Recording and mastering
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Do you apply post processing to your recordings? Do you have a dedicated compressor in line with your mic before reaching the computer? What software do you use?
My standard goes no farther than grabbing mic output and then applying noise removing and a hard limiter in Adobe Audition.
(I actually started out with Audacity, but that piece of junk crashed more often than not and given the ridiculous way in which it stores data, a crash usually meant the entire session I was working on became pretty much unsalvageable.)
I should probably take some time and fidget around with fine tuned custom settings for both filters, but for now I'm just being lazy and using Light Noise Reduction and Limit to -.1dB presets. They do add a bit of distortion but it's still very much worthwhile, especially given how noisy my computer fans are.
Other than that, I've been called out by a listener on how radios, recorded tapes and otherwise voices explicitly mentioned as altered by the text should sound different, so I'm experimenting a bit with frequency filtering and a few other effects as well.
How do you do it? Got any tips? -
The bane of our work! Editing and post processing! I am -constantly- fiddling with this, trying to find a better way to do it as it takes so much time to edit...always looking for a way to speed that process up.
I started with Audacity myself, and still use it for some things. Never had much trouble with it really. It seems pretty stable on my system and the few times it has crashed it was able to recover what I was working on without issue.
I moved to Adobe Audition and like that much better for recording and editing - The spectral view is extremely useful for spotting unwanted noise....I can just look at it and tell that it's some noise that needs to go. The Noise reduction is a bit iffy to me...not that it does not work, and it has a lot more granular controls than Audacity does but honestly Audacity noise reduction at the default settings seems to work better than Audition! More likely a case of me not really knowing how to tweak Adobe just so.
On the subject of Noise Reduction..a must. So many narrations out there could be improved if they just ran it through the NR of Audacity. It can be tricky though..you capture more than a second or two for a noise print and you'll start getting noticeable distortion, in my experience. My last Heroes chapter I also started using a noise gate to try and cut out breath noises..but only for the 'narration' part. I leave in any breathing when it's a character talking otherwise it sounds unnatural.
I'm actually debating getting a better input unit that has a built in noise gate....but we'll see. My Mic (AKG Perception 220) has a noise gate switch that kills anything below 20db automatically, which helps a lot.
This leads into the subject of noise in general. I try to silence everything I can. I turn off the AC unit, my PC has a water cooled CPU block and the other fans are whisper quiet but they are the majority of source of my background noise...my MIC pics up EVERYTHING being a condenser mic. I also use a mic shield as well. Overall I do not have an issue with background noise...most of editing consists of removing overly loud inhalations...trying to figure out a way to minimize that so I can be less aggressive with the NR and noise gate.
I also tend to run stuff through a compressor and EQ as well..but those are two things I fiddle with the most. -
better input unit that has a built in noise gate....but we'll see. My Mic (AKG Perception 220) has a noise gate switch that kills anything below 20db automatically, which helps a lot.
Doesn't that completely kill the room tone, though? I like a light noise reduction filter because it doesn't leave complete silence in its wake.This leads into the subject of noise in general. I try to silence everything I can. I turn off the AC unit, my PC has a water cooled CPU block and the other fans are whisper quiet but they are the majority of source of my background noise...my MIC pics up EVERYTHING being a condenser mic. I also use a mic shield as well. Overall I do not have an issue with background noise...most of editing consists of removing overly loud inhalations...trying to figure out a way to minimize that so I can be less aggressive with the NR and noise gate.
Yeah, having a proper recording environment is a must, it's probably much more important than equipment after you've got something that's just decent. -
Not really from what I can see. I still get background noise (Talking about the mic here) but it's just minimized...actually not sure if 20db is the limit..it has a 20db built in boost switch too...I need to look at the specs to see what the cutoff on the built in noise gate is.
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I apply a basic compressor and EQ in my effects on the track in REAPER. Most of my noise is removed by recording environment tweaks and using only as much gain as I need to get -13db precompression.
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I've not heard of Reaper before, checking it out...that looks pretty interesting...
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It's great for simple interfaces, and you can do takes. I use it to assemble FOE radio play promos. I can color code tracks and add images. It's rather efficient to navigate when I'm trying to sort through 20 takes of the same line from a VA.
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As far as noise from the computer fan etc. I finally had enough of that and invested about 80 bucks in cables (Mostly the HDMI cord) and moved the computer to another room. My house is pretty soundproof and I live in a quiet neighborhood, so the computer itself was my main noise source. As I said in another post I really enjoy the editing process but part of that is the easy interface of Goldwave and the fact that I have been using it for 16 years. Say what you will but there is some advantage in learning the behaviour of software through continued usage. I could edit in my sleep with it (which sometimes I accuse myself of doing). Goldwave's processing tools aren't too sophisticated so I use the ones in Cooledit which seem to suit my purposes just fine. They are also programmable more so than the ones in Goldwave, so if I want a dymaics processor I can build the one I want.
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I've been debating some how moving the PC out of the room but not quite sure how to do it..or perhaps record using a laptop. But really, between my recent change in technique and a fine tuned noise gate I'm pretty happy with the results.
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I cant speak to the technical aspect of it but I notice if you get too big a sample you start getting artifacts....I assume because the longer the sample the large the range of frequencies that get captured in the end which results in more of the original signal being taken out. Even you when you capture just a 'hum' or some other kind of constant background noise those same frequencies are still used in the vocal too.
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