(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Y'all ready to be history? Get started. Welcome. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone. To the Pro Audio Suite. These guys are professional, they're motivated. Thanks to Tribooth, the best vocal booth for home or on the road voice recording, and Austrian Audio, making passion heard. Introducing Robert Marshall from Source Elements and Someone Audio Post, Chicago. Darren Robert Robertson from Voodoo Radio Imaging, Sydney.
Tech to the VO Stars. George the Tech Whittam from LA. And me, Andrew Peters, voiceover talent and home studio guy. Line up, man. Here we go. And welcome to another Pro Audio Suite, thanks to Tribooth. Don't forget the code, T-R-I-P -A-P 200. That will get you 200 US dollars off your Tribooth. And Austrian Audio, making passion heard. Last week, I did a session with a studio in Dubai.
Historically, I used to, when I was going to town to do sessions, I would, if I could, hang around afterwards and see what the engineers were doing to process my voice. If they'd let you. Yeah, if they'd let me. And they were usually pretty accommodating, I have to say. So anyway, I sent this email off to the engineer Ananya in Dubai, and I asked her what processing she used. I'll tell you what the chain was. It was the OCA18 and the Neve 1073.
So she came back and she actually really liked that chain on my voice. And then she told me what she did. So basically, she said, she used a little bit of compression. See little bit is such a, little bit is, little bit to who? A little bit of salt. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, well that's true. Talk to a radio imager about a little bit of compression, you'll get a completely different story to someone who's doing a feature film or something like that. A little bit of compression.
Yeah, okay, a little bit of compression. Sorry. And then she said, she took 600 hertz, a small 600 hertz cut. Now that's the, we were talking about this yesterday, right? That's kind of like the nasally kind of area. That nasally honk sort of thing. Yeah. So that's what she did. So I'm curious. And that's all she did EQ wise. It was just a 600 cut and that's it. It was for a documentary. So it's not a commercial. Yeah. So she's not doing too much to it. So she probably. All right.
No, not really. Well, there you go. Yeah. Look, I mean, if it sounds good, it is good. So I'm sure she obviously was happy with that. So, you know, there's nothing wrong with what she's done. So the idea was I sent you both, sent you all a file and said, let's just do a cold read and it's for television. And the script is pretty awful. It's actually a newsletter from Centrance. I couldn't think of anything else I could read but I wasn't going to get paid for it. Well, client confidentiality.
Yes, indeed. I know. So I went that down that route. So I'm curious to see or hear what you guys have done. Well, let's first play that raw file. So this is that. We just got the Passport VO printed circuit boards in-house and cannot wait to share these images with you. The next step is to build the boards up, then test them to make sure everything works correctly and then arrange mass production. I missed the memo on the for television. You know, the devils in the details, right?
Read the directions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So mine's a little hot. I think mine's more like... Oh, mine's hot too. Don't worry. Mixed mine. I've masked mine for broadcast. I don't know if you're going to try to, if you're going to level match these. Yeah, we've done all that. Yeah. So they're all level matched. We've matched them all to minus 24 LUFS. So George, you did two. Let's start with one. Yeah, so there's two variations. I don't know which one we're going to hear first. Well, I've got one.
I've got them all here. I've got them in the Roadcaster. So you pick and talk about whichever one you want to talk about. So the first one, I think it says G1 in the file name. That one is just using the audio units from Apple. And why those? Because I've been setting up processing stacks, we call it on Twisted Wave, for a really long time. And I've been always using those plugins because that was what it came with from the early days. And so I just cut my teeth on using them.
Not that I hadn't used other plugins in the past, but this is what was available. And I thought, well, if I use what's available, that means the client or the talent can also use it. They won't have to go buy plugins. They won't have to get licenses. They don't have to jump through all those hoops. They can just start Twisted Wave, open my stack, and get that same processing. So the first sample is using only audio units plugins.
And just from memory, because I've done this so many times, it's going to start with a high-pass filter X-processor, which really is a combination of an expander and a compressor. And then it's going to go to a parametric equalizer of some sort, a filter, as they call it, filter. And then it's going to go to a limiter. And then it just has a minus three output calibration at the end to make sure the limiter never goes all the way to zero. And that's it. So that's what's on the first sample.
