@@curtisjudd try out the app called "icue" on iPad made by prompter people. You can change the text to centered and use a magic mouse to pause the scroll to make it more intuitive. Works awesome for my corporate shoots
Curtis, you're videos are so informative. I hope one day you have a video or few videos that demonstrates devices like the Scarlett solo 3rd gen and say the Elgato Wave XLR when using the XLR to headphone out for connecting to camera AUX jack or something. My issue is for clean audio the Shure MV7 using this method without an interface device (USB to PC and headphone out) is not overly clean sound, there is some noticeable hiss when someone like myself has the mic 1 foot away in order to keep it out of the scene when recording.
Hi Not Bios, That's going to be the trick with dynamic microphones like the MV7. You really have to work in more closely, they just do not do well at more than about 6 inches from the mouth. Sorry about that. 😞
@@curtisjudd Reasonable information... I'll have to pull the mic closer. Still think people would enjoy your take with the devices compared if you get the chance. Being that the Wave XLR is a hot new product right now should be good for viewership. Thank you for your response. Have yourself a wonderful week Curtis... From Eric.
@@curtisjudd One thing I like about your reviews is how detailed you are and with your multiple testing devices. My iRig Mic Video review I did a year ago was inspired by you.
Hi Curtis, why did you normalize to -17 lufs? I have been normalizing to -23 lufs based on one of your older videos. Thanks again for all of this great content.
Hi Patrick - because in this case, the video is destined for online. If I were loudness normalizing for European TV, I'd target -23 LUFS. In some of my microphone review videos, I target -23 LUFS only because that allows me to not do any other processing. For web/online, I generally recommend -16 to -17 LUFS.
LIFE SAVER Edit: So I'm trying to use the multiband compressor effect in Davinci. The thing is the Threshold settings dont seem to affect anything, no matter how high or low I set them. The graph only starts showing levels getting compressed when i change the Limit settings, but im pretty sure that a different function from compression.
I’d stick with the dynamics control instead, which are a little simpler and set it up with the same settings we show here. Also, make sure the compressor is turned on. 👍
I've used your loudness normalization settings in Premiere Pro for EVER now. Audio is everything...you can have the most epic, most important video ever, but if people can't hear you, it's irrelevant. 👍
My program Mixcraft 9 Pro seems to be the only one that has a compressor it seems & haven't even thought of using it before, gave this a re watch. Those peaks kill me at times (especially when bumping the mic). RX8 allows me to normalize by selecting sections as a quick dirty work around. I'm trying to learn DaVinci Resolve... When I get back to work (Laid off) I may look at your courses such as Fairlight Fundamentals. I can not see your promo video; it refuses to play at this time. BTW I've tested the Elgato Wave XLR now, has loud preamps built in for a little unit and the clip guard is mighty good but has a lot of limitations hardware wise.
Hey Curtis, I've been using the loudness normalization effect for a while with your settings, but just realized that today it made my export mono instead of stereo. I exported two versions, one with the effect and one without, both set to stereo with no other differences. I'm in Premiere Pro 2023. Any thoughts?
Great tutorial but normally I just use Auphonic and it will normalize the volume and loudness for me, would you do a review on this ? Am I missing something if I just use Auphonic?
I know! You are really making two videos here, one on compression for dialogue and another as part of the next video, which will be on teleprompters! The compression for stubborn video editors was excellent. Also, you need to put the card in for the reference link at 0:34.
Hi Curtis, Great video as always. I edit in FCPx and always add a compressor but can you explain the difference between Input Gain, Make Up Gain and Output Gain please. I'm confused as to exactly what these controls mean and do to the audio. Thanks.
Gain is amplification. Input gain is amplification applied to the audio before it goes into the compressor. Make-up gain or output gain are the same thing - amplification applied to the audio after it is compressed.
@@curtisjudd thanks Curtis. Seems obvious I know but I wasn't entirely sure of the relationship between gain applied before compressing and gain applied after. Thanks again for your excellent videos. Making the mystery of audio that bit more accessible and understandable.
