Voice sound hollow - like talking into a tube or something. How to fix it

[baiaz]

Hi

I have a Rode stereo mic that was attached to my camera while doing an interview. The Voice sound like talking into a tube or like Hollow.

Is it a way to fix it or to make it better?

And is there a tutorial or something that can help me out?

I use Audition CC - but am not a user of it.. so I dont know that much.. but I have it install... to put it that way

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Rode stereo mics usually sound a lot better than that - which makes me wonder how it got recorded. Any chance of posting a short sample? Generally it's quite hard to fix sound like that, but it's always worth working out what caused it!

[baiaz]

[audio mp3="http://mortenalmeland.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Intervjue_1-Audio-Extracted_01.mp3"][/audio]

Hmmmm let me see if this works

I have removed some hissing noice from it first - just to be clear on that...

[ryclark]

It sounds as if you may have been a bit too enthusiastic with the Hiss Reduction. Overdoing that or Noise Reduction can easily cause the "hollow" sounding effect. Do you still have the original for us to listen to?

[baiaz]

Here it is - straight for the memory card

[audio mp3="http://mortenalmeland.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Noediting.mp3"][/audio]

[SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Accepted solution]

Two things: yes, you have been a bit enthusiastic with the NR, but the main reason that it now sounds a little strange is that it's a very coloured recording - you can hear the room intruding into it because the mic is too far from the speaker. When you do NR under these circumstances, it invariably sounds a bit weird, because a part of that room sound is inevitably cut off, unless you are extremely careful with what you are doing. So you can hear part of the room but not all of it, and that invariably sounds a bit weird.

Getting most of the noise out of a recording like that is a fine judgement call... and invariably you are better off leaving just a little bit of it, because that will almost certainly sound better than removing all of it.

[baiaz]

Thank you so much for taking your time to guide me!

[BillHolmquist]

I'm having a similar problem when using NR. After sampling and removing, the voice sounds like it's in a tin-can?

Any suggestions?

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Yes. Go back to the original, use the default low FFT size and don't take very much off at all. Then reset the FFT to the maximum size, take a new noise sample (you'll have to) and once again don't take off too much. You'll get better overall NR with less artefacts. And always leave a little noise, otherwise it will sound completely unnatural.

[Bob Howes]

I've been known to do 3 or 4 very light passes of NR for stuff that's critical.

However, to be a bit of a pedant, the best way to reduce noise is at the recording stage.  Audition NR is one of the best out there (certainly one of the best "included" ones as opposed to expensive specialist software) but it should always be remembered that it's to repair problems, not a standard part of the production chain.  Get the mic closer, use better mics and pre amps, whatever is needed--but don't just assume "we'll fix it in the mix". 

[marya31391609]

Thanks Steve! I haven't used Audition in several years (I've been using Audacity), and I have a different environment every time I record voice over for my eLearning courses. I take my Rode mic and a mic shield with me to an enclosed office but am in a different room in my building every session...or same room as last session but furnishings or arrangement have changed. The only constant is the LOUD HVAC blowing overhead.

Audacity is fair at helping my recordings sound consistent, but following your steps (low FFT, light adjustments, then again chosing high FFT) was the magic I was looking for!

[Office3x]

This happened to me, my Audio Hardware / Default input was set to Built in-microphone. Change to in my case USB Audio codec.

The hollow sound is your built in mic... change hardware preferences to correct mic.