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Name: James "Jossi" Rossi Specialties: Emotive medium-low to medium-high voice. Good for on the level documentaries or off the wall acting roles. Ugh, that sounds corny... Tindeck:  Feel free to dig around: http://tindeck.com/users/JossiRossi Contact: JamesRossiAudio at gmail.com Payment: Paypal So, a few years back I got into doing voice acting. I'd always enjoyed acting in high school and kept it up afterward for a while. I was pretty inspired by System Shock 2 for it's use of the audio logs and the game's sound design as a whole. I even went to a very neat audio program at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University. Full time crash course in all things audio which I came away with a lot of neat skills and tools. I then promptly had a severe breakdown, was put on meds, and proceeded to lose two years of my life (and multiple acting roles in the fantastic Pendant Productions who produce a bunch of great audio shows. I highly suggest anyone here interested in that to check them out) to an admittedly pleasant medically induced lethargy. So despite the relative confidence in myself and abilities, I have so little to back it up and so little experience that it is pretty disheartening. Anyway, not here for a drat sob story. Basically saying, I really want to get back to being involved in these things, because well I loving love this poo poo.
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May 1, 2012 02:17
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Recently Halflife2.net rebranded itself as valvetime.net and we started up a weekly new roundup with me doing the voice. I've been doing it for about 2 months now but would appreciate some critical feedback. Right now I have people saying stuff like my voice reminds them of Clint Eastwood which... well I don't even know what they are thinking. So some outside opinions would really really be appreciated so I can improve. Week 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV4QBnQs0D0 Week 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Trp3MiB1Uw The biggest glaring problem with the most recent news bit is being a bit disjointed, I didn't have the time needed to clean that up and smooth the transitions unfortunately which drives me nuts as I listen. So, what can I do better?
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May 7, 2012 00:23
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Meow Cadet posted:Is it ever appropriate to ad-lib or slightly alter a script while recording? I have a video game gig, and the script seems a stiff on paper... Did the person you are doing this for give you any specifications? Ad-libbing is something I always address when talking to voice talent. Personally I ask for at least 3 good takes so I can pick and choose, and encourage improving as long as there are still those good takes to choose from (unless I REALLY trust the talent). Ideally, communication is best, so I would ask how strict they want your readings to be otherwise, by their own omissions, you may wind up displeasing them.
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May 9, 2012 00:53
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There's no total replacement for adequate equipment (doesn't have to be amazing and millions of dollars, but let's say in this case actual equipment). The blanket fort? Not bad, I used one for a couple years when the room I recorded in was really echo-ey. Something else that can help is taking a mattress and putting it against the wall in front of or behind you when recording to absorb more sound. For the sock over the mic, that can cause more problems than the puffs you are trying to solve. Here's a trick that I used for a long time before buying a real puff filter, take a coat hanger, bend it over in half so you get a 6 or 7 inch ring, then stretch the leg of a pair of pantyhose over that and tie it down. Bam, ghetto puff filter. The biggest problem is finding a way to secure the thing down. In my case at the time I used a desk mic which sat there and I held the hanger in front of me. As for the mic I'm not finding any specifications easily other than it is probably a dynamic mic (no one in their right mind would include a condenser mic in a consumer product anyway). That means that you'll lose some definition in your voice. Also you'll want to make sure to back off the mic, and to try to project your voice to be as loud as you can while still keeping it natural, don't strain. Backing off will solve some problems such as picking up your "ssss" sounds too much, but could add problems with your recording space with odd reflections being more likely to be picked up. You'll have to experiment. Beyond that, just do it, if you want an opinion on your voice we can listen through the hums and hisses and give you as good an assessment as possible.
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May 10, 2012 13:10
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The only thing I'm confused by Robersdee, cause really your voice is great, is why you have your puff filter so close to the mic? I'm hearing your breath hitting against the mic, it should have a bit of space to diffuse the exhaled consonants (ideally a couple inches but that might change to tonality too much from where it is). Might be my headphones but it also sounds like you're trying to counter as much of the puffs with a low-cut filter (under 100 hz?) somewhere in the pipeline. If you can put some space between the filter and the mic, and then yourself and the filter to mitigate that.
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May 10, 2012 23:45
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I've personally had pretty good results with a fabric filter personally. I can't say off the top of my head, nor did a quick googling help, but the difference might be distance required? Going into a Behringer C1 (the dirt cheapest of condenser mics) I haven't needed to do any filtering to remove unwanted low end problems.
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May 11, 2012 00:00
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invision posted:Speaking of pop filters I don't know where mine is, but I recorded a thing. You mentioned no comments before. Since I've not done any extensive commenting here yet just let me warn you I'm blunt as hell and tend to just pick up on things I dislike. First you seem to have some clipping issues. Some of the louder bits begin to get that crackling and distortion when you hit the mic too loud or have an issue editing later. The laugh falls pretty flat, it feels very very forced but doesn't hit a humorous extreme. Also, you begin to hear the echo of the room as I am going to guess you throw back your head. It would be very helpful to learn proper breathing techniques for when you are recording. The Joe Man can probably help explain that far better than I could because he mentioned learning to not use a pop filter and good god I have no idea how he pulls that off but damned if he doesn't pull it off. For my little bit of help getting into the habit of at least turning your head to the side as you breath in can help reduce how loud it comes through. As you talk there's a droning quality in this piece. It becomes really easy for my mind to drift away from understanding the words. The tonality and character of the voice seems to remain the same, with pacing being the biggest variable. The pacing changes combined with additional emotion would help a lot. Some of your words tend to blend together and others feel a bit dulled. Enunciation could use a bit of work to make it easier to follow, this is part of the before mentioned droning problem. There feels like a lack of character and I debated even mentioning it because I'm having a hard time articulating why I feel this way. Some of it is perhaps a sense of trying too hard, and there are times where what you are saying seems to surprise you a bit as you try to move onto the next word. So for the improving shortlist, I'd do up some Enunciation and vocal practices (Round and round the rugged rocks the ragged rascals ran) so you are less likely to trip up on your own tongue. Work out some of the technical issues like if you are in fact clipping the volume somewhere. Deal with the breaths issue. Finally, vary things up a bit more. I hope that helps. If you don't hate me, you could return the favor and tell me what I could do better on the weekly newscast thing I've been doing posted on the bottom of the last page where I think it got buried.
