VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[Neil K. Hess]

I'm using audition and I'm wondering: Has anyone out there found a breath removal plugin or effect that is reliable and worth an investment? Or are you just going through and removing them manually?
_________________
http://neilkhessvo.com

[Mike Harrison]

Most of what I do is corporate narration (including eLearning, explainers, etc.). The only processing I use when recording is a limiter with a threshold set to deal only with sudden peaks way above a normal conversational tone, so my breaths generally aren't too loud (and haven't been accentuated by use of a compressor). Apart from completely removing breaths at the beginning of each "slide," I tend to leave the rest of them alone (I believe completely breathless spoken word sounds unnaturally sterile and draws attention to itself). But when a breath is a bit obtrusive, I highlight it and give it a 10db cut.

Sometimes, when taking a longer breath, I will also reduce its length to 60%, even if it isn't obtrusive.

I don't like plugins or automated processes for breath removal. Each breath is different, in terms of volume and, by adjusting the threshold to cleanly remove the breath sound, there is the danger of having it also affect soft desired sounds - especially in the beginnings and ending of words - like the sound of the letters F, H and the TH combination. Having to go back and replace those sounds would be a drag.
_________________
Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

[Bruce]

The ultimate solution:

Don't breathe!

Well, being practical, don't breathe so loudly that it's distracting. Practice keeping your lungs more full by not exhausting every bit of air at the end of a sentence. Combined with that use your diaphragm more effectively, pulling in more air with each breath. Open your throat more to cut down on the rushing air noise. Plan when to take a breath especially on long sentences where punctuation is often up to you.

Do these things and you'll have a lot fewer breaths to edit.


B
_________________
VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[Dayo]

Wonderful post, Mike.
_________________
Colin Day - UK Voiceover
www.thurstonday.co.uk

[Mike Harrison]

[MBVOXX]

Countless VO talent made it through decades of work without having to remove breaths. As Bruce stated, learn to control your breathing.