The Purpose of Post Processing
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- I discuss the purpose of post processing and one of the biggest mistakes people make when processing their audio.
00:00 - Intro
00:26 - Step 1: Good Audio Before Record
01:40 - Step 2: Process With a Purpose
02:36 - Step 3: Make It a Good Listening Experience
03:41 - Step 4: Stop That! It Sounds Bad!
05:46 - Outro
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Personal: www.bandrewscott.com - Věda a technologie
I agree with you AND you are just a little bit crazy which is why I love your videos.
The king has spoken. Bandrew's opinion is now law. Bandrew is also now officially crazy.
@@zaim_ipek We knew that, but... anyway :D
We NEED a little crazy in a Podcastage Video.
I don’t totally agree that unprocessed audio can be perfect completely. Why? Every mic has advantages and disadvantages. I always eq etc before post, that way I know my mic will sound how I want and I know that no problems can occur. The amount of eq added/subtracted will depend on your mic. Like I said no mic is completely perfect, plus every body knows wat sound they want so they should do this pre record.
Little bit 😳
After 24 years in pro audio, I couldn't agree with you more. More people need to watch this!
Great video - as a voice actor who does home recordings I've spent so much time and energy learning how to do all this the right way. Most of us consider audio quality an afterthought or think the engineers can just fix it in post, but there's such a difference when everything is done right from start to finish.
These new relatively short guides are a very nice addition to your channel!! Much appreciated!
Great video as always! I would add that the “sound”, including post-processing, should match the emotions in the content. Eg Don’t overcompress and eq an emotional or sad story. Bear in mind your intended audience demographic too and be empathetic. Always go for intelligibility and listen on as much different kit as possible before publishing.
Mark (37 years doing this stuff at BBC Radio and still not always getting it right!)
Indeed: context!
Bandrew...Thank you. THANK YOU! As a post pro for spoken word (audiobooks) and this is the most difficult/frustrating part of the work that I do with my clients and students and will be linking to and sharing this to the end of time. THANK YOU! Keep doing what you do.
Totally agree with you. Based on your reviews we ended up recording audio books with the Procaster as well as the RE20. Still I do love to fiddle around in RX for subtle mouth de-clicks and such, but to have an unedited rough cut that could be just loudness normalized and published like that is just a joy to work with.
No love for the SM7B?
Thanks for the spiel, Bandrew!! Post-processing for audiobooks has become less hectic. I've done over 50 now and it wasn't until book 42 I was in okay shape thanks to audio peeps like you.
I really appreciate these commentary videos. Helps self-directed learners like myself to make necessary improvements when we can grasp what should(and shouldn't) be done. Thanks!
5 years of home studio experience here is the tips I find most important :
1) If your room is untreated : Dynamic > Condenser. Unless you're in a sound booth, condenser microphones will just pick up noise, not just room noise like reverb and stuff, they will pick other things in the house, they'll pick up the truck or the motorcycle that just did a fly by etc. dynamic microphones are less sensitive and you'll get away with some of these things.
2) Never get only one take : Even if the take sounds great to you, always get at least 2, ideally 3. Because you never know, maybe overtime you'll notice a little detail that goes unnoticed at first , the recording is where the magic actually happens, half assed recordings always sound bad and unnatural.
3) Background noise removal : It is easy and it helps get rid of preamp hissing and some background stuff
4) Microphones sound the best when they're being themselves : Your mic is tuned this way for a reason, do as little as possible, because otherwise you'll end up with an unnatural sound.
5) "test" your recording through as many things as possible. Whenever I record something, I test the audio out of my booth headphones, my reference, my daily driver earbuds, sometimes through cheap earbuds, my speakers and a phone speaker. To get an idea of how it'll sound, to everyone
6) Don't bother with usb mics: If you're serious about recording something quality, usb mics are not for you, sure they'll humiliate any webcam mic, but a cheap xlr mic with a cheap audio interface will be better, and will offer cleaner gain and better upgrade paths .
