Certain parts of voice-over don't come through?

Question

Hello everyone, I've been doing voice-over for about four months and am really enjoying it and learning a lot as I go. However, I've been having an issue that I just can't figure out. Searching on these forums, Google, and YouTube hasn't revealed a solution. Basically, some parts of my words (beginning or end) either sound muffled/underwater, and sometimes the letter in the word is absent entirely. This seems to happen randomly - the only time it happens consistently is at the very beginning of my voice-over after at least 10 seconds of silence, but it'll also happen in my live read in the middle of a sentence. I have experienced this issue with different microphones, and with/without windscreens and amplifiers. Also with different mic distance to mouth and different levels of amplification. I don't believe this is sibilance or plosives but I could be wrong?

For reference, I'm currently using a RODE PODMIC XLR and Behringer U-Phoria UM2 interface, with a Klark Technic CM-1 mic booster. However as mentioned, I was experiencing this same issue with my old USB mic. I'm using Adobe Audition, and am convinced/paranoid there's some software setting on Audition that is doing this.

I'm attaching two snippets of a voice over to give an example of this issue. This is completely raw audio - no processing at all. It first happens on the very first word "Join". It then happens again at 0:11 with the 'D' in "Durability", there's a moderate instance of it happening at 0:13 with the 'C' in "Combined", and finally, at 0:22 on the last letter of the last word, the 'S' in "Slides".

This has been an issue I can't seem to figure out and I'd be really appreciative if anyone could shed some light on what's going on. Thank you very much.

SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Answer

I don't know how much of this you are going to like, but I'll tell you what I think - along with a few things that hopefully will help:

We'll get one thing out of the way immediately - Audition only records exactly what it's sent from your sound device. Nothing more, nothing less and it always records dry - this is good professional practice, and it's always been like that. So there's no way it's an Audition problem you have. So what's going on?

From listening to the file you attached, I think you have two problems, and one of them is exacerbating the other. You are using a Rode Podmic, and as a dynamic mic they have a good sound for a certain type of radio voice, of the deep and mellow type. Now with the best will in the world, this doesn't sound like your voice. What I think is that you should use a decent condensor mic, and things will improve quite a lot. No it's not sibilance or plosives; if anything it's the complete opposite. Your articulation is fairly soft, and those upper partials are going to need all the help they can get.

There are also vocal exercises that you can do which will strengthen your voice in this regard. The most often-quoted one is to practice tongue-twisters for a few minutes each day, but there are other things you can do too - have a look here for instance. By your own admission, you haven't been doing this for long, and now would be a good time to develop some good habits, I'd say.

There is one other thing that you should do if you aren't already doing it, and that's to use a decent set of headphones to monitor yourself whilst you are speaking, and at a reasonable volume. This way, you will hear what's actually being recorded, rather than just the sounds inside your head. Just doing this can make quite a difference to the way you speak.

But don't despair - it's not all bad. You just need to work on it all a bit!

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