Curtis, great video. I have a question, maybe you can help. I am using following set for my podcasts as well as live streaming (Shure SM7b and Mixpre-6). I would like to add audio compressor (harware) to my set. Will something like Golden Age Project Comp-3A work ? Or maybe is better to buy rodecaster pro. Same cost.
Hi Sebastian, The MixPre's limiter is pretty nice so I'd probably just stick with that. But if you do need to add a compressor, there are a few options. When streaming or recording to a DAW, you could use software plugin compressors. There are a lot of options and most recording apps include at least one. You could use something like the Golden Age Project work, but that really relies on an insert/return signal path which isn't super straightforward with the MixPre. A RODECaster is another option (though it does not supply enough gain for an SM7B on its own for livestreams). You might consider something like the dbx286S which you could then feed the output of that into your MixPre: th-cam.com/video/OweAmSJ_Ed0/w-d-xo.html
Hey Curtis! I recently got a zoom f8n but the rest of my budget has only allowed for me to pickup a Samson CO2 for indoor dialogue. However it seems I have to crank the gain in order to get a decent signal when booming from overhead. This obviously is introducing a slight hiss. Do you have any tips for this?
That is probably mostly self-noise from the microphone. For now, you’ll probably need to apply noise reduction in post. In the long run, a better microphone will solve that nicely.
I would like to thank you for the videos and I follow you and your wonderful channel. I have a question and I hope for an answer from you. What is the proportion of room tone for dialogue. If the dialogue in scenes -18 and -10, what should the tone of the room be? I know that every scene has its own circumstances, but I want to take some information about the tone of the room. With thanks
Hi Muataz, there aren’t specific targets for room tone. I just aim to have it where it makes sense for the particular video or film. If I don’t want it to be distracting, I generally like it to sit at -60dB RMS max or lower.
Thank you very much, Mr. Curtis. I enjoy every video you make. Thank you for all the valuable and accurate information you provide on your channel. And always waiting for more 😊
Hi Jordan, at work we use Premiere, for my TH-cam videos, I mainly use Final Cut Pro X. I've dabbled with Resolve, but got burned trying to mix a short film with 25+ audio tracks in Fairlight which crashed about every 15 minutes. Seems like Fairlight needs a bit more work, unless you only have a small handful of audio tracks.
@@curtisjudd sounds like that might have been in resolve 15? They made the ram allocation better but you need a solid 64gb of ddr4 to get stable performance.
It was version 17 and I have 96GB of RAM in my Mac Pro. I think it has to do with track counts. It ran fine before the track count jumped up above 20 which is pretty typical for a narrative film.
Hey Curtis - Another really worthwhile tutorial for so many. Thank you so much. So compress then normalize? Cut just the peaks and then reduce overall gain mountains and then add makeup gain? Seems like something different in your presentation on this one today. Did you change your setup? Seems like you were reading with your eyes a bit- I only noticed because you are so good at reading copy that I normally can never tell if you have it scripted or you are just talking from experience, off the cuff. Or both. Anyway, I am going to save this one under my favorites to refer to later - on point from start to finish. Thanks again.
Hi Jim, You got that right - compress and then normalize (add make-up gain is doing the same thing, though less precisely). Yes - at the suggestion of many and for my own curiosity, I tried using a teleprompter for the first time in probably 6 or 7 years. First lesson I learned is that it isn't going to work unless I'm positioned a lot farther from the camera so that my eyes don't have to track through each line like they did here.
@@curtisjudd Only noticed because I am working on something to upload as well. I have tried all kinds of methods and not happy with any of them as of yet. Doing color grading stuff. I think that I am going to just do it live to file, tried it this morning and was the closest I have come to being okay with it. Is it normal to hear yourself talking and think that you sound drunk? Anyway battle through. Thanks Curtis - stay well.
@@curtisjudd Larger font size could help with the eye tracking, also. Just having a few words per line seems to help the people I have on camera. Once you get the setup you mentioned in the other comment it will also be less distracting because you'll be looking into the camera.
Hey Curtis as always great video. I would love your thoughts about the Waves content creator audio toolkit plugins more so on the Greg Wells Voice Centric plugin. If you haven’t heard anything about it it’s pretty much a plug-in that will help with compression and loudness of your voice, it would be great if you can review the tool kit.
