Unfiltered Thoughts

2022.07.19 – 0565 – SQUEAEAEAL!! Headphone Volume And FeedbackHeadphone volume and feedbackIn a studio you will be able to control the volume of the headphones to a certain extent. This is though, usually limited to stop accidental damage to your ears. It also stops the volume being turned up high so noise does not leak (or ‘bleed’) from them, causing feedback (that high-pitched squeak, which we looked at just now).
But remember the volume you hear yourself through your headphones is not the volume in which you are speaking and the level of your voice that is being broadcast or recorded. So be careful not to think, say, “hey I’m loud, so I can soften my voice”. What you can hear in your headphones is an artificial reality. If they are too loud you may instinctively speak softer, if they are too low you may speak louder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.18 – 0564 – How Wearing Headphones Improves Your VoiceWearing headphones improves your voice and presentationWearing headphones gives you immediate feedback on how you sound, and so you can make immediate adjustments to your voice and presentation style. Everything we have talked about so far to do with your voice can be tweaked or turned up, dialled down or downplayed: your pitch and pace, projection and diction. When it comes to delivering quality audio, headphones are your best friend. You want to hear yourself as your mic hears you, not as your ears hear you. That’s what the client will hear, too! The more experience you have with the immediate feedback courtesy of your ‘cans’, the better your voice, presentation and mic technique will become. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.17 – 0563 – The Weird Things About Hearing Yourself Through Headphones Hearing yourself through headphones “Headphones take your ears from the side of your head and put them right in front of your mouthso you can hear exactly what you sound like to others.”Rachel Corbett, Podcast Trainer[1] Think about it, no-one else on earth hears our voice as we ourselves do.  While an audience hears only the sound as vibrations through the air (either in person or via an electronic medium such as loudspeaker or headphones), we hear not only those vibrations through the air (at close range of course, through our ears just a few inches from our mouth), but also ‘internally’ as a result of the vibrations and reflections of sound in our body’s resonators (our chest, mouth and nasal cavities) and also through our skull bone.  Only we hear that unique combination of sounds, and so we imagine that others hear us the same way as we hear ourselves. Until we hear a recording. And so, the sound of hearing your voice heard through speakers, headphones or on video for the first time can be unnerving: because we are hearing ourselves as others hear us.  You should therefore be careful not to dismiss your voice as ‘funny’, ‘not good enough’ or ‘weird-sounding’: that is your own perception and unlikely to be one shared by others who have always heard you that way. It’s not that we don’t like our voice, it’s just the disconnect between not recognising it – and yet knowing that it is actually us.
[1] https://rachelcorbett.com.au/blog/why-headphones-are-important/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.16 – 0562 – Three *More* Reasons You Need Studio Headphones·        To hear a ‘split feed’, when the sound in one ear of the headphones is different from that of the other. For example, in a radio studio one channel may have the station output (what you would normally expect to hear) and the other maybe output from another source. It can be tricky to cope with hearing two different things at the same time, but as a presenter or newsreader it may be used when you are talking into, say, a sports report, and are waiting for a certain cue (phrase) from the location reporter before you can introduce them on air.

• To hear the playback of a recorded item
• To allow a presenter to easily cue-up an item to be played next, without that audio going on air.

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2022.07.15 – 0561 – Three Reasons You Need Studio HeadphonesMonitors (or loudspeakers / speakers):So we can hear the final mix of recorded audio in a room-situation (that is, without headphones), so several people can hear the same audio at the same time and be able to hear each other’s comments. In a live studio, to enable us to hear the output when a microphone is closed[1] HeadphonesWhy you need headphones

• To better hear the sound of our own voice or that of a contributor, and monitor the quality of both and fix in the moment rather than in the edits, such as
• Background noise
• Speaking levels – avoiding any high or low levels, plosives and so on

Editing problems later is time consuming, and may even be impossible to fix. It may be easier to re-record the entire piece again, using more time and removing the spontaneity.