7) If your recording sounds wrong , it's you fault : You don't need a Shure SM7B, you don't need a Neumann to sound good, a cheap Behringer can do the trick. If you sound like shit, it's almost never your equipment's fault, You'd sound bad out of an expensive setup too.
Lots of good well grounded advice here. Thanks for taking the time to post it.
When testing your recording, I got a couple of HomePods, airpod, some Sony headphones and a 5.1 Sony system that I test on after mixing on my trusty audio technica headphones. When it sounds good, I will go to car, if it sounds good, then I call it done. Because the HomePods get very bassy, if you get it sounding good on there, then it usually sounds great on everything else.
@@RockG.o.d yeah, that's it, the last one reminds me, there was an old studio monitor, that most studios tested it, everything sounded so bad at itt because of the way it was tuned, it was so flat everything was completely soulless , and audio engineers said "if it sounds good on this, it sounds good everywhere." I see some of that statement in your last sentence hahahahaha
@@culturedsquid8442 haha well they knew what they were doing. Though I wasn’t saying the homepod sounds bad. The HomePod is a nice tuned speaker made to play music from one place. It can get very bassy and not distort. I recommend it for like a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen speaker. Even throwing one or 2 in the living room for when you have a party.
4 and 6 are bullshit. The rest are great tips.
4. It absolutely depends on what you're recording and in what context you're gonna use that recording. A recording of an acoustic kick drum isn't gonna sound very good within a metal mix if "as little as possible" is done to it, vocals in modern pop mixes are intentionally made to sound "thin" and "harsh" (no microphone that I know of naturally sounds like that), "hard hitting" orchestral percussions are often just really boring sounds EQed and compressed to 11, and so on.
6. "but a cheap xlr mic with a cheap audio interface will be better"
Pretty sure this isn't universal. Really depends on what cheap usb mic and xlr+interface combo we are comparing. There's also the fact that microphones sound much less different to each other than the average person expects. What matters *way more* is the space you're recording in. A cheap usb mic recorded in a well treated room is going to sound orders of magnitude better than an u87 recorded in a trashy room.
The mad-lad does it again! I completely agree with this video and epitomizes my work as a podcast post-producer. I'm definitely going to be saving this video for the future.
Here's a tip for the newbies trying to get into streaming: Don't learn how to process audio by watching advertisements on youtube.
Bonus tip: The famous streamer trying to sell you a streambeets subscription or some USB affiliate garbage that can be "just as good" as an expensive studio mic doesn't actually want your stream to sound good. You're not just his/her customer, you're also their competition.
THIS! A lot of the people in the industry gotta start being more open that they are influencers, and nothing else. I talk to people every day who base their purchases of these influencers. It's their job, which i can respect, but man...they have got to start being a bit more honest.
I follow your channel because your reviews are honest and informative. Now I see your recent videos are mor informative. Happy to subscribe .
Thank you so much for the awesome video. I just started my channel and learned a lot from you. Keep the great work going!
I needed this video a couple years ago when I was first starting out in Audiobooks. Hopefully this prevents folks from doing the same mistakes. You don't need that compression, past me! You don't!
Great video !! Your demonstrations, along with the concepts, were very effective, in this video. Thanks !!
Totally agree that great audio starts at the mic. But also believe that there is a time and place for post processing. In my case, my audience is often listening while working out. I need to make sure our content is not drowned out by the sounds of the listener's environment. So yeah, I do reach for an eq, stage some compression and limiting to help my audio cut through. I also use the same effects to create a little excitement when the content changes gear. It is also my goal to make sure that all the voices in our podcast are level matched. We are a show that helps people reach an athletic goal and we try to keep the positive energy flowing on a content and audio level. So I would say, know your audience first and then respond with the kind of dynamics and EQ that best fits how they listen to your content.
Amen. Put this message on loud and on repeat. Thank you.
Guilty as charged. I've used post processing to essentially change the way my voice sounds, as well as removing background noise and what not. I will now limit my post processing to removing background noise and do little to no EQ. Thanks Bandrew.
Excellent points in an excellent video!
