Voice acting tutorial for beginners

[Psychopath]

This tutorial isn't about how to act but rather the technical set up of the trade so let's go, here we go:

Microphones:

Analog Vs. USB

For a beginner, analog is never recommended; you will find yourself not only buying the microphone but buying thirty different converters & daisy chaining them together into what can only be described as