Here we go. This is it. So George, thoughts? I don't really have any thoughts. That was the best I could do in the timeline. So I was wondering if you thought the balance of tone, you know, treble to bass and dynamics. I know that it was compressed pretty hard. It was definitely not the mix you would use for a commercial on television, but more like a web thing, I guess. I've processed mine. I've mastered mine. I was thinking of radio personally. So again, it's going to be different.
But still, yeah, it's a very natural sound. Absolutely. And it's, you know, it's got everything there that it needs. So, yeah, that was the whole point of that was because I use those plugins because that's what the typical Twisted Wave person's going to have. Yeah. They're just going to have whatever came on their Mac. Well, that makes complete sense, though. I mean, why would you build a stack for someone that, you know, if they change their operating system or something and it doesn't work.
I saw, was it Audacity have changed their compressor or something? So there's all the old ones don't work anymore. Yeah. My buddy, Jim Edgar, who's a great technologist. And he's like, hey, by the way, 3 .6 Audacity, if you're using certain plugins, they just arbitrarily change the design. Yeah. That's a good marketing move, George. Yeah, I know. I wrote him an email and we had a little behind the scenes exchange in mind and off we go. Not at all.
But yeah, that happens in Audacity land because it's made by a bunch of volunteers and they'll just arbitrarily make a unilateral, one guy will make a unilateral decision saying we should replace this old crappy compressor that hasn't changed in 10 years and make it a better one. Not to say that the new one's not better, but they shouldn't remove the old one. Yeah. I think you would just make it a new compressor or something. Right? Yeah. Version two or whatever. Or call it something else.
Exactly. So then I did a second one and that was using a preset built with Studio Rack, Wave Studio Rack. However, none of the plugins in the rack are waves. So it's got TDR Nova, which is my favorite, multi-band, what would you call that one? A dynamic EQ? I guess you would call that one. Yeah. And then I used Bertom Denoiser is the name of the noise reduction. It's like a multi-band expander. Like one of our first shows was about that one, I think. Yeah, I think so. I still like it.
And then I used, I think, LoudMax as a limiter or something like that. So I used a combination of those and that's what the second one is. How about calling it a multi-band Compu? Multi-band Compu? I don't know. Compressor equalizer. Oh, I see. Compulizer. Yeah, you're doing the wrong. Compulizer. You're trying to be clever. Compulizer. Compulizer. I like that. Compulizer. Yeah. So I don't know if you have that queued up. All right. Well, here's George's Compulized.
We just got the Passport VO printed circuit boards in-house and cannot wait to share these images with you. The next step is to build the boards up, then test them to make sure everything works correctly, and then arrange mass production. That sounds a lot more compressed, doesn't it? Yeah. That's brighter. Yeah, I was going to say, you know, that reminds me of playing it through the SSL and sticking the 4K button in compared to the one we just played. That's what that makes me think of.
Well, I've actually got the 4K button pressed. Well, there you go. The 4K button adds 4K. Uh-huh. Yes. Yes, indeed. Well, I actually have a 4K button now, too, because I have the SSL bundle and their latest bus compressor. They've stuck the 4K button in there. In the bus compressor, really? Yeah. Wow. So there you go. Kellogg's should do a special with SSL. Special K. Special K 4K. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This will compress your stomach. I like both those, George.
I think you've done a good, sterling job with both of those. Do we have something else to listen to? Well, we've got mine and Robert's. Go with Robert. Okay, let's go with Robert. Here we go. This is like blind listening for all of us. So here we go. Do they spend five minutes or ten minutes on that? About three, I think. About seven and a half. Don't tell people how little time you spend on doing this. That took you a solid half hour.
To be fair, Robert, what I should have done is taken AP's file and put it through a filter and put some background noise in there and sent you that one to do because that's what you do to me every week. I didn't because I'm a nice guy. All right, here we go. Here's Robert's feeble attempt. Yes. We just got the Passport VO printed circuit boards in-house and cannot wait to share these images with you.
The next step is to build the boards up, then test them to make sure everything works correctly, and then arrange mass production. That's interesting. I think I'm going to have a guess at this one. You've done nothing to the low end by the sounds and maybe just given a bit of a bump into the top end. Definitely give a bump to the top end. It's so hard to judge the way we're monitoring it right now to really get a good idea, but I mean, it sounded similar to mine? I think so, yeah.
