Plugin Perils: Finding the Balance in Audio Correction

This week on The Pro Audio Suite, we tackle the intricate world of recording on the go. With the ever-increasing demand for mobility in voiceover work, we dissect the use of shotgun mics in less-than-ideal environments, the golden rule of getting your setup right from the start, and the tempting but perilous path of "fixing it in the mix".

Our conversation veers into the high stakes of recording from the road, dubbed the black belt of audio recording, where knowing your tools inside out is paramount. We scrutinize the effects of overusing plugins like Isotope, Waves Clarity, and Acorn's latest offerings, especially the trade-offs between noise reduction and the dreaded d-reverb, and their impact on audio fidelity.

Moreover, we explore practical strategies for minimizing room reverb without sacrificing the room's aesthetics, leveraging the latest AI and machine learning technologies for a cleaner sound, and the importance of recording a clean, unprocessed track as a safety net.

Join us as we ensure you're equipped to record high-quality audio, no matter where you are.

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Hunter S Thompson

And don't forget that code trip to 100 for $200 discount on your tribooth and Austrian audio making passion heard. Now, a different kind of microphone is the shotgun, which is kind of handy if you're in a not-so-perfect situation. But a lot of people are recording and doing voiceovers from places that they probably shouldn't. So do you fix it in the mix or do you get your shit together in the beginning?

: Got to get your shit together in the beginning. Don't think there's any question, really.

: Well, do you want to tell your client that you're not where you should be or do you want to try to hide it? Or do you want to just fess up to it? Because I think that hide it well, then obviously you're going to get really good at whatever it is. Isotope and waves clarity. And there's some new stuff from acorn, I think.

Speaker C: Yeah, that's why I call recording from the road like the black belt of audio recording, because you really have to know all the tools and all the techniques to pull it off and have it still sound as close as possible to a studio recording. It's not easy unless you have a lot of experience.

: If you work any of those things too hard and you're going to hear it, that's the thing. You can hire the best audio engineer in the world, but if you stand in the middle of a bathroom with an open microphone, there's only so much he can clean up before you start hearing the whole it's lost a bit of fidelity thing.

: Well, only the voiceover bodysuit is designed for that.

: Yes, well, that's the thing exactly. I mean, think once the passport Vo is out, that's the next project is the pro audio suite.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Every plugin that has to do some kind of an algorithm or a digital filter to the audio to remove something causes an artifact at some point, even.

: On a subtle level, it takes a little bit of life and reality away to it, and it approaches more of what is probably eventually going to be known as like an AI sort of sound.

Speaker C: It could be. Yeah, I mean, I'm already used to rx ten voice. Denoise. I know what it sounds like. I'm immediately always turning it down. Someone's like, I use this plugin and I'm like, twelve DB of reduction is too much, man.

: You can always tell when people choke down on the signal too much. And what happens is they start listening to their own stuff and they don't always reference back to the original to see how much you've improved it, because you can overdo it for sure.

: Oh, absolutely.

Speaker C: People apply this stuff blindly. They don't really have a critical ear. And of course, it's harder to even have a critical ear when you're traveling again. Henceforth, the black belt reference. It's a lot harder to get that same sound consistently when you're on the move. True.

: But the thing that does that's noise reduction. But the thing for me that does more damage is d reverb. D reverb is so destructive. Like, just let's call it a quarter turn for whatever you're on. And I reckon you start hearing it.

: And which one is that in particular? Because there's the wavelength, but I don't.

: Know of any that will deal with serious room reverb and do it cleanly.

Speaker C: No, this is the way all these plugins are, guys. The more in your mind you're thinking, I really need this plugin, the worse it's going to sound.

: Yeah, true. And then you run them together, run some noise reduction and dereverb and see what happens. That's just like death.

