Newborn narrator

[phultz]

Hi there! I'm REALLY new at this but I've been trying to read up before jumping in but there's a lot to process (I know I'm not telling you anything you don't know). I was reading this post viewtopic.php?f=64&t=85848 and ran through the steps there (though I'm beginning to suspect that those steps are for that persons file and not a cure-all). I ran the ACX-check file and the raw file fails with RMS levels, but running through those steps brings the RMS to acceptable, but raises my noise floor up to fail by just a tick. I was hoping to get some advice on what to do. Would the steps be the same with just some adjustment on the settings or should I be trying something else? I'm attaching the raw file which hopefully follows the submission requirements. It cuts off at the end, I just used a part of a chapter.

Oh, I'm a Macbook Pro, using a Blue Yeti with pop filter on the cardioid setting with the gain set at about the 2 o'clock position.

Any advice would be great! This forum has already been incredibly helpful and hopefully I'll get the swing of this before too long.

[kozikowski]

I've posted many times I wish there was a one-button solution for posting ACX work.

[X] ACX Compliant
[Enter]

But not so far. Home Recording comes with a rainbow of problems. Drag-Select the area between 1/2 second and 1-3/4 sec. Run ACX-Check. Read Noise. I get -60. That means you can't do anything else wrong in your reading. Any corrections or changes are going to screw up noise.

While it's selected > Effect > Amplify > Enter.

Play it.

That should give you a rain-in-the-trees or surfing hiss. You have truck-going-by rumble or roar. This kills you when you start applying effects and voice corrections because you're constantly fighting high noise level. If you can't hear it, then you're fighting another favorite home recording problem. Bad speakers or poor headphones (or in some cases bad human).

Let's assume you can hear it. Mmmmmmmmmmmm in addition to the shshshshshsh which is normal.

That's 120Hz roar typical of a motor or fan system (in the US). Do you have your Yeti on a desk? Try putting it on a book on a towel on the desk. Regular book/novel, not paperback. Fold the towel over several times. Make a test recording and see if the roar goes down or changes. Either is good.

If you're in a heavily air-conditioned room, turn off the A/C temporarily and make a test.

Let us know, or just post the test(s). That first test was perfect, by the way. It told me exactly what I heeded to know.

I personally don't like the background room/echo in your voice, but those performances seem to go straight through and yours isn't particularly bad.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Attached. Book with towel. That will greatly suppress hum or rumble coming up through the desk. Also note the furniture moving pad on the desk. That's not an accident. That's to suppress desk slap and comb-filter effects in your voice. Vocal clarity goes up.

You can use a blanket or more towels.

Koz

[kozikowski]

You can go a long way to getting sound levels right by adjusting the system so that your voice spends a lot of time bouncing around the yellow zone, -6. Yes, that means you have to watch the meters and your script at the same time. After a while you get used to self-monitoring your voice and not need to do that. No, you can't put sticky tape and magic marker labels on the knobs.

I don't care where you have the knobs set. They should be where they need to be to make the sound meters work. If the knobs "run out" then you need to change your recording technique—get closer or louder, etc.



Koz

[phultz]

Koz,

Thanks for getting back to me. I amplified the area you wanted and yeah, I hear that hiss. In that test, I've got the Yeti on 3 paperbacks that are on a towel. The towel is on a desk that's in a closet (after several tries that was the only place I could find in the house that could get even close to ACX passing). I turned off the AC before recording, but I'm in a subdivision that has houses fairly close to ours, so I wonder if it's another AC unit... I'll try a different book and fold up the towel.

Could the background room/echo in my voice be from being in a closet? Not a walk-in either, just a regular closet. Maybe it's bouncing off the back wall. I might try coming out into the room or maybe put up some foam on the back of the closet wall (it's only about 20 or so inches away from my face, though I'm speaking at an angle to the wall).

So, since my noise floor is right at the bare minimum, after narrating the book, if I try any filters, I'm screwed? So my best bet is to get my noise floor lower somehow. Maybe there is some other place in the house I haven't tried yet.

I appreciate all the help and I may post another test to see if I can improve things. Thanks again!

PJ

[kozikowski]

I amplified the area you wanted and yeah, I hear that hiss.

That's normal. But do you hear the roar sound? MMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

I can force the clip to pass, but I have to do a list of things to it and some of the corrections can affect the sound.

that was the only place I could find in the house that could get even close to ACX passing

Isn't that fun? Humans "tune out" sound that they live with day after day. I used to live in Upstate New York in a farming community where the night sound volume was statistically zero. People used to come up from New York City to visit and they couldn't sleep because "The City Noise" was missing.

OK, let's assume we're stuck with that.

LF Rolloff (rumble filter)
-- Select the whole clip or show by clicking just above MUTE.
-- Effect > Equalization: LF Rolloff for speech, 8191 Length > OK

Let me know if you don't already have that filter. It's downloadable.

Notch Filter
-- Select the whole clip or show by clicking just above MUTE.
-- Effect > Notch Filter: 120 Hz, Q6 > OK


Noise Reduction
-- Drag-select Room Tone. In your case, 0.5 to 1.5.
-- Effect > Noise Reduction: Profile
-- Select the whole clip or show by clicking just above MUTE.
-- Effect > Noise Reduction: Settings 6, 6, 6 > OK


Audio Compressor
-- Select the whole clip or show by clicking just above MUTE.
-- Effect > Normalize: [X]Remove DC, [X]Normalize to -3.2 > OK
-- Effect > Compressor: Thresh -20, Floor -50, Ratio 2:1, Attack 0.2, Release 1.0, > OK
-- Effect > Normalize: [X]Remove DC, [X]Normalize to -3.2 > OK


ACX Check (attached).

The better your studio is, the fewer of those corrections you need.

[kozikowski]

Corrected Clip.
Attached.

Let me know where you get stuck in that list.

Koz

[kozikowski]

If you're in the closet, so to speak, then leave the heavy winter clothing in there. Nothing soaks up echoes like fur-lined leather and puff-quilted Dacron.

Go to the rug store at night and steal some remnants and scraps. Put those on the floor. The rule is no two opposing flat surfaces. If you can't soundproof the ceiling, soundproof the floor.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Each of those corrections is very gentle except for the notch filter. Notch just brutally cuts a hole in your show where that MMMM sound is. If your voice pitch happens to hit that tone, it will not be pretty. It would be really good if you can find where that tone is coming from.

Open the raw clip. Drag-Select 0.5 to 1.5. Analyze > Plot Spectrum. See that purple spike at 120? That's what the notch filter suppresses. That's your fan noise...I guess. It's just inside the natural voice area.

The gentle corrections are why you still sound like you even after that list of software. Each step corrects the sound just a little bit.

Koz

[phultz]

Koz,

I can't thank you enough for all your help! I've left as much clothes in the closet as I can and still fit in there, but I think I'll put up a blanket on the back wall that I'm facing. If I'm still picking up noise, I'll figure out a way to hang a blanket over the top of the closet that will drape down behind be to try and cut out some more and see if I can get rid of that MMMMM. I'll post a new sample after some of the adjustments to the closet.

Again, thank you so much for taking time to help!

PJ