When developing a voice-over recording (or voiceover, or voice-over. Nobody seems to realize for certain), the final product is typically nothing but the voice. All using itself. With not anything else to hide flaws. Yes, from time to time, voice-overs are followed through background track, including narrating quick films or in podcast intros and “outros.” But for most elements, a voice-over recording is just that, the voice.
That being the case, the higher the sound except for the extra expert, the quit-end result could be. In a perfect international, we’d all be wealthy, and everybody should have the funds for massive diaphragm condenser mics and remarkable analog-to-virtual converters for our PC recording studios. But as we recognize, this is not a really perfect international. Most people will best be capable of affording the less expensive equipment. That’s OK. The techniques I point out in this article will enable you to get the first-rate possible excellent out of anything you are using.
So what makes a great first-class voiceover? Clearly, there’s some subjectivity to the problem; however, in well-known, the voice have to be clear, up-front, smooth to apprehend, have a level extent (you may hear the loud elements and the gentle parts without pain or straining, respectively), and is as noise-unfastened as viable. Let’s begin at the start of the recording consultation.
1. Get Close to the Mic-
Make positive your mouth is four-12 inches faraway from your mic. Experiment with the gap; however, what you are going for right here is to make certain the voice is recorded as loud as possible without overloading the mic or causing ugly feels like p-pops. Since we’reusingf a computer recording studio for this, it is fairly smooth to see if your voice is recorded loud sufficient or too loud. The voice will display up in recording software as wave paperwork (or “squiggly blobs,” as I like to call them) in what looks like a swim lane to your display. You want the blob to take in as many tons of the swim lane as feasible without ever touching the perimeters. Experiment with distance from the mic till you gain this.
2. Record In a Quiet Room-
It’s almost not possible, particularly with a laptop recording studio, to have very noise-free surroundings wherein to document. But the lower the noisiness, the better. Control what you could. For instance, close the door to the room you document to preserve the household noises. Try to put the mic ways sufficiently far from your pc that the fan and drive noise is not too loud. Sometimes using blankets or mattresses strategically can clearly help right here. Just do not block the laptop vents, or it can overheat. You may also want to choose a time of day while the associates are not mowing lawns or construction isn’t always nearby.
3. Reduce The Noise-
After It’s Recorded Most recording software (inclusive of the open-source Audacity) comes with fundamental sound-enhancing equipment, including noise gates and noise discount. Since there likely will be a few noises, however little, within the recording (you can not prevent all of it), you’ll need to rent one or each of the above editing equipment. I propose attempting the noise gate first. That will shut out all noise through the silent bits while the voice is not speaking, whilst allowing all audio (noise included) to skip via while the voice is speaking.
If you most effectively have a little hiss or fan noise, this works thoroughly. Just be careful that matters do not sound too odd whilst the gate opens and closes. You can play with the settings to make this sound extra-natural. Also, if the ambient noise is too loud, it could sound unnatural within the silent bits between speech when it abruptly sounds too quiet in assessment whilst the voice was speaking.
If noise gating isn’t always enough, attempt a noise discount tool. But be warned, this may make the audio sound atypical if overused. Noise reduction artifacts sound just like the voice is beneath the water Kinfolk of “swirly,” to lose a better term. Noise reduction treats all of the audio, the speaking, AND non-speaking elements. For it to work right, you tell the computer what just noise sounds like with the aid of selecting a place (in which there’s no speech) that is ONLY noise.
In that manner, the device is aware of what to put off. If the noise became not too loud, this works properly. But the extra noise in the recording, the greater “underneath-water” it will sound after noise discount. Experiment with this tool’s settings to get a high-quality result.
4. Squish the Audio With a Compressor-
Audio compression is something else that must be used with caution. It is easy to spoil audio with an excessive amount of of-of. Properly used, strolling this enhancing tool with even the audio quantity to listen to the softer, quieter parts AND the loud, exciting elements, while not having to flip the quantity knob up and down constantly.
A compressor will lessen the quantity of just the components over a certain loudness degree (you pick out this degree), leaving the quieter audio on my own. This lets you, the audio creator, grow the voice-over’s overall volume with none of it being too loud. Remember when I referred to seeking to get as an awful lot of the swim lane’s voice as feasible without touching the edges? Compression permits you to do this. When audio “touches the sides,” it distorts, honestly a terrible component with laptop audio. As with the other equipment, play with the settings and experiment for the first-rate result.
5. Normalize-
The ultimate issue I typically do is practice one more audio editing tool referred to as normalization. All this indicates is to boom the audio extent proper up to the point before the very loudest bit could distort. For example, if there was a yelling bit in the voiceover, that element will display up as the “tallest” little bit of wave shape within the swim lane. So normalizing reveals that tallest (loudest) bit and turns everything up till simply earlier than the tall part touches the side. This guarantees the audio is as loud as feasible without distorting.
If you do those five things, you need to end up with the first-rate voiceover recording possible with any microphone. The excellent component is that it won’t price you something to appoint those 5 domestic recording suggestions. Give it an attempt to see if your audio doesn’t sound a lot higher later on. For extra home recording hints, visit the Home Brew Audio website. Check out our video tutorials, articles, free downloads, and greater.
