I’ve had some spoken word audio files created, but I’m convinced that the quality isn’t great. They sound a little echo-y to me.
I’ve attached a 4-second example:
I’m a few months into using Audacity so I am reasonable with it but in no way a pro.
Are there any people with a good ear on this forum that could tell me if this is suitable for long term listening (half an hour per episode with a soft background music track), and if not, what effects or techniques I could put to good use to make it better? I’m eager to learn!
To me, it doesn’t sound “echo-y”, but there is a strange “boomy” sound - a low frequency resonance. That “may” have started off as echoes, but it’s difficult to tell due to processing that has been applied.
What sort of mic are you using, and what is your recording space (your “studio”) like?
A raw (unprocessed) recording would be useful for analysing the cause of the problem.
Using Graphic EQ, the booming can be reduced by reducing the levels at around 160 Hz, and slightly reduced at around 500 Hz.
This is far from perfect, but sounds a bit better to me.
To make significant improvement, I think we need to go back to the raw recording to see (hear) what material we have to work with.
For this kind of work you really need good headphones (and / or studio monitors). Don’t bother trying to EQ with earbuds, laptop speakers, or computer speakers.
