5 STEPS to Improve Your VOICEOVER in Audacity
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- Опубліковано 15 лис 2024
- 5 STEPS to Improve Your VOICEOVER in Audacity
Improve your next voiceover or narration in your next video using these 5 simple steps in Audacity
1. Noise Reduction
2. Compressor
3. Limiter Filter
4. Equalizer
5. Normalize
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Voiceovers
While not ideal for every video, a voiceover can be a perfect element to add to your next project. If you’re making an educational or a product video, you’re most likely using voiceovers. But even if your project is a family outing video, a vacation video, or even a montage, a good voiceover can be a perfect element that elevates your vide from good to great. Or at the very least, clear up a confusing video.
Recording voiceovers can be an art of its own, requiring professional equipment, recording studios, and time to make it perfect. But voiceovers can also be recorded at home, with minimal equipment and funding. Technically, all you need is a microphone and a way to capture and record audio. For starters, I would recommend a good USB microphone, such as the Blue Yeti, that plugs right into your computer, and a way to capture audio to your computer. I personally prefer to use Audacity, but you may also use FCPX, Premiere Pro, or one of many other applications available to you.
An alternative to using a USB microphone, is using a separate audio recorder, such as the very affordable Zoom H1, or at the very least, a mic designed to work with a smartphone. All these options will provide a much better result as opposed to the built in microphone on your computer or camera.
Another very important element of recording a voiceover is your space. The room you record your voiceover in can greatly affect your sound quality. Try and use a space with lots of sound absorbing materials, such as area rugs, soft furniture, pillow, etc.. Anything that stops sound waves from bouncing around, which can create reverb or echos. A mostly full closet or even your car can work great for this. You can also place an acoustic panel behind your mic to absorb the sound waves and improve your sound quality.
A good quality recording is the most important part of recording a voiceover. Aside from that, there are a number of steps you can apply in post production to improve the quality of your audio. The following five steps are meant enhance a good recording. They are NOT meant to fix a crappy recording. Just remember if you start with a crappy recording, no amount of effects will fix that, so a good quality recording should be your primary focus.
5 Post Production Steps to Improve Your Voiceover
The five following steps will help enhance your voiceover recording. These five steps are demonstrated in Audacity, but the same principles can be applied in other programs as well
Step One - Noise Reduction
Noise Reduction can reduce constant background sounds such as hum, buzz, and hiss noises, that were not or could not be eliminated before recording. It is not suitable for individual clicks and pops, or irregular background noise such as from traffic or an audience.
Step Two - Compressor
The Compressor Effect reduces the Dynamic Range of your audio, by compressing, or turning down the louder parts. This allows your audio to be amplified without clipping the louder passages.
Step Three - Limiter Filter
Whereas the Compressor Effect is used to compress the louder passages in your recording, the Limiter Filter focuses more on boosting the quieter part more then the louder passages.
Step Four - Equalizer
Equalization is a way of manipulating sounds by Frequency. It allows you to increase the volume of some frequencies and reduce others. There is NO right way to equalize a voiceover clip, but there’s definitely a wrong way. Everyone’s voice is different, so there is no standard way to equalize voice.
Step Five - Normalize
Normalizing Audio applies a constant amount of gain to the audio recording to bring the peak amplitude to a target level. This should always be the last step in your audio workflow for the effect to work properly. Without the dynamic compression achieved with the Compressor Effect and the Limiter Filter, the peaks in your waveform would prevent enough gain to be applied to the softer passages.
Thanks for the great tips. Here they are specific settings you used for future fans:
1. Noise Reduction
2. Compress
Threshold -12dB
Noise Floor -40dB
Ratio 2:1 for most jobs
Attack 0.20 secs
Release 1.0
Leave the bottom two boxes unchecked
3. Limiter
Hard Limit
for voice overs
Gain 3-4dB
Limit -3dB (single track) to -4.5dB (multitrack)
Hold 2.0
4. EQ-very subjective
Bass Boost preset-OK
Treble Boost preset-OK
5. Normalize last
Check Remove DC
Check Normalize at -1.0dB
I Don't Know You, But I love you Bro, Thanks A lot
Thanks Robert!! I did a print screen. Now I don't have to take notes.