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May 12, 2012 02:49
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The Joe Man posted:There's nothing glaring but it's just kinda boring...but I think that's the fault of the subject matter rather than you specifically. I noticed that you seem to place emphasis on staggered words in the middle of sentences (which you should do circumstantially), but the way you're speaking tricks the listener into thinking that the sentence is over when you're only halfway through. This is hard to explain so if I come up with a better explanation, I'll elaborate if possible. You also speak a little too fast, which can also be fine, but only if the previously mentioned emphasis is on the right words. As it is, you come off as a little robotic. It's not terrible, but there's room for improvement. Luckily, your problems are pretty easy to fix! Thanks for the comments. Fortunately I get a whole new script each week to work on and that helps a lot to have a new thing to do in a set schedule. I'll be more mindful of my speed and intonation. Looking back I have definitely let my vigilance slip on those regards. I'm glad in particular you mentioning it sounding robotic because I've actively tried to veer away from that (which terrifies me, I must sound like a drat Speak and Spell if I'm not careful).
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May 14, 2012 02:53
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Note: Holy poo poo. Just burned my food writing this. I did not plan to spend like 20 minutes here. Most of this is off of memory, so anyone who bothers reading this and finds problems let me know and I'll fix it. *************************** When you are trying to edit or fix audio remember that there is no magic "make x stop" function. I highly recommend you learn what the tools you are attempting to use actually do. Gating: Gating is a tool that "opens/closes" your audio. You can do full gating where when open the sound flows through fine and when closed no sound exists at all. Removing fan noise with gating is not removing fan noise, it is just lowering the volume to nothing once the overall volume reaches a set level. You can also do partial gating which just lowers the volume further upon reaching a particular level, but not fully removing it. Compressing: Compressing can do a lot of things depending on how it is used. You have several variables with compressing and frankly I still struggle with keeping my head wrapped around it. The basics are that you are setting a thresh hold, for instance -20 dB FS (deci-Bells Full Scale, which runs from 0 to -infinity). When the volume increases above -20 dB the compressor kicks in. It will attenuate the volume based on a set ratio. 1:3 is a common starting place, 1:10 is hitting it pretty hard. So all sound's above -20 dB will be essentially cut down to one third. This allows you to raise the overall volume up to a higher level. Compressors are used to make subtle sound qualities become audible. Normally in your voice only the loudest parts are heard. Here you can make the louder parts quieter, and the quiet parts louder all focused around that thresh hold. So when you compress you level out the louder parts and bring everything else up to compensate for the lost dBs. Equalizers: You didn't mention them but they are valuable as well. Let's say you hear a high pitched whine wither from poor equipment, or room noise, or any number of reasons and want to remove it. If you can analyze the audio to see the frequency patterns or can use a Real Time plugin (which I don't believe audacity has unfortunately) you can attempt to find the offending noise. If you get a graphic visualization of the frequencies it'd be on the high end and probably not much else around it. Take not of this frequency. You then open of the equalizer. There are two kinds. Graphic EQ and Linear EQ. Graphic EQ is typically used in physical equipment and it's inclusion into the digital age is a bit anachronistic but to each their own. Linear EQ will present you with a straight line. In Audacity you can then effect this line by adding new points to the line. DO NOT GO CRAZY WITH YOUR EQ. It's an easy way to gently caress things up. Only use it if you know what you want to accomplish. Don't go in and say "I want to make my voice BIG" and then start drawing all over. In the example given you'd go in and make a new point on the line right before and right after the high pitched whiney noise. Then on the whiney noise you draw and drag a new point down lowering the volume at that section. This is hyper simplified and the actual complexities of hoe Equalizers work is well beyond my ability to explain, but for basic purposes you are now cutting that particular frequency range out. Try not to remove it entirely. It is always best to cut as lightly and as little as you can manage as it will have unexpected and really negative effects if you cut too much or too wide a range. But feel free to experiment. You can take a look at Audacity's built in examples and hear how it changes things to get an initial feel for how it works. Why did I just talk about EQ so much? You wanted to remove fan noise. Fan's often put out low end noise over a very broad frequency range. As such removing the fan noise with EQ will most likely remove the same frequencies as your vocal range. Signal Flow: This is not so much a tool as a mental map of what you are doing. It typically goes like this. Source -> Microphone -> Pre-Amp -> Tape (recording) -> Monitors (speakers) or Headphones Knowing how each of these steps affects your recording is vital. The source includes your voice in this case, but also the room you are in. As you emit sounds they bounce around the room and echo. I once has a room where if I snapped my fingers I could hear the sound bouncing for a full 5 or more seconds. Needless to say my mic picked those resounding frequencies up. Rooms also respond to particular frequencies. You know how a guitar is hollow to allow sounds to build up and be reflected back out increasing volume and giving the guitar certain sound properties? Your room works the same way. Your source is also fans, street noise, ect. The Microphone will have certain pickup patterns and frequency ranges. Your manual will state this information and should give you some graphs as well. Read this. In fact read the whole manual. I'm a tried and true "no manual" guy, but gently caress if I don't try to memorize my microphone info. The mic will affect a lot of things and knowing the pickup pattern will help a lot. Many mics pick up sound from in front of and directly behind the mic very well, so placing the mic close to a wall is a bad idea as it will pick up vocal reflections. Pre Amplifiers are what bring the signal power up to usable levels. It takes your existing signal and amplifies it. Pretty