Voice recording help!!

[Daryl]

Hey guys,
A friend of mine does voice work for audio books and wants me to do some of the sound engineering for him. I am not an expert, so I thought I'd run this by you guys to see if I can get some solid tips to get a good sound. Any info you give me on the subject is most appreciated. I've done a bit of reading up on the subject, but there is no substitute for experience.
Help me out fellas!!!

 

[Mattfig]

Hey D,

You computer based?

EIther way, you'll need a good preamp to run the mic....Or a preamp-plugin I guess....Anyway, you will want to reduce sizzling s's with a de-esser- many come bundled as a vocal processor along with compression and gates...Check out the DBX 286 if you want a relatively cheap one that sounds great...

 

[Daryl]

Hey D,

You computer based?

EIther way, you'll need a good preamp to run the mic....Or a preamp-plugin I guess....Anyway, you will want to reduce sizzling s's with a de-esser- many come bundled as a vocal processor along with compression and gates...Check out the DBX 286 if you want a relatively cheap one that sounds great...

Thanks Fig,
It will be computer based recording, but I have a TC Helicon Voiceworks unit and a BBEi that I would like to use. I also have the Line6 Gearbox Gold software(precursor to the Amp Farm). It has some different microphone models in it. Could it be as simple as getting a good level and finding a decent preset on the Voiceworks? Should I make sure that the input level is at a certain db going in?

 

[Mattfig]

Yeah brother...But you still gotta eliminate excess sibilant consonants such as "s", "z" and "sh." De-essing is key...

 

[Daryl]

Yeah brother...But you still gotta eliminate excess sibilant consonants such as "s", "z" and "sh." De-essing is key...

Hmmm...Just checked the TC Helicon manual and NO deesser...
My Gearbox software has a deesser. I'll see if that works well enough. Most importantly sounds right. Thanks, bro.

 

[Daryl]

I found this: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may09/articles/deessing.htm
More input, need more input...

 

[Julia]

Please describe your recording set up.

DAW software:
Recording Interface:
Microphone:
Preamp:

I typically make my own de-esser because I find the prepackaged ones that come with the DAWs a bit too ham handed. Besides my problem frequency is around 9 kHz instead of the usual 7.5 kHz.

This works like a charm: http://audio.tutsplus.com/articles/...-scratch-in-logic-or-any-daw-for-that-matter/

 

[Daryl]

Please describe your recording set up.

DAW software:
Recording Interface:
Microphone:
Preamp:

I typically make my own de-esser because I find the prepackaged ones that come with the DAWs a bit too ham handed. Besides my problem frequency is around 9 kHz instead of the usual 7.5 kHz.

This works like a charm: http://audio.tutsplus.com/articles/...-scratch-in-logic-or-any-daw-for-that-matter/

I forgot to thank you for the info on making your own desser. Very cool and easy to modify once you get a good template for it programmed. I made a couple to cover different frequency problem areas. Very cool and easy. Thanks, Julia.