Audio // Desk Great // Car Horrible

CLINT
CLINT Posts: 14 traveler rank
in First-time course creation

I acquired some reasonably decent gear to make my voice sound good.

I listened to it on my speakers on my desk.

Sounded great

I then played it through my car speakers

Yikes ! Highly Unnatural voice; air in and out of my lungs; just plain bad.

Do we just tell people to not listen to Udemy while in a car ?

Or, am I just being my own worst critic, getting bogged down in the minutiae again ?

Comments

  • FrankKane
    FrankKane Posts: 1,874 rolemodel rank

    Have you tried listening through headphones or earbuds? That might be a better representation of what a typical student listening on their phone might hear.

    More sensitive mics can pick up more mouth noise and breaths, to the point where it is distracting. If that's the case, try to avoid talking directly into the mic; angle it toward you but not such that you're breathing right into it. A little more distance to the mic can help too, as can a wind screen.

  • LiamDavin1
    LiamDavin1 Posts: 117 storyteller rank

    Hi @CLINT

    If it bothers you it can potentially bother your students. One option is to manually turn down the breaths when you are editing your VO. This is very effective but quite a chore. Although the more you do it the faster you get at it.

    But as suggested, experimenting with mic distance and angle is probably the first thing you should try.

    Best of luck

  • CLINT
    CLINT Posts: 14 traveler rank

    @FrankKane

    @LiamDavin1

    ------------------

    Thanks for your input

    Did some more tests

    The hum and the hiss were astounding

    Never heard them at all on my desktop.

    Duh

    Whatever

    Practiced a few audio somersaults and will test those results later tonight in the car.

    More news at eleven.

  • Rahul Iyer
    Rahul Iyer Posts: 399 visionary rank

    Hi @CLINT
    ,

    In some cases, I am too much of a critic to my work. So, I try to review my work after a gap of 2-3 days. In most cases it feels fine. This may potentially be the case with you too. I am just thinking out loud when I say that.

    Apart from the inputs from Frank and Liam, I would recommend to use a pop filter. It helps remove the harsh Ph's and Ch's from the recorded audio.

  • DanielEvans
    DanielEvans Posts: 440 mentor rank

    Different DACs, speakers and hardware / software and their respective EQ ('colouring') will cause variation. Hum is caused by low end and hiss in the mid / high range. The more those frequencies are accented, the more pronounced those sounds will be.

    My content sounds bad on my LG OLED TV and it's top of the range. It's fine through all other hardware though different in each case.

    Post a clip of your audio and we can give it a listen.

  • CLINT
    CLINT Posts: 14 traveler rank

    @DanielEvans
    wrote:

    "...Post a clip of your audio and we can give it a listen...."

    Okay, this is my first attempt at uploading a vid-clip

    At the moment it's basically [[-- Look~Guess~Click--]]

    Hopefully, I uploaded the vid-clip properly.

    If so, I welcome and invite opinion from the experts here who know what they're doing

    I never paid any attention to it until now, but evidently, my speakers on my desktop "help" me by reducing the hiss and hum and delivering a cleaner and more pure sound to the ears.

  • LiamDavin1
    LiamDavin1 Posts: 117 storyteller rank

    Hi @CLINT

    I would like to give this a critical listen in the studio where I don't have internet (deliberate decision).

    Can you give me a link to download this video/audio via "wetransfer" or "dropbox ". If that's ok.

    I've got a busy few days coming up and would be happy to give it a listen after that and let you know what I think.

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