5 STEPS to Improve Your VOICEOVER in Audacity
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 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.
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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?
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
This is awesome man! I didn't realise what I was missing out on before I saw this video.
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?
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
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".
Talking about quality and simplicity. 3.5 years old video still has huge value. 👌
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.
You should do a video about common sense, aimed to other tutorial youtubers, when i look instruction in a video im looking something like yours, cut to the chase, thanks
Oh for the love of god, this Audacity update has made it so I can't find my usual settings anymore 🤣🤣
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.
Thank you for putting that up. I'm an Audacity/Recording newbie and found it really helpful.
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.
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
Best Tutorial video I've seen so far! finally someone who just gets to the point with out wasting my time. Great work dude
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.
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
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.
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
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?
You've just solved my hiss problem, cheers...
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?
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!
Thaaank you! The only tutorial that didn't waste anybody's time...
Finally I watched good video and easy to use audacity thanks
Serge, I don't see the Equalizer effect on my audacity
I found out it's been replaced by "filter curve" and "graphic EQ" below "fade out" so no worries
@@damienlemongolien5303 thnx.
@@PradeepKumar-tq4ev my pleasure sir
I keep coming back to this video as a guide for mixing my voice-overs. It's a great guide. Thanks!
Me dont have Equalizer Effect Plugins. Please help me how
There are so many vids out there on this and this is by far the best! Straightforward and gives the best results
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!
@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)
You should show us the before and after every effect applied
This is amazing, out of all how to's you outweigh everyone! Thank you so much for this, its exactly what im looking for my voiceovers
My brilliant FCPX teacher! This tutorial on Audacity was straight to the point and short.
Thank you Serge!
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.
dear sir, i have been using audacity for the last 7-8 years. i have recently updated it to version 3.1.2. i have been using karaoke tracks available in you tube and other channels and record instrumental songs played in my key board and upload to my channel in you tube. i have been playing the instrumental tune in the same pitch of the karaoke track. But for the last 2-3 days, audacity is recording my instrumental track up by 2 pitches than the actual pitch in which i play the tone. i am not able to understand why it is doing it. My audacity project rate (Hz) is 44100 and i changed it to 44800 but in vein.... please help me how to enable audacity to record in the pitch which i play my key board and not in different pitch.....
There is no equalizer option on my audicity....
Just WOW !!! Can't get better than this. Straight to the point, simple to understand and 100% results ! Thanks a ton.
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
Thanks Serge! Wish someone as good as you could teach After Effects too.
Do you think these steps are effective for musical vocals/ singing as well?
yep, they are
I would think you would want to do the equalizer first so that you are reducing and increasing the key frequencies before you start applying gain amplification and reduction that was you aren't basing your gain changes on frequencies which are later going to be removed.
Yoooo! I only knew about noise reduction, but this is a big boost!
Thank you :)
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.
I just realized your video shows me turning the volume up on the left side, but not the right :/. It messed up my last youtube video. Keep that in mind people! If you up the volume in the left, up the volume in the right too! 04:00
THANK YOU serge for valuable information, this helps me lot in my audio editing :)
A really clear, methodical and well explained tutorial: thank you!
I now worship the ground you walk on. :D This video is a game-changer. Thank you!
Thanks for the tutorial! Would you have tips for what EQ to use for a female soprano voice?
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 :)
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.
Is there a de-esser available? That’s usually the thing that annoys me the most. Thanks.
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
You have a mac, I have windows 10, are the buttons ..... using the same , cut , paste etc ?
For a bit brittle voice like mine, treble boost was unnecessary. Bass boost was much needed, tho.
Equalization is very unique to each voice. Glad you figured out what works for you!
Serge, this is incredibly helpful. Thank you so much. You have such a great talent in making training videos.
Thank you! Would you be interested in seeing more audacity tutorials?
@@Serge1913 Absolutely, yes sir! I recently switched over from using tascam DR-40 to connecting to small pre-amp and connecting directly into macbook -- and recording with Audacity. I then bring .wav into FCPX and add Logic limiter and Fat EQ -- but not totally happy with the quality or workflow. I'd love to be able to use more of the Audacity best practices, especially when recording external sound outside on location (not perfect studio setup) and bringing that into Audacity for example. I used Audacity for my studio setup in this video here and am not completely happy with the sound: th-cam.com/video/-9fEVVLak_8/w-d-xo.html. Anyhow, thanks for the response and keep making great videos, you ROCK!
Really nice, I’ll definitely apply these settings for my voiceover tomorrow. Subscribed the channel
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
I have a voice that sounds like a sparrow being strangled in the backyard. The adjustments make a big difference, not quite Morgan Freeman, but enough.
Hie. I'm recordin using my laptop and a usb mic with the audacity software. After recording, I noticed that the vocals are in front of the beat. As in they are not flowing as they are supposed to. How do I fix that?
