Radio Play/ Talking Book

[Dr. Varney]

Please listen and give your honest thoughts on the mix so far...

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1013934&songID=9353048

This is just the opening part. I'm setting up the mixer at this point, to hopefully set a precedent for the entire piece.

I'm really not sure how well it's come off so far, in terms of tonality in the voices - and I would be grateful for any honest critisisms and helpful suggestions.

Thanks for listening

Dr. V

 

[austinm08]

There seems to be a lot of noise in the recording of his voice. You can clearly hear the hiss when he's speaking. I think there at least needs to be a longer release on the gate, as it is cutting off immediately. It could help if it faded out.

The low-mids in the first female's voice are a bit high, making her sound a tad muffled.

When the female came in at 3:43, the high-mids kind of surprised me.

Did the lead guy's EQ change between the very beginning and the end? Or is it just me? Sounds like it's lacking some mid to high-end at the end.

As far as the mix, it sounds fine to me. The voices are out front and everything else is a nice, controlled ambient 'pad', so to speak.

 

[Dr. Varney]

Thanks Austin.

Yes, you're right about the hiss on the narrators voice but unfortunately, I already used a noise gate on the sample and saved it, locked in. I wish that I had left the hiss as it was. With the background noise, it probably wouldn't be noticable. It's because it stops and starts that you notice it more. I honestly don't know what I can do with it because when I have tried gating with a compressor, it's hard not to get a 'stuttering' effect, making things even worse.

No, I didn't change the EQ on the John Grant character but the volume changes through time as some of the samples are louder than others. I can alter channel volume before it reaches the mixer, sample by sample. I know what you mean, it seems as though his low-end becomes more bassy. Not sure what to do with that. Automate the mid-low end, perhaps?

As for Molly (the girl) it's just a bad recording. Not sure at all what to do with that. Any suggestions?

Do you think the car sounds like a car or just like a load of background hiss? I'm not happy with it. I want it louder but it tends to fight with the characters' voices, so I lowered it. Now to me it's more like a washing machine than a car.

Thanks for listening.

Dr V

 

[austinm08]

The issue with John's EQ at the end isn't really too big of a deal. But if you wan't to automate the EQ that'd work, too.

It's the hiss that I don't like, but I guess there's not much you can do with that now unless you still have the original file.

Well, you could always EQ the "harsh" frequency area down a bit in Molly's voice if you wanted, and see if that helps.

You're welcome!

 

[Dr. Varney]

I've found out by stripping out the reverb VST and re-recording the piece through my mixer, I can add a more classy reverb to the narrator and this seems to have addressed the hiss. I'll post up later to compare the difference. Thanks again for your input, man.

Dr. V