a question about improving sound quality

[lavishsqualor]

Firstly, I'd like to introduce myself, so. Hi guys! :D

I'm relatively new to podficcing, have put out a few smallish ones in the SPN fandom. Luckily, as I was surfing the interweb the other night, I stumbled upon this wonderful comm! and then spent a bunch of time browsing people's q and as. I've realized that I'm really interested in forking out

Comments

[lavishsqualor]

Haiii!

Thanks so much for taking a listen. :) I really appreciate the feedback! I guess I'd have to agree with you, about it not really being a distraction... I'm thinking that the problem is that now that I'm aware that it doesn't have to be there? I just want to find a way to get rid of it. :P

And thanks so much for the feedback! And also for the offer to betalisten!! I really am very interested in that. I will be in touch! :DDD

[rakushi]

If you were still interested in a mic, Groupon has one for the iPod/iPhone (3rd genearations and up from what I've read) and iPad for $30 instead of $100. It's a Blue, a microphone company I've noticed seems to be used a lot by podficcers, and the few test clips I've heard sound wonderful! I posted the link in my question post on the comm. There's about an 1.5 hours left on the deal though if you were interested. I haven't heard your clips yet, but I'll head over and listen as soon as I'm home. :)

[rakushi]

So, just listened and heard what you meant about ambient noise. Are you using Audacity or GarageBand for sound editing? Also, LOVE your reading style! Anyway, I downloaded your podfic to see if I could remove any of it and keep the good quality of it you've got going (which I wish I had on this 13+ year old mic I was using). So far it seems like I did. I fiddled around with the Noise Removal option and lowered the noise 30 dB. Here's the link to it, let me know if it changed how you were hoping. Oh! And also, thank you so much for introducing me to Minus! OMG I love it and I've only been using it for 20 seconds!

Edit: I'm a bit slow. You said GarageBand. Duh. I'm not sure how to do the noise removal in that seeing as my Mac is dead, but I say go with what you're doing and give them a Noise Removal polish in Audacity afterwards. :)

[lavishsqualor]

OMG. Thank you soooo much for listening and for helping SO MUCH. (I'm so sorry it took me so long to reply, this weekend has been crazy and I literally have not gotten a moment alone to listen to what you did, till now...) You so totally did remove the noise, like, all of it. It's clear as day, now! I AM SO HAPPY. So yeah, I don't know how to use audacity. I downloaded it once and was like Oh, this looks confusing! Will use program that came with my computer! lol. But now that I know that it is indeed possible to improve the quality so much post-recording, in audacity, if I can't get the same effects in garageband, I'm totally gonna teach myself audacity--or even just how to do a noise removal polish like you did. :)))

Seriously, thank you soooooooo much. I appreciate your help like you don't even know! And you just saved me $$$. :D

Also, yay for Minus, right?! It is excellent! I was also in love with it after like twenty seconds, and I still am, a few weeks later, so. Glad you're enjoying!

[erica_schall]

Hi,

I just listened to a short bit of your example podfic and also found that the background noise wasn't really very noticeable.

But what I usually use in GarageBand is the filter for 'Female Narrator Noisy' (to get there: in the track info window > Podcasting > Female Narrator Noisy) or you might just want to try out some of the other available ones.

lunchy_munchy has made a GarageBand tutorial where she touches on this as well. It's here (at 3:20 if you want to jump right to it).

Hope this helps :)

[lavishsqualor]

Thanks so much for taking a listen and letting me know what you thought. I'm really glad you found that the background noise wasn't very noticeable, but also! your trick about using the 'female narrator noisy' filter makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE. Seriously, it clears things right up. Soooo good to know.

Really, TY very much for taking the time to share this advice. You've just saved me major $$$. :D

[erica_schall]

:)