Great video.
How to import video file into audacity?
And after changes how to merge new audio to the video?
Please help me in this regards.
Thank you in advance.
PSA: In current versions of Audacity, the Equalizer effect has been renamed Filter Curve.
in germany we would say "ehrenmann"
geat video, thnxs what software you use to recorde videos to youtube
On that limiter section, (step three) you must select both channels to -4 (or your choice) if you have a stereo track. Otherwise it will only effect the left channel.
@Del Squared - دل تربيع 1. Select some audio
2. Open limiter
3. Then on "input gain" set both of those to the same number. I am using 6.
I think in the video only one channel was shown being adjusted. You have to do them both for stereo
a very useful tip
Thank you for this video. I just applied this setting as you thought here and my audio sounds better than my usual settings. Thank you.
What exact bit depth or khz do you use? 16 bit 44 or 48, 24 bit 44 or 48, or what? It seems that most professional audio is recorded at 48 khz, at 16 bit, but what would be the best standard rate to use for movies, voice overs, and other professional applications? Anyone? Thanks...SBN RESONATE
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!
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 TH-cam ! Thank you so much Serge! You’re a legend!
Exactly! Short, concise, to the point! Thank you!
I can't seem to find the Compressor effect anymore.
It helped for my videos thanks buddy
A good time I learned a long time ago, is to always wait a least 6 seconds after you press record and before you start speaking. This will help you get a better noise profile, so that you can more easily remove it later. :D
I have a question I just got a TONAR mic to help me with VAing on Audacity, however, the wavelengths of my audio recordings are suuuuuper small like smaller than the ending wavelength of your example piece and they weren't like that before. What's exactly causing this and how can I fix it?
Compressor > Limiter Filter > Normalize
(for personal use, pls ignore me :3)
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!
guys for the love of god, on the compressor part have the "make up gain for 0db after compressing" box checked. If you want it louder than that have the "compress based on peaks" checked.
Thanks. My voice over BEFORE and AFTER sounds a lot different. Now I've got my nice deep radio announcer voice over i was after
Thanks for this video, but I wonder if you could help me. Sometimes when I record voiceover, the recording needle just stops on the track while I'm still speaking. It's not until I finish speaking when I find that my entire script was not recorded. Do you know what this could be?
Video is still relevent in 2022. Thanks a lot !!
Thank you for this GREAT tutorial Serge! I got my first offer to narrate an audiobook and this has been very helpful!!!!
Such an easy-to-understand video, great job! Other tutorials are just too long for me and hard to understand
Thanks for the concise and great instructions! Understandable. Question: Does Audacity have any feature to control the voice vibrato? Any suggestions?
move to fl studio
Is anyone else's audacity missing the equalisation option? Does it have a different name?
Equalization has been removed from Audacity, superseded by the two new effects:
Filter Curve - uses drawn curves for the equalization
Graphic EQ - users sliders for the equalization (similar to hardware graphic equalizers)
Prabhat mohan singh ah thanks man!
This is the best tutorial so far ,, simple and to the point,
vert nice bro. bro. make a new video please new Ver Audacity Equalization not available.
Thank you very ,much for this tutorial. It's very helpful for my video.
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.
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
Nice tutorial video !! You actually sound a lot like Mr. Garrison from South Park.
He's just very Canadian. XD
excellent video . top notch .as others have stated simple,quick and straight to the point o and it makes a big difference to my voice over on my channel . kudos to you
very easy and understandable explanation Thaks from INDIA
Step One: Don't use Audacity.
Okay this is quite old. But I have to say for my ears the sound ist quite bad. Especially the "s"es sounds very harsh. So what we do about it? Beeing more carefully with the compressor and wiht boosting the highs? Using an de-esser?
How do you do the before and after feature? thx Not a single video on it!
Equalization has been removed from Audacity 2020
For voice overs, what is the best process after record? Is it limiter and then normalize, and then save audio?
Normalize should be your last step
@@Serge1913 Hey Serge, I followed you instruction and it worked great, thanks! However, after normalizing, I noticed the background noise from my central air comes back (after already doing a noise reduction). I did the noise reduction again after the Normalize step, and it seemed to fix it and background noise is better. Is this okay for the last step? Why does the noise come back after applying Normalize?
For some reason once i'm done doing these steps, my left side (ear) gets slightly more pronounced. Any idea why?
Same problem here!
One the audio track that you've recorded, on the far left where all the plus and minus options are you can just go down to the L and R and play around with that until it sounds like the audio is in the middle. That's what worked for me anyways :D Hope this helped at all
@@Lulthargic Yeah, that's what I ended up doing in the end!
I have to wonder why people put tutorials for audio programs on y/t, yet the audio in their video is far less than to be desired.