So a friend and I spent most of today working on a fanfic. I say a friend because while I don't normally collaborate, this was a particularly special occasion: I'd decided after listening to some podcasts that I wanted to try and record the first ever Ar Tonelico podfic. Basically, think audiobook, but for fic: a story told in spoken word. But I don't have the voice of a Reyvateil, so I had to enlist some help.
The actual acting went great, and I was planning to have the project ready for you all today, but for one annoying hitch: our equipment wasn't very good. I'm not sure if it's the mic input on my laptop or the microphone itself (which I went out and bought specially for this project, and I got the best quality one they had at reasonable price), but there was enough static and feedback that even hours of tinkering in various editors couldn't remove it fully. So what we ended up with was a file that's barely audible at low volumes, and muffled and muddy at high volumes.
We're going to try again and see if we can get a better setup with another computer or perhaps some different equipment, because I'm really pleased with what we've got so far, but in the meantime, that's what I've been doing all day. I really rather wanted to have that up for you right now....
Letra - Eldharia ~Inori Saku Mori~
2 months ago
8 comments:
guess you should get a mic muffler like the bright sponge shown on tv...or get a recording software since it usually has a static reducer...
I did run the output through a static reducer, several times; I probably do need the muffler, though.
Bad connection or junction somewhere perhaps? I used to record stuff with a mic when I was a kid & never had trouble with static. The equipment wasn't good either...just a boom box & a moderate quality mic.
This sounds like a totally awesome idea btw! I can't wait to hear the finished product!
I'm definitely thinking at the moment that it's the connection between the PC and the mic, yes, since I've heard static coming out of this headphone slot before and I heard while researching the problem that some makes of laptop do pick up motherboard (fan, disk drive, etc.) noise from the analogue mic port. A USB microphone may help with this, perhaps, though I really don't want to buy another one!
And thanks! I'm pleased with how the first take went, so hopefully when we get decent audio quality this will be something to be proud of.
Let me know if you learn how to get high quality sound. When I was doing recordings for Librivox, I had a lot of problems with plosives; I tried holding the microphone sideways from my face so the air wasn't going right into it, but I still had problems. It's kind of hard to dramatize the narrative and focus on not ploding your plosives at the same time. I asked on the forums, and they said there wasn't much I could do with the already-recorded file (that they knew of).
The plosives were definitely ploding, yes. And part of it was that when she got to the dramatic bits she was putting energy into her voice and... it's really hard not to make your Ps pop and your Ss hiss when you do that, yes.
Did you have a muffler on your mic? I'm hearing from various sources that that may make a big difference.
That was my problem as well. Emotional moments are meant for crying out with all your heart, not for minding your Ps and Ss.
I did not have a muffler. Am considering that it might befit me to get a new mic and a muffler for it, since I'm not sure whether the one I had ever recovered from the battery leak incident anyway. I would like to get back to doing Librivox at some point, once I figure out not to have the plosive problems.
I'd really like to hear you do more Librivox. I loved the work I did hear you do for it.
And, yes... part of why I wanted to do this podfic project in the first place was because in written fic you can only make so much of an impact on the reader by having the characters cry out in emotion, and I really wanted to do a piece where fans could feel the full impact behind my words, so I thought, I'll write a radio play. So I really do want there to be emotion behind the words; that can't be sacrificed for the sake of microphone noise, but the recording needs to be clear, too.
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