• To hear any audio that we mix in with our voice, in our live or recorded session, that could be music, a sound effect, or someone else’s voice.
• To allow a presenter or voice actor to hear instructions from a producer (via a ‘talkback’ intercom system), while they have the microphone open, without it being heard on air or by a guest[2]

[1] In a radio studio, songs played on air can be heard by the presenter through loudspeakers. But when they open the microphone, the audio feed to the speakers is cut off. That’s to avoid ‘feedback’, a howl-round loop of sound caused by sound from the speakers being picked up by the microphone and then fed out through the speakers… and so on. As the presenter needs to hear the music and other elements that are going out on air (interviews, commercials and so on), they wear headphones which of course do much the same job as loudspeakers but because they are close to the ears, there is no feedback disruption.[2] You should be able to control the volume of the talkback from the engineer or producer, so it is not too loud or intrusive in your headphones.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.14 – 0560 – From Microphones To HeadphonesMONITORS AND HEADPHONESThese are all ways to hear audio while in the studio, either the audio that we are creating inside it or audio from another source or from outside the studio. So why are we talking about them hear? Well, a great part of getting a better broadcast, podcast and voice-over voice is not only creating that sound, but also being able to hear it, monitor it, knowing what you are listening for, working out what you are perhaps doing wrong and changing it. This constant listening and feedback is imperative – both second-by-second of your own voice in a live studio, and listening back to the recordings of you and others – if you are to develop your own style. Simply, the mic for the mouth and the headphones for the ears, go, well, hand-in-hand. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.13 – 0559 – Using A Mic, RightFinal mic thoughtsThe mic is your friend so look after it. Treat it with respect and don’t shout at it. It is there to help you, but it is sensitive.
Having said that it simply wants to get on with the job in hand, to make you sound great. So, once it’s set up, leave it alone. Don’t talk to it. By ignoring the microphone and talking to your listener, you will sound more natural and relatable, conversational and real. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.12 – 0558 – Studio Bacteria Pop shields, filters, headphones and desk controls in radio stations are a breeding ground for bacteria and Valhalla for viruses, with all the spit, sweat and skin deposits. They are all spoken into, worn or touched by many people and rarely if ever cleaned. If you value your voice, do what I do (even before Covid-19 struck) and invest in your own pop shield and headphones and wipe down the panel before you use it (only do this in someone else’s studio with permission and use approved wipes as the chemicals in them may affect a panel or screen). Taking in your own headphones, is easily done and causes next to no disruption, although wiping down a studio may be awkward if you are not on a studio shift and are just going in briefly to record a short item, but take precautions.[1]
[1] More here: https://technorama.org.au/?p=3521 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.11 – 0557 – Mic Muck-Ups Solved!: SibilanceSibilanceThis is ‘too much’ (whatever that is) of an ‘s’ sound, and in our line of work the pitch of that sound can be picked up and exaggerated by the microphone (and different types of mic work better with different kinds of voices, picking up different frequencies better), and with podcasts can go right into someone’s ear.
There is some fix for the problem (if indeed it is a problem – some may reasonably say that sibilance adds character to the voice and what is too sibilant to one person is not to another), of recording a voice which has a lot of hisses in it or is very ‘essy’. You may be able to reduce the problem by having the mic to one side of your mouth so you are not speaking into it or indeed across it.
It’s an issue well-recognised, so much so that audio programs often have a ‘de-esser’ function built in. De-esser https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/the-dos-and-donts-of-de-essing.html Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.07.10 – 0556 – Pop Screens and Filters Pop filters[1] work by either displacing or slowing down the flow of the air, to make it less aggressive on the mic head.
There are two kinds.
There’s the foam ‘hat’ that goes directly on the mic head to protect it from windblasts and usually seen on outside mics. But the microphone experts Neuman says these can reduce the treble part of a voice slightly.
There’s also the filter that’s a ring of plastic or metal which holds two layers of a thin metal mesh or gauze-type fabric. It’s attached to the mic stand two or three inches away from the mic itself to work effectively, not directly against the head.[2] It’s also a good idea to angle the pop screen slightly to avoid sound reflections bouncing between the screen and the mic head.
For a similar reason, large pop screens are better than smaller ones because the ring that holds the fabric may introduce sound reflections, too: the larger the pop screen the further away the outer ring is from the mic.
These screens are much more effective against pop noises than foam shields and affect the sound far less, although they can be a bit intrusive as they are larger than the mic head, and you may not be able to read a script as easily or simply feel that it’s getting in the way of you connecting with the mic.

[1] Hear sound samples of how pop-screens and filters work, here: https://www.neumann.com/homestudio/en/how-to-protect-your-microphone-against-pops [2] As this short video explains: pic.twitter.com/ekrf1Vg65y Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.