Thanks for the summary. Great video.
To enn top frer!
It means you're a great guy, thanks man!
Thank you so much
Talking about quality and simplicity. 3.5 years old video still has huge value. 👌
In Audacity 2.4.2 there is a Macro function whereby you can add a new macro and save multiple steps together. I successfully created a new macro to do all your steps at once, apart from the initial "get noise profile". Do that step first, then select the entire track and call up the Macro command. Very useful if you use the same commands and settings all the time on your audio files.
Thanks a lot for this advice bro
Thank you
Super helpful, thanks for the tip. To confirm, you got the noise profile, started the macro recording, went through all the steps listed in the video and stopped the macro?
Great job. I was Trained by Don LaFontaine. RIP. He was a wonderful guy. Great teacher. I think he did 10,000 Commercials and 5,000 Movie Trailers? Amazing. We did Voice Overs and Read Script in his studio but, we never went through all of this. I personally had an engineer named Jon Mattox my neighbor and he was a drummer (one of the best in the world. Won several awards, contests) but, he also was a Composer of music, trailers, commercials and tv shows. He didn't have TIME any longer to assist me so here I am learning from you. This is not easy for many of us but, if we wish to work it is necessary for auditions and work sent to CLIENTS. I use to get work easily and worked for a Radio Show, Glass Talk Radio and recently things have changed. I must learn more....and keep up with the changes. Thank you Sir. James, Malibu, California
Excellent tutorial. Straight to the point without needless banter. You explained each step and why they were done and provided helpful tips along the way. Best Audacity tutorial I've seen to date. Thank you.
Thank you so much for a straightforward tutorial that a non-technical person can understand! I can’t wait to try it!
Glad you enjoyed it!
totally agree! Me too
Thaaank you! The only tutorial that didn't waste anybody's time...
Finally a concise, helpful and understandable tutorial vid. You are amazing at getting the info out there without the twaddle so many you-tubers go on with. Certainly the best lesson I ever watched on tech stuff that I normally have to wade through on UA-cam ! Thank you so much Serge! You’re a legend!
Exactly! Short, concise, to the point! Thank you!
THANK YOU! I'm completely new at this, but really want to make it work. Your video is the first one that is full of helpful information, but also have it be clear and concise (making it easy to understand and execute). Thanks you so much
wow, the effects is like you just bought a 10,000 dollar mic and plugged it in...thanks a million serge..definitely deserve two thumbs up
Thanks for the suggestions on using compressor and limiter! I had played with the compressor briefly but had not worked out the most ideal settings. One counterpoint: I would NOT recommend the default Noise Reduction setting of -12dB, except as a last resort. It seems to introduce high frequency artifacts similar to those heard in a low-bit rate source. If I'm not mistaken, I'm hearing them in your voiceover on this video. After experimenting with the noise reduction a fair bit, I've cut back to 6dB max, or even 3dB if I had the luxury of a quiet room during the recording.
There are so many vids out there on this and this is by far the best! Straightforward and gives the best results
Very concise and useful info! Since I do audiobooks, I tend to use RMS Normalize instead of Compression and Normalize, although it means running Noise Reduction twice. Finish with the ACX Analyze to make sure it all is within spec, or adjust if necessary.
Just WOW !!! Can't get better than this. Straight to the point, simple to understand and 100% results ! Thanks a ton.
I keep coming back to this video as a guide for mixing my voice-overs. It's a great guide. Thanks!
As someone who is new to this tech I really appreciate your suggestions and that you tell us and show us how to do all of it! It is so helpful!
Thank you for your concise advice, which corresponds to what a few years of tweaking have taught me. The "compressor" section is most valuable - Tim.
I always had trouble with audacity for years, especially now when I finally got on par recording setup on my chromebook, I can finally see how I can use this for my work and many more future work.
Best Tutorial video I've seen so far! finally someone who just gets to the point with out wasting my time. Great work dude
My brilliant FCPX teacher! This tutorial on Audacity was straight to the point and short.
Thank you Serge!