I have to admit, I do process our podcast audio pretty heavily to get that up front sound, but I also do my best to get it as clean as possible at the source. 2-SM7B and 1-RE20 plus 4 additional laptop/ipad audio sources with ground lift where needed. I cut 70 and below, I boost a little in the low range, then lightly boost a high shelf at 3k on up. I also use a gain rider to help control the overall level of each person, then comp, then limit. I also use a gain rider and a limiter on the additional audio sources. So far, so good. It does have that "radio compression" only because I can't stand having to adjust the volume every time i listen to a podcast. Honestly, a voice sounding like it's in an echo chamber and the lack of output level control are two main reasons i shut off podcasts. I think you made a great example of an echo chamber, too.
I could always learn more tips, though.
Great video Bandrew as always and a great topic for sure.
Good advice as always, especially that you need to start with great audio to end up with great audio. I always try to get the best audio and then I don't need to do much, if any fixing in post.
The process of learning how to do audio the right way has been exhausting. Thank you for your videos, I am slowly learning how it all works.
Definitely needed to hear this.
Thank you for opening my eyes on things that wasn't aware of them
I needed to hear that!!!
Thanks for the video!
This video and the one before it are gold, I tell you! GOLD! Would you consider making it a trilogy with a video about The Purpose of Pre-Processing? You get the same alliteration and plosives, and who wouldn't want that? As you said in this one, get it right going in, and you have less to do before it goes out.
The next to the last section is hysterical! Thanks for the laugh and the education!
Hi - You are bang on with your first point. Any amount of post processing won't cure a poor recording. Also, - you've got me on a roll now lol - So many over use the toys like compressors, noise removers, even removing breath noise!! - People have to breath...... lol. Rant over - Love your videos - keep up the great work. .
Excellent advice. Thank you so much :)
This video is perfect and much needed!!!
As always, great advices ! I realise it is a "make your own podcast" channel but I'd like to add my two cents about podcast/video editing and post : a decent half of the video and podcast clients that employs me are not audio tech (or don't bother to add a sound field recorder for the video ones) and fail to provide me good audio materials. Thing is, retakes (and ADR) are pretty expensive and almost always cannot fit in the client budget or schedule so he/she is open to quality compromises. You will often face poolry recorded files, messy edits/exports from previous long-gone collaborators or dodgy gain-rides and the client will expect you to attenuate those problems to a mid-range level (i.e. podcasts, shorts, Netflix, ...) - thus paying you for this tech part. Of course you can avoid working on such projects if you manage to get enough income from your activity and only work with top-notch recordings - I wish I was able to do so ! Long story short, I've been mastering and teaching iZotope's RX advanced for years and could only advise young audio techs to get into this type of restoration software because at some point most of the clients will ask for some de-noising of pitch edits and those software are time saving in terms of workflow. Use it with parsimony though, don't be greedy : it can cause more harm than good when used in a wrong way ! There's plenty of documentation online, it's worth it.
So right. With music too. This saves so much in mixing. People waste endless amounts of time thinking they need to add stuff.
Grreeettiiingggss Marrssliiinngggss .. I would like to know how to make my audio EASY TO LISTEN TO my audiences .. Jokes aside, I would love to see Podcastage recommendations for audiobook processing 😊
This dialogue re-recording mixer gives a phat thumbs up to this video. My job is to make the dialogue serve the story. To that end we record well, edit with great care and mix to make the sound invisible for lack of a better word.
Great video as always.
I would still say that for the post post processing you need to test in different audio gear, cause sometimes you do EQs, for example, that sound amazing with your gear, but the viewer is going to hear it and it sounds terrible for their gear. CZcamsrs love to boost their bass frequencies, what sometimes make them so hard to understand if your gear also has a bass boost (very common in cheap headphones, for example).
I laughed so hard at the radio sound, it was so damn accurate, reminds me of Howard Stern's show
bUt HoWaRdStErN sOuNdS sOoOoOo GoOoOoD!
