Sound editing for profit and fun! (Actually, for podcasts)

Thirith

I've asked some general questions about podcasting before, but I'm back with a very specific question: how do I best make the recording sound as good as possible? I know that you can't turn a recording on a cheapish mic into something that sounds like James Earl Jones is booming sweet nothings in your ear, but I'm curious what sort of tips people here have that can be done by someone with Audacity and lots of enthusiasm but little experience.

What I've already gathered is that the following sequence should work reasonably well:

1) Noise removal
Possibly 1.5) Limiter
2) Normalize
3) Compression
4) Equalization

However, I find that my waveforms are all nice, compact and relatively well balanced after steps 1-3, but when I add a minor boost to bass in step 4 (which many webpages recommend to make voices sound warmer) they're all over the place again, with 'p's and the like sounding like a minor bass drum kick and clipping happening everywhere.

So, in general, any tips for getting voice recordings to sound better? And any specifics on how to do the above (and any other recommended edits) and tweak the settings?

Bolthorn

Those hard "P" sounds are plosives and they can really mess up your day. If you're using a cheaper mic, get yourself a windscreen or pop filter. Something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_filter For the fun of it, if you EQ up some highs to you get hisses from "s" sounds? Same thing basically. The pop filter will help cut those down.

Secondly, save some cash and get yourself a better mic, maybe. I have no idea what you're using now. Do you have the make and model of the mic you are using? The Shure SM7b is expensive but a great option. It is a great mic for audio recordings from radio work, voice overs, and vocals for music.

You may also be boosting the low end either too much, or in the wrong frequency. Play around with it a bit more. Don't go boosting the very lowest range. I wouldn't boost anything under 100Hz for voice recordings. I personally wouldn't boost the bass frequency in vocals at all but I mainly focus on recording music and I have a bass guitar and kick drum down in that area already.

You may want to consider slight (very slight if this is just voice) reverb and/or delay. Like, barely noticeable.

I also don't bother with normalization. It used to be a thing, I ignore it now. You can get there with the compressor. My signal chain now is EQ, noise gate, compressor, reverb/delay. Again though, that's for music vocals. Play around with the chain a bit.

The nice thing about audio work is experimentation and learning is part of the fun.


There may be other folks that are closer to doing what you do. I can't help but get involved when people talk about mics and FX chains and EQs. I am coming at this from more of a music audio perspective though. The EQ talk should still be relevant. The plosive thing definitely is.

Astaereth

I don't do any noise removal unless it's drastic AND steady (like a loud air conditioner hum over the entire track) because unless you get it perfectly you can get a hollow, tinny sound (because some of the noise you're removing is good old fashioned room tone that helps your audio feel natural). And if it's drastic and steady your real answer is "Don't record under those conditions."

The best thing you can do for your sound is improve it before you even get to the editing process.

-Get a high quality microphone (I use Blue Yeti, it's about $100-140 depending on sales, totally worth it, no wear and tear after more than two years of use).
-Set your mike correctly to pick up the sound you're looking for (so both type and gain).
-Position yourself close (so long as it's comfortable) for a strong, high-quality sound.
-Remove any noises nearby. Don't keep a computer on the table with the mike, keep your phone away and silent, turn off any surrounding electronics, unplug your fridge, etc--basically, control whatever interference might be in the room. If you can't control the room, find a better room.
-Check your waveforms while you're recording--I'm always looking for healthy, middle distribution waves, which tells me I won't have to process the track to hell and back to get it to a normal range.

Once you've produced the absolute best sound you can, now it's time for editing. And for sure experiment to find what works for you (and what's easy for you lay in without tweaking every episode, which will drive you nuts and also potentially lead to uneven quality between episodes.)