Wow man, this is the best short tutorial I've seen on Audacity! Iv'e been recording VO for my kid, but never happy with the output...these simple 5 steps were game-changing! Thanks for this!
This is awesome man! I didn't realise what I was missing out on before I saw this video.
Mate, thank you so much. I'm a brand new youtuber and audio is the hardest part for me to fix at this point in time. You have expedited the process by at least 3 months from this video. Liked and subscribed and a big fat thank you.
I love that you added the before and after at the end so that we could see the difference! I was so hoping you would and you did!
Wow I was pretty suprised. I normally use my mixer to add bass to make my mic sound better but it just made it more sensitive to low sound witch made it clip easily but now with audacity and thanks to your help, my audio recordings sound a lot more better (and I mean A LOT, like from cheap to studio). Thanks a lot
Hi Serge! I wonder if you could re-do this same video using the latest techniques and plug-ins? It's been 5 years and now Audacity is 3.2.4. I would also know if you could make one for recovering older tape audio (that in my case have irreplaceable lectures from scholars) that, of course, have a hissing sound, some clicks and odd noises here and there. Thank you so much for your work.
In Audacity 2.3.3, the Equalization effect has been replaced by two new effects:
Filter Curve: An FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) filter, similar to "Draw" mode in the old Equalization effect.
Graphic EQ: A graphic equalizer, similar to the "Graphic" mode in the old Equalization effect.
The old Equalization effect is no longer available.
Note that in the new effects, the preset curves are now accessed via the "Manage" button, in "Factory Presets".
eh bro I've saved this vid and have used it many times over the last year. I bookmarked it and use it when I have to edit audio for a podcast or a voiceover for a vid. super appreciate this vid, i know my audio quality isn't perfect but this gets me like 90% of the way there with no fuss. Thanks a lot
Thank you for putting that up. I'm an Audacity/Recording newbie and found it really helpful.
You won me over at the 2 second intro !! Very informative with no messing around. Straight to the point and by God it worked !! This should be a tutorial on how to do a tutorial. Thankyou very much indeed kind sir !! You taught an old dog new tricks. Now I sound as sexy as I feel for a 42 year old man xD well I will in future videos at least
Thank you. I use a plug in called YOU WA SHOCK in place of Compressor. I don't if it is appropriate to ignore Compressor but the plug in is great
This is the best tutorial so far ,, simple and to the point,
You know what happens? Do you know what happens when you make a really good and helpful video? Huh?
YOU JUST MADE THE PLAYLIST!
OneManCast cringe
Y2J
@@maravillas No u.
Do see what happens Larry?
Huge thanks for your clear and concise guidance with this program. For non-english speakers your attention to detail, use of windows, and above slow and clear speaking voice are particularly appreciated.
It's so nice to find an Audacity tutorial with good quality audio!
Thank you so much. Had a humming voice from my soft box lights that was bothering me. Much better now. Will come back to this tutorial in the future.
This is a Brilliant breakdown! Nice,simple definitions/descriptions for everything. Clear and everything worked really smoothly! I'm working on being a Audiobook Producer and now that I have the equipment, my homemade whisper room and this great editing breakdown, I feel so much more confident! TYSM! I'm very grateful and wish you all the creative vibes! Be Well!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for the tutorial! Would you have tips for what EQ to use for a female soprano voice?
I used to do Noise Reduction and Compressor effects for my voiceovers...Limiter,EQ,Normalise etc I used for my music recordings,...but after watching your video, i will try using those for voiceovers too...thanks!
Very nice explanation. I tried all the settings you suggested and audio quality increased significantly.
How I do it:
1. Go to Generate and select Noise (white noise) and get the Noise Profile of that Clip
2. Use Noise Reduction on the voice over
3. Compressor
4. EQ (Increase Treble by 3 decibels at Max)
(It's ok if the buzzing sound is loud just use Noise Gate)
Then it's all down to Normalizing and Limiting, you first Normalize and then Limit (-10db) depending on how flat you want your levels to be, by doing this. You bring down the louder parts of your audio and bring up the quiet parts, so you can end up having a very controlled audio file,
You may repeat the Normalizing and Limiting depending on how unbalanced your audio is, this is just my preference though.
these settings are absolutely awesome. I don't have the best microphones & this made it 10x better!