simple. Except they hate you. A poor pre-amp will introduce noise and static, or will also amplify actual interference. I have some good equipment that is very finicky to use thanks to noisy pre-amps. There's also something about microphone impedance and pre-amps but I'm not smart enough on that one to be honest. Finally recording, some similar issues to pre-amps, but in our case it's all digital. Ah, almost forgot. Here's where we go from analog to digital. An Analog to Digital converter is needed, this is typically unseen, but happens and should be considered. This is where Hz comes in. This is your sampling time. 48K Hz. 48 thousand times a second your nice and neat sound "waves" (they actually wave up and down, like on an oscilloscope. That's what is pouring out of your mic and pre-amp) your nice analog electrical waves are slashed up 48 thousand times a second and then looked at. Technically you no longer have a wave but many points of varying electrical strength. Also for note 48k Hz is typically for TV and Movies. It is when it will be integrated to video. 44.1K Hz is for music. Then finally speakers/headphones. The output will be colored by your equipments ability to replicate the signal being sent. If your signal was Analog your speakers basically move in and out smoothly following the waves of your captured sound. When a sound is loud and fast your speakers move in and out really far very quickly. Quiet and low, the drums of the speakers move in and out a little bit and comparatively slowly. This will agitate and force the air to move as it would if the sound was being created by the actual source i.e. your voice. We don't have waves after A to D conversion though. We have a series of sustained force at 48 thousand times a second. So the speaker will bump out to it's location and hold until the next sample and then jump to the new level. This happens so fast though we have absolutely no idea. The human mind can not perceive individual acts at 48k a second, so we perceive it as a flowing sound. NOW! You are thinking about flow. Good. Effect flow is equally important. You need to combine all of this. What does the tool ACTUALLY do. How will that effect what my next tool does? In your case you compressed a sound, thus making the overall recording louder. Most all of it. Then you attempted to Gate. Gating works best when there are clear differences in the levels of sounds. You destroyed that with the compressor. If you Gate first, you remove (or lessen) intermittent fan noise, but then later compressing can bring this right back unless you make sure it is set not to. I personally EQ once to remove bad sounds. Such as a low rumbling or high pitched whine. This cleans the recording slightly for the next tools. I would then use the Gate to close when the levels drop below my speaking voice. This means that ideally when you Compress, you are only raising the overall volume of the spoken parts. Then if you feel the need to alter your voice(and please for the love of god don't) try to boost some frequencies with a final EQ pass. But seriously, just don't. FINALLY Tools, no matter how good, intuitive, or stupid proof will never, ever replace the most valuable thing a vocal artist or recording engineer can have and that is an acoustically clean work space. Alternately, if you are near Boston you can just pay me to worry about all this poo poo for you. JossiRossi fucked around with this message at 01:27 on May 19, 2012 |
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May 19, 2012 01:19
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You have to be really careful with noise removal. It's not a silver bullet even with a good clean chunk of your noise. This is a total guess at how it works, but what appears to happen is you analyze the sound section. You get frequencies and intensity. So how it sounds and how loud. Then when you remove the targeted sounds from the whole recording, the ideal is that you have now mathematically removed just the "noise". But, your recording probably has static and frequencies from all across the range, which have been picked up into the noise profile. So the more "fan" noise you try to remove the more you are affecting portions of your recording you DON'T want to. So yes you can use the noise removal tool if you are very careful, but you are going to negatively affect your initial recording. It all goes back to my gigantic rant, specifically when I talk signal flow. You are affecting the entire recording (and any time you put your audio through a tool, plugin, or physical gear you affect EVERYTHING. Putting your audio through a tool with all the settings off or on zero will still change it. titties posted:I've never been in or around Boston, but if I find myself in the area I will make up that burned dinner or suck your dick or whatever. If you're ever around, buy me a beer and we can call it even. I was having more fun writing stuff I remembered off the cuff than worrying about food anyway. I'll even record you if you feel up to it. My studio is ghetto as hell but I love getting to put it to use on things other than myself. JossiRossi fucked around with this message at 05:20 on May 19, 2012 |
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May 19, 2012 05:18
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Quality is definitely working better. There is still a persistent hiss that may be from the microphone though. It's slight however. I'd probably pull back on the Compression a bit, seems to be hitting a bit hard. Also some subtle room echo, Compression can exacerbate that and I feel that might be what is happening. Room echo is one of those things that often get's louder with compression. Really the quality is mostly there for what I'd consider a clean recording. If I were producing an Audio Drama (would love to do that with people here if there was interest) this would be usable with a few tweaks and subsequent mixing. So that's awesome. The biggest issue now is the performance itself. Voice is strong, I could easily listen to it for a while but the intonation needs a lot of work. You split up sentences in the middle, some of the pacing is choppy, and you end every sentence by raising your pitch (sometimes doing that in the middle of a sentence). Some of the pauses are pretty unnatural, and sometimes you blend sentences together making it hard to follow what you are saying. I'd say for a practice do a much more casual recording. Don't try to sound like an advertising voice. Just talk like you would to any human being. Once or you are comfortable enough to sound natural during a recording you can begin to emphasize portions to make important things stand out and what not. Need to learn to crawl before you can walk kind of thing. This is day and night compared to the first recording you put up in here though so vast steps in the right direction.
