From the Archives: My First Recording Tutorial Video - Audition Editing in Audacity

I made this video YEARS ago, but had it posted on some video service which went defunct a while ago. I don't know why I never thought to put it on Youtube, but it's up there now!
And to celebrate my realization that people watch things on the Youtubes, I'm also going to post the video here on ma blog.
If you or anyone you know is looking for some simple pointers on basic audio editing, this video should help.
Enjoy!

Noise Reduction shoot out - Sound Forge, iZotope, Audacity, Audition, Waves, and doin it by hand!

So, this is going to be a longer post...

We're going to compare 6 different methods of noise reduction.

I get a lot of questions about cleaning up audio after recording, hums, clicks, pops, line noise, neighbors, fridge, etc. A lot of people are still trying to gate or EQ this stuff out, and those methods don't work particularly well for voice over, especially dry auditions.

Gating will turn off the audio signal when you're not speaking, which gives you perfect silence, but when you start speaking again the noise is back too. This can be VERY unnatural depending on the noise.EQ can work, but usually to the detriment of the entire piece of audio, as you are carving out chunks of the frequency spectrum. Those chunks start carving into your voice as well. Sort of like destroying the town to save the town...

Ideally you'd just want to record clean in the first place, but sometimes you just can't help but knock something out and hope you can clean it up after the fact.Noise Reduction plugins to the rescue!To test, I set up my Solaris to records in "Figure 8" mode (so the front and back of the mic are recording equally), set one side up for me, and put the other side of the mic right up against my bathroom door with the fan running.

This is a worse case scenario for voice over, as fans tend to generate noise that slices right through the middle of the human voice's spectrum. That means that as you remove fan noise, you're likely carving out a chunk of the voice as well. A less extreme version of this would be a fridge kicking on or the AC running.

All of these plugins (and doing it by hand) work on the same general principal, point out what undesirable noise looks like, and try to get rid of only that noise. [Check out the Audacity Tutorial for Noise Reduction in practice - Ed.]

I attacked the samples pretty aggressively with each method. For the test, the main idea was to all but eliminate the background noise, even if it damaged the voice. Real world, you would probably want to leave a little more noise to prevent damaging the recording.


So first up, here's the unaltered file:



Sony Sound Forge NR plugin:



iZotope RX De-Noiser:



Audacity NR plugin:



Adobe Audition NR Plugin:



Doin it by hand with Phase Inverse:



Waves Restoration X-Noise:



Again, this is most certainly a worst case scenario when it comes to noise reduction, and hopefully you don't encounter this much noise on a regular basis. I find the results interesting listening back. There are two methods up here which are essentially free, and the most expensive plugin comes in a pack which runs about $1000.



So what do YOU think? Are there other plugins that I'm missing?

Video: Audacity Tutorial - how to set up Audacity for MP3 exporting

The blog post TWO days in the making... LOL...

So first off I'm Some AUDIO Guy. I'd just like everyone to keep that in mind when you watch this. I really have no business editing video.

That being said, I've gotten a lot of questions from clients about how to setup recording software, and I tend to recommend Audacity. It's really easy to use, plays exactly the same way between Mac and PC (I don't know of many that do that), and the price is right (free).

The only down side is it can be a little tricky to set up, but once it is, I think the software is solid.

This video is a step by step, from beginning to end, tutorial that covers everything from downloading the software to setting up MP3 exporting, all with a focus on what us VO people need to accomplish. If you're interested in setting up some software to keep yourself in shape, or to start recording auditions, I think this will help.

I'm including two different versions a high and low quality. The low obviously loads faster, but the high quality version is downloadable HERE.

Revver (Low Quality):


DivShare (Download High Quality version):


As always, I'd love to hear feedback, and suggestions for future tutorials.

For those looking for something a little more advanced, you can check out this previous vid I made of cleaning audio in Audactiy.

Thanks for watching!

***EDIT***

Ok having looked at the DivShare streaming version, it's only marginally better than the Revver version (really just sounds better), but I promise if you go to the DivShare page here, and download the original, you can actually read all of the text on my screen.

Sorry folks, I'm still figuring all this screen capture stuff out.

heh-heh...
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Audacity Development for the Mac - A Call for Help?

Recently I posted on Audacity's update to 1.3.4, well I didn't notice at the time, but that update was for Linux and Windows only (the two OS's I primarily use at home) not OSX. Apparently OSX has STILL not received the update as there are no Mac users working on Audacity anymore.

TUAW links to the Audacity forums, where recently a call for developer help just went out. I was happy to see that it was answered pretty quickly on both the forum AND TUAW. With that I thought I would second the call, help put out the word, as Audacity is a fantastic audio editor, and it's never good to let a platform lag too far behind. To my knowledge it's still the only Open Editor that plays across all three major PC platforms.

I still find it odd though, that with the Mac becoming a more and more attractive solution (thanks Vista), and has always been known as a "creative friendly" platform, that there isn't more development of this kind of software.

I don't normally write about this (I only made it through one semester of CS), but if anyone out there develops for Mac, and has some time to throw in for a GREAT piece of software, I'm sure it would be appreciated!

