How dry is your dry?

September Day Leach · Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007, 13:58 (GMT) Post subject: How dry is your dry?

so, I started playing around with Audition last night (no leads to work on), and really enjoy the compressing feature. It got me thinking, how dry are the dry voice auditions that you send in? Do you always take out breath sounds? Lower the amplitude of pauses to reduce noise? Run a noise reduction? Do you compress at all?

John Bigl · Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007, 14:48 (GMT) Post subject:

hello September.. good topic...

my demos are very dry.. no compressing, editing out breaths, dithering prior to MP3 conversion etc... just enough to give a seeker an excellent idea of how i'd perform their script...
often times i'll jot down in the comments of a submission that the demo has not been edited in any way.. i caught minor hell for that by a fellow VO in DoD.. i'll do 'good enough' for a demo, but go all out on a paid gig by placing it in the hands of my very tech savvy and talented producer/engineer...

Be Well

Bob Souer · Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007, 22:19 (GMT) Post subject:

September,

Like John, I do very little production. I'll normally edit down multiple takes by removing all but what seems to me to be the best take. I do very little, if anything, else.

Cira Larkin - Studio 53 · Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007, 22:57 (GMT) Post subject:

Hi, September,

I have Audition and I edit out some of the breaths because I'm an asthmatic and I wheeze like Darth Vader in a blast furnace through a straw.

Robert Jadah · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007, 00:00 (GMT) Post subject:

Nice to be talking craft again....Like Bob, I edit down to the best bits. I'll take out extraneous breaths, but will always leave the natural ones there for auditions.
I always compress lightly. On everything. Always.
I also copy my final onto another track and then bounce them simultaneously.
I don't know why.

Did I mention compression?

Voice On!

John Bigl · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007, 00:13 (GMT) Post subject:

helloRobert..

when bouncing .wav to mp3 on the ProTools, do you use the 'dithering' feature of adding random digital noise to the quieter sections of a read to make a demo sound less grainy ?

Be Well

Robert Jadah · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007, 00:44 (GMT) Post subject:

Nay, Big John.
I may dither, but my production never does.
When I WAV-MP3, I do it with a separate program, since I somehow never enabled the #!*&(&$#! thing on my ProTools, and Digidesign Support must have answered my pleading queries by carrier pigeon.

Dither Off!

Adam James · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007, 01:10 (GMT) Post subject:

Cira Larkin - Studio 53 · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007, 02:05 (GMT) Post subject:

Brad Venable · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007, 02:30 (GMT) Post subject:

ok...here's my process:

I compress on the front-end with my FMR RNC1773, so the waveform is compressed when it hits the computer.

I use Noise Reduction first, to get rid of what little noise is left in the booth.

I then have constructed a script in AA1.5 that does the following all with one keyboard shortcut:
-Center Wave (through the amplify function, to fix DC Offset)
-Noise Gate (below -60 for the remaining room leftovers)
-De-Esser (duh)
-EQ (Just to roll off some of the boominess)

After that, I usually normalize to -6. Sometimes I use the Hard Limit function, sometimes not.

And that all sounds like a lot, which it is...but It all takes about 30 seconds to do with the shortcuts and the script I created. Search the user guide for 'script.' You'll be amazed at how useful they are. Smile

And I also use AA1.5 to save to both wav and mp3. It's quicker than you might think.

Anywho, that's about it. Hope it helps, Smile

Ronald T Robinson · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007, 13:43 (GMT) Post subject:

I'll gate to -70 and do a compression of 2:1 as an ongoing practice. This is done with outboard equipment in the audio-chain.

Before mastering, I'll EQ a smidge. Recently, I have been dropping any verb altogether.

As to breaths: In a more natural read, I'll leave them in if I'm going for that feel. Those that sound like gaping, sucking chest-wounds - I'll cut.

Plus, like Robert, I'm dithering regularly - no matter whether in the studio or not. (It's a habit picked up from a former Canadian Prime Minister.) Smile

Bob Souer · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007, 14:31 (GMT) Post subject:

Colin Campbell · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007, 14:44 (GMT) Post subject:

De-ess, expand (gate), compress (about 3:1 above -15 or so) EQ all in HARDWARE before it hits the PC.

I'll vary the expander (gate) dependiing on how loud or soft the read is.

In AA I don't do anything more on a straight read exept maybe edit out pickups though I try to not have any. If it is produced, I apply a light compression to the final mixdown.

September Day Leach · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007, 14:50 (GMT) Post subject:

This is great! So much info! I've never compressed before, but I love the way I sound with it so I think I'm going to be doing the light compression from now on. Also, trying to mater noise gate and dithering. You know, it would be great to take some classes on this. Most voice talent just know how to deliver the goods, not how to wrap it up in a fancy bow.

Colin Campbell · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007, 15:02 (GMT) Post subject:

For a great primer on voice processing, ignore the product specific parts of this manual but it is a gold mine of information on the subject....

http://www.symetrixaudio.com/repository/528EmanF00.pdf