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May 19, 2012 19:30
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I think one issue is people don't realize the thread moved. I don't use anything to keep track of threads so I thought this had just died until I couldn't find it on any page on GBS. If we were to start a new thread in GBS we really should be offering something to be consumed. Otherwise we're just soliciting. We have a lot of great voice talent here so we could actually quite easily put something together. Within say 2 months we could have something half an hour to an hour long to release if we felt like it. And it only takes that long because sometimes it takes a while for people to have the time to sit down and record. I was part of Pendant Productions for a couple years and they put out (and still do) somewhere around 10-12 half hour productions every month. Also if we're going to advertise it'd probably be better to just snag a forums ad for a couple months. For the reading: Content was good, and the inflection is slightly better, still raising your pitch near the end too often though. Also be careful of the editing, I'm starting to hear it now where the pauses are too fast an unnatural. Got to breath sometime and people pick up on it and it's off putting. When I do recording I try to get as much into a continuous take as possible, sometimes up to a paragraph if I'm just reading off the cuff. Reading the whole piece aloud a few times before recording will help reduce the number of takes you need to splice together.
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May 20, 2012 14:21
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All in favor of being friends with them say "Aye." Going to go ahead and assume we say "Aye."
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May 21, 2012 02:14
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I have an early morning tomorrow, otherwise I'd do this right now instead of going to bed. However, I can promise that I'll do something when I get out of work around 3-4 pm EST. I imagine that will be cutting things drat close though. If nothing pops up though you can count on at least one around then.
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May 21, 2012 03:06
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Just noticed a potential issue while recording. The beats you give list 35 seconds as the end point of the animation, but in my case and I assume others the actual lines can be longer than that, and that's if they just run continuously. Is the 35 seconds set in stone or will things be shuffled? If not we'll need a rewrite (or we can just wing it) for a shorter time span. Anyway regardless here's my attempt:  .wav for download since I dislike .mp3 for use: http://tindeck.com/download/pro/qeex/%5Btindeck.com%5D+-+JossiRossi%2B-%2BPOWERTHIRST_WAV.wav Torabi posted:This thread caught my attention as JossiRossi posted in the animation thread. Some neat stuff in here. I'll definitely keep this thread in mind if I ever end up animating some stuff. CuddleChunks posted:
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May 21, 2012 21:56
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I'm up for *Drama*.
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So I made this for a Binding of Isaac thread contest over in Let's Play. I've debated putting it up honestly. That in itself is kind of why I'm posting it. This is a mock Novelization of the game Binding of Isaac. I tried to give it some features of other game interpretations. So it's not supposed to be a great rendition but I hope it's not bad, bad, as opposed to intentional bad. One of the biggest issues with quality is I think I used the compressor too hard on my voice, its got an odd grainy quality I'm not digging. DaveP posted:Jossi, I really appreciate the quality of your voice acting work and the inflection you bring to certain parts of the script -but compared to another submission I get the gut feeling that it doesn't suit the role quite as well. A one take wonder no less! I appreciate the kind words, and I'm really glad one of us was able to help you out. People who drop the ball on these kinds of projects don't seem to understand how much it can really screw with a production. Also Chaos Theory you did a great job on the take, the one thing I'd consider working on is tone consistency. You have a strong variety in the tone but some of them aren't full sets I feel. Pieced together the flow could potentially be lacking, that's Dave's job to link it together but there's things we can do to make the job easier. I liked the later takes where you go through all the lines in a row because there's a more natural flow to them. So first half a bit disjointed, second half much better all around really even though you were implying that you were going over the top. It takes a bit to get the energy to come out in a recording, so typically it does need to be over the top performed to hit a normal mark played back. This is something I struggle with still myself. Stinkmeister posted:I've got a question for people who've got more technical experience than me: what's the best way to take care of the kind of muffled quality that recording has? I'm in a very echoey space, using one of these mics: http://www.amazon.com/Nady-SCM-960-Diaphragm-Microphone-Selection/dp/B000R4LQ5W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337650627&sr=8-1 I'm not sure if I am hearing the issue as much as you are. But I have a feeling I might know what's up. How close to your mic are you when you record? You don't sound like you are exerting your voice much so to keep the levels up you might be quite close to your mic. There can be a problem with "Proximity Effect" where being right up on your mic will exaggerate the low end a lot. This can muddy up your voice. Depending on the effect this can be quite nice, give you more rumble. So replicating a radio voice on a non-top of the line mic might let you emulate this a bit, but with the downside of varying effect and the fact being on top of your mic can be a pain. For voice "clarity" you tend to get the most definition of a voice in the 2.5Khz - 5Khz range. First I'd try backing off the mic. If that's what you already are doing, or it doesn't help much, I'd consider suppressing the 100hz range. Use an EQ to lower it 3dB or 6dB and see how it sounds. If none of that works (but I think it should) you could try to do a broad band boost of the 2Khz-5Khz range. Keep in mind typically 4Khz is your "ess" noises like how almost all of the word "noises" would sound. So you can create problems there boosting. I'll probably write more up on EQ usage and probably mic pickup patterns as well since yours has a variable Cardioid and Omnidirectional. I am pretty sure yours is set to cardioid so you should be set there. Make another recording and let us hear differences. If you follow the steps I listed above, make a version at each step so differences can be heard please. titties posted:I guess it probably is nerves, coupled with just plain not having any experience. Some people posted some advice on overcoming stage fright, which I'm working on. Still, there's a marked improvement (to my uneducated ear) on reads where I've had one or two small scotches. I know that any job that doesn't involve making alcohol doesn't allow you to drink, but I was still kind of hoping to find a bunch of "hell yeah everybody drinks every day up in the booooof" ITT. So, this is going to be rough, but know it's not just directed at you. You're far