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For many of us, one of the biggest concerns when recording audio on our own is sound quality. However, it’s possible to do a good job without many complications or expensive programs. Next, I will give you some tips so you can do it yourself. All you will need is a microphone to record and a computer.
The program that we are going to use is called Audacity, an audio editor that has two great advantages: The first good news is that It’s free! Totally free. And the second, which works in both MAC and WINDOWS operating systems.
Table of Contents
- Let’s get started!
- 1. Noise reduction
- 2. Compression
- 3. Bass rise
- Four. Treble boost
- 5. Limiter
- 6. Normalize
Let’s get started!
First of all, prepare your recording space. Try to remove as much noise as possible from your surroundings and make sure you have a distance from the microphone of approximately 30 centimeters. This will help you to have a clearer voice recording. If you are also recording video, it will give you the possibility to keep the microphone out of frame.
Once you start recording, I recommend that you wait with about 5 seconds of silence in which you record only the ambient noise so that you can later eliminate it in the rest of the clip (I will explain how to do it). Now, choose the text you want to engrave and get to work.
1. Noise reduction
To eliminate background noise, select the first 5 seconds with the cursor previously recorded silence, or select the area where you have ambient noise and voice cannot be heard. Once you have done this, go to the menu Effects and there select Noise Reduction . In the window that will appear in front of you, click on the button Get Noise Profile , without altering the settings below.
Now, select the entire clip , go back to the tab Effects and select Noise Reduction once more, but this time, click on the button okay.
Te aconsejo que siempre, antes de comenzar a grabar, intentes eliminar la mayor cantidad de ruido posible de tu entorno. Por ejemplo, ventiladores y aires acondicionados, el viento, etc.. Pero para aquellos ruidos que no puedas evitar, este truco te ayudará a tener un sonido más limpio.
2. Compression
Compression is a way of balancing the audio by compressing the sound wave to make it a bit more harmonic. That is, the softest and loudest sounds in your recording will meet at a midpoint for avoid dissonances. To do this, select the entire audio track, go to the Effects and select Compressor. There we can modify the threshold ( Threshold ) moving the first bar. I recommend keeping it between -15 and -20 dB.
3. Bass rise
We recommend this step for those who want a more serious effect on their voice. To increase the bass of your audio, open the tab Effects and select Equalization . At the bottom of the window, look for the section Filter Curve then click on Manage / Factory Presets and there select the option Bass Boost.
At this time, listen and adjust manually, doing click on the green line and raising or lowering the level as you deem necessary. To save the changes, click on the button Okay .
Four. Treble boost
This step is very similar to the previous one, only this time we will deal with the high-pitched sounds of your recording. It is important to keep a balance between the different records. Once again open the bar Effects, and search Filter Curve / Manage / Factory Presets This time, however, choose the option of Treble Boost and then click the button Okay.
5. Limiter
The limiter is a compression tool that will help reduce peaks in the audio, without distorting it. Performing this step will help you in the mastering process, giving it a boost end to the audio output level.
To apply this function go to the tab Effects and search Limiter. On the first line, where it says Type , make sure it’s in mode “Hard Limit” .
Once that option is selected, click on the button okay .
6. Normalize
Locate in the tab Effects the option “ Normalize “ . This option will help to raise the volume of the audio wave without going over the peaks, that is, without saturating it. This step will be very useful to save time if you are going to use this audio later in programs like Final cut , because you can import it at once with the desired volume. We recommend a maximum amplitude of -1.0 dB.
And that’s it! With these 5 simple steps you can achieve a clean and quality sound. Some other things you could do with this program are:
- Add sound effects to your recording.
- Mix multiple audio tracks.
- Alter the pitch and speed of the clip.
Remember that this editor supports formats such as mp2, mp3, flac, wav and aiff and, once the project is finished, you can export it to other applications such as video editors where you can integrate it, for example, into audiovisual projects.
We hope this tutorial is useful to you and that your projects come true. Now it’s up to you to try it out and show yourself that it is possible to make a good recording with the minimum. Don’t be afraid to experiment.