EXCELLENT!!!!! Thank you so much for making this VERY immportant step easy to understand!!
I watch a lot of tutorials and this is up there with the best.
Finally a useful video, my search lead me to other videos usually over 20 minutes long to cover only one or maybe two of the steps you manage to fit into 6 minutes.
This tutorial is a 12/10 would like again.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
hey i remeber u
From where?
Thanks for taking the time to post this video about Audacity for us narrators :) out there.
thank you, i did some of this before on other youtube videos, but his one made me 100% ready start posting my reviews!
Thanks for the video Serge!! I spent too many hours doing research before finding this gem!!
Thanks a lot man...there are lots of bad videos related to this topic...i followed urs and my voice is 100 times better now
Great video, easy to follow, explains everything, short, concise... have I praised you enough?
Thanks, I've been using Audacity for a year or two but this was like an open sesame to all the ways i could have been using it properly!
I don't usually leave comments on videos, but your short tutorial here literally solved a headache of finding answers regarding these EXACT function's purposes. You've earned a subscriber in me!
If Serge or anyone can answer, when is it subjectively advised to apply the bass and/or treble boost to voice over recordings?
Totally improved the vocals I had to edit for learning content. such an amazing and quick way to improve the overall quality of the sound. thank you for the very specific direction in your video.
Ace video! With the Blue Yeti:
1) what do you have the gain set to?
2) do you use a pop filter
3) how far from the pop filter (or microphone if you don't use a pop filter) do you speak
4) do you just record straight into Audacity or do you send the audio through a Voicemeeter profile or similar?
@Serge M , Ton of thanks for this amazing tips.
Can you make separate videos for each topic discussion ? also please show the steps for a beginner to record vocal and guitar & its mixing. That would really be helpful..
Love from Kolkata (India)
Thank you Serge, this is my go to video for voice overs
Great information. Explaining what each step actually does to your audio in layman's terms is the most valuable information that can be provided. I personally do my Equalizer right after Noise Reduction, but to each their own, so long as Normalize is the last step.
Agreed about the normalize step. I'd love to hear about your Audacity workflow. Always open to learnign and trying different things
So helpful! If you guys can't find the equalization in the drop-down menu, it's the filter curve :)
Great advices Serge. You helped me improve my sound
This will help me in my VO journey! Thanks, my man!!
Fantastic video and well put together and very easy to follow. I'm finally getting back into voice over (had a 2 year hiatus because life happens). I was looking at my saved chain to automate the process and I had all the settings you indicated on your video. Some of the settings were a little different from yours but I changed it all to your settings. The only one I had that you didn't is Noise Gate. Do I even need it?
Thank you very much! Been looking for this kind of video everywhere!
Your video is excellent while your speech was a little fast but your description under video is just invaluable for people non native english speakers like me, you are so smart man, thank you so much and god bless you.
I've looked at a lot of video on this, and yours was the only one that got me to pass. thank you!
Thank you so much about this!! Have a great day everyone!
Where have you been Serge?? now i need to see what other topics you've sensibly condensed...(.enough of those time consuming fluff and ego filled tutorials ) SERGE .....you the MAN!
Especially since I'm just starting out this is really helpful with no extra fluff.
Thank, mate. Have a deadline on Sunday and this saved me a lot of headache. Too many social media producers are expecting video editors to fix their horrible audio and it's insane.
These videos are wonderful and so helpful to starters and sometimes even professionals.
Great tip Serge. Quick and simple
Thank you Serge, your voice very crisp and clear
Serge THANK YOU! I don't know how I missed this one. Just applied the settings on a project, excepted the equalizer 9 a bit too much IMO), and this is awesome.
A you do a video with the recent update (3.6.1) of Audacity?? Would be very helpful, it’s a little different now for compressor and limiter filter.
Thank you!
Thank you. I found this very helpful. I recently took over recording the voice over for a popular UA-cam channel and I constantly get comments about my microphone. This will definitely help me eliminate those negative comments.
What channel?