from the only one with "sober me is not as good as not-sober me" issues. If you can not do it sober, you can not do it drinking. Plain and simple. Alcohol will simply never improve your performances. There's maybe 1 in a million who it does, but if you are human, and reading this, it won't. Having talent and skill means that you are in control of what you are doing. Good actors don't get drunk to play drunk characters. They will do research. They will drink themselves but not during a production. They will watch drunks. What is the difference between a frat boy and an alcoholic? I know you weren't trying to do a drunk take of anything but as an example. This could be about anything. I come from an acting background and do have rather strong opinions on it (which varies a lot from my advice on technical recording so feel free to take this with a grain of salt). Observation is incredibly important, knowing the content equally so. If you are reading all your lines you will not give a good performance. If you are glancing at scripts for reminders you're doing better. If you can memorize all the lines then great, but people rarely have the time for that. I'd stop drinking when you record, always. Find ways to get more comfortable. Do you stand or sit when you record, do you have a glass of water with you but AWAY from your set up, can you talk into the mic and clearly see your script, are you familiar with it? All these things will help you becomes more comfortable with yourself and then ultimately with what you are doing. Finally, practice, I know you know that part, but it really is. I'd start here, find a piece you are passionate about. Something you don't have to "reach" for. Do you love bees more than life itself? Then look something up about bees and loving let loose. Right now you need to go to where you feel comfortable and passionate, then once you can do that in a recording, do something you care less about and fake it. That's what we do. We don't give a poo poo about this car we're advertising. The man we're screaming death threats at will buy a drink after we're done. That joke, totally not funny. After all, all us actors? We're just liars. Hinchu posted:Anyone interested in doing some voice work of a young boy for an animated short? I'm doing a Little Nemo short (no, not Finding Nemo.) I'm bringing to life this strip. I'm needing Nemo's voice. Also that project seems pretty neat. I had no idea that Little Nemo the NES game was based on an (at the time) 80+ year old comic. So that's pretty drat rad.
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May 24, 2012 02:16
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Stinkmeister posted:I... I think I love you. Seriously, that's really helpful and gives me somewhere to start when playing with equalization. Next time I'm in Boston, I owe you a beer. Please do continue to write, it's awesome stuff. Soon I will be owed drinks by ever VO artist on the site. This is my cunning and devious master plan! I'm really glad you found that useful, and I'll be sure to keep spouting off more. Onto the recording. Compared to the "fuzzy" recording this one does come off a lot clearer. It's easier to understand what you're saying and is definitely an improvement. Depending on the circumstance you might want to avoid or not cut the low end as much, but that's purely up to the role. This can be mixed into a scene better, but for a straight up VO a bit more "boom" could be nice, so use your judgement based on the role. There are some other issues now cropping up with the change in recording though. There's an awful lot of Hiss and room echo. The hiss is likely an equipment issue, I'm not sure on your set up so I can't really comment on possible fixes, but when you have equipment hiss the best thing to do sometimes is find ways to be louder so that the "noise floor" becomes quieter. Also on your compressed track you brought out this hiss and made it easier to hear. Compression is complicated and I'll probably write something up about the basics on it in detail. (I've got 3 topics in mind to elaborate on right now of Microphones, EQ, and Compression) The room echo also becomes more apparent with the compression, it sounds like you are in a hard wood/tile floored room. Not quite a bathroom, a bit bigger with some basic furnishings but not a whole lot. Also possibly tall ceiling. I will fully admit that's an attempt to show off, let me know if I'm wrong I want to train my ear better! There are some ways to mitigate room echo. Using a recording box, which is essentially a noise dampening material, like egg crate foam, lining the inside of a box where you place your mic in the middle. This has the benefit of being portable usually, and relatively cheap. Also much easier than sound treating a room of any size. Other methods you can use are blanket/pillow forts around your recording station, or taking mattresses and placing them on your walls. You can actually find problem areas by snapping your fingers or, and this will sound crazy, chirping. You want to find parts of your room that echo to your voice. So making short sharp loud noises can help. Snapping or chirping works the same, make the noise then stop and listen. The echo should last just long enough to get an idea of the area. Keep trying to make this noise and echos happen. Find the spots where the sound echos the most and toss a mattress there. I had a room where the room echo lasted over 5 seconds but in a high range, just a few frequencies. Also longer term if you can fill that room with items that absorb sound like blankets, mattresses, couches, and put things on the walls that don't reflect sound you'll be good. But that's obviously a huge endeavor. A small room just for recording (like I got lucky enough to manage) or sound treating only an area of a room with a sound box or blanket fort might be a good way to go. nny_ix posted:Name: nny_ix Hello and welcome! Sorry this is going to be a bit negative for a first response but you've got some work to do. First don't compare yourself to well known and talented VO artists like Benjamin. Because it immediately compares you to him and as amateurs we'll often fall short (sometimes VERY short). You are already making yourself look less in comparison. You need to be able to stand on your own merits and stand out. I'd remove the comparison and go for "sound like rear end in a top hat" since that's all he does anyway. I mentioned accents before but the short is if you are not trained or have not lived with an accent you probably can't do it. Consistency of "terrible" is a step towards being able to do an accent but I'd lump that into the "can not do" category still. The biggest thing is to practice with people who have the accents you are looking for, or at the very least read the crap out of accent guides which of course do exist. I unfortunately am not going to attempt giving you advice on the recording process as you've not made anything specifically for VO yet. You need to make an actual demo. You link your tindeck but all I quickly see are song mixdowns and those begin to be over a year old VERY fast. A lot can change in a year+ so even if there are VO clips in there I'd not find them useful. I checked your youtube and you're voice has potential otherwise I'd not type this all up. But you are making me struggle to find any example of your work, and unless you have the voice of an Angel it's not worth it. You need to put yourself out to us, because we're not going to go to you. You've got homework to do. Make a demo and show us what you got!