Dat scooped sound 🤢
radio sound = bassy MC type sound
I want these videos to be called "Audio rants" so bad 🥺 I love it so much
Wonderful video Podcastage, I think you should do a video on some hardware such as the DBX286s or the ART Pro channel II.
Thank you for this @podcastage , its very educational. If i may ask, could you create content explaining, the best acoustic treatment for broadcast/podcast or whatever setup that you are currently using, i would really love to hear your thought/opinion about this topic
Thanks in advance :)
I just think we should all use unprocessed ribbons so we can sound like the announcer on the Mercury Theatre saying, "The Columbia Broadcasting system and its affiliated stations...." Actually, we should just all use ribbons because they sound really cool.
Based.
Would you recommend them to a guy with an already dark-ish (bass-baritone) voice?
@@gaborkiss1425 The KU5A has a high pass filter that helps with lows. But your results may vary. I know that Orson Welles in the Mercury Theatre days was actually on a condenser because his voice was so deep.
@@gaborkiss1425 I suppose it depends. Certain ribbons are way darker than others. The KU5A is a great example of a ribbon that has a surprisingly open and clear top end even though it’s still very smooth and low midforward as you would expect from a ribbon. Then AEA also has the KU4 which is very bright for a ribbon, almost condenser like, but that one is $4k lol. It sounds excellent though. So really it depends.
Appreciate this!
For the brief time I did my own podcast, any post effects were added tastefully. Very mild EQ on the final mix to bring back what was lost to mixing or limiting. My thought was always get it as tight as you could on the master because anything you add may very well bring up a defect that you didn't or couldn't hear prior. I used my channel as a lead, then any other channel had a noise gate. Kept the floor lower and because it was quiet enough in the room I used, with very light compression it sounded very natural. I did roll off low end slightly only because my voice tended to come off as muddy sounding and it is. It is a characteristic of my voice and all I did was mix it so it wasn't detracting from the recording. Again, very very mild, 3db max change.
Even when you purposely try to make bad audio, it still comes out good. Magic.
As the Proverb says, you cannot make a silk purse from a sows ear. Start with quality audio and tweak it not freak it. Loved the vid Bandrew. Keep it up.
This video is grossly underrated
love your videos
Well i agree. Adding to many filters, as not the idea. I should had realised this as well, being in music myself. All i added is a EQ, gain and a filter that removes background static. It sound so much better. Will be looking at a xlr mic. Right now, im able to work with my nw 7000
Hi, what's the name of the microphone you're talking? I didn't find it in the description. Thank You and congratulations on what you do. I envy you for all the microphones you have :D
Okay, I need this hat! Great video!
Great points!
this has strong Professor Dad energy and I am here for it. Preach brotha.
best video I've seen from you
Great basic tips!!
To be honest post processing can help for certain audio devices. I've often used it to a bit better sound out headset microphones, such as with the Steelseries Arctis Pro Wireless. The "Clearcast Microphone" used on those headsets can sometimes sound rather nasaly, but the recent release of the Steelseries Sonar software, I can choose the "Deep Voice" preset, which boosts the low end slightly while reducing a lot of background noise. The slightly boosted low end also helps microphone just sound a bit more natural in my opinion.
Hi man! A big follower and fan from Baghdad. I like to host you in a Zoom meeting to talk about your recommended mics for teachers.
"Rich, dark chocolate with sweet, soft centers flavored with exotic fruit juices." That's been my line for practicing sibilant cuts during delivery. I also had a problem with coming out of the gate hot and loud at the beginning of sentences then tapering down very low, and compression and limiters made it sound even worse. I do notice mud with close proximity of my mic, which is a shotgun, and only figured out that EQ fix today. I made it onto Bunny Studios yesterday, at my first attempt. I was so friggin' nervous. I knew that I had to alter the way that I read and processed in order to meet their standards, and not spend HOURS manually lowering my peaks. WOOOHOOO!
I have two broken front teeth, a de-esser's dream :)
Time to get them fixxxxed.
great explanation
I agree 100%. The post processing should make the audio easier to listen to, and you should get everything as good as possible before you start.
