Best Audacity Settings for Voice Over.
Good sound = practice + quality equipment + sound editing. The first two take time and money, but the third is easy to handle. All you need is a little program called audacity.
So, Audacity is a popular audio editing software that has been around for ten years. People use it to record and edit your musical instrument, podcast, voiceover, and more.
In this post, we’ll see how to improve your voice acting with Audacity. (video tutorial)
Enhance your sound with Audacity
# 1 Download Audacity
You can download Audacity from here and install it on your computer like any other program. The program is free and available for all popular programs like Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.
After that open Audacity.
# 2 Record or import your own audio.
– If you have already recorded audio with an external device like a portable microphone or something else, just import that recording into Audacity.
To do this, go to File Import and select your entry. It is always recommended to create a copy of your voice recording before importing it into Audacity.
– Or you can also record audio using Audacity itself. Yes, Audacity is both a voice recorder and an editor.
To record audio with Audacity, connect a microphone to your computer (or use the built-in one), make sure the correct microphone is selected under the input device. Then press the red button to start recording and start speaking. When you’re done, click the Stop button.
# 3 Remove the bad voice
Only professionals get it right on the first try. And since you’re reading this, chances are you are not a professional (at least not yet). So let’s remove the duplicate sound or spaces in it.
Select the part of the waveform you want to remove and click the scissors icon. You can also press the delete key; it’s much faster.
If you are unable to delete the selected sound, make sure you stop recording.
Tip: If you make any mistake, like accidentally deleting something, use the undo / redo button in Audacity (CTRL + z and CTRL + SHIFT + z).
# 4 Remove background noise
Unless you’re recording sound in a professional studio, there will always be background noise or hum. So let’s remove this.
First, select a clean noise sample and go to Effects Noise Removal Get Noise Profile.
Now that Audacity knows what to filter; go back to your recording and select all sound (press ctrl + A). Now go back to the noise removal dialog box. Make sure you have the default settings (see screenshot below) and click OK.
The default settings are usually sufficient. but if your recording has more noise, move the slider next to Noise Reduction to the right and then click OK. Audacity will remove all noise from the recording.
Tip: It is recommended to speak 5 seconds after clicking the start button. This way you can easily pick up noise.
# 5 Normalize
Normalization increases the audio level of the entire clip without affecting the dynamic range. So, if your sound is low it will amplify it.
But if you overdo it (or any other effects as such) it will degrade the sound quality.
So, select your entire clip (CTRL + A) and go to Effect and then Normalize. Leave the default settings (see screenshot below) and click OK.
# 6 Compression
Now, what kind of compression reduces the difference between low and high sounds to make the sound sound smoother?
So, select your audio clip again, go to Effects Compressor.
What settings should I use? Well, there is no fixed value for it, as it depends on the individual voice. I suggest you play with the threshold for a bit (keep it between -5 and -15). Leave the rest as default and click OK. You will notice a decrease in the high and low frequencies of your waveform.
# 7 Equation
We’ll add two filters here – Bass Boost and Treble Boost.
Bass Boost makes your voice deeper or deeper. So, select your entire clip again, go to Effects EQ Select Curve Bass Boost.
Now adjust the curve. The default is 9 dB. If you lift the curve up, it will add more base to your voice, and vice versa.
Then we’ll add T reble Boost; this makes your voice crisp and clear. To do this, repeat the same process as above. Select the entire clip go to Effects EQ Select Curve Treble Boost. Again, I like to keep it within 3-6 dB. And then click OK.
However, I highly recommend not overdoing them because they can improve the quality of your voice, but at the same time, you will also sound like someone else. A and when you speak without these filters your audience won’t know who you are.
# 8 A difficult limit
This is optional, but applying this filter can increase the amplitude of your voice. Therefore, if you see bursts of a wave that touches the ceiling, use a hard limiter. He hits the high frequencies.
Select all sound effect scroll down until you see Hard limit. In the “dB” section, limit selects a value between 0 and 5 dB and leaves the other two default values and clicks OK.
Pro tip: Add string
Finally, as soon as you get the sweet spot on your post. You are using a chaining effect to automate everything you just did. This will save you a lot of time.
To create a new chain, select File Edit Chain Add Give it a name. Then click the paste option in the right half of the dialog and add effects one by one.
To apply a chain to the current project, select the entire clip File Apply Chain Select the chain and apply it to the current project.
Closing words
Here are some of the settings I use to improve my voice. Now this is just an overview; It takes some trial and error to get the best setting for yourself. However, if you run into problems, let me know in the comments below.