I’ve a question when I master in ozone 9 should I play the audio in high lvl or low lvl so I can compress it equally. In other words if some of my audio is in -6db lvl and some are in -12db which area should I play the audio in order to compress to the same lvl without peaking.
This may be more of a mixing problem - I'd try to level those up a bit first so that they sound - to your ears - that they're at the same level. If there's still a difference, you're just trying to manage the higher amplitude peaks.
Hi Curtis. I use the compressor in Nectar 2 through RX7 like some of your old videos. I liked the simplicity of that trick of lining up the top of the window to show the peaks as a good threshold guide. Is Nectar 3 a worthy upgrade for compression or would you recommend something else to use with rx7 or rx8?
Great tutorial, Curtis. If I am sending the final track through a loudness normalizer to reach -16 LUFS, do you also recommend using makeup gain on the compressor step or does that become unnecessary?
@@curtisjudd Curtis, I agree that your “live“ presentations come across much better than when you use a Teleprompter, but like anything else, we improve with practice. I thank you would find your groove using a Teleprompter if you practice with it enough.
Don’t worry soon LF is going to have EQ and other important audio related stuffs. So should not be a hassle. As for editing audio on iPad Ferrite is a great app to do audio related stuff. I do all my audio work in Ferrite and edit videos on LF.
@@curtisjudd don't get me wrong it's an awesome video as usual! i was just surprised and actually meant it as in "you aren't in this video" cause it looked more like readig something distinctly below the camera. i know nothing about teleprompters, but there must be a technical solution e.g. constricting the format to a 1:1/4:3 and setting the text higher/lens lower behind the prompter?
I am so glad you said that! You should feel dirty! You are the perfect candidate to use a proper loudness normalization workflow like we cover in the other video linked. 😉
Some people: “Curtis, why don’t you use a teleprompter?”
Me: “This video demonstrates why 🙃”
I thought that looked unusual for you but it was just a strong suspicion a teleprompter was in use until I read this pinned comment :)
@@aguy556 Trust your instincts. 😉
First tip: You need to be farther from the camera/prompter so that you don't get the eyes tracking effect.
@@curtisjudd try out the app called "icue" on iPad made by prompter people. You can change the text to centered and use a magic mouse to pause the scroll to make it more intuitive. Works awesome for my corporate shoots
@@gibblsworthiscool Will do, thanks for the tip, Jordan!
Just started Webflow, I thought I recognized this voice, now I know why their videos sound so great :) Apparently everybody I follow works together.
👍
I've never quite had a handle on this. It's like you made this video just for me. Thank you!
👍
I always enjoy your simple, direct and effective presentations. Thanks Curtis.
Thanks Jayme.
Thanks Curtis, love to discover a fellow Webflow tutorial lover, they’re the best.
👍
Curtis, you are THE person to go to for audio. Thanks so much for your time! Off to see the other video.
Thanks Michael!
I've been looking for a video like this for yeeeears!
Thanks Curtis, for this and for all the other ones, all of them very helpful
Thanks Stefano!
I always enjoy your instructional videos Curtis, thanks for sharing this info!
Thanks Neil.
Man. Audio is BRUTAL. This certainly helps a ton but I always feel like I'm guessing.
Happy to hear it helps!
Curtis, you're videos are so informative. I hope one day you have a video or few videos that demonstrates devices like the Scarlett solo 3rd gen and say the Elgato Wave XLR when using the XLR to headphone out for connecting to camera AUX jack or something. My issue is for clean audio the Shure MV7 using this method without an interface device (USB to PC and headphone out) is not overly clean sound, there is some noticeable hiss when someone like myself has the mic 1 foot away in order to keep it out of the scene when recording.
Hi Not Bios, That's going to be the trick with dynamic microphones like the MV7. You really have to work in more closely, they just do not do well at more than about 6 inches from the mouth. Sorry about that. 😞
@@curtisjudd Reasonable information... I'll have to pull the mic closer. Still think people would enjoy your take with the devices compared if you get the chance. Being that the Wave XLR is a hot new product right now should be good for viewership. Thank you for your response. Have yourself a wonderful week Curtis... From Eric.