@@Serge1913 Chris Cross. UA-cam memes
Hello, I love this video. I've been using Audacity for a week and found some great videos, but I am able to follow your steps while working on the audio. You speak so clearly and at the right pace and get right to the point.
Thank you for your thorough tutorial. Could you answer whether or not the Levelator app would be needed after I follow your steps. I like the results I receive with following your video, yet I want to know if there are more steps involved in editing/mastering audio in Audacity. Perhaps, you have additional videos on Audacity? Thank you, again.
Interesting. I apply some of these steps, but not all. I also choose the Normalization function first, before applying any type of Compressor (I'm using the Amplitude effect to do this, not the Compressor). My last step is the Limiter. My audiobooks always pass ACX checks, but I know my sound can use improvement. There's something I'm not doing right and it shows up in the final production. As I mentioned, it passes the ACX Check as well as 2nd Opinion. BUT, I am not totally satisfied with it. SOOO, perhaps it's time to try something new. I appreciate this video and I'm going to play around with some completed files here to see what I come up with.
Wow such a great video
All five steps were vivid and easy to understand.
Your underrated channel just got a new sub👌🏾
Awesome, thank you!
Thanks a lot man. My voice quality improves after applying those effects. Great video!
You are GREAT MAN !! Thank you for your priceless help!
This took my recordings to the next level. Many thanks!
geat video, thnxs what software you use to recorde videos to youtube
Such a good video, most tutorials just show the steps but you also explained the why and that is what i look for in tutorials. Great job!
I find it helps a lot when people know why they are doing what they’re doing
I've used Audacity for more than 5 years, so I have a good amount of experience using it. I don't use it everyday, so I am no expert in it, so I'd put myself at intermediate level.
I did know about Noise reduction and this helps so, so much. I did test what happens if you use noise reduction twice and it muffles my voice overs, so DO NOT apply this twice, only once.
I have used Amplify before, and I use this for somewhat quiet voiceovers/sound effects. Because sometimes putting the gain on my microphone picks up background noise or saliva clicks way more easily.
I did know and tried out equalizer in the past, and I do not like this effect, since it muffles my audio. I have not found a good use for this even after 5 years of using audacity.
One effect I've used is Reverb. Most people probably don't use this, but I use it for thought voice overs.
Oh, I forgot about normalize. I should try that sometime.
Serge, a thousand thank you's to you for such a great tutorial.... and to Robert for typing up the notes ......and to Nitehook for explaining how to use the new Audacity settings that replaced Equalizer (Filter Curve and Graphic Equalizer) see below in comments
Awesome, watched the video, done the editing and it was superb. All this took me just 30 minutes for the first time. You saved a lot of my time :)
worked a treat for me, thankyou so much. I was worried my planned podcast was going to sound amateurish but it's much better now.
Happy to help!
This video was crazygud!
I took that exact 6 minutes and the result is REALLY great!
Huge thanks!
Thank you so much! I, Hatty, use this in every single video I make now! A true life saver! (well, Earsaver)
I think I just learned about this this morning, but you can look at the spectrum analysis of the clip in the analyze menu and use that to help you with what you need to do with the filter eq curve.
Straight to the point and really helpful
A really clear, methodical and well explained tutorial: thank you!
thank you so much for this video, as a youtube I can't tell you enough how helpful something like this is. especially with free software!
Such an easy-to-understand video, great job! Other tutorials are just too long for me and hard to understand
I am always amazed at how much I learn from you. Whenever I need to find out how to do something, you have the answer. Many thanks, Serge.
Happy to help!
These tips made my voiceover so much better. Thank you!!
Just got into voiceover work recently, so this is a Godsend. Thank you so much for posting such a clear explanation.
Thank you so much! The noise reduction alone made a huge difference.
Would you be interested in seeing more Audacity tutorials?
@@Serge1913 Yes, please. Thanks.
Just bought a yeti and I was looking for a video like this. Great stuff!! thanks bunches
Thank you! The Bass and Treble Boost were exactly what I needed!
Thank you for the clear explaination of what each effect does. I have a much better understanding now of the purpose for the Compressor and Limiter!