TUAW

Audacity Forum

News Sound Bites - Wavosaur, Writers, and Hi-Def Transfers

Just a couple cool links for ya'll.

Download Squad has the scoop on Wavosaur, a free tiny portable audio editing suite. Does it have what it takes to compete against products like Audacity?

Gizmodo is looking for writers! If only there were an influx of really good writers, with time on their hands, looking for new projects ... hmmm ... (I kid because I love)

Sound and Vision Magazine has a great article on the challenges of transferring Blade Runner to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. YAY! I get to buy the movie AGAIN once I get an HDTV! I can't wait!

Audacity Updated to 1.3.4

Your favorite free audio editor is now a tenth of a tenth of a point better!

Just recently updated to 1.3.4, I'm seeing some nice improvements. Switches like solo and mute seem to work smarter (and you can no longer jam the program up by muting and solo-ing a track at the same time). You can now add meta-data to files other than MP3, and a few of the plugins have gotten decent updates (I can't remember if 1.3.3 had a "gverb" but it's a really decent reverb/room shaping plugin).

My only complaints are:
**You still can't record to the same track over multiple takes. Every time you stop recording and start again it opens a new audio track, so you can't ever go back to review and re-record without having to cut and paste a file back together.

**Also, I still hate the "Preview" feature. You only get 2 seconds to hear if you like a change, and that's SO not enough if you're doing a lot of editing. You end up just rendering the edit, listening, and rolling back the edit if you don't like it. The preview feature has always been a waste of time in Audacity.

**Lastly, there's still no decent marker. I know you can hit CRTL-M (or remap it to something else), but the way it forces you to name the marker, and the fact that the marker isn't a part of the audio file itself (it becomes a new "track" just for markers) makes for an awkward and cluttered work environment.


<----Click pic to see what I mean.







All in all, it's an awesome package that totally rivals (and in some ways surpasses) programs like Sound Forge XP (about $80), but it's totally free! CLICK HERE to download and see the full list of updates from 1.3.3!

Enjoy!

Beginner Audacity Tutorial, WITH VIDEO!

Yes, an exclamation point in the title!

So, I've put together a little video with some basic tips to improving the sound of home recordings using Audacity.

And here it is:


Basically, we just want to clean up the sound of an audition. As an example, here's a sample of the audio used before cleaning:



And after:



Also, since the streaming vid is a little hard to see whats going on (even when you expand to full screen), I do have a high quality version hosted on divshare, but it's big (180MB) and DivShare is moving DOGSLOW right now.

AUDACITY TUTORIAL HIGH-ISH QUALITY

If anyone has any advice on better file hosting (for CHEAP), please let me know!

AUDACITY Tutorials GALORE!

So for newbies trying to record I try to set up the simplest recording environment I can. I tend not to like USB mics, but lately it's been hard to deny how much less intimidating the simplicity of ONE cable to the computer is.
However, once that is out of the way what to do with the audio entering the computer?

I really like Audacity for beginners. It's not very pretty, but it's pretty easy to learn, and well ... you know ... the price is, uh, pretty good. I charge quite a bit for setup and instruction, but often I find that the client really just needed a little advice, not a full blown instructional session.

So not to undercut my own business, but if you're one of those just needing a little push, I found this great little tutorial on Youtube.



Also, if you want more advanced Audacity goodness, you can go here.

Enjoy!

Top 5 mp3 Converters ???

Just caught this on Digg.
With so much voiceover being done over mp3, it's getting more and more complicated to explain to actors what they need to do to send us auditions. With so many people on Mac, fewer and fewer seem to understand that an .aac/.aiff/.m4a is NOT the same thing as an .mp3. Love it or hate it, .mp3 pretty much plays well with everyone (except GarageBand apparently).

SO, I'm constantly on the lookout for software that will make this easier. Coming across this article from CoolUtils.com, there are some excellent recommendations for mp3 converters here, but I'm a little non-plussed by this major FUD paragraph here:

"But first a little word of warning. MP3 files, and MP3 converting, is extremely popular right now. While that does tend to open up the market to an array of different products for you to choose from, it also attracts the less desirable people as well. The kind of people that would just as soon give your computer a virus than a good MP3 converter. That being said I am going to suggest that you do not deal with what is advertised as free MP3 converters. Most of these products offer a free trial and that should be more than enough for you to convert some files and find the software you like. But a free MP3 converter is an invitation for a devious person to get a dangerous, and destructive virus, on to your computer. That isn’t to say that an MP3 converter you pay for couldn’t also cause you problems, but a company that is taking your money from their own website is a little less likely to destroy your computer than an anonymous company offering you something for free."

Whoa there! I have to say this would exclude people from a huge wealth of software out there, like say open source software. I'm a really big fan of programs like Audacity and CDex, because they're easy to use, and the price is right. Audacity especially since it'll play well with both Mac and PC (Sound Forge and Audition I'm looking in your general direction).

So check out the list, but don't write off a program just because it's free. If you're really worried about giving it a spin, maybe google for a review or something...
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