@@curtisjudd One thing I like about your reviews is how detailed you are and with your multiple testing devices. My iRig Mic Video review I did a year ago was inspired by you.
@@sparketech 👍
Hi Curtis, why did you normalize to -17 lufs? I have been normalizing to -23 lufs based on one of your older videos. Thanks again for all of this great content.
Hi Patrick - because in this case, the video is destined for online. If I were loudness normalizing for European TV, I'd target -23 LUFS. In some of my microphone review videos, I target -23 LUFS only because that allows me to not do any other processing. For web/online, I generally recommend -16 to -17 LUFS.
@@curtisjudd Thanks Curtis, I really appreciate the reply. As someone new to creating online content, I can't tell you how useful I find your channel.
I really needed this video. Thank you so much. Love your content.
Thanks Patrick. Happy editing!
LIFE SAVER
Edit: So I'm trying to use the multiband compressor effect in Davinci. The thing is the Threshold settings dont seem to affect anything, no matter how high or low I set them. The graph only starts showing levels getting compressed when i change the Limit settings, but im pretty sure that a different function from compression.
I’d stick with the dynamics control instead, which are a little simpler and set it up with the same settings we show here. Also, make sure the compressor is turned on. 👍
Great stuff! Can’t wait to try this
Good luck!
A very welcome topic. More of basic sound techniques for non audio experts please.
Thanks Mike.
I've used your loudness normalization settings in Premiere Pro for EVER now. Audio is everything...you can have the most epic, most important video ever, but if people can't hear you, it's irrelevant. 👍
👍🎙️
My program Mixcraft 9 Pro seems to be the only one that has a compressor it seems & haven't even thought of using it before, gave this a re watch. Those peaks kill me at times (especially when bumping the mic). RX8 allows me to normalize by selecting sections as a quick dirty work around. I'm trying to learn DaVinci Resolve... When I get back to work (Laid off) I may look at your courses such as Fairlight Fundamentals. I can not see your promo video; it refuses to play at this time.
BTW I've tested the Elgato Wave XLR now, has loud preamps built in for a little unit and the clip guard is mighty good but has a lot of limitations hardware wise.
👍 Resolve has a compressor as well and is completely free.
Great info as always. Very much looking forward to your next courses (hoping for Izotope RX and Nectar!)
👍
Hey Curtis, I've been using the loudness normalization effect for a while with your settings, but just realized that today it made my export mono instead of stereo. I exported two versions, one with the effect and one without, both set to stereo with no other differences. I'm in Premiere Pro 2023. Any thoughts?
It should export as dual mono. Do you have any samples online?
"This video is for.... sound enthusiasts" Wait, that's an actual thing? You're fast winning me to the cause, Curtis!
also "soundies" - love it!
Oh yes! There is a small group of enthusiastic peeps who have a profound appreciation for sound. We call each other Soundies. 🎧
Simple and efficient, I like it!
👍
Do you consider Fairlight within DaVinci Resolve a proper DAW?
Yes, if only it didn't crash when using more than 20 tracks. But it works really well if you work with fewer tracks.
@@curtisjudd Thanks
and what would be the long, none-dirty approach?
Linked in the card as noted in the video: th-cam.com/video/lHNhxGojFRU/w-d-xo.html
Thx.
Great tutorial but normally I just use Auphonic and it will normalize the volume and loudness for me, would you do a review on this ? Am I missing something if I just use Auphonic?
Hi Isaac, I reviewed it about 6 years ago and it is definitely a viable option. I think many people don't want the round-trip work that involves.
I know! You are really making two videos here, one on compression for dialogue and another as part of the next video, which will be on teleprompters! The compression for stubborn video editors was excellent. Also, you need to put the card in for the reference link at 0:34.
Card is in place, thanks Joe.
Hi Curtis,
Great video as always. I edit in FCPx and always add a compressor but can you explain the difference between Input Gain, Make Up Gain and Output Gain please. I'm confused as to exactly what these controls mean and do to the audio.
Thanks.
