Difference between revisions of "Recording Voice in the KDHX AV (1-4) Studios"

Revision as of 01:11, 1 June 2016

Prepare to read and record your content:

• Clip script to copy stand or adjust monitors for visibility
• move microphone to ideal location, adjusting arm and head as necessary to comfortably read into the mic:

- with the mic pointing at your mouth

- within 3 inches of your lips and teeth

- no more than 45 degrees off axis of mic

- out of the way of your view of script

• Find headphones, and trace cable for tangles, assure it is plugged in
• Turn on microphone channel (1 or 2?)
• slide fader to just under darker black line, and read into the mic, assuring that only the loudest bits touch red, but the sound mostly oscillates the meter within the green area.
• Close door and listen to ambiance in headphones
• Review and read the content aloud, listening to the voice in headphones for clarity and adjusting for least room tone and background noise
• Mark the script, noting good places for quiet breaths
• Underline Google-able terms and offset titles with commas

Prepare Computer as recording device

• Wake up or reboot Mac
• Open Audio Hijack software, and look for “Quick Record” at left
• Check that source is “System Audio”
• Name output track according to name of production and producer
• Check file destination and set to Desktop
• Review recording quality settings and set to 16 bit, 44.1khz Wav
• Click on top left button HIJACK
• Click record button and watch for numbers ticking and meter levels
• Look for file recording on the desktop behind the Audio HiJack window


More detail on Recording:_Using_Audio_HiJack <-- click here

Begin Recording

• Record some room tone for use in editing
• Do a countdown to start - 3,2,1 - and to help ID each error and each restart
• Do NOT deliver 2 or 3 full takes of the script. Stop and restart as you go, Editing yourself for clarity as you read
• Listen to yourself carefully as you're reading, and re-start at any sentence that needs it, use “3,2,1” to help identify these the editor, but also to clear your mind, and begin again with fresh clarity.

NOTE: make sure you deliver all of the audio element that the editor will need to make the final piece sound good and completely understandable - (i.e. well spoken words, room tone/ambiance)

2 more REALLY important NOTES:

- When you are recording audio and using the computer as the recording device - make sure that the computer channel (channel 8 on the mixer) is OFF. It might be helpful to note that when recording and editing voice work, you should typically only have one channel on in the mixer at a time - that is, when recording voice, only the mic channel should be on. When you are reviewing audio or editing, turn off the mic channel, and use only the computer channel in the mixer to listen.

- When recording your voice, the Mic channel (either 1 or 2 depending on which mic you are using) should be on and fader should be just under the darkest black line/notch. As you set this, speak into the mic and assure that green goes to red only on the loudest things you say. This should insure that you get a clean recording without distortion. However, if you see the meters hit red as you are recording or it sounds distorted in your headphones, move the fader down a little and see if it sounds better. You can always make something louder later, but you can never fix distortion - so if you're in doubt, take it down a notch.

Review & Save

After recording, please listen to the file(s) that you are leaving behind for quality, and copy/save it to the designated area for your work on the server. This will most often be in the Broadcast and Podcasts volume of our server. Ask your staff supervisor where your data should be saved if you are unsure.

Troubleshooting:

• Turn it up / Turn it down - sometimes folks press any and all buttons when they aren't hearing what they intended, so if you turn something up while testing or troubleshooting and still don't hear, turn it back down before moving on or pressing other buttons
• Trace the Cable - if your headphone aren't working, trace the cable til you find it connected to the back of the mixer (this is typically split to 2 sets of headphones), then check that your headphone volume fader is up, and that no "Cue" buttons are down - these will over-ride the headphones standard source (the program output) with that channel's source
• Reboot! If anything at all seems weird with the computer, Reboot it. It is always safe and actually, highly recommended, to restart the Mac you're recording to - this makes sure that backgournd tasks aren't messing with your recording, that system resources are refreshed, and you're much less likely to crash during the perfect take that way