Voice over tinny sound needs fixed

[Baylink]

Tim: if they're *exactly* identical, you're probably not using any of them, you're using the Internal Mic. You did check that pulldown menu, right? I didn't see you mention having done so.

[kozikowski]

Checking which microphone you're recording from is not rocket surgery. Start a recording and scratch the mic.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/clips/ScratchTest2.wav

Koz

[Baylink]

For what it's worth -- which is probably not much -- the quality of both the mic and the mic preamp/DA matters a fair amount on this sort of work.

Jeff Laurence retired to a mountain in North Carolina on the strength of his great baritone announcing voice... and the $7000 mic and $5000 preamp he puts it through. If you're going to do an extensive amount of VO work, spend the money; there are a lot of reasonably priced large-diaphragm condensers these days, and the dBx ProVocal is a decent, yet inexpensive preamp with digital output. (By reasonable, I mean mics new under $200 and preamps under about that amount used on eBay.)

Its only problem, for our purposes here, is that its output is SPDIF-Copper, which might be hard to get into a Mac, especially a laptop.

[cyrano]

Its only problem, for our purposes here, is that its output is SPDIF-Copper, which might be hard to get into a Mac, especially a laptop.

Why?

A converter from electrical to optical is 30 € or less. And the Mac already has on optical input.

Also, the DBX VocalPro is no longer in production. And I've always wondered how people operate the compressor, since it has no visible interface settings.

The op needs a decent room with better acoustics. Or he needs to treat the room for reflections.

I wouldn't start buying a mic or a preamp to try and fix the room. Especially a shotgun. I haven't ever heard a reasonably priced shotgun that sounded reasonable. A Senn MKH, or a Sanken, yes. But those are way out of reach for most of us.

There's a lot of very good SDC's out there, from 100-200 €. Thomann's Tbone SC140, for example. Finding a real LDC for that price is almost impossible. Perhaps the Behringer C1 could be a good choice too, to get some experience, since it's less than 50 €, so it won't break the bank. Or something from MXL, if you prefer a US Chinese marriage. Make that an Oktava Mk012, if you prefer Russian

The Oktava is a bit pricier, but you usually buy the kit. And that comes with 3 capsules: omni, cardio and hypercardio. You might like the omni best, if you sort out your recording enironment first.

And as preamps go: get a Behringer cheapie. Or an Art USB preamp. No need for more if you're only doing voice inside. No need for color.

[kozikowski]

In one of the ACX videos, they tell us if the room effects are just not up to a good result, maybe you need to record somewhere else. The modern room design of polished wood floor and bare walls is considered a hostile recording environment by everybody I know.

Oddly, a stand-alone garage usually does OK. A peaked roof/ceiling and room full of cardboard boxes can work. Even a garage tucked under a house can work as long as it has walls of storage and not parallel and bare.

If your setup is entirely portable, record outside once on a non-windy day just to see what it sounds like with no echoes.

People also recommend little stand-alone sound studios like that thing behind the microphone on the right.



My microphone is the one on the left. I didn't think I needed the additional soundproofing because the room I was shooting in was soundproofed. That was a successful broadcast radio shoot.

Koz

[Baylink]

I'd like to compliment Cyrano for doing an excellent job countering suggestions I did not make.

"Use a shotgun", and "don't worry about the room" being the top two.

[kozikowski]

"Use a shotgun",

That was me from further up. NPR gets around a lot of location problems with hand-held shotguns.

I've seen voices-over done that way, too, probably because that was the microphone available. It's frequently the difference between a slightly odd-sounding shoot and no shoot.

And if you can't soundproof the room and can't use a fancy-pants microphone, Record somewhere else. It's possible to "rescue" a bad recording, but it can sound pretty awful when you do and remember you have to clean up the recording every time. ACX is strongly against working like that.

Koz

[Baylink]

Oh, right; you did suggest that.

Yeah I'd've thought it clear you weren't recommending it for booth-capable VO work.

[kozikowski]

I have seen them used in booths. I thought it a little odd at the time, but anybody who walks away with a working track is a winner.

Koz

[Baylink]

My personal cheap-LDC is indeed a Maxell; a 900 or 990; forget which. It ain't a U-82, but I ain't Jeff Laurence, either.

I've been perfectly happy with how it sounds, though.