Gain is amplification. Input gain is amplification applied to the audio before it goes into the compressor. Make-up gain or output gain are the same thing - amplification applied to the audio after it is compressed.
@@curtisjudd thanks Curtis. Seems obvious I know but I wasn't entirely sure of the relationship between gain applied before compressing and gain applied after.
Thanks again for your excellent videos. Making the mystery of audio that bit more accessible and understandable.
Curtis, great video. I have a question, maybe you can help. I am using following set for my podcasts as well as live streaming (Shure SM7b and Mixpre-6). I would like to add audio compressor (harware) to my set. Will something like Golden Age Project Comp-3A work ? Or maybe is better to buy rodecaster pro. Same cost.
Hi Sebastian, The MixPre's limiter is pretty nice so I'd probably just stick with that. But if you do need to add a compressor, there are a few options. When streaming or recording to a DAW, you could use software plugin compressors. There are a lot of options and most recording apps include at least one.
You could use something like the Golden Age Project work, but that really relies on an insert/return signal path which isn't super straightforward with the MixPre. A RODECaster is another option (though it does not supply enough gain for an SM7B on its own for livestreams). You might consider something like the dbx286S which you could then feed the output of that into your MixPre: th-cam.com/video/OweAmSJ_Ed0/w-d-xo.html
@@curtisjudd Thank you very much for a prompt reply!!!! I am your big fan. I love your courses.
Hey Curtis! I recently got a zoom f8n but the rest of my budget has only allowed for me to pickup a Samson CO2 for indoor dialogue. However it seems I have to crank the gain in order to get a decent signal when booming from overhead. This obviously is introducing a slight hiss. Do you have any tips for this?
That is probably mostly self-noise from the microphone. For now, you’ll probably need to apply noise reduction in post. In the long run, a better microphone will solve that nicely.
Always awesome
Thanks Russ.
I would like to thank you for the videos and I follow you and your wonderful channel. I have a question and I hope for an answer from you. What is the proportion of room tone for dialogue. If the dialogue in scenes -18 and -10, what should the tone of the room be? I know that every scene has its own circumstances, but I want to take some information about the tone of the room. With thanks
Hi Muataz, there aren’t specific targets for room tone. I just aim to have it where it makes sense for the particular video or film. If I don’t want it to be distracting, I generally like it to sit at -60dB RMS max or lower.
Thank you very much, Mr. Curtis. I enjoy every video you make. Thank you for all the valuable and accurate information you provide on your channel. And always waiting for more 😊
Is it wise to normalize a dialogue before using a compressor, in your opinion?
Generally, some compression is needed to reach the loudness targets for online audio or video, yes.
great video Curtis! Are you working primarily in Premiere or Resolve now?
Hi Jordan, at work we use Premiere, for my TH-cam videos, I mainly use Final Cut Pro X. I've dabbled with Resolve, but got burned trying to mix a short film with 25+ audio tracks in Fairlight which crashed about every 15 minutes. Seems like Fairlight needs a bit more work, unless you only have a small handful of audio tracks.
@@curtisjudd sounds like that might have been in resolve 15? They made the ram allocation better but you need a solid 64gb of ddr4 to get stable performance.
@@gibblsworthiscool Pretty sure his complaints as mentioned in other videos were recent, so not just 15.
It was version 17 and I have 96GB of RAM in my Mac Pro. I think it has to do with track counts. It ran fine before the track count jumped up above 20 which is pretty typical for a narrative film.
Hey Curtis - Another really worthwhile tutorial for so many. Thank you so much.
So compress then normalize?
Cut just the peaks and then reduce overall gain mountains and then add makeup gain?
Seems like something different in your presentation on this one today. Did you change your setup?
Seems like you were reading with your eyes a bit- I only noticed because you are so good at reading copy that I normally can never tell if you have it scripted or you are just talking from experience, off the cuff. Or both.
Anyway, I am going to save this one under my favorites to refer to later - on point from start to finish. Thanks again.
Hi Jim, You got that right - compress and then normalize (add make-up gain is doing the same thing, though less precisely). Yes - at the suggestion of many and for my own curiosity, I tried using a teleprompter for the first time in probably 6 or 7 years. First lesson I learned is that it isn't going to work unless I'm positioned a lot farther from the camera so that my eyes don't have to track through each line like they did here.
