VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[Mike Harrison]

I've been using Adobe Audition for several years, recently updating to their CC (Creative Cloud) version. Whether for basic mono VO tracks or multitrack production, it's easy to use and has great features such as auto-heal and frequency spectrum display, which allows pinpoint cleaning of frequency ranges.
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

[ricevoice]

[Yonie]

Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot stress enough the importance of an SSD. I just replaced my last mechanical hard drive with a second SSD and can never go back again. The noise levels, the speed, everything is better.

Sound absorbers arrive on Thursday.

Am gonna try out Adobe Audition and see how I like it. Even though simple is better for VO, I do enjoy dabbling with multi-track things as well.

[Yonie]

Right, so after a trip around the veritable cul-de-sac with UPS, the sound absorbers have arrived. Am letting the bass traps try out my suspension method during the night-- velcro strips with adhesive.

Planning out the rest tomorrow. No point in rushing headfirst, I reckon.

By the way, three cheers to the people recommending Adobe Audition. I might learn to like it! Just have to get used to this new work flow and interface. But already it's looking a lot smoother and intuitive than any version of Pro Tools I've tried.

[Mike Harrison]

While Pro Tools was probably the first multitrack DAW (sometime in the early-mid 90s, I think), it really is overkill for recording and editing mono voice-over files. Adobe Audition also has multitrack capability, but it allows you to create (or open) files without the multitrack environment.

Audition plays nicely with many (perhaps most or all) I/O devices; it allows you to create keyboard shortcuts that will execute frequently-used commands using a single keystroke; using (sub)markers within files allows fast exporting of mp3s, for example, rather than physically copying and pasting file segments into individual files and saving that way. Audition does batch processing. It allows you to browse folders and play audio files by just clicking on them (without opening them). Much more.

As for your bass traps, several years ago I had hung acoustical foam in my booth with Velcro strips. Just a small piece on each corner of a 12"x12" square did the trick. But, for the bulkier and heavier bass traps, you'll probably need to run at least a strip of Velcro the entire length of each edge, if not more.
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

[Yonie]

I did enjoy PT, but only because I forced myself to get used to it. After a while the plugins were second-nature to handle-- editing still took quite a while though.

As for the bass traps: luckily I can wedge one up on a shelf right by the ceiling. I'll have to adjust the height of one, and either approximate the position of, or cleave another. There're heater pipes going through the ceiling and floor, right in the corner of this room.

[Yonie]

A lack of confidence keeps me coming back here.

Made a simple mock-up of my current room and am looking for ideas where to put some sound absorption.

Red arrow: Voice direction aimed from the crude microphone in the corner.

Blue triangles: bass traps in the ceiling.

http://imgur.com/a/DikBc

Thoughts:

- The top opening is very wide, but not immediately intrusive and actually has potential to add diffusion.

- A few glass frames around.

- The windows down south take up most of that wall, given their height.

- The room is 3.5m wide, 4.5m long, and has a ceiling height of roughly 3m.

- I have quite a bit of sound absorbing materials to work with.

Any guidelines as to how you'd primarily focus the padding here? I have ideas and inclinations, but reading up on the subject is making me go slightly batty with the abundance of info available.

PS: My goodness the bass traps do wonders for fluttery reverb

[bobsouer]

Yonie,

If you prefer or need multi-track, then Vegas is a fine choice.

I use Sound Forge for all of my editing, but then I have been using since I was a beta tester for the original Sonic Foundry folks starting with version 2.0. So my finger memory is very deep for Sound Forge. I use Pro Tools 12 as my main recording application, because I like the sonic engine in Pro Tools better than anything else I've used. But I do almost no editing or production these days. And yes, it's wildly over-kill for just doing single track recording, but it's what I like so it's what I use.
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Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
ISDN, Source Connect, phone patch

[Yonie]

Updates.

I'm slowly getting used to the Adobe Audition workflow. Tentative steps so far.

The biggest issue has been audio quality and external noise. My neighbors can cause a bit of ruckus, and there's sometimes what sounds like a very deep bass-like hum going on.

Treating the room hasn't been fully successful, so I'm collapsing the entire endeavor into one corner. I'll see about building some gobos to dress up and treat for some better audio quality. One key component to this solution is that it mustn't interfere with the apartment as a whole; I used to have a booth claim 50% of my room, and don't want any of that malarkey ever again.

If you have any ideas regarding a gobo or a smaller wall-divider build, I'm all ears.

[vkuehn]

Yoni... it takes intestinal fortitude to develop your facility right here in public with everyone chiming in. I hope your skin is thick enough for all the suggestions and criticisms you may get. I moved in recent months and I am creating a whole new setup in a room about the size you have described.... except my ceiling is a bit lower. If I read your diagram correctly, the microphone is over in the corner where there is an "x" that the arrow points toward. (You may have moved it since the original plan as you talk about creating a "corner" for recording. My decision was to place the microphone at the very center of the room.... including the vertical plane.

When you mentioned working your way through Adobe Audition, the next sentence mentioned poor audio quality and then noise. When you call it "poor audio quality"... are you talking about what comes out of the mic in that location, or are you talking about what your software is doing to what comes out of the mic? (I use Audition and if someone were to describe my recordings as poor audio quality... they would have to be talking about my mic (and its location), my room, or my voice abilities (or lack there-of). If you are having an Audition centric problem, there are probably several of us here who can do some hand-holding on clearing that issue.

[Yonie]

Should clarify: poor room noise, hence the decision to collapse the project into a corner. I simply cannot motivate remodeling the entire room for the sole purpose of voice recordings, since this is also my home.

Some noise can be rectified once I attack the windows. Other types of noise can be avoided by recording during specific times of the day and having a friendly chat with the neighbors.

In short: there are solutions to a vast majority of my problems, and I'm conscientious enough to *not* seek feedback on any actual recording until stuff starts sounding good.

[FinMac]

Hej Yonnie!

Just watched this video by George W.

Maybe this could solve your problems ?

https://youtu.be/uieVitk2ujU

It seems to be not for sale yet but it will be on sale thru Thomann in Germany.
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www.scottsvoiceover.com - An American voice in Finland

"If you want to get to the top, you have to get off your bottom". (Unknown)

[Philip Banks]

Such things are NOT a satisfactory solution, far from it. Just because someone on camera says it cure terminal flatulence does not make it true. They help in the same way holding a newspaper over your head will help you in a shower of rain: Better than nothing. If we are to sell ourselves as pro voices then a newspaper is not the answer.

[Yonie]

Mac, I appreciate the tip, but Philip is absolutely correct.

There are no quick fixes for my current situation, and I've come to realise that some simple carpentry will have to take place.

[AlanTaylor]

It took me quite awhile, and many half baked attempts at trying less expensive methods, before I realized that you simply can't "fake" a booth. Especially if you're dealing with external noise issues. You can either build one or buy one. I wish I would've figured that out to start with.