How Using a Reference Can Save Your Bacon (and Your Audio for Video)

For a recent video, I almost made a huge blunder with the audio after doing countless tweaks and processing moves to try to make it sound its best.

With some of the processing steps where I was taking things out to improve the recording, I actually ended up losing some of the clarity that the voice recording previously had...

In effect, I was making it sound worse!

You see, I was mired in the audio processing and lost sight (or sound) of the big picture.

This happens all the time when processing dialogue voice recordings and it highlights how important it is to "check in" with a good sounding reference.

So how do you "check in" or compare with a reference recording?

Read on for 3 simple steps to compare with a reference and save your voice recording.

What Is a Good Sounding Reference?

To find a good sounding reference for your specific situation, you want a good quality (i.e. clear and understandable) voice recording that sounds somewhat similar to your voice recording.

For instance, if your voice is a lower male voice you would want to find a somewhat low male voice for your reference. If your voice is a higher female voice look for a high-ish female voice for your reference.

The idea is to try to compare apples to apples rather than apples to oranges bearing in mind that any voice recording you find also needs to be clear and understandable (good quality).

A good place to get a variety of well recorded voices for reference would be from The Mastering Show Podcast (and you'll learn a ton as well!). 

How (and Why) Do You Volume Match?

There are different ways to set up your audio files, but try to keep in mind the simple goal:

• make the recordings the same volume and then compare them to each other. 

Volume matching is so important because our ears get fooled by differences in volume - that is, louder sounds better to our ears.

So you'll typically be turning down the finished reference voice recording to your unfinished voice recording and/or turning your recording up to the reference.

This is so you can make a useful comparison between the two.

To set this comparison up you could do something as simple as listening back and forth to the reference and your voice recording on your phone.

You would just turn the volume down on the reference recording so that the two recordings sound like they're at the same volume. 

A more sophisticated (and accurate) set up would be in your DAW using a volume matching plug-in to balance the volume between the reference and your voice recording.

There are various volume matching plug-ins out there, but to see how I set this up step by step using Ian Shepherd's Perception plug-in, check out my video:

• Puny to Professional Sounding Voice Recordings | How to Volume Match (starting at 11:01).

To learn more about volume matching plug-ins, here's a link to Ian Shepherd's plug-in and to a less expensive plug-in from TBProAudio. 

What Should It Sound Like?

Remember my story from the beginning, where I nearly released a very dull and unclear sounding voice recording for video?

I thought it sounded great, but thankfully I stopped for a "check in" with a few of my voice recording references.

After some careful listening, I found it did not sound like those references and this really saved my bacon.

The comparison told me there was a problem!

My audio for video sounded full in the low end like the references, but it was lacking that clarity in the upper mid-range that really helps the voice cut through and helps it to be understandable.

This is one of the areas to listen for when you're comparing to your reference.

Some other areas to listen for are:

• does it sound full, having weight in the low end or does it sound more muddy?
  
  
• does it sound clear and understandable or more harsh and cutting with the "S" and "T" sounds being too prominent (sibilance issues)?
  
  
• does it sound thin and lacking weight or does it sound warm and full?
  
  
• is the overall sound comparable to your reference - clear and understandable where you can hear the low end up through the mid and top frequencies?

Check your recording against your reference early and often to address any problems at the beginning of the production process rather than the end (don't be like me!).

Start Saving Your Bacon by Careful Listening

You can sum it all up by saying, "a reference recording is used as a guide for our own recordings".

What's more, you can easily learn to improve the sound of your podcast, sermon or video audio by comparing with a good sounding reference recording.

And remember that the reference you choose should sound somewhat similar to your voice recording in order to make useful comparisons.

Finally, you match the volume between the two and start listening for subtle differences to guide any EQ changes that need to be made.

For more in depth help to learn how to do careful listening, check out my video on this very subject.

Try out these simple steps to compare and guide your voice recording corrections today and let me know how it's working for you in a comment below!

Cheers, Bryan
Your Dialogue Editing Mentor