My voice over sounds bad, please help

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Squadding Quads

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Okay so some background.

I'm using a ride NT1 with a GOXLR , ice setup the level in go xlr and I post edit on Adobe audition using parametric, 30 band and the voice over effects.

I suspect my biggest issue is likey I'm post edtokg BADLY but I'm lost, really lost, it sounds awful and I need to improve it but I don't know where to even start.

Herenis an example, my voice starts around 50 seconds, be as brutal as you need, I gotta improve this urgently. Thanks all

 
The music bed is a little loud perhaps, but i hear nothing at all wrong with how you've recorded the voice. I expected a very live room and horrible reflections, but the acoustics are fine, i expected popping and blasting from wrong mic placement and no wind protection, but it was fine. I expected horrible compression and loads of artifacts, but it was ok. I thought maybe too close so all boomy and bassy, but pretty normal.

I hear absolutely nothing awful at all. You've trimmed too much of the gaps out i think, because some phrases were very long and you have huge lungs, but that isn't your voice.

Normally we would be honest and tell you all sorts, but i had to play it twice because first time i started listening to what you were saying, and forgot to listen to the sound. That sort of means nothing jumped out. What are you hearing i cannot?
 
Thanks so much for the feedback, I'm considering killing the music beds totally from my videos but always thought it added "something"

My issue is the voice sounds thin and tinny? Maybe it's just perception?
Thanks again for the feedback and taking time to listen
 
It's probably two things. The difference between what your friends and the public hear and what you hear via bone conduction. Nobody sounds like what they think.
On Youtube, for instance - everybody uses Shure SM7B mics (including me) but I hate the close in bassy perspective and do NOT follow the trend. All mine are more distant sounding. Most voice overs either do the same, or compensate with rigid mic-mouth distance and EQ, or of course they use mics that do not change tone, like the EV series, the new Shure dynamics and condensers set to omni.
 
The changes in the music level are jarring! The level of the piano without vocal is needlessly loud. Transitions from the music to the vocal need to be smoothly done. Lower the level for a second or two before you begin the vocal and then bring it back up a couple of seconds after you finish speaking.

I think it sounds like you have compression on the voice. The volume varies while you are talking which could either be compressor "pumping" or editing of segments with differing volumes. The cuts that you've made are abrupt and unnatural, phrases are clipped together too closely. Like Rob, I think you have a mic placement issue, and I hear an issue with sibilance. Your "s" "ch" and "g" sounds are very pronounced. Some of this can be addressed with mic placement, but some of it is vocal technique.

Your voice isn't tinny, I think you aren't familiar with what your voice actually sounds like to others. You shouldn't need a 30 band EQ for voice over work. A parametric is more than adequate to minimize any offending frequencies. A few dB cut in the 5K range can make voices smoother sounding.

The Rode NT1 (not the 1a) isn't a bright sounding mic, but it does have a pretty significant proximity effect. Make sure the mic is at least 10 cm from your mouth, and put it somewhere around forehead height. This will keep you from getting any wind blasts, and minimize your sibilance to a degree.

Work on clearly enunciating words. Vocal technique has a huge effect on your sound.
 
listening here on a standard laptop and playing video, speakers stock laptop.

the full blast on video and laptop, the piano to me has a nice volume and is easy to hear and room to turn it down.

the voice is so faint I cant even hear it.

I would try setting the vocal up to where the piano/loud volume is. "match volumes' using Limiter and compression.

my 2 cents I personally prefer the loud piano, the voice volume is so quiet its mumble noise.
 
CoolCat said:
listening here on a standard laptop and playing video, speakers stock laptop.

the full blast on video and laptop, the piano to me has a nice volume and is easy to hear and room to turn it down.

the voice is so faint I cant even hear it.

I would try setting the vocal up to where the piano/loud volume is. "match volumes' using Limiter and compression.

my 2 cents I personally prefer the loud piano, the voice volume is so quiet its mumble noise.
Click to expand...
I use the normalise to minus 3db in Adobe, it's what I've read is the right thing to do, is that my issue or is it my actual voice?
 
I have no idea.

But I can listen to Rob's videos and they all sound normal, on a laptop, as in being able to hear a the voice on a standard laptop and not having a blaring loud and quiet sound-clip.I can listen to commercial stuff all the time and most is ok, of course its "laptop speakers", its not hifi, its not studio headphones, its not studio room and monitors.

so I would recommend getting info from someone like Rob who has done this many times.

Its not your playing or voice its a volume thing.

Im just a "listener with a laptop". I hear low volume voice, then this Loud clear Piano blast....and I prefer the louder, where I can turn it down etc if I choose.
Your voice sections are low volume so even with my laptop full blast, 100% It wont get any louder.

sorry , I have no answers in fixing it.
 
I think the problem is totally in the balance between your piano track and your voice track. If you look at the wave form of the track you see that the piano sections are constant, but your voice track is much lower overall with a few significant peaks. When you listen everything is unbalanced.

I downloaded the track and did a fair amount of rebalancing the volumes, and added a slight fade at each transition point, compressed the voice some to lower some of the bigger transients that will limit the overall volume.

Here is an mp3 file. You are welcome to download it and listen, and if you feel it's better, you can try replacing the audio track on your video. There should be no sync issues, since you don't have any actual face time.
 

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When i first started doing my very limited appeal videos, the intention was to just let people hear the differences between mics, not really review technical things. I used to spend ages on levels and ‘tone’. Then i realised nobody actually noticed some things i was doing. People commented on the computer fan in the background, or a hum, but never my levels. Now, i just do what i did years ago, just check for red lights, and NO compression, no EQ. Just raw. And it sort of works. Absolutely no fiddling. The room sounds like what it is, and people can comment on background hiss, or sibilance, stuff like that. I dont really pay attention to what my real voice is, just record what comes out my mouth. Often with no link to brain!
 
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