So not entirely music related, but my don’t-use-reddit policy and this looking like the closest not entirely dead community has led me to post sooo…
I have an audio question about recording levels. I’m doing voice-over stuff for some really bad Youtube videos I’d like to make and it never sounds remotely good.
I get that the recording volume should be just the green side of clipping, but how do you take a track, and then add it to other tracks and balance the whole thing to not sound like ass?
It always seems that it’s either too loud or too quiet and I’m baffled as to how to tweak the mix correctly so that things sound right.
Yeah, it’s a recorded audio track of the voice over being mixed (or attempted anyway) with some mellow background music because I wasn’t happy with how quiet everything was. The nVidia broadcast noise removal/echo removal is really damn good, but it leads to creepy sounding videos because it’s so dang quiet.
The main issue is that the audio doesn’t sound good on varying headphones/devices/etc once they’re added to the Davinci Resolve project, mixed, and then rendered into a video.
Don’t know if it’s Resolve being the problem, me being the problem, or just some fundamental understanding I lack with how you should mix two tracks, where one is very much intended to be audible, but substantially lower volume than the other.
I’m all for adding added steps if I can get the audio to be mixed and audible at a variety of volume ranges and devices.
I’ve included some images that, no matter how you proceed, should give you a better understanding of frequencies, dB levels, and how to mix better.
Mixing voice into an already recorded track would need more then just volume level adjustments.
There’s a bunch of methods, some better, depending on your os, software, gear, etc.
I’d be happy to help get you directed to some software based on your available setup and ability. (there’s an almost infinite supply of free stuff out there for every need)
Assuming you can find a basic daw or audio software you can do the following:
The most basic way to mix vocals would be steps 1 through 4. 1 through 6 for a sharper, fuller sound. All of them for overkill but possibly the best result.
Set a ceiling (the Max volume of the mix) of maybe -4db (this allows you to increase overall volume later) using a compressor or limiter.
Vocals should almost always be recorded and mixed in mono. Centered. Compress / limit Around -9db max
Stereo separate the music/background track. A mid-side stereo mixer would make it simple. They split the low,mid,high frequencies to sides or middle, effectively giving room for each to breathe. This track is likely already mastered so no compression, just limit to around -12db.
Listen to mix. Sound OK?
Listen in mono. Sound OK?
You’re done!
I would EQ both. Cutting a space for the vocal to sit in the existing music / background track in the vocal range.
And limiting the frequency range of the vocal track.
Compressing it would be a good next step - Another post mentioned you could sidechain/duck. I agree. Have the vocal trigger compression on the background track. A multiband/dynamic eq compressor would be ideal.
Then eq again for clarity and depth.
Increase volume / compress up to 0db.
(Also, Composing Gloves on YouTube is amazing for theory and practical application. They use fl studio, but the mixing/mastering theory/methods are universal principals of mixing)
Non-expert here, but something I’ve read about popped in my head reading this, and I suspect it may be part of the solution you’re looking for.
Look up audio ducking. My understanding is that ducking means dynamically lowering the volume of background tracks when you want a voiceover (or other track) to be in the forefront. It looks like Davinci has settings to do ducking automatically.
Yes, my instinct would be to look at the freq range of the vocal track and try having that range of frequencies in the backing track duck out when voice is present.