Speaker C: It's awful sandy grain. And you have to run them in the right sequence, too. If you got to run multiple reduction tools, they have to be running the right way, the right sequence. Agreed. It's not up. There's a television personality here in the States named David Pogue, and we set up his home studio with what was the minimal, I think, treatment you could get away with. Right. It's a decent sized home office, high ceiling. I didn't want it to look like a studio know stuff covering everything. So we did what we could to still have it look like a nice space to be in. In the end, it still had some reverb. And so when I showed him how to use clarity VXD reverb, he was thrilled because we had already dealt with 95% of the reverb. Right. It was already really good, but there was still a tail. You still had some room tail that was there. So then when he used the clarity VX to reverb it sounded amazing, and he was thrilled. And he's like, I use it on everything. I use it on everything now that I do. And that's because we did our due diligence to get as rid of as much of it as possible. And that's how all these plugins that modify the original audio using algorithms and AI, that's how they all have to work. Now, the AI stuff is a whole different kind of a ballgame. So the ability to do it with less artifacts is definitely becoming a thing. That's why I think the clarity VXD reverb is so good because it's based on machine learning. But you still can't have a room with a reverb tail of two or 3 seconds and just make it sound like a dead studio.

: No, I've heard people try, though. That's the thing. Yeah, I've heard people try not happen. Yeah. Just crazy.

: It's funny. Obviously, we all look at social media and you see posts from voice talent in their so called booth, or their part of the room where they record. And that was the thing that I was looking at the other day, and I saw one and thought, God, how the hell does that work? Or are they just getting away with it? I don't know. But then that was why I thought, well, I might as well just set up out here. And I mean, this is not ideal by any means. The only thing I've got really in front of me is a couple of those oralx gobo kind of panels. But I've got a hard desk, I'm on a concrete floor. My actual, all my outboard gear and everything in screens are to my left. And there's no treatment in this room at all.

: Yeah, I mean, you're lucky in the beginning, though, that you were in such a quiet location to begin with. I know the rooms because the right.

: Mic and the right placement, you can get away with the acoustics, you can do a lot, but noise, you're immediately having to use tools that are going to leave their impression on it. I would say that whoever is doing this, until you are so confident with it, figure out how to also record a clean, unprocessed track while you're doing.

: The session, at least.

: Yeah, as clean as you possibly can before you start dialing in noise reduction and dereverbs and stuff.

Speaker C: Absolutely. Yeah.

: Just somehow capture it both processed if you need to deliver it processed, but capture onto your hard drive just your microphone.

: Yeah.

Speaker C: That's what's so cool about this little tula mic. Remember, I did the appearance a few weeks ago from my folks house. A little cute green. I'm holding it. Now, that thing can record through the Bruce free noise reduction algorithm and dry simultaneously to its internal memory or through the USB. So you get both the dry and the noise reduction version of everything you do.

: Wow.

Speaker C: Which is awesome.

: That's cool.

Speaker C: That makes it something I would feel way more comfortable using in the field. Not that it's an amazing mic. I would probably pick a better mic, but still, the idea that was thought of is really brilliant.

: I think Michael's going to have that next week with the Portcaster AI. Isn't it going to have the Deverb and the denoise knob?

Speaker C: I don't know. Is this a scoop? I hadn't heard about that yet. It needs to go in a little.

: Baggie, but yes, it's a scoop.

: Wow.

Speaker C: Okay.

: No, I don't think we're getting the AI chip on our interface, but yeah.

Speaker C: No, we're going purest. The passport po is purest.

: It is. And so it should be. Yeah. So anyway, what's the wash up on this one? Just make sure that you have the best space possible, which we always say.

: And then get as close to perfection as you can. And then use it with some restraint, I guess is the word.

: And consider capturing an unprocessed version just in case.

: And yes, I know, I know that Us audio engineers get this stuff and slap reverb all over it, but it's different.

: That's right. But I've already got reverb on it for you. You don't have to worry about that, bitchambo. Yeah, exactly. And don't use Robert's setup for your voiceovers, whatever you do, for God's sake.

: And on that note, thanks for joining us this week. It's been a great show.

: Thank you, Mr. Letterman.

: Yes, and thank you, road.

: It only took us three years to find these glowing buttons.

: Well, that was fun.

Speaker B: Is it over?

Speaker A: The pro audio suite with thanks to tribut and austrian audio recorded using source Connect, edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging with tech support from George the tech Wittam. 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.