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May 26, 2012 14:42
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CaptainYesterday posted:Here's a demo I made about a year ago. Please be gentle. Hello there! Since you said this was done a year ago I'll comment on the performance instead of the technical stuff since a lot can change in that amount of time. You're last post was asking about stuff to read. Even if they can't use it now, use anything listed before for practice. For the technical stuff I do need a recent sample. The performance. First thing I notice is that you aren't always comfortable with what you are saying. There are odd slight hesitations as you are thinking about what is next. All in all a big issue is repeated pauses that break up the flow of what you are saying. At times I can't really tell if improvising or not. I'm assuming the second half with the ranting is improv. It's pretty weak, lots of floundering around on the ideas. I fully appreciate how hard it can be to improv but without committing to a statement before saying it you start to lose your own attention it seems. Occasionally these comments just don't feel like you're actually talking to another person. There's a non-natural and forced feeling to it. The words you choose to emphasize are all over the place and are perhaps chosen more visually than content aware. Over all there just a big lack in conversational tone. I'm finding it hard to fully explain. When you continue working on acting examples try going for something that you can be natural with, and talk the way you do with other humans. Try not to act, try to just be. The method actor in me would suggest you draw upon actual conversations and times of conflict and bring that out in your acting. Your talking seems rushed, very quick talking, results in everything sounding curt and cut off, or other times things seem to blend together. There's some issues with your annunciation. Being more comfortable with what you are saying will help on that but it needs its own separate practice. Sometimes I'll do little vocal warmups, typically just tongue twisters. Aluminum Linoleum. Sally Sells Sea Shells. That gets your mouth ready and you'll be less likely to trip on your words. Making sure to actually say what you are reading fully will help slow things down a bit too. In fact if you can annunciate properly then talking fast is ok because people will still understand you. Take the difference between an untrained vocalist and a trained one doing one of those "offer legalize" things at the end of a commercial. The difference is "limitedsuppliesonlynomoneydueatsigningnottobecombinedwithotheroffers" compared to "LimitedSuppliesOnlyNoMoneyDueAtSigningNotToBeCombinedWithOtherOffers" We want to be at the equivalent of the latter. Actually we should as a thread do that as practice. Get a nice chunk of end commercial legal stuff and get good at reading it as fast as possible while still being easily understood.
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May 29, 2012 03:08
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CaptainYesterday posted:Thanks, JossiRossi! Here's a more recent taping: Sounding good! It sounds a bit thin, like the low end is almost removed. Are you doing anything specific to this recording EQ wise? Listening to it a bit louder I actually hear some puffs still. So not sure what's going on exactly. Are you using noise removal? I thiiiiink I hear some of the artifacts introduced by noise removal plugins like the one Audacity has by default. Makes odd wavy tinny noises. Also seems a bit crackly? Please let me know if you are affecting anything here so I can pin down what I'm hearing. Performance wise the flow is significantly better from the last example you put up. Huge improvement there. It's so good I actually forgot how bad I considered your other example... Seriously I almost let this compliment sit at only 2 sentences but you deserve more. MAJOR improvement on flow. Breaks make more sense and aid to comprehension instead of detract. The big issue standing out right now is your Annunciation. The best example of where you need to improve is specifically "VCR and Stereo Equipment" it's an extreme example of a problem that seems repeated. Certain syllable combinations are melting together making it hard to fully follow what is being said.
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May 30, 2012 22:52
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invision posted:Here's mine you can tear apart: Mind removing the music? Not that it's bad, but it will mask underlying problems and makes it hard to give a proper review of your voice and the recording of it.
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May 31, 2012 00:22
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If there is money involved you can try to Musician's Lounge (or even if there isn't, might be people willing to do the practice). Also, lots of places that SAY their music is royalty free or public domain might not always actually be so. Also if there IS money involved you can find many sites that allow you to purchase music for a price based on what it is used for.
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Jun 6, 2012 12:49
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Blink, that's an incredibly solid demo. Hell, I have no idea if I'd be able to but if I need a female VO for any reason and I can pay I'll be sure to toss it your way. Your old demo really shows how far you've come in terms of performance and production quality. I really hope you are getting work. For anyone who is interested (unfortunately Males only right now) Pendant Productions, an amateur Audio Drama production company is looking for some auditions for a few roles for a Super Hero themed drama. The audition and the way to do so is located here: http://pendantaudio.com/ccavalon.html They are incredibly professional and expect strong quality in terms of performance and recordings, but don't let any doubts dissuade you. We take in new blood all the time and if you want assistance in auditioning or the later recording if you got a role I'm more than happy to help. I only just caught this now so there's only a couple days to Audition.
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Aug 7, 2012 02:42
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The Joe Man posted:I'll audition if I have time but do you know if there's any pay? Pendant is all free. They used to do a metric ton of fantastic fan shows like 5-7 DC comics shows, Star Trek, Star Wars, ect. So they never could charge for that. A couple months back they had to pull down EVERYTHING fan related which is a total shame. I do know that some people have gotten actual work though, but the skill sets vary a lot from really new people, to some of the better VO work I've heard. They do shows once a month so if you were to get a recurring role the time commitment is usually not too bad. I can typically do my work in about half an hour or less.
