Here is a new virtual drumming machine for your computer studio. It’s software though, not another actual “box with flashing lights” as my wife calls them. You can use it in live performances or on your computer-based home studio for recording. Having used hardware drum machines in the 1980s, I can tell you that having software versions of drum machines is much better – easier and faster – at least for recording purposes.
Image Line Groove Machine released.
Archives for October 2011
Some Advice on Mixing – Where to Start
Here is an article about mixing, typically a topic more associated with music recording than voice over recording, but a fundamental topic in audio recording if you’re doing music.
However, understanding how to mix and generally play around in multitrack recording software can still be important for certain kinds of voice over jobs. For instance, I do a monthly e-learning voice over job that that has lots of phrases alternating between male and female voices (yeah, me and my wife:), with 3 seconds between them. I use the holy heck out of my mixing/multi-track recording skills to make this workflow fast and easy. For example, I put all the lady parts on one track and all the guy parts on another. Then I split the phrases on each track and color-code them (yes, blue for boys and pink for girls:)). Then I space them out with like 7 seconds between them. Then I off-set one track so I can just select all the parts on one track and drag them up to the top track so that all the parts are on one track. The colors help me make sure it’s boy-girl-boy-girl, etc. Then I simply select all the parts and tell the track I want them spaced exactly 3 seconds apart. Try doing THAT in a plain old editor:).
Anyway, check this article out, even though it’s mostly to do with music. You might learn something applicable to both music and voice over recording.
See the article here:
http://theproaudiofiles.com/mixing-where-do-i-start
Cheers!
Ken
Tips For Recording Vocals
Here’s an article about recording vocals, talking about things like how close you should get to the mic. It also talks about proximity efffect and how it can be a problem as well as a blessing. Personally when recording for voice over jobs, I like to use proximity effect (which basically says that you get a deeper, “bass-ier” sound the closer you get to certain (most) microphones) to make my audio sound a bit more intimate and immediate. But like anything else, too much of a good thing…..and all that.
Here is that article:
http://www.homestudiocorner.com/back-that-vocalist-up/
What is Unity Gain?
Here’s an item from About.com that discusses one of those “scary-sounding” terms in audio that really pretty simple. It’s all about getting the right loudness/volume of audio that will avoid distortion, but will also be strong enough to avoid a lot of noise.
Those of you interested in voice over jobs might want to pay attention here. You can create that rich radio-sounding voice (if that’s what you’re going for) by getting the best possible signal-to-noise ratio to start with.
Enjoy!
Ken
Click here to read the article: http://homerecording.about.com/od/homestudiobasics/f/unity_gain.htm
Halloween Sounds
Get Your Scary Halloween Sounds
Blastwave FX has a huge collection of high-quality, royalty-free scary sound effects for frightening, well, anyone you want. Scare the trick-or-treaters, co-workers, family members, and party-goers with these awesome sounds.
See below links to check out and download any of the 9 Horror Sound Effects Download Packs ($25 each).
Or get a 199-sound Horror Sounds library. That one comes on a flash drive since that amount of high-quality audio would be too much to download, so be sure to order this one early!
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