Achieving best voiceover quality at home?

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hcmstl

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I think I have a *reasonably* good USB mic and a quiet office, but the spoken audio I record sounds like it was done in a large bathroom. Hard to describe without including a short sample (perhaps I should do that?), but it doesn't sound professional.

Any suggestions on microphones and other accessories that would help?
Thank you.
 
Proper room treatment - not the egg-crate foam stuff, or at least heavy moving pads in Vs behind you and the mic. Then use a good pop filter so you can get close to the mic. Together these things will significantly reduce the echo of the room and what still remains will be a much lower level, relative to your voice.
 
hcmstl said:
I think I have a *reasonably* good USB mic and a quiet office, but the spoken audio I record sounds like it was done in a large bathroom. Hard to describe without including a short sample (perhaps I should do that?), but it doesn't sound professional.

Any suggestions on microphones and other accessories that would help?
Thank you.
Click to expand...
I regularly speak with my son in France via Skype and he uses a Citronics CCU3 LDC* USB mic. He sits I would estimate some 1/2 mtr from the mic and although his flat is pretty sparse, he sounds very natual with no undue amount of room effect. When he gets up and goes out of the room the sound is again very natural as room effect begins to dominate.

Two things to check, both rather 'silly' but I assure you I am NOT taking the ****!

1) Are you speaking at the FRONT, active side of the mic? Son has made this mistake.

2) Are you dead sure you are picking up the USB mic and not the internal mic(s) in the laptop?

I can dig out my own USB mic and do some test if you like?


*Bit of a con' NOT that Large a D C! The mic diaphragm is perhaps 20mm not the 25mm or larger in a 'proper' mic but the Citronics is really not at all bad for fifty quid.


Dave.
 
Even a quiet room is very loud compared to a proper voiceover studio (my studio room has a background noise of less than 20dBSPL). In a normal room you need to get close to the front of the mic (but speaking across the mic rather than into it) and you will probably need to use Izotope RX to reduce the noise further. Fortunately RX Elements includes Voice Denoise and can usually be found for $29 somewhere in the world.

One other thought - are you using compression? If so, turn it off and learn to control your voice. I have a great VO artist that comes to my studio and the end result always sounds gently compressed though I use no effects on him. It is simply his skill in controlling his voice that produces that result. Compression always brings up the background noise. If you really want that excessively compressed larger than life sound, you need a proper voiceover studio.
 
I found the mic more quickly than I thought I would so have done a scratch recording.

The waffling old fekker tells the setup but the distant mic gives a rather lower level than might be desired at -20dBfs. However that is what I normally record at anyway and boost if needed post tracking.

Dave.
 

Attachments

Since there has been no feedback on my feeble efforts! Maybe folks are wondering why I done it?
My idea was to show that a pretty inexpensive USB mic can give quite acceptable* results in a 'normal' living room at a further than optimal distance. Obviously getting closer would increase the level and reduce the room effect. BTW the mic was without a pop gag.

*I might of course be delude! The "Pros" here might consider my recording total ****! I listened back to self on AKG K92 cans and Tannoy 5As and it did not sound too bad to me?

Dave.
 
Dave, since the OP hasn't been back after he made the initial post, we don't know if his self described "sounds like it was done in a large bathroom" is in any way similar to your sound, which obviously doesn't sound like a tiled bath but I can definitely hear the room sounds, including what seems to be a clock ticking, and an occasional passing vehicle. It would be plenty good for Skype or Zoom meetings, but I don't think that it would be adequate for doing any professional voice over work.

A few years back we had a thread with a user named CatMalone. He was somewhere in the Far East (maybe Indonesia or Malaysia). He was having issues with noise in his recordings. At the time he was using an MXL 770 which some had said was a decent mic. I was shocked when he went to an NT1. The background noise dropped like a stone! You might remember the thread https://homerecording.com/bbs/threa...acoustic-treatment.403513/page-3#post-4527297

I think to offer any help to the OP, we're going to need more information regarding his setup, actual equipment and some audio samples.
 
Fork Rich! Yes, there is a clock in the room, a small one on the mantle shelf 1.7 mtrs from the mic and in its rear null!
That at least shows the system noise of the mic is pretty bloody good for a nifty! A car? Yes I guess so, I live in a quiet crescent (NN5 5PF) but this was daytime.

