How to match noise levels from two different recording sessions (same speaker)

Question

I'm recording stimuli for a language experiment. Half of the recordings are from several months ago, half are from a couple of weeks ago. I used the same settings to remove noise and adjust volume, but the recordings still sound different. My primary issue is that the first set of recordings sounds "crisper" than the other. I'm thinking that gain might have been different when recording. Not sure how to make the recordings sound more similar. Reducing the noise further on the second recording helps but does not eliminate the problem. I've seen previous forums suggest the dynamics processor and EQ tools for similar issues, but I'm not familiar enough with either of those to understand which settings to use.

Happy to provide samples of the recordings via Box or email.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Answer

The chances of getting two recordings made even one day after the other to sound exactly the same is pretty slender, even if the equipment setup is identical - it really doesn't take much to alter somebody's voice, which is why we always record voice-overs in a single session.

If you start messing about with the dynamics processor, you'll only make things worse. The only thing that might help a bit is a match-eq plugin. This takes the response of one recording and applies it to another, and this is much more likely to even out 'crispness' issues. Trouble is, there aren't any free ones around. One that doesn't cost the earth and looks quite interesting though is Eventide's EQuivocate. Unfortunately this isn't a function that any of the built-in EQ systems in Audition has.

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