In Reaper for indoor recordings I subract out the computer fan noise, add a highpass filter, then either a de-esser or a narrow EQ for sibilants with a limiter at the end of the chain just to be safe. So mostly I am just dealing with noise.
That's awesome that you've developed a work flow that fixes the one thing you aren't able to control. Good job Wayne. Happy recording.
GIRATS. Get it right at the source.
YES!
Off topic. Which is best for bedroom.
Yamaha Hs8
Adam audio t8v
Focal evo 80
I thought I’d ask you since you make the most sense of all the videos on CZcams lol.
5:18 What compression software is that? I have the Fabfilter EQ but I've never seen that compressor before.
A lot of people don't seem to understand that the "phat" radio vocal sound was out of necessity rather than an artistic choice. Radio signals are inherently very noisy, so we use a lot of tricks to get around that, the most common being pre- and de-emphasis. Basically, all of the signals coming out of the studio are boosted in certain frequency ranges (pre-emphasis or PE), and then the receiver in your radio will look for a metadata flag that tells it whether to apply de-emphasis (DE). This lowers those frequencies back down, which also lowers the signal noise in those ranges too, making the signal artificially sound "cleaner". The problem though is that some stations started boosting past the needs of PE, and thus when DE is applied, you have that "thick" radio sound that makes the DJs sound like James Earl Jones.
Very true but if they like that sound then they like that sound haha.
@@TriWaZe Oh absolutely. There's times I enjoy it myself, but there's sadly too many people who just think that's the way good mics are "supposed" to sound, rather than it just being a sound our ears grew accustomed to because of choices made by radio stations.
I need to know how you record these videos they look so good
Well can you do now some tutorial on how to achieve some of those sought after sounds / flavors in post?
I made that same mistake a few times with heavy post-processing after following some tutorials claiming it would make me sound better, but I find that I like hardly any processing, just minimize the background, fix the clicks, de-ess a bit, normalize, fix a couple of things, bam ez done.
Hey Bandrew, I have caught wind of a new Rode device to end all devices for podcasting, with 4 mic inputs. 4 headphone amps and a screen and ll the DSP power in the world, I really need you to review it as soon as you can.
I bet it's awesomeersome
I actually liked the radio sound propeller hat audio. Do more with that EQ pls.
As I was taught in the recording studio back in the 1 and 2 inch tape days. “ Fix it and the mix my ass” “Sh!t in Sh!t Out”. There are examples of post processing repair when something like a phone rings during a chamber orchestra recording and you use a repair tools such as RX 9 and or Spectral Layers, but in a controlled environment like a Vocal Booth. Post production involves plosives, sibilance and maybe compressor limiting in my opinion.
Very much agreed. Of course, I had this one "ADR" session where a video I shot in the middle of the city has a small segment of audio that I wanted to dub over. Good thing I used the RE20 to record the dub. The deeper dynamic range of the RE20 than the on-camera Movo VXR-10 and Rode WirelessGO2 combo I was using originally was a perfect mismatch. I couldn't get it to match and I had to roll with it. Why didn't I just re-record with the original setup? Those mics were recently stolen and I'm waiting for replacements!
So even though you may only have one short section where you want to punch in and re-record it with an overdub, I'd suggest overdubbing the entire section(or video if it's all the same mic and area), and then blending those two sources together and processing them as one. That way you're not going to have any jarring jumps in between those sections. Also, if it's super long and a lot of talking, that's an area to use actual ADR software to match it. It'd be way too difficult to do that all manually, even if you are really good at capturing and editing the takes.
Also, Izotopes software with eq match and their RX plugins and software specifically for post-processing. There are also specific things for doing ADR. But really it's one of those area's where trying to match all those variables with our limited human attention span, especially in a non-musical context, is just way easier for computer algorithms created specifically for these tasks really come in handy. Plus, you can usually get the cheapest tiers of the Izotope software for free or very cheap if you keep an eye out for deals that include it, and then use that to get a heavy discount on an upgrade to the ones you need.