I kind of, yeah, I think there was a little more top end. The S's were a little more pronounced than either of George's, but I struggled with S's too, as you'll hear, so that was kind of interesting for me. I think mine has a more deep low end, but not the… Did you put a low pass on that? I did. Here, I'll show you everything. Here you go. Okay, so over here I mixed it to minus 24. First thing in the chain is I just pumped it up and then compressed it by three decibels using the CLA-2.
Then I used the Avid Pro Tools stock EQ and I carved out what looks like… What the hell number is that there? It looks like a low mid. Yeah, like 200. I carved out a bunch of the low mids and that kind of lets you get the energy up there again and then I bumped the really lows and then I just put this kind of… I can't hear these frequencies, so I cranked them. That's because you're old. That's why you can't hear those frequencies. Is that what that is? Yeah, that's right.
It's because you're old. Yeah, it must be. No, so I bumped it 5k with a bell and then tried to continue it with a shelf and just sort of… And that's only like I bumped it by… How much did I bump it by? Like three decibels, so not much. That's not much. Okay, so then I hit it with a C4 and de-essed it and then made it up. You know what I mean, Rob? Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. So de-essed it but then cranked the S's back up. I don't think there's much compression going on here.
This upper mid might act like a little bit of a S. So from like 2 to 4k, I got a little bit of compression but then the low end, I expanded it. Yeah, right, okay. The really low end, just so that when it does hit, it's like boom. Oh, you really want to capture all of the AP. When it happens. Yeah, yeah. But when only… That's why I do the expander. So if there's low end, it's like if I go, then it's like boom.
But when I'm speaking normally or when Andrew's speaking normally, it's not necessarily pumping up everything, every one of the low end. So it just makes it kind of like a punchier low end. And then, yeah, because we were just doing nothing, I did smack it with a limiter at the very end. Like nothing, just like right off the top, like probably a decibel. And then that's it. So here's the thing that interests me, right?
Because at the beginning of the show, Andrew was talking about… What was the lady's name in Dubai? Ananya? Ananya was saying that she… And Ananya was saying that she took a cut at 600, right? Which is sort of that nasally sort of range in a voice. But what's interesting to me is I certainly haven't done that. George and you… And please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying what Ananya did was wrong. Everybody, as we've proven just by this simple scenario, everybody works differently.
But I'm interested to know… It's also what you're mixing it into. I would love to know what she's hearing. Yes, what she's mixing it into. So is she mixing it maybe into a music bed that has maybe got some instruments up around that range and so she's chopping AP back a bit. But yeah, it's kind of interesting that people's different take on stuff. So yeah, but I mean, so far they all sound really good. Well, I also like that we've all used distinctly different plugins.
Yes, well, I mean, mine's different again. Yes, that's true. So we all have. Well, let's hear yours then, Robert. Yeah, okay. Alright, here we go. This is mine. We just got the Passport VO printed circuit boards in-house and cannot wait to share these images with you. The next step is to build the boards up, then test them to make sure everything works correctly. And then arrange mass production. It's pretty compressed, isn't it? As I said, I mastered mine for radio.
I was thinking about radio typical me. So yes, it is probably more compressed than you guys. There's one thing in there that no one else has done, though. There's EQ and compression. Can I guess? What's AP going to get? Can I guess what you, well, what I'm hearing is that you've actually tried to make it sound like a 416. Yeah, well, there's a bit of cut in there because it's going on radio, but there's actually a modulator going on in the background down in the bottom end.
So rather than where Robert used EQ to boost it, I've used modulation, which also gives it a little bit of width. Can you expand it on that? It's the waves. Is it Mondo Mod? Is that the one I'm thinking of? It's the frequency modulator. Oh, hang on. Here we go. Like you flanged it. Yeah, pretty much. But only down in the bottom end.
So I've taken a split EQ, just sort of taken, oh, shit, I don't know now, maybe 300 down to 100, just a little bit, and then stuck a modulator on the back of that or sort of like a chorus-y, flange-y sort of thing. And given it width, you can open it up and make it wider. So it just opens up. Is yours in stereo? You're listening to that in stereo. See, I did this from mono. Did you keep mono? It's similar to what you were talking about, Robert, where you sort of cranked up the bottom end a bit.
I did the same, but I did it in a different way. And this is the interesting thing. I mean, we all have the same thought process. We just get there a different way, which is kind of interesting to me. It's also unique in that all three of us here have heard your voice a lot. In fact, obviously, Robbo, a ton. So we're really familiar with your voice and the way you come across to us on the show, and we also hear the way you come across to us without processing.