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Aug 7, 2012 05:06
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blinkeve1826 posted:Actually, right now I'm not getting work, but that's because I'm newly-minted...:drumroll: SAG-AFTRA member! What was your experience in signing up to join up with SAG-AFTRA? The process and what not. Also let us know how working with an Agent goes. I'm pretty instantly wary of the concept of working with one, but that might be too many movies on my part. Hrm, kind of a tough call on the videos. Listening the second one is clearly better in almost all ways except the SHHH ess noises which feel very harsh. Not sure if that was a recording issue or maybe the audio post guy, who frankly I'm going to just blame anyway. blackswordca posted:Specialties: I have a fairly neutral accent with a slight canadian twinge to it. I can negate it if needed it takes some effort. Though on the other hand i can crank it up do Bob and Doug McKenzie levels if needed. I can do narrator and announcer voices. I also have some general character voices. Evil Villian, dashing hero ( think Dudley Do-Right ). I have a character who is a mesh of different accents as well. I can do some proper accents but they arent great, I am working on them. I warn everyone about this, but be very careful with accents. They can be a REALLY fast way to ruin your chances. There are certain accents that are relatively easy to do. Most people can do an Apu. That does not mean we can do an Indian accent. So just keep in mind that unless you can REALLY knock an accent out of the park you'll want to be careful about fully putting it out there as a particular skill. I look forward to seeing your first demo here! JossiRossi fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Aug 8, 2012 |
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Aug 8, 2012 04:11
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Hey guys, sorry this is pretty short notice, but it's also not a huge project. I'm in need of 3 male voices. This is for a HL2 mod called Silent Escape The gentleman who made is is Russian and so I've tried to clean up the language as best I could. As such feel free to improvise, since I've gone off script as is anyway. I'll be playing James, so I need a Thomas, Kevin, and Davis. Ideally if I can get the voices as soon as possible as he is looking to release in the next couple days. However, if needed it can be released later as a patch. quote:Chaper 1: SILENT ESCAPE Feel free to claim a guy as long as you can make a quick turn around on the lines please. If you have any questions of want to some help getting context for some of the lines you can drop me a line at JamesRossiAudio@gmail.com Thanks to anyone who can help me on this. You'll also get credited in the mod for what little that's worth really.
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Aug 23, 2012 19:44
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I'll be adding the effects, so all I need are clean takes. I got your email and will respond the second I get a chance (currently in my studio recording a friend's songs).
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Aug 23, 2012 21:42
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Hey guys, just sent out an email to you both with more information. I'm still looking for a final male to play the Davis role, small role so could be done quickly. If anyone is interested let me know or just go ahead and do it! Thanks again!
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Aug 24, 2012 03:15
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Silent Escape has been released! Featuring the vocal talents of: The Aphasian as Kevin CuddleChunks as Davis Stinkmeister as Thomas JossiRossi as James Thanks a ton guys you all did a really bang up job. Silent Escape is a Half-Life 2: Epsidoe 2 mod, so if you guys have that give it a whirl and hear yourself in action! There's a few spots where things are a bit weird because the language barrier between me and Pro-Bones the maker made things a tad confusing at times. I'll try to get those patched however. It's a fun mod and your voices add a lot so again thanks! http://www.moddb.com/mods/silent-escape
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Aug 29, 2012 19:06
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Do people still listen to demo CDs these days? I know personally I'd rather just get some business cards with a link to a portfolio if I am seeing someone in person. After all I can hear you talk when we trade cards. I think a strong portfolio site will do you loads more good than even the best physical copy of anything.
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Sep 6, 2012 01:19
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Stinkmeister posted:I haven't heard anything about the phone message. I ended up working with Fuzzy Modem on his trailer, but I haven't seen the finished product yet. I think he's still working on it. *cough*He'sWaitingOnMeToAssembleItAllBecauseISuck*cough*
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Sep 6, 2012 06:07
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Honestly I think Titties said all there really is to. For a straight reading the quality is pretty good. If I up my speakers I can hear a little bit of reverb of your room, but it's really slight. Almost sounds like the top half of your room is a bit bare. A limiter/expander gate would clear that up mostly. Limiter's are the opposite of compressors. In a compressor with a sound gets too loud, it slaps the volume down a bit. A limiter is when a sound drops BELOW a certain level it then suppresses the volume. So if it's below say -60dBFS you don't hear it at all. For performance, a larger selection would help. Also what are your goals? What is it you want to do? That will help us pin point areas to work on. The snob in me would suggest getting a decent pair of headphones, instead of earbuds. That's probably just irrational bias on my part. Using them while recording is always a good idea. I can't record without hearing my own voice anymore as it is how I can tell if I have too much mouth noise, or if the mic is actually hooked up yet. Using a Tablet with a Yeti seems sacrilegious, however if your goal is quick to set up recording away from other distractions it sounds like a solid idea. For harsh esses, you can use an aptly named "De-Esser" during post production. It's a compressor that is linked to a particular frequency range. So when a range of typically 4kHz to 6-7 kHz gets too loud, it will quieten those moments. However, the ideal answer to anything that is bothering you about your voice is to start at the source. As you practice you'll learn you can modulate your voices is quite an impressive number of ways. Simple things like turning your head away from the mic when you are about to make a louder of sharper noise. Or if you are going to make a loud ESSS noise, actually pushing less air through your lungs than you would for other sounds. That winds up being pretty personal and unique to the owner of the lungs, trachea, vocal chords, teeth, tongue, lips, etc. So practice and play with your voice like when you were a kid trying to learn to whistle. You'll fumble al ot until you being to hit something of use.
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Oct 22, 2012 01:44
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That was me, I'd like to grab 2 more again next month but really, really want a better visual for the banner next time around. Cause the one I made? Yeah... *cough*
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Oct 26, 2012 19:55
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So I did this: For here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3515648
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Nov 5, 2012 03:48
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People haaaaate it in the quotes thread =[
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Nov 5, 2012 20:10
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Some people just don't appreciate El Rapo Blanco.
