I’m working with a Fifine T669 setup inside a walk-in closet. I’d appreciate it if I could get an opinion on how close I’ve gotten to the quality needed for a podcast, so I have two 10-second MP3 files attached.
Clip 1: My normal speech, with 16db Noise Reduction and editing out my breathing.
Clip 2: Same verbiage, but with the Pitch frequency reduced 1% and the Tempo reduced 4%.
For clip 2, I’m hoping to sound like a slightly different character. Any tips on how I can get it to sound more realistic are appreciated.
I do not know what quality is required for podcasts, but here is a link with tips for audiobook production quality, which I suspect is similar: Missing features - Audacity Support
I’m hoping to sound like a slightly different character.
“Make me sound like somebody else” almost always fails because what you really want is theatrical acting, not Effect > Pitch Change. There is no Effect > Acting. It’s harder than it looks. For one example, the first time you laugh and the two laughs are the same, you’re stuck.
Nancy Cartright becomes Bart Simpson by acting like Bart Simpson.
how close I’ve gotten to the quality needed for a podcast
Content is King. The two shows I really like have pretty shaky sound, but have terrific story, plot, characters, etc. You listen right past the sound because you’re invested in the story. So there has to be a story.
There does have to be clear sound. You can’t produce clipping distortion like at 8.5 seconds in your first clip.
Overload is usually crunchy and forever. That’s a point where the digital system stops following the show and starts making up its own sound.
The audiobook thing is an interesting goal because they actually do have very strict standards for presentation, volume, clarity, etc. But being able to reliably hit a volume range time after time does not give you thousands of followers or good audiobook sales.
There is a warning. Actually interviewing someone is also way harder than it looks because you can’t connect two USB microphones to a computer, you can’t record outside in the wind, and you can’t easily record Zoom.
You should not try recording directly into the final volume. It’s too easy to produce permanent errors like that.
This is approximately what your raw reading should look like. Peaks and tips around half-way or -6dB to -10dB.
The three audiobook mastering tools cure the most common home recording errors.
Effect > Filter Curve takes out Home Microphone rumble distortion, Effect > Loudness Normalization sets overall volume, and then Effect > Limiter squashes those timeline red marks.
If you record too loud, the tools can push the blue waves around, but not get rid of the distortion.
