Unfiltered Thoughts

2022.06.29 – 0545 – Equalisation, Compressors and De-EssersEqualization – or EQ – is a form of audio processing which allows you (or rather the studio engineer) adjust the volume level of a frequency (or range of frequencies) within a sound. As everyone’s voice is different, this can to a certain extent, cure a sound of its imperfections. Compressors control the loudness of the signal by dampening the ‘peaks’ such as ‘puh’ and ‘tuh’ sounds in words, laughs, and particular ambient sounds. Compression is a complex process, and there are multiple parameters that you can adjust, but overall it can make a vocal sound fuller, tighter, and more well-defined. De-essers reduce the sibilance (the frequency made by ‘ess’, ‘t’, ‘shh’) in a vocal recording.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.28 – 0544 – Studio Tech That Could Make Your Voice Sound GreatAudio ProcessingThere are technical ways (such as EQ and compression) of adjusting the voice that is being (or has been) recorded to enhance it further to give it greater presence, depth and tonal quality.  This is something you have done only after you have provided the tech the best possible original signal: having good acoustics and levels for example. Using processers will only enhance good audio, they won’t cure crap sound. So on the way over the next few days, we’ll hear about equalisation, compressors and de-Essers, noise gating and ducking. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.27 – 0543 – Mike’s Mic Problem: A Case Study
 Mike was referred for voice help by his studio engineer – a rather unusual route to consultation. The engineer’s problem was that where he placed the microphone, it would always pick up Mike’s breaths, and he determined that it was Mike at fault and not the studio equipment. And he was right!  There could have been several reasons for the audible intake of breaths.  Maybe Mike was breathing through his nose rather than his mouth, and because of the reduced air intake that way, his breath ended up sounding more like a sniff.  Maybe he was ‘vocalising the breath’ alongside a ‘lip smack’ – a duo of problems that often go together when a presenter audibly ‘sucks in’ air through a partly-closed (and often an elevated tongue), rather than letting it ‘drop in’.  Actually, it turned out that Mike was breathing from his chest rather than his diaphragm, causing ‘constriction tension’ in the neck. Better breathing and relaxation techniques were prescribed.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.26 – 0542 – Your Mic Levels Mixed With MusicYour levels with musicWe looked at the use of music beds before, but the important thing to remember here is the balance of levels between the music and your voice.
Many beginners tend to have background music too high because they aren’t sure of their voices and their overall confidence, and so use the bed to cover them a bit. It’s a bit of a safety net. This is a mistake and should be avoided.
Invariably, your voice must be the dominant sound without you having to shout over the backing track. Again, if you do this, your voice may appear aggressive to the listener and the way your message is received will be altered.
The trouble is you can’t really use the VU meters to judge whether the music is too high against the voice, because you often have two sounds going through the audio board only one set of meters – showing the overall mixed level. Therefore, you need to use your ears, experience and careful judgment to create a good balance between two sounds when you’re mixing them.
Equally of course, the background can’t be too low or you’ll lose the effect of having it there in the first place! (See more on this below: ‘ducking’.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.25 – 0541 – Your Mic Levels With HeadphonesYour levels with headphonesIf you notice a lower level in your headphones, you might begin to speak more loudly to compensate, and suddenly you’re in a situation of talking at the listener, rather than telling them a story, or chatting with them in a conversational way, and lessening the ability to communicate with them.
Incidentally, the best way to tell your sound levels are set correctly is to always use headphones, and to have them turned up high enough to drown out your normal speaking voice. Anything too loud will cross the threshold of pain and soon have you reaching for the volume control. There’s more on the correct use of headphones, in a bit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.24 – 0540 – Mics At Noisy Events
VOICE BOXMics at a Noisy EventIf you are simply shouting over other noises (perhaps to convey the excitement of the event[1]) then:·        you may not be using the right type of microphone·        you probably need to be wearing headphones so you can isolate the sound that the mic is picking up (rather than what you are hearing at that location), and determine the balance between ‘situational sound’ and your voice. Once you know this you may be able to:o  reduce your vocal volume oro  move to a quieter location oro  move the microphone closer or further from your mouth oro  adjust the ‘input level’ of your microphone or o  move the microphone so its pick-up pattern is better reproducing the sound you want oro  a combination of the above.·        you will be putting undue strain on your voice·        you will be tiring to listen to for any length of time because…·        you will lose subtleties of inflection.
