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Session 1

Audio Engineering for Voice Actors

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Duration: 60 minutes

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Session 1

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Class session 1 for Audio Engineering for Voice Actors

Event Summary

Howdy lobsters!

(If you don’t get that, you will by the time you finish watching the video recording!)

Stellar first class today, you’re all absolutely awesome! Such engagement, so questions, very actors, wow! (Are doge memes still cool?)

Okay enough shenanigans, it’s time for the follow-up notes. Please bear with me, this will be a little long as we covered a LOT of stuff in class – both from the prepared content and in response to group discussions and questions!

HOW THIS WORKS: Just so you don’t feel you have to read everything, I thought I’d let you know I will be breaking this writeup into sections using bold headings, like this:

= STUDENT CONTACT INFO & PREFERENCES =

For those that didn’t see the link in chat or weren’t in class, I have set up a Google Form to securely and privately collect some info from you all.

This is because there are a large number of you and we’ve had an issue in past classes where peoples’ names weren’t the same across Zoom, Closing Credits, and Discord – this can make it hard for us to get in touch with folks directly between classes when we don’t know their correct / actual details.

So if you haven’t already and would like to help us out, that would be so very greatly appreciated.

https://bit.ly/AE4VA-Cohort1-Students

= CONTACTING TONY & LANETH =

Both Tony and Laneth are happy for folks to contact them directly by either email or Discord, and they'll respond as soon as they are able.

Tony:

Laneth:

= STUDENT RESOURCES =

Each week Neth will upload a copy of the PowerPoint slides that Tony uses in the lessons, as well as some further notes that Neth took when they first studied this course.

These can be downloaded from here: https://bit.ly/AE4VA-C1-Notes

= GETTING & USING REAPER =

Tony and I use Reaper because it is a fantastic audio editing software that has a virtually endless “evaluation period”, meaning you don’t necessarily ever have to purchase a license to use it.

We know that Audacity is one of the most popular programs for VAs to use for their voiceover recordings, but until recently (and possibly still) it was not capable to do even half of the things that Reaper and other programs like Pro Tools, Studio One, FL Studio, Adobe Audition, etc. can do.

For simply recording? All good. But when you want to start doing even the simplest of audio engineering, virtually any “DAW” is better in almost every way. (DAW = Digital Audio Workstation)

So if you would like to download Reaper and try it out, you can grab a copy here: https://www.reaper.fm/download.php

For those that would like to learn a bit more about Reaper specifically, beyond what we will be able to teach within the scope of these six weeks, Tony and I highly recommend these resources:

  • “This is REAPER 6” – a playlist by Kenny Gioia at the REAPER Mania YouTube channel. https://bit.ly/RMania-Reaper6
    • His channel is a gold mine of Reaper-specific content, even if a lot of his content can be more relevant for “music engineering” – a lot of the things he demonstrates can absolutely be applied to an “engineering for voiceover” application
  • “Setting up Reaper for Voiceover” – a playlist by Mike DelGaudio at the Booth Junkie YouTube channel. https://bit.ly/BJunkie-Reaper
    • In addition to all the review & comparison videos that he does, Mike is also a voice actor and audio engineer, so a lot of his Reaper-oriented content can be great for VAs learning Reaper as it can often directly relate to / help solve our needs/situations.

The next two are not Reaper-specific, but contain some excellent videos on Audio Engineering in general:

= HOMEWORK / EXCERCISES =

We don’t really like to think of the exercises that we give as “homework” as it isn’t compulsory for you to do them, but they provide you with an excellent opportunity to practice what you learn in the classes and to get direct feedback from us.

The best part about that is that it isn’t time sensitive! You can bookmark the below Dropbox link and can submit your stuff to us a week or even a month after the class has ended, and we’ll still get back to you.

Also, you don’t need to have a Dropbox account to send us your files – when you visit the link, you simply have to either select or “drag and drop” your files onto the area shown and then click the upload button! We’ll be notified that something has been uploaded, so we’ll review it and get back to you as soon as we can.

The link: https://www.dropbox.com/request/lLTzlnsqeiv1EzdkAXUn

NOTE: If you could please try to include your name in the files you send to us – OR send one of us an email or DM on Discord letting us know the name of the files you’ve sent – that would be very helpful, especially for those without a Dropbox account.

FURTHER NOTE: If you used Reaper to do the homework exercise and would like to share the whole Project / Session files with Tony and myself, I’ve created this quick little video to step you through how you can do this: https://www.loom.com/embed/6f3ccb29048645f2900d4f0e8069046b - this way we can just open it on our end in Reaper and see it exactly as it was when you saved it last!

WEEK ONE HOMEWORK – Record yourself in your current home studio space and send it through to us via the link above. Also for those that already edit their voiceover recordings and use plugins / FX, feel free to send us a raw/unedited version of your recording with no FX and a version that you’ve edited, so we can get a feel for how you’ve got yourself currently set up and can maybe give you some tips regarding the FX used, etc.