If you do end up doing it without any specialized plugin's or software, I'd say it's an area where having an equalizer with a EQ spectrum visualizer comes in handy, so you can view it side by side when you are eq'ing. I'd first EQ the camera audio to the place you like it, than try your best to bring the overdub as close as you can. Sometimes flipping the phase and trying to purposefully get the voice to null(As best you can), can be a better tactic than just going back and forth between the two.
@@magicmark3309 Great thoughts and thanks for such a thorough response! I will keep this in mind for the next time similar happens.
Love it!
Hello ! I have gotten a lot of valuable info from your videos. Honestly great info, especially for noobs like me. I agree with you, and the reasoning and the funny example I can relate too 😂. What would have been awesome is to understand and have more example of step 1 and how do you manage to get good proper unprocessed audio. Thanks mate
Thanks for the kind words. I have a dedicated video on tips to getting better sounding recordings: czcams.com/video/Ty8YLqOmbV4/video.html
@@Podcastagemuch deserved, you’re welcome! Thanks for the link i will watch it tonight for sure!
I've had to fix audio for quite a bit of podcasts (that I didn't record) and can only agree with you. No amount of noise gate and RX will save bad audio. It's not fun work either imo.
I usually prefer to have the gain a bit lower to start with and tweak the levels a bit higher if necessary later , because it's easier to add a bit of volume and keep it clean than have it too loud and clean it in post, I'm saying this as a singer knowing that my vocals can vary from soft to screaming
That's a great approach o setting level. You can always add some level, but can't take away clipping.
I keep my voice natural. I recently push the sm7b mids button up but that's it.I wish I had a limiter so I dont have to worry about peaking. In reality a noise gate would be solid as well.
Great video!
Can you please review these 2 mics?
1. Fifine K658
2. Fantech Leviosa MCX01
I love how when you listed the different platforms of content creation, you visibly winced on TikTok
Hi, I like your mic review! Could you recommend a mic for vocal recording (around 100-200 USD )that can connect to iPhone? Thanks so much!
helpful! thanks
THAT EQ CURVE!!!!! Interesting because I feel like I saw that EXACT "crazy" looking EQ decision in some other CZcamsr's video last week. I was like HUH?????? 😱
Heelllp! I did some videos in the past using a basic video recorder but I want to improve things a bit and putting together a small home studio. Right now I’m torn between getting a simple USB Audio Interface, like a Focusrite 2i2 3rd Gen, or a USB mixer, Mackie or Yamaha. I use a Mackie 1402 VLZ for our band so I’m familiar with mixers. I may on occasion have another person in the video with me, but that’s it. Which would you recommend for CZcams videos and occasional live streaming? Thanks for your thoughts and excellent videos.
Could you please give a hint how to set up the Sony D11 lav mic before hitting record button ⏺ Thanks
Hello Podcastage, I have a question. What do you think about the Behringer C-1? I'm curious, since your review is now 6 years old. I am planning on upgrading to an XLR microphone, but is the C1 still worth it? Or are there better alternatives for around the same price?
Great message. My audio sucked until I got rid of everything and went super simple. Sm7b into a MicPre3 and got rid of all the other crap. :)
Same. Re20 into an Apollo. Boom.
no processing is better than too much, but a little bit can go a long way. On my streaming setup I have a noise gate, a high pass @60hz and a small 0.5db high shelf to not sound dull and I love it, I doubt anyone but me would notice the difference to unprocessed though
Edit: also a transparent limiter to not accidentally blow out viewers ears
With this all being said, how would you eq a clean good coming in recording using the re20 that’ll sound good and make a listening experience good?
I know virtually nothing about EQ and I have a couple of good microphones (Zoom H1 and Rode Videomic) so it’s extra encouraging to hear that as long as the microphone itself sounds good, then don’t worry too much about post processing.
That's not always the case though! I don't know what you do, but if it has anything to do with mixing/mastering for music production or vocals (narrations, podcasts etc) it all depends and a microphone will not solve problems. A good microphone is great for collecting clean and well rounded audio, but you have to EQ where you believe their are issues (this isn't the microphones fault, since all it did was pick up the audio), but you may have issues like a low rumble in the sub frequencies, which you'd need either great headphones or great monitors to detect and therefore they'd need to be cleaned out.
