise Removal, Vinyl Pop Suppression, and compressor are classics.

<<<trempo changed or matched and pitch changed. >>>

Tempo and Pitch are two that you might reconsider. This isn't AutoTune and the results are many times not "musical" to borrow a phrase.

"I changed the pitch of my voice and it sounds all honky and weird."

Word by word volume you can do manually with the Envelope tool (two white arrows and bent blue line) or you can try Chris' Compressor which will do it automatically.

We worry about posters that arrive with an enormous laundry list of requests because after a point, it pays very well to go back and shoot it again, this time without the errors.

There is a break point and you have to accept a permanently damaged show. Noise Removal is frequently misunderstood. Noise is a very specific thing and the tool will not remove a MetroBus starting up outside the window in the middle of the show. You may think it's noise, but The City Of Chicago Transit Authority is now a permanent performer in your show.

Koz

[steve]

If "DC off-set correction" is required, that should be first.

Noise reduction should be done before anything that changes the relative levels of different parts of the recording (when you adjust the level of a section of a track, it will also adjust the noise level, but noise removal is much less effective if the noise level is going up and down.

"Wind blast" due to breath on the microphone should be removed before it reaches the microphone - use a "pop shield". If it's too late for that, then apply a low frequency high-pass filter early on in the processing chain - a high-pass filter will usually resolve any need for a DC off-set correct, so this could be done as the first step, but take great care not to over-do it.

With virtually all effects it is possible to apply a bit more of the effect later if required, but is often difficult or impossible to remove an effect once applied,so always aim for a minimal amount of processing.

If you need to change tempo/pitch, or if a lot of noise removal is required, then you may be better to consider the "re-shoot filter"

I would normally do any type of noise reduction (if required) before editing. If it is not possible to get a sufficiently clean sounding recording, then editing will be a waste of time.

The better the original recording is, the less processing is required, and the better the result will be.