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Nov 6, 2012 01:03
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Yeah same here if you want me to do some my email is JamesRossiAudio at google's mail service. EXAMPLE! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHen8KxsXYI
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Nov 13, 2012 22:06
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Tinsin posted:Name: Tinsin Hello Tinsen! Welcome. So first off, I'm going to write down my impressions as they come to me on your demo and recordings and what not. I mean no offense but I typically prefer to be blunt. I am more than happy to help you improve however, so I'll do my best to answer any questions you might have in response to my thoughts. So let's rock. First off the recordings of Joe Man's OP even before I hear your voice I am catching that it sounds like you are using noise removal on the recording. It gives this really digital wishy washy effect to a recording when applied too hard. I am hearing some kind of feedback. Like you say something and then a moment later I rehear it very separately. Also, just on occasion I am hearing just some odd distortion or just a weird low noise. As you talk there are many instances when you are overloading your mic. You can hear it even when you first say Joe Man, with the buzzy fvvvvv noise. We can help you sort out any equipment set up problems you having, so if you could describe your physical set up and editing process we might be able to bring down the problems with your initial recording. Your recording environment needs a lot of cleanup. There's lots of echo that I'm guessing you tried to suppress with noise removal. A better way to accomplish this in post is using a Limiter/Expander that will cut the sound off (or diminish it) when it drops below a certain volume. Other things you can do to remove echo is to build a uh... VO Box? Someone help me =[ Not sure of the name, basically a padded box to stick your mic in. Or you could hang blankets/mattress against the walls creating the worst sound reflections. There's a lot of performance issues, but before we delve into that, we should get you up to snuff on getting a good clean signal to start with before you mess with effects or we guide you on the performances. So, in all the rambling, one of the most important bits would be telling us your equipment and set up. Pictures help!
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Nov 14, 2012 03:39
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The performance talk does remind me The Joe Man, any comments on the video I linked above as an Example? That's my latest weekly news thing, it's the 30th week. I think I hit the compressor too hard, and the editing has been rushed and sloppy so there's a few bad cuts, but I could use a fresh set of ears on what I've been doing with that from you (or anyone else) willing to give me some suggestions. Actually this weeks is weaker than usual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHen8KxsXYI Here's last weeks too which is a little stronger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tfSRXhfBZ4 Gah, now I hate my voice again. Next time I do better. Tinin, having really expensive equipment can help, but it's certainly not required. So while an upgrade WILL be required I think if you plant to take VO work seriously, in the short term, or for personal fun it's not dire. I'd say that recording in the Library just isn't going to be the best idea. You could buy/build one of these: http://recordinghacks.com/2009/07/14/portable-voiceover-studio-foam-box-test/ to use in the library but you might raise a few questions. I'd suggest recording at your mom's and finding a nice place to plunk down, hopefully a room that's not all hard walls and empty. Full rooms, fabrics, non bare walls all help reduce reflections. For semi-cheaply voice over work and audio stuff in general you need to budget and plan things out. What is your budget? What are you willing to spend on? I like my 20$ pop filter. But you can make one from a stocking and coathanger for super cheap. Some people don't use them at all (as it alters the sound) and instead aren't mouthbreathers like me. Microphones can range a lot, I use an Analog to Digital converter. Some people use all in one USB mics which are vastly simpler but just don't make you look nearly as cool. Editing programs can also be costly, but Audacity is a really fantastic program with a lot of options but not nearly as user friendly and doesn't do Real Time plugins I don't believe so you can't alter things on the fly. But it is free. So there's a whole mess of options. The more you can tell us the better. The most important is this though, what do you want to do? What is your end goal? What can you dedicate to getting there be it money, locations, or mattresses/blankets. With that we can help a lot more. Feel free to over share. JossiRossi fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Nov 14, 2012 |
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Nov 14, 2012 04:46
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Honestly, I didn't even notice I was doing that. I think that was a result of me being lazy and not reviewing the scripts beforehand. The sing song is probably because I am basically cold reading the scripts and that let's me get through without having to make too many retakes. Being lazy will be my downfall. I should have been doing this all along, but I'll need to start printing out the scripts and marking them up as you suggested ages ago in general. I've got a Top 5 thing to record soon for the site, so I'll have to start working to break that habit. Thanks for taking a listen! Was there anything else, or do you think other problems just kind of masked by that particular issue?
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Nov 14, 2012 14:35
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Books of tongue twisters are also REALLY good. I'd really stress Tinsen that you should work on your recording environment first with you current mic before working on vocal exercises. A better mic might capture MORE background noise. It depends on a lot of factors. So having a space you can comfortably record in, and at a minimum throw some blankets around is pretty important. I personally have a side room the size of a large closet that I have screwed a blanket and a big rear end foam mattress to the wall of to record in. (It also has an angled wall with is a huge bonus). Once you have a clean space to record in, you can work on clean recordings. Concurrently listening to audio books to see how people treat that material, and watching cartoons can help point you in certain directions. Finally the absolute best advise really is what Titties said. Just read the poo poo out of everything. When browsing the forums just talk the posts aloud, when reading a book or newspaper try out different styles. That will do you wonders for just not tripping up over your own tongue. Basically, I just don't want to push (or have you push yourself) towards dropping big bucks on a microphone just yet when you there's a lot of other things you'll want settled first. Also, USB mics have some pretty good sales from time to time at places like http://www.sweetwater.com/ or http://www.musiciansfriend.com/. Instead of having someone buy you one for 10% for Christmas you may be able to find it for much cheaper at a different time. It really can help to learn how to make the best of lovely equipment because its a fantastic skill. Give me a 2 buck Omnidirectional Microphone and a bedroom and I can whip something up that sounds at least half-way decent. And it is something anyone can learn to do.
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Nov 14, 2012 21:53
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