With a great sounding/treated room and no background noise from fans or aircondition, you can get great sound with a super cheap soundcard and a 58.
you nailed it. everything is true.
Do you have a video or will you make a video on voice editing? Such as a “basic” template for all round bass and treble? Or how to edit for a specific voice?
I do not have a video covering this topic because unfortunately, I don't think there are any real presets for voice to voice, mic to mic, or project to project. I wish there was just a simple "Here's the download. Use it, it will make you sound amazing" but that's unfortunately not how it works.
Great video. Funny and accurate. 👍
Would you prefer the Samson Q2U or the Zoom ZDM-1? I am on a budget and things that cost $100 USD cost almost double in my currency (NZD New Zealand Dollar). I found the ZDM-1 for a good price and I am wondering if saving the $30 plus a Behringer UM2 is worth the downsides of upgradability but plus side noise rejection (from my understanding). I do think the ZDM-1 sounds good with almost similar thoughts about the Q2U. Thanks for reading and are eager on seeing what your response is!
Perfect video
very informative
Hey, thank you a lot for all the helpful videos, would you consider to make a video for RE20 with the Go XLR? I bought it recently as I thought it would sound „better“ then Shure SM7B but I am quite disappointed with the results and I am sure your video would help out a ton
How does raw RE20 sound compared to SM7B with flat setting?
1 thing I’ve always wondered is how to deal with deep voices. Should you allow the low frequencies if it sounds ok in the mix, or should you run a high pass filter and EQ to make it more mid focused?
It really depends on how much proximity effect there is and whether the mic has its own HPF turned on, but you almost always want to cut the sub-bass frequencies no matter how deep the voice is. If there's any listening gear with a subwoofer involved, those low frequencies will cause constant excitement in the upper sub-bass frequencies, resulting in a muddied mess that's very hard to listen to by filling the air with sound that does nothing to help with intelligibility. You might have to turn subwoofers completely off in many podcast listening experiences to be able to clearly make out what they're saying because the upper sub-bass frequencies absolutely dominate the recording. It's a problem you don't often experience with audio mixed for Hollywood cinema, even with the deepest voices. Movie trailers with Don LaFontaine, narration from Morgan Freeman, or VO work with Peter Cullen voicing Optimus Prime in Transformers, all of these voices are very deep, but aren't causing the subwoofers in home theater to be in constant "go" mode. The voices cut right through the mix, because they're not exciting the subwoofers and competing in the space where explosions sit. The fundamental frequencies of human voice (the absolute lowest frequencies that make up the sound spectrum of our voices) are not important to intelligibility. The sounds most important to intelligibility are found from around 400hz and above. You can hear this if you apply a HPF to spoken word at 500hz. Intelligibility has been measured to decrease only about 5%, athough the sound will be very thin. If you apply a LPF at 1000hz and only allow the lower frequencies, intelligibility drops over 40%. While technically there are frequencies in the male voice that can sit around 80hz or in the deepest cases even lower, they do nothing to help with forming clear, intelligible voice, so you'll almost always have a HPF starting around 80hz and up to 125-150hz depending on the HPF slope. If warmth is needed, it's best to cut certain midrange frequencies first before boosting the lower ones, but it's best if you're going to boost for warmth to only boost starting around 160hz at the lowest. The voice will still sound deep, even with most of the 150hz and down frequencies cut, because the part of intelligible speech that we hear that sounds "deep" will still be there, and it's those frequencies you want to focus on keeping in the mix. If it's helpful, you can play a narration or voice-over of a processed deep voice you find appealing, and take note of the frequencies that are NOT appearing in an EQ waveform readout while they talk, and try to mimic a similar low-frequency roll-off to the ones you find the most "professional" sounding.
Sounds like good advice, get it right first then play about if you want
Hey can you please review Mackie EM 91CU a USB microphone? It would be really helpful. And BTW your vids are great keep it up.