[1] As we have seen elsewhere, if you raise your volume then your pitch will also rise. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.23 – 0539 – The Magic Balance Between Mic Position, Projection and Recording Levels You can increase the basic loudness of your voice by turning up the gain[1] on your mic, but this will make you sound thin and weak, partly because more room noise is also being picked up by the mic, for which you have increased the sensitivity. In other words, your voice will be louder, but it won’t have more energy, projection or robustness. We’re talking sheer naked ‘volume’. Audio processing makes sure that recorded voices are heard by the listener at roughly the same level, so they don’t have to grab the remote to turn up the TV as a whispered boardroom coup takes place, or turn it down as a soap opera showdown kicks off. It’s easier to pull back the energy and add it in later, than have it too loud to start with. Recorded audio that’s been recorded too loud and so ‘overmodding’ or ‘distorted’ is virtually impossible to fix.
Therefore, it’s best to get the mic-to-mouth position and the dependent mic levels correct at the get-go, so nothing has to be changed later.
[1] When a microphone channel is fully open, it is not actually picking up sound at its full capability. An additional knob, (‘the gain control’) can boost the incoming signal (your voice) so it is broadcast or recorded louder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.22 – 0538 – Maddening Over-Modding On occasion it may be impossible to anticipate external noise and so be unable to use any of the techniques described above, and therefore over-modding may be the (almost) inevitable result. For example: at a sports event when a goal is scored (or at a presidential event when a political point is scored) and “the crowd goes wild”; at a carnival or parade when a marching band passes by; on a street with the unexpected siren of an emergency vehicle and so on. In such situations a deft reporter or studio engineer will simply have to ‘ride the faders’; and adjust the incoming audio levels ‘on the fly’ to avoid distortion in the live feed or recording.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.21 – 0537 – How To Fix A Recorded Level That’s Too High… Or Low
If your mic level is too lowYour ‘live’ level can be boosted, not just with the main microphone channel but also the booster ‘gain’ setting’. But this may also increase the background noise from the studio that’s picked up, that is the general ambience of the room, as well as making the mic more sensitive to your own mouth noises. If audio has been recorded at too low a level, it’s pretty easy to raise it higher without a change in quality. If your recorded or live volume is too highVoice volume per se is seldom needed in studio broadcasting. That is, it is rarely necessary for you to raise your voice as you can simply speak at a near-normal level and increase the input on your microphone channel so it boosts the level of the sound that it captures. Additional human-produced volume may be needed outside of a sound-proofed studio where other noises will compete for the microphone’s attention. And that’s when distortion of ‘over modding’ may happen (which we’ll talk about more tomorrow).
To stop this in a live situation you can either pull away from the mic, or pull the fader down a touch, or move somewhere quieter. But if the levels have been recorded too high, there’s very little you can do except retake the entire piece again. Compare that with if levels have been recorded too low when, with digital recording, you can boost them significantly without altering the quality of the piece. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.06.20 – 0536 – Automatic Level ControlAutomatic Level Control versus ManualIn a home recording studio, your mixing desk or the recording set-up on a video call may have an ‘automatic level control’ that you can ‘set and forget’. They keep signals below distortion point, and when they fall too low they cut in and boost the signal upwards. But adjusting the recording levels manually gives you more control and creative freedom. You can use your professional judgement to choose settings to perfectly match different circumstances, instead of passing control to the machine, whose systems were designed to cope with ideal conditions.Another drawback to some ALC systems is the problem of ‘pumping’, which can happen when there is a pause in speech and the ALC hunts for sound to boost the levels. If there is a lot of background noise, such as passing traffic or an AC unit in your home studio, the ALC will surge this forward whenever you stop talking for much more than a moment. Then when you start talking again, the first word may be clipped as the system struggles to cope with the sudden surge or sound.None of these problems can occur with a manual recording that is correctly monitored, but having to monitor levels means your attention is divided between the tech and the talking. Using ALC means you can save your concentration for the most critical element – the content. If you must use ALC do so under perfectly quiet conditions. A better solution is to set the levels manually and monitor them by listening on headphones. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.