So I think we have a tendency to keep it more real and more natural, because we know what it should sound like and what it can sound like. We're not trying to get something filtered-sounding out of it, I guess. Robbo, can you stack together the first sentence? Yeah, well, I'm using it off the Roadcaster, so let me see what I can do. The sequence will be mine, George 1, George 2, Robert then. I'll do the same lines for all of them. Here we go.
We just got the Passport VO printed circuit boards in-house and cannot wait to share these images with you. We just got the Passport VO printed circuit boards in-house and cannot wait to share these images with you. We just got the Passport VO printed circuit boards in-house and cannot wait to share these images with you. We just got the Passport VO printed circuit boards in-house and cannot wait to share these images with you. I did a little editing.
That's really interesting when you play them like that, though. It is. Because they are all quite different. Oh yeah, now you can hear how different they are, which is really cool. The great thing about audio is there's nothing wrong with any of them. That's the thing. Everybody's got a different approach. What was the order again? It was me first, George 1, George 2, Robert. I like my second one. I like yours. I would pick yours out of all of them. That second one, George, I'll be fair.
I like the second one. I do, I like that. Reducing some low-mid mud and giving a little bit more cut. Again, we're hearing it in a vacuum. I did that on a pair of Audio -Technica 2020s or whatever the headphones are, like the 2040s. We're all working for a different goal, too, because we didn't really set a goal as in this is going to be mastered for this. Here's my suggestion. I reckon we do this one more time because the process is completely different when you're mixing it in with music.
I think you should play that for the bunch. I'll tell you what I'll do then. Firstly, I will upload those files to my Google Drive and I'll share the link in the show notes so that people can go and they can download the raw files. I'll make sure they're all balanced. Sorry, I'll make sure they're all game-matched, which they should be anyway, but I'll make sure of that.
The listeners can go and listen to them all and then what we'll do is we'll put a poll up on the Facebook page where they can go and vote for which one they like. But here's my suggestion, right? If we really want to get down to tin-tacks with this, which I think would be a more interesting experiment, is when you start putting music and stuff in around a voice track like this, you need to work a little bit differently because you need to match your voiceover to the music a little more.
You don't want a really bright voiceover with a music bed that might be a little more dull or whatever, so you tend to work a bit differently. Well, I do anyway. You need to fit it in the pockets. It needs to sit inside that music bed. You can't move the pockets completely. What I reckon would be an interesting thing is let's get some sound off tape with a little bit of noise and let's get some music and we'll write AP a little script and then we'll have a mix off that way.
It'll be interesting to see not just the process of the EQ but also mixing processes in general. Who decided that the music should be up more or down more? Who did this? Who did that? I reckon that would be an interesting one to do, so maybe we should do that as well. I think it should be a George the Tech spot. There you go. Okay. Let's write George the Tech a spot. And if it's good enough, you can run it. There you go.
And the other thing is what we could do once we've done that is actually throw all the elements up on... Have a mix off. And so anyone who wants to listen in and get involved, they can actually do a mix and send it to us. That'd be fine. I'd be curious to see what people come back with. And what we'll do is we'll have an audio engineer division and we'll have a voiceover division, so if voiceover artists decide they want to have a crack, they can have their own.
So we're not judging audio engineer specialists against voiceover artists, so everybody can have a crack and be fair then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How's that? That'll be interesting. Now... That's for another day. So are we voting or who's voting on that one? Well, we'll vote on that, I guess. But yeah, but I guess... God, I am going to be sick of Andrew's voice. LAUGHTER I'll get an aide to do it. She's already sick of my voice. All right. Well, is that a plan? I thought she tells you to shut up.
So what are we taking away from that episode, people? Are we taking away the fact that, you know, as long as it sounds good, it is good? Cos all four of those sound good to me. We've always known that. But they're all completely different. So I think we've proved that, right? Yep. Yeah. Is that our out? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just an emphatic endorsement of what you just said, Robbo. That's great. Yeah. Yep. So nice. Well, that was fun. Is it over? The Pro Audio Suite.
With thanks to Tribus. And Austrian Audio. Recorded using Source Connect. Edited by Andrew Peters. And mixed by Vudu Radio Imaging. With tech support from George the Tech Whittam. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic or just say g'day, drop us a note at our website. Theproaudiosuite.com