My post flow is pretty simple. I work in Adobe Audition, and start by syncing my tracks to get one combined file (if necessary; I record all the time with people over the internet). Then I use Audition's Diagnostics tab to find and auto-shorten silence down to 100ms over my whole track, which tightens it up without me having to lift a finger. Then I listen through and do any actual cutting or reordering. Once that's finished I do a standardized set of post-processing steps:

1 - Single-band Compressor (Threshold -9.0 db, Ratio 2.5 x:1, Attack 10.0 ms, Release 100 ms, Output Gain 0.0 db) to compress the audio so my peaks and valleys are closer together.
2 - Match Loudness (Match To: ITU-R BS.1770-3 Loudness) (Target Loudness: -20 LUFS, Tolerance: 0.5 LU, Max True Peak Level: -1 dBTP, Use True Peak Limiting is checked, Look-Ahead Time: 12 ms, Release Time: 200 ms). This tends to make my tracks all louder (which is why I do this after compression) and as the name suggests, matches audio levels across multiple tracks, which helps keep your episodes at a consistent level. This can absolutely make my peaks too loud, so my final step is...
3 - Hard Limiter (Peak, not True Peak; Maximum Amplitude -2.5 dB, Input Boost 0.0 dB, Look-Ahead Time 7 ms, Release Time 100ms, Link Channels checked). This basically cuts off any peak that's too loud, which means none of it actually ends up clipping even after Match Loudness.

All of those numbers I basically arrived at by tweaking and listening and experimenting and now they're utterly standardized across my episodes so I can throw them on by rote and feel good about the results.

Granted, I'm totally self-taught here off of Youtube videos and stuff (I took Sound in school but I've forgotten not only the theory but also all the ProTools I once knew) so I'm probably doing it "wrong" or could be doing it better. But I find that this works well enough for me and between our good mikes, practicing good recording discipline, and my automated processing steps, we're able to produce a reasonably good sound consistently across almost 70 episodes.

Thirith

Thanks for your feedback, both of you.

The first couple of podcasts might be a bit rough around the edges in terms of audio quality, but I'm taking that as a learning experience. I've got myself a better mic and am looking forward to hearing the difference it makes. At the moment the main issue is that I've only got a computer that's loud; noise reduction does an okay job of making this less of an issue, but yeah, the first one or two episodes won't win any prizes for audio quality. I should have an alternative to recording on that PC pretty soon, though.

Thirith

Quick update: irony of ironies - my new, better mic picks up room echo where my headset mic (which wasn't bad either) didn't. How silly is that? It's not bad echo, but it's noticeable. Anyway, do any of you have experience with portable mic screens? I'm thinking that this might be a sensible option, as I can't fully soundproof any of the rooms here.

Astaereth

I don't use any special equipment but I also don't get any real room echo when recording by myself. Some things to try--make sure your mic is only picking up sound in your direction, turn down the gain a little, and put your mouth closer to it.

Also, if you can hang up a thick blanket on the opposite wall you'll get some sound dampening.

Thirith

I ordered a little mic screen, which according to the reviews should help a lot with the echo. The new mic is definitely better in terms of plosive and sibilant sounds (no pops or hisses); I'm thinking that with the mic screen it should be fine. Of course it's perfectly well possible that I'll then obsess over another, tiny issue that'll drive me spare.

Thirith

Oh, and also...

https://adamnfinecup.com/2017/09/16/a-damn-fine-cup-of-culture-podcast-1-dunkirk/

Warning: we had some audio issues but decided to go forward with this as the first episode. These issues will be gone in episode 2, coming to your browsers in a few weeks - though we're still very much trying to find out how best to do this.

Also, I didn't count on Wordpress tweaking the header image size for other devices, which means that the title isn't visible unless your browser shows the full length of the banner. Gotta figure out what to do about that... Expect another cry for help on the forum before long!

Bolthorn

A way to dampen room echo if you can't do it with a plugin or the filter doesn't get it enough for you would be to just fill that room with soft things; pillows, blankets, towels, sleeping bags, anything that can absorb sound. Go with things you already own to experiment with. If you later want to get really serious about it there is a place that sells really nice sound absorption stuff in general. I have bought some of their blankets that I'm going to be using for future reduction efforts but currently I placed 3 of them between my PC and the furnace/hot water heater area of my basement and got a reduction of 7 dB. I could drag that down more if I wanted to by forming a barrier around the furnace and hot water heater entirely but this is good enough for now. 7 dB is nothing to sneeze at.

https://www.audimute.com/absorption-sheets-soundproofing-blankets