It’s one of the most common questions I’m asked as an audio producer.
How can I make my voice sound better?
The most popular audio production tutorial I’ve created on YouTube is about making your voice sound better.
Remember, you don’t need a butch sounding deep radio voice for everything! The technique I describe in my video wouldn’t be appropriate for commercial production or audio drama for example. It’s also worth to consider that it can be fatiguing on the ears to listen to heavily compressed audio for a long time.
Why does this kind of heavy processing happen in radio imaging? It’s mostly as a method to squeeze the most out of a voice, make it sound big and bold and stand out from the rest of the output.
I chat about my E.N.C.N. acronym which stands for EQ, normalize, compress, normalize.
EQ
I love the clarity of the high frequencies, sometimes it can be good to roll off the bass (below 100 Hz) for a super fresh sound.
Normalize
Always below 0dB. I have a preset I like to use in Adobe Audition called Normalize to -0.1 dB.
Compression
Compress softly AT about 3:1 for speech content, such as a podcast, maybe 5:1 for imaging and remember that the lower the threshold the harder it works -20 dB is good -30 dB is going to be hard!
Consider hard limiting too but remember there are compressors on radio transmitters too. Too much compression before a piece of audio goes on the air can ruin the final product when it goes through the radio station’s own processing.
My Presets
I have created special presets based on thousands of audio production hours, all with the aim to make your voice and audio production projects sound as good as they can do. You can view more details about that here.
What are your thoughts and techniques when it comes to processing a voice to make it sound better?
Mike, neither of these podcasts are downloading at this time. Each creates an audio file of only 190 bytes. I had no problem downloading all 3 Podcast About Podcasting. The YouTube link to the VoiceOverDarren tutorial also worked fine. I am looking forward to hearing these missing podcasts.
Would also like see a sixth site added to your 5 new sites. Something for the complete internet idiots that would explain how to set up a basic site with audio players and download links similar to what has been used on this site. Maybe supplying a simple template(s) that would allow the internet novice a launching point for their first podcast without my identity being lost in mass podcast sites and download havens like iTunes. An individual website allows the new podcaster to introduce themselves, the podcast’s theme, and an email link for feedback. (I know how to register a URL and feel comfortable in the initial marketing of the site – I just have no idea how to set it up. That’s my major blockade to getting started.)
Thanks so much for the feedback Mike. I’d be interested to know what software or app you’re using? The podcasts seem to download and play fine for me.
Great idea on getting started and I think you may like our other podcasts: Podcast About Podcasting and Internet Marketing Online Show
All are working fine now, but they definitely were not downloading during the hour that they were reported.
Software used for a long time is Firefox and Windows 7 Pro.
Great to hear all is good now. Thanks for the update Mike!
My waves plugins make audition crash when I load them do you know why this could be and if there’s a solution ??
The best thing you can do is ensure Adobe Audition is updated to the latest version (2014.1) and that your plugins are also the very latest. This may help.