My studio setup so far

Paul Underwood · Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008, 21:54 (GMT) Post subject: My studio setup so far

Hi, all. I'm very new to voiceover, and am working on optimizing my existing music demo studio with that in mind. I'd like a critique of what the strong/weak points in this signal chain might be, and how to improve it:

Microphone: Behringer B-1 or Yamaha M-106
Mixer: Behringer Eurorack UB1204-FX Pro
Sound card: M-Audio Delta 410
PC: Pentium 4 2.66GHz, 1GB RAM
Software: Audigy, Goldwave, n-Track

I'm newly unemployed, thanks to outsourcing, and haven't a lot of spare cash, but could tear some loose for any egregious problems.

As a secondary question, since I have a laptop as well as a PC, should I be considering using USB for recording onto that (significantly quieter) platform, or putting some effort into quieting down the PC?

Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

Give your demos a good listen and see if you think anything is glaringly wrong with them. Or post them here and we'll tell you.

Paul Underwood · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008, 02:17 (GMT) Post subject:

Thanks, Chris. Here's a sample, recorded from a sample script. There's no kind of post-processing done on it, and I'm sure the performance could be critiqued, but what I really care about for this thread is the technical quality of the recording...fire at will (whoever he is).

Frank Frederick · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 29 Dec 2006 Posts: 142

Paul,

I am not sure you are going to like what I have to say, but do not take this personally....

I am not going into the presentation factors, just the quality of the recording; and there are some issues you might consider making better.

The overall quality is good, however, I hear a low level buzz in the spaces between sentences (this may be florescent lighting).

I also hear what must have been a TV or radio in the background (maybe another room???). Granted, these are very, very low - but are some things which I noticed.

Although you stated you did NO processing - the closer inspection reveals you must have ducked or brought down the breaths (in the background I hear coughing, twice).

I listen on some higher-end equipment, run the waveform through a Spectrum Analyzer, use a "noise reduction" tool; I listen to only the noise while cranking up the background more than 400%.

The overall audio waveform level is also a bit low, showing between -9 to -6 db.

O.K., that is it from this point. You have a bit of work to do, but overall the recording chain is acceptable for "broadcast quality".

Good luck and Toodles

Frank Frederick
"The Voice" tm

Paul Underwood · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008, 03:06 (GMT) Post subject:

Thanks, Frank, that's exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for, and you've gone to a great deal more trouble than I expected to give it.

As for the low-level buzz, I think that's my PC's fan. And upon reflection, you're quite right, I DID try to limit the background noise using a compression plug-in (I remember having a memory...). I'll have to listen again to catch the other background noise you mention; I'm sure it's there, as I'm in a surprisingly high-noise environment for a house in the country. I'm trying to get to the point where I can make my recordings as technically clean as possible (and I hope commercially viable from that aspect), while honing my performance skills.

So I'll work on getting the level hotter, and the environment quieter.

Thanks again for your time and effort!