I shall repeat the exercise tonight for my own amusement using a Sontronics STC-2 LDC and my MOTU M4. Same distance but at 24 bits. I shall be up till about 2am anyway on Badger watch (THAT is a whole OTHER story!)

Hmm, not sure if 24 bits will matter since I have to convert to MP3 to attach but I am using the highest 320k converter on "slow/high quality" in Samplitude) Be better than YOOO TOOOB anyway!

Dave.
 
A 320K MP3 should be more than adequate. I do my conversions to MP3 using LAME in Reaper or Audacity. A couple of years ago, I did a quick test using the H4n Zoom and the NT1. I didn't do a distant test, I was about 8-10 inches away from the mic. I normalized the sample to about -1dB to make sure the noise level was maxed out. This is a sample of the test.
 

Attachments

Rich (or other that knows more about 'putersthan I...not hard!) Once upon a time I could copy an attached file such as your MP3 or download it and run it in a DAW. I now find when I right click on it I can only "save the link as" or some other phase all applying to "the link" and not the actual data.

In short, how do I stuff an MP3 attachment into Samplitude or other DAW please?

Dave.
 
I didn't hear any background noise on both Dave's or from TR's.
 
We also don’t know what “voiceover” means to OP. In many scenarios, voiceovers would be eating the mic.
 
Dave, when you right click on the attachment, you should have an option like "Save link as:". It will have some oddball name like 155dsg268bass21.mp3 which is how the system stores attachments. Hit save and note where it goes. That's what I did with your file. It should work with Chrome, Firefox or Edge browsers.

Alternately, you should be able to click on the file and open in a new tab. While the file is playing, you can right click on the player and choose "Save audio as:" and it will save the file. I always rename the file, as those random names mean you forget what you have downloaded.
save link.webp
SaveAudio.webp
 
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TalismanRich said:
Dave, when you right click on the attachment, you should have an option like "Save link as:". It will have some oddball name like 155dsg268bass21.mp3 which is how the system stores attachments. Hit save and note where it goes. That's what I did with your file. It should work with Chrome, Firefox or Edge browsers.

Alternately, you should be able to click on the file and open in a new tab. While the file is playing, you can right click on the player and choose "Save audio as:" and it will save the file. I always rename the file, as those random names mean you forget what you have downloaded.
View attachment 129558 View attachment 129561
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When I click the attachment, it opens the player. The player has 3-dots that do this on my end. Easy to download.

a.webp
 
Looks like you're using Edge for the browser, Spantini. I use Chrome and Firefox. Their player doesn't show the dots...
 
TalismanRich said:
Dave, when you right click on the attachment, you should have an option like "Save link as:". It will have some oddball name like 155dsg268bass21.mp3 which is how the system stores attachments. Hit save and note where it goes. That's what I did with your file. It should work with Chrome, Firefox or Edge browsers.

Alternately, you should be able to click on the file and open in a new tab. While the file is playing, you can right click on the player and choose "Save audio as:" and it will save the file. I always rename the file, as those random names mean you forget what you have downloaded.
View attachment 129558 View attachment 129561
Click to expand...
Opening in another tab is what happens when I click it. I am using Firefox.
 
TalismanRich said:
Dave, when you right click on the attachment, you should have an option like "Save link as:". It will have some oddball name like 155dsg268bass21.mp3 which is how the system stores attachments. Hit save and note where it goes. That's what I did with your file. It should work with Chrome, Firefox or Edge browsers.

Alternately, you should be able to click on the file and open in a new tab. While the file is playing, you can right click on the player and choose "Save audio as:" and it will save the file. I always rename the file, as those random names mean you forget what you have downloaded.
View attachment 129558 View attachment 129561
Click to expand...
Thanks Rich "Play, clickk, rename, save, worked. So we have gone from ONE right clk operation to three? That's effin progress innit! Did I say I was on Firefox?


Dave.
 
Dave, did you try right clicking on the attachment and use Save Link As: ? Rename and save. I switch between Firefox and Chrome, depending on which computer I'm on.
 
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