Female voice quality - equalisation advice appreciated

[Bert Coules]

I didn't have any trouble hearing that extra sound on my killer sound system, and ACX is looking for defects like that.

How are you listening?

Four ways: on my desktop speakers (decent quality but hardly killer, and with my PC's constant low noise not far away), on good quality whole-ear-covering headphones also on the PC; and both on speakers and headphones on my main AV system (the nearest thing I have to killer but still falling a little short). Most of the time I use the headphones on my PC, for quality and convenience.

[Bert Coules]

Here's the latest test recording, with laptop moved and working very slightly further back. I'd be grateful for any comments.
.

COWS_A_Wed15th.wav

(1.02 MiB) Downloaded 13 times

Thanks in advance.

[Trebor]

... I'd be grateful for any comments..
COWS_A_Wed15th.wav (1.02 MiB)

There is still noticeable (bassy) reverb from the room.
It can be reduced by cutting the bass & expanding ...

''COWS_A_Wed15th'', before-after.flac

"After" is equalised (bass-cut), de-essed, de-clicked, & expanded with Couture

(274.94 KiB) Downloaded 13 times

But the real cure is more acoustic treatment for the room.

[kozikowski]

And still too close to the microphone.

This is the timeline at between 6 and 7 seconds. Note most of those blobs are little scribbles roughly centered about the mid point. That's normal voice. But that thing between 6.6 and 6.7 is not. That's the "P" in "Produced." On a larger sound system, that sounds like someone hit you in the head with a pillow. Whomp!

Screen Shot 2020-07-15 at 5.48.10 PM.png (20.56 KiB) Viewed 163 times

You said the system has that cheese-grater to try and suppress pop and blast noises. The next step is oblique positioning. Try "B"." You don't have to get closer. Oblique spacing is sometimes a handy way to get better volume with few if any vocal distortions. Your volume is fine.

Most P Pops go straight in front of your lips. Don't put the microphone there.



Koz

[Trebor]

Explicit nose.png (50.16 KiB) Viewed 162 times

[kozikowski]

I suppose that could be upside down, but would it really make any difference, I mean other than not being able to breathe and your face turning red.

Can I use that?

Koz

[Trebor]

I suppose that could be upside down ...

Or the back of someone's head with a bump on the crown.

Can I use that?

Yes. (Filter:Generic:Erode in GIMP thickens lines).

[Bert Coules]

There is still noticeable (bassy) reverb from the room. It can be reduced by cutting the bass & expanding ... "After" is equalised (bass-cut), de-essed, de-clicked, & expanded with Couture.

Thanks very much: that does seem a distinct improvement. I'm not familiar with Couture so I'll investigate that.

But the real cure is more acoustic treatment for the room.

Understood. But if that proves impractical then your "After" tweaking sounds to me like a decent alternative. May I ask exactly what parameters you applied?

[Bert Coules]

And still too close to the microphone... That's the "P" in "Produced." On a larger sound system, that sounds like someone hit you in the head with a pillow... The next step is oblique positioning.

Excellent, thanks, though that positioning does seem extremely oblique, with the voice directed not so much across the mic as away from it. I thought you meant leaving the mic where it is but rotating it some 30 to 40 degrees on its axis. But I'll pass the picture on and we'll try it.

Incidentally, I had no difficulty in interpreting your image, though Trebor's added nose does give the speaker a more interesting personality.

[Trebor]

... your "After" tweaking sounds to me like a decent alternative ...

I just reduced the bass (<250Hz) using a real-time equaliser plug-in until it started to sound unacceptably tinny, then backed off.

If you look at the frequency analysis of before Vs after then you can see how much bass was removed.

before-after.gif (61.71 KiB) Viewed 140 times

The Couture settings were similar to this ... viewtopic.php?p=380235#p380235