@@curtisjudd Only noticed because I am working on something to upload as well. I have tried all kinds of methods and not happy with any of them as of yet. Doing color grading stuff. I think that I am going to just do it live to file, tried it this morning and was the closest I have come to being okay with it. Is it normal to hear yourself talking and think that you sound drunk? Anyway battle through. Thanks Curtis - stay well.
@@JimRobinson-colors Yes, I've had that experience, but not just drunk. Also nerdy and slow.
@@curtisjudd Larger font size could help with the eye tracking, also. Just having a few words per line seems to help the people I have on camera. Once you get the setup you mentioned in the other comment it will also be less distracting because you'll be looking into the camera.
@@bullettin Yes, the video coming in the next few days will have the new setup with a nice big font.
Hey Curtis as always great video. I would love your thoughts about the Waves content creator audio toolkit plugins more so on the Greg Wells Voice Centric plugin. If you haven’t heard anything about it it’s pretty much a plug-in that will help with compression and loudness of your voice, it would be great if you can review the tool kit.
Hey Miguel, thanks for the suggestion, haven’t heard of it so I’ll check it out.
Can someone translate this into Rødecaster Pro language?
Yes: th-cam.com/video/By8k_E8bFYw/w-d-xo.html
I’ve a question when I master in ozone 9 should I play the audio in high lvl or low lvl so I can compress it equally. In other words if some of my audio is in -6db lvl and some are in -12db which area should I play the audio in order to compress to the same lvl without peaking.
This may be more of a mixing problem - I'd try to level those up a bit first so that they sound - to your ears - that they're at the same level. If there's still a difference, you're just trying to manage the higher amplitude peaks.
@@curtisjudd thanks a lot
Thanks!
You’re welcome!
Hi Curtis. I use the compressor in Nectar 2 through RX7 like some of your old videos. I liked the simplicity of that trick of lining up the top of the window to show the peaks as a good threshold guide. Is Nectar 3 a worthy upgrade for compression or would you recommend something else to use with rx7 or rx8?
I use Nectar 3 and quite like it. Though I have to confess, I don't remember there being a huge difference between Nectar 2 and 3.
Great tutorial, Curtis. If I am sending the final track through a loudness normalizer to reach -16 LUFS, do you also recommend using makeup gain on the compressor step or does that become unnecessary?
Hi Mike, it depends on what this loudness normalizer does - if it also takes care of the compression, you might not need to do that either.
Curtis, were you using a teleprompter?
Yes - experiment. I've got some issues to work out with that if I intend to use it again.
@@curtisjudd Curtis, I agree that your “live“ presentations come across much better than when you use a Teleprompter, but like anything else, we improve with practice. I thank you would find your groove using a Teleprompter if you practice with it enough.
Do you have a favorite audio editing app for the iPad and LumaFusion?
Great question, but I don't. I edit for work in Premiere and for these TH-cam videos in Final Cut Pro X. Haven't done any editing on iPad...yet.
Don’t worry soon LF is going to have EQ and other important audio related stuffs. So should not be a hassle. As for editing audio on iPad Ferrite is a great app to do audio related stuff.
I do all my audio work in Ferrite and edit videos on LF.
Nice & Thanks :)
Thanks krishnan.
aren't you usually teleprompting?
No, until this video, I haven't used a teleprompter in 7 years.
@@curtisjudd don't get me wrong it's an awesome video as usual!
i was just surprised and actually meant it as in "you aren't in this video" cause it looked more like readig something distinctly below the camera.
i know nothing about teleprompters, but there must be a technical solution e.g. constricting the format to a 1:1/4:3 and setting the text higher/lens lower behind the prompter?
handy
Thanks.
To be honest I don't hear the difference. Sounds loud and clear to me.
It was all normalized here - try it on one of your videos and see if it makes a difference. 😉
I feel so dirty watching this lol!
I am so glad you said that! You should feel dirty! You are the perfect candidate to use a proper loudness normalization workflow like we cover in the other video linked. 😉
👍