= QUESTIONS & ANSWERS =

Prior to class properly starting in a section I cut from the recording, we had a loose discussion about Reaper and a few folks mentioned that they had been using Audacity for varying lengths of time, and Sam mentioned that they’d been using its Noise Reduction functionality until an audio engineer had told them that it was cutting “a bit too much of the lower end” and that their vocals lose “body”

I wanted to quickly address this as it is something we’ll discuss in greater detail when we discuss “EQ” in Week 4, but this can be one of the pitfalls with using either a programs “built in” tools like these – especially ones that rely on “AI” as that tech is still VERY young – or plugins that do the same job.

There’s a level of finesse required when doing certain reductions (or ‘attenuations’) to audio, especially around the area of our “Fundamental Frequency” – which is essentially our individual voice’s defining characteristic frequency. (ie. mine is generally at around 90-95Hz, where someone else’s might be somewhere around 150-175Hz) If you meddle in that area too much, or in the immediate areas on either side, it can indeed have a significant effect on how you sound and it can mean that the engineer working on your audio has “less room” to work with to bring that “body” back to your performance.

But like I said, we’ll get into that in greater detail in a few weeks :)

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Blaise asked if we’d be talking about plugins as part of this course and Neth replied that we would be doing so contextually, as the situation arises during the lessons – especially when Tony is demonstrating concepts live in Reaper, as he will most often be using plugins to do so.

That being said, if you’d like to watch a recording of the one-off event that Tony ran last year specifically on the topics of plugins, check it out here: “EVENT: Addons You Definitely Need…Maybe” - https://www.closingcredits.com/events/118-addons-that-you-definitely-need-maybe

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When Tony was discussing the concept of SPL (Sound Pressure Level), Sam asked if each microphone had a different SPL. I replied in the Zoom chat:

“Yep, SPL is used in microphone specifications most often to indicate the ‘maximum pressure level’ that the capsule and electronics can handle. It should be used for all types of mics, including USB mics.”

For some excellent further reading, check out this article on the Neumann website: “What does Maximum Sound Pressure Level (Max SPL) Mean?” - https://www.neumann.com/homestudio/en/what-does-maximum-sound-pressure-level-max-spl-mean

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About 23 minutes into the recording, Tony discusses the subject of Acoustics and how it is the “most important thing” when it comes to a home recording setup.

Beyond the in-class discussion that came out of that topic, we won’t be getting too deeply into specifics of home studio setup as each individuals’ recording space is vastly different from the next – whether you’re recording at your desk with a blanket over your head, you’ve lined a closet with movers blankets or foam panels, or even if you’ve built your own booth.

That being said, this is something that Tony said that he’d be more than happy to discuss with people if they wanted to get some more advice specific to their needs.

Neth is also happy to help up to a point, but they’re still a young student of the craft and are not too shy to admit when they simply don’t know something. In that instance, they’ll handball folks up to Tony for a more experienced ear and mind to help.

Just get in touch with either one of them directly to set up time to chat more about it.

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As part of the acoustic discussion and home studio ‘treatment’, Bea asked if lining a walk-in closet or freestanding blanket fort would be "more effective".

Again, the variables involved are highly specific to each individual’s home space, however generally speaking one could guess that the closet might be the better option, simply because you have the solid walls to add further padding or protection from some intrusive sounds, compared to a free-standing frame with blankets covering it.

This isn’t to say a “blanket fort” cannot be a perfectly viable solution, especially if your house is lucky enough to be in an area that doesn’t get a lot of outside sound coming in from things like traffic, construction, dogs, lawn mowers, etc. (In fact, some AAA game and anime voice actors resorted to just such a setup when the pandemic struck and they were forced to record from home for the first time since many of them had either never done so or were just too used to going to a professional studio and never having to even thing about the physical setup of their space and gear…)

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Around 45 minutes into the recording Tony is discussing Reverb and a specific type called “Convolution Reverb”, which is essentially a recorded “sample of real world spaces” which is used to “simulate the acoustics” of that space in a mix.

An example of this can be seen in the video “The Sound of Prometheus” (https://vimeo.com/43796489) – As Tony explains in our recording this specific type of simulated acoustics is called an “Impulse Response”, and this technique is brilliantly employed by the sound engineers that worked on the film by sampling the acoustic qualities inside the space suit helmet that the cast wears in order to make their dialogue sound exactly as if they had recorded the actors directly within the helmets on set!

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Around 1 hour and 10 minutes into the recording, Nathan asked what a good way of previewing / testing mics would be without spending thousands on them?

Tony mentioned in the video, as did others in chat, that Sweetwater.com seems to be an incredible resource for testing & returning hardware because they allow you to purchase a product to test in your home studio environment and with your other gear, and then return/refund it if it doesn't suit.

There are also likely other localised resources that may offer the same opportunity - such as local music stores or hardware suppliers, etc. that allow people to "rent" things rather than only selling them.

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