VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Neil K. Hess · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:17 am Post subject: Audio Engineering for dummies

Anyone know of any good resources to teach someone the basics of audio engineering? Paid or free...but preferably free. Smile

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Jeffrey Kafer · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:38 am Post subject:

Nope, not one-size-fits-all. What are you trying to do, specifically?
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Neil K. Hess · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:47 am Post subject:

Just trying to learn how to do whatever I can to make my VO's sound better. I know what volume, pitch and what not are, but when it comes to eq, compression and the more complicated stuff, I'm lost.
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cyclometh · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:44 pm Post subject:

Dan friedman's Sound Advice is a good place to start.
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BruceG · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:51 pm Post subject:

Neil - what digital audio editing program are you using?

You may be able to go to YouTube or Google and enter the name of the program you are using and do some exploring that way...
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ChrisMezzolesta · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:58 pm Post subject:

Very true - these days one can find entire courses for various things online (caveat emptor, of course), but good grief I found some really good bass lessons online when my daughter wanted me to teach her to play, I'd have to imagine there are articles within Mix and Sound On Sound and others that address some of the basics, but Google is of course your best friend (or maybe in this case also use Ask.com and let Jeeves find it for you, "in the form of a question Alex!")

Good ruck........
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Neil K. Hess · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 1:26 pm Post subject:

I'm using audacity, but I hear people talking a lot about audition. Just not sure if audition would be a worth while investment this early on in my VO "journey".
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Jason Huggins · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 1:47 pm Post subject:

I'd skip buying a new DAW until you are ready to invest. I love Audition, but it is more than you mentioned you wanted to spend on your gear this early. Presonus Studio One also has a free edition that I personally like a ton more than Audacity.

I just found Audacity to have a really poor graphic user interface (GUI), and both do all you need them to...record and edit.

All you really need to know how to do is record, cut out the stuff you don't want, and remove pops and clicks. All DAWs operate along the same principles of a word document. Input some text, cut, copy or paste stuff you need to move. There is a whole lot you can do with effects, but until you have the basics down, just record and arrange stuff.

Also, don't leave actual silence in your audio. It sounds weird.

Neil K. Hess · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 1:54 pm Post subject:

Ok cool. What is a good way to get rid of the clicks and what not?
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cyclometh · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 1:59 pm Post subject:

Audacity is a great place to start, with some caveats you need to keep in mind-

Most DAWs work a little differently than Audacity does. There's similar features in most but the big one is that Audacity does "destructive edits", meaning that many of the changes you make to a file are committed to the underlying data. You can undo while in Audacity, and there are some non-destructive features, but it is still a major shortcoming compared to professional DAW packages.

The reason I mention this is that I started with Audacity myself, and once I changed to a commercial DAW I had to unlearn some things and come to terms with some brand new concepts.

This is NOT to say I'm bagging on Audacity, by the way- I have it and still use it for some things (mostly file conversion) and it is amazing for what it is. You can do professional recording with it, but it's not as easy and you might run into feature gaps.

Even if you're not going to drop the coin on a DAW, Audition does come with a free trial (http://www.adobe.com/go/tryaudition/) that you could play with.
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georgethetech · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 2:00 pm Post subject:

Search http://vostudiotech.com for myriad free resources, pull out wallet for tutorial videos, webinars from VoiceOverXtra, or one-on-one time. Youtube searches are amazingly fruitful as well.
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cyclometh · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 2:04 pm Post subject:

Getting rid of clicks and unwanted noise between passages is fairly simple: You record a few seconds of what is referred to as "room tone". Room tone is your mic on but you not speaking, moving or breathing. That low-level hiss/rumble that your room has.

Then you take a clean chunk of that and copy it to the clipboard and paste it over the offending bits.

Don't use gates or noise removal. Never leave silence in your audio (it sounds really bad, like Jason noted). And for the love of all that is holy, stay away from Audacity's noise filter. It's OK for what it is but it's really not suitable if you're going to send something to a professional who will hear all those little artifacts it leaves.
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Jason Huggins · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 2:31 pm Post subject:

George has a lot of great stuff, Voices.com has a bunch of podcasts that are free, Bill Dewees has a million YouTube videos on the VO business.

As far as editing goes, you won't learn any easier than just doing it. You'll learn the way you work, and how it's best for you to do things. You can learn shortcuts and tips from others, but just get on the mic as much as possible. It'll be slower at first, but you'll pick stuff up as you go.

sounddguy · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 8:14 pm Post subject:

Lee Gordon · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 1:28 am Post subject:

I've found Audacity's noise filter to work just fine as long as you don't ask it to do too much.
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