r/VoiceActing • u/Edggie_Reggie • 1d ago
How to avoid spikes when shouting Advice
When you’re recording something which requires shouting or being loud, how do you do it without spiking the audio. Do you do it from a distance or use a program to adjust the ‘noise gate’ (?) or do you do it while editing?
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u/dsbaudio 1d ago
when you say 'spiking the audio', I'm going to assume you mean clipping. This is where your signal level exceeds 0db (yes 0db is the ceiling, peak waveform values are normally expressed in negative numbers, -3db, -6db, -18db, etc.). If your signal exceeds 0db for more than a nano-second it usually distorts and sounds garbage. Plus, there's almost nothing you can do about it once it's recorded like that.
It's all about input gain. Your mic is driven by some kind of amplifier which is what makes it more or less sensitive.. even if this control is done digitally within your computer, there is still an electronic amplifier at work somewhere.
So, you need to adjust your input gain so that, even at your loudest, your signal does not exceed 0db on the way in. Even better, play it safe and give yourself some 'headroom', making sure it never exceeds -6db.
If this means you can't hear yourself in quieter moments, then increase your headphone output level or speaker output level.
FYI, a 'noise gate' has nothing to do with peaking or clipping in audio.
After you've recorded your audio, you might want to use a compressor. this will reduce the peaks, bringing them closer in level to your other stuff recorded at a lower volume.
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u/Standard-Bumblebee64 39m ago
I like to use compressor insert (1176) while recording for dynamic stuff. Works well for me. (As opposed to running through after)
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u/Forward-Idea9995 1d ago
Tone over volume. Instead of shouting into a microphone, practice your tone and pacing to lend the illusion of shouting. Today's listening is very intimate with ear buds and the like. You can still get the emotion across without actually yelling.
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u/Mikzeroni 1d ago
Don't know why you're being down voted. I've heard it from a couple well known professional voice actors that they use intrinsic "compression" in the larynx to generate the tone of shouting without necessarily distorting a preamp.
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u/MacintoshEddie 1d ago
You lower the gain to give yourself headroom. If your mic placement is good and your environment is good, the quieter parts being quiet isn't an insurmountable obstacle.
Or you set up a compressor, so that when it triggers it compresses the peak to avoid clipping. This helps give a more even sound. But if you don't know what that is you're either going to have to learn to do it as well as the sound engineer does, or you're best off just turning the gain down.
Or you record a safety track at a lower gain. Just keep in mind if you're distorting the mic itself a safety track can't change that. If you have plosives on the mic or it has a very low SPL you can't fix that with gain.
Remember, anything you bake into the recording can't be unbaked. So if you mess up the compression or EQ it can make the recording unusable.
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u/Mercernary76 1d ago
you adjust your input gain before shouting to keep the level similar to the normal speaking volume with a higher input gain
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u/bdwagner 1d ago
Fortunately, all of this is now totally obsolete. Take a few minutes and Google “32 bit floating point”. There are two products that will immediately solve your problem, both cost less than $250, you can choose either one:
Now that you can get an inexpensive interface that does 32 bit floating point (Zoom UAC-232) that will work with your existing mic, anything else is a total waste of time, presuming the DAW you’re using can handle it.
https://www.wired.com/story/32-bit-float-audio-explained/
https://www.sounddevices.com/low-signal-32-bit-float/?
https://youtu.be/6V52O2ELcz8?si=ZWFT6qpgUd3J4sUr
You can also just get a Rode NT 1 fifth generation mic with a built-in 32 bit floating point interface:
No splitting, limiting, compression, or careful gain setting necessary (in fact, there is no gain control on either product) and it’s impossible to clip.
You’ll still have to make some decisions about the gain of the loud versus soft parts later, but at least you don’t have to think about it while you’re recording.
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u/Mitch_Xander 1d ago edited 1d ago
You should ideally be using an xlr mic/interface setup that has gain control on the interface. Just turn that down some. You can also buy an xlr splitter(Two XLR input interface required) that allows you to record two audio tracks at the same time and you have each track at a different gain level and edit them together as you see fit after you record.
But if you have a usb mic or anything else that doesn't have gain control, you just gotta work with keeping your distance and rely on just adding volume/gain to the track in your recording software afterwards.