Is distortion ever a good thing in the home voiceover studio? Getting things correct at the source is a key step in good sound. In our home voiceover studios we attempt to capture a very dynamic instrument - the human voice.
The term "distortion" crops up frequently when discussing audio from home voiceover studios. Distortion may be applied to a wide variety of recording steps, making it tricky to determine precisely what someone might be talking about. The effects of distortion can range from recordings sounding "not quite right" to a vocal track that sounds like a space alien has taken up residency in our booth.
The need for additional recording options can occur when we are in charge of the actual recording. In most home voiceover studio setups, the focus is on capturing high quality sound from your microphone. Understanding how to get the sound from your booth microphone into your recording software remains the first step in VO home studio setup. Needing to record someone else who is not even in the same space is an added layer of complexity once you've solved that.
Before we start trying to record different streams of audio, it's helpful to understand a bit about I/O routing. As I mentioned in last week's email, "I/O" stands for "Input/Output." The actual I/O routing determines how each piece of software connects with different audio signals. Some signals - like that from the microphone - flow "into" the app, while anything that is broadcast from the app is flowing "out." While this may seem like a simple concept, it can get a bit confusing when we start sending the output from one app to another.
While playing with some Audacity setups recently, I realized there was a feature that can be helpful in remotely directed sessions. Even better, it's not limited to that app alone, and can be replicated in Twisted Wave if you want to venture out past the documented features.
When other voice actors would share their audio and warn in advance how bad it sounded, I would expect to hear horrifically bad mouth clicks, or sibilance that might make my skin crawl. Lo and behold, their audio sounded good. This was confusing until I turned things up - way up.
Unlike many creative disciplines where there are specific mandated guidelines, "Industry Standard" doesn't seem to be that well defined within the confines of voiceover training, recording setups, or deliverables. Navigating that truth is a challenge for every voice actor and narrator.
Like UPS power backup setups, long term archival storage is one of those things that most of us don't worry about until those files are desperately needed. Long term data storage is part of the puzzle that can be easy to overlook. Taking time to think through how to archive your work can be a gift to your future self.
We get hassled by updates all the time. "Nag" screens appear when we start our computers or open key apps. Little text bubbles get in our face claiming there's a new version of our software or operating system. It can make us feel like we're exposing ourselves to grave danger if we don't act swiftly and click the "Yes! Update!" button.
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