VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

jsgilbert

A bunch of very well designed open-source plug-ins for Windows or Mac's. Some are just fun, but others can definitely help a voice talent.

http://mda.smartelectronix.com/
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Simon Phillips · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 3:59 am Post subject:

Thanks JS. Any you would particularly recommend for someone quite low on the tech learning curve doing straight reads?

Or are there any that you might say "using this one would improve a lot of the auditions I hear"?

Thanks again

Simon

jsgilbert · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 9:24 am Post subject:

Not to be a butthead, but I'd have to file this one in the "a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing" category. Plug-ins and software tweaksused properly and judiciously can really help out quite a bit. Things like de-essers (which are really just specialized compressors) or rolling off a little low end , especially in heavily dampened recording environments can do wonders for making an audition a bit more listenable. However, as someone who ocassionally casts or assists clients in casting via the internet, I will stay say that poor sounding auditions are still a major issue. In particular, we find many talent attempting to fix up poor recordings by using noise gates and noise reduction tools which more often than not, don't do the trick.

I would suggest getting one or more of the various recording books that are available, that explain accoustics and sound proofing and other aspects of getting a good recording.

It might even make sense to pay a local recording studio engineer $50 or so to give you a tutorial.

Go ahead and play around with these plug ins. The help files are quite good in most cases. But before sending anything out, I would certainly have someone you trust take a listen to it first.

Sorry, if this wasn't the actual advice you were seeking, but it's the best I have to offer.
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"today is the first day of the rest of the week"

Simon Phillips · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 10:45 am Post subject:

No worries JS, you gave it your best shot and what you say makes a lot of sense. The butthead-o-meter barely flickered.

Even with my limited experience it's clear enough that it's generally better and easier to fix something in the recording than in the edit. I've experimented with gates and noise reduction occasionally out of necessity, but only got usable results once or twice. The other times I ended up re-recording and wishing I'd saved time by doing so in the first place.

I get a lot of soundproofing and acoustic advice from this and other forums. Although there's a lot of terms that I just don't understand at this stage, it's still very useful and has guided my tinkering with my recording space while I ponder the long-term options.

Fortunately I've already got pally with the owner of my local studio, and an old friend in the music business has given me some very helpful advice too, but as I want to stay friends with both of them, it's good to spread the questions around a bit.

Your advice is much appreciated. I'll try some of those plug-ins out when I get a chance. Time is always an issue of course, and even though I look on it as time invested, it's nice to find the occasional short cut.

Simon

Mike Sommer · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 11:32 am Post subject:

This certainly falls under the heading of "If You Only Knew What You Were Doing!".

One can really make bad audio worse with some of these plugins, or for that matter, the plugins that come with your DAW. If you're starting with a bad recording there is not a lot one can do to fix it, especially if you don't know that you're making bad recordings in the first place. .

What's even worse, is that most people calling themselves engineers these days, don't even know good audio from bad. They've been rendered tone-deaf from their iPods. Folks send me samples all the time saying such and such says this sounds fine. Well, Sorry, it sounds like crap-- especially that barking dog next door.

The best thing anyone can do is get their room/studio into shape with good sound isolation and acoustical treatment. If one is going to call themselves a professional, then they should be able to produce professional sounding audio take after take with no more effort than turning on their equipment.

Yes this cost money. But what business doesn't require a financial investment? If you believe in yourself you'll make that investment, or take out a loan like any other business does.

With all that, you should also know your equipment. Know what it can and can't do. Play with it and play with the plugins, that's how you learn.

Listen to your recordings, in places other than your studio. List to the background: Is there noise, hums, machines, or anything other than your voice? Do you hear echos or ringings in your voice? Does it sound muddy? Not sure what you're hearing? If so, send it to me, I'll listen for you, I'll tell you what's going on.

But the first thing we need to do is listen, and understand what's going on before you start making drastic changes. Otherwise you'll just make things worse.
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Acoustics are counter-intuitive. If one thing is certain about acoustics, it is that if anything seems obvious it is probably wrong.

Mike Sommer · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 11:42 am Post subject:

Simon Phillips · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:49 pm Post subject:

Hey Mike, I was beginning to think you weren't talking to me. And I did draw you a picture!

Anyway, you'll probably be pleased to hear that I'm using another, bigger recording space now and the resonance and room noise is much less of a problem, although there's still some work to be done on that score.

For me that issue is quite similar to the understanding acoustics one in that it's going to be some time before I'm really happy with where I am on either front, but I can keep making gradual progress with them and each step forward has its benefits. The thing is each step also raises a whole new bunch of questions.

I can often find the answers by searching old threads, or the internet more generally, as well as asking someone directly, but sometimes I don't ask certain things precisely because it's such a big and difficult to understand subject.

Say I'm now at level 2 in my understanding. I might see a discussion between you and JS talking about stuff which looks like level 5 or 6 to me. I COULD ask you what the hell you're talking about but, rightly or wrongly, I usually think that I should at least get through level 3 first. There's only so much my brain can deal with in a given time span, so I tend to look for the information that can take me to the next step in my development, rather than try to learn everything all at once.

There's still plenty of good advice that I do understand for me to incorporate before I start worrying about the rocket surgery. And I'm pleased that you and JS have replied here because a lot of that good advice has come from the two of you. Just lately I've been doing a fair bit of "this is me with the mic 6 inches away.....this is me with the mic 12 inches away.....etc", making adjustments in my recording space and listening to the results very closely both through speakers and headphones.

Still you can only do that for so long before you need to change gears. It was nice to switch on the TV the other day and see an ad with Kevin Spacey reading the sort of script that's very much in my part of the market. Really glad I caught that, and with so much to learn the importance of just stopping to listen sometimes can't be over-emphasised.

Simon Phillips · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 2:27 pm Post subject:

It's really easy to misunderstand things on the interent so I'll just make it clear that I'm not saying I'm anywhere near Kevin Spacey's part of the market. Nor that I would try to copy his style. But the type of script he was reading is the sort of thing that I would go for, and his reading was a a very good example of what can be done.

whalewtchr · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 6:22 pm Post subject:

Barking Dogs next door is not acceptable?
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todd ellis · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 7:56 pm Post subject:

so, mike ... are you saying i SHOULDN'T apply a heavy flanger to everything do? because i think it sounds SUPER cool!
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captain54 · Lucky 700 Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Posts: 744 Location: chicago

I thought the Dynamics Processor and the Limiter to be pretty close to some of the Waves plugs that I have. the Opto limiter especially sounded really good... for something free.

Mike Sommer · Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 5:01 pm Post subject:

Mike Sommer · Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 5:12 pm Post subject:

todd ellis · Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 7:57 am Post subject:

here's the funny part --- not 24 hours after posting that - i got a VERY short piece of work requiring --- guess what? the ole flanger. she asked for a very specific mildly robotic feel and it worked just great.

original post WAS a joke, btw!
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Jeffrey Kafer · Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 10:41 am Post subject:

real world scenario: I'm producing an audiobook and the narrator decided to run everything through Levelator, simply because that's what he heard makes them sound good. Without saving the raw edits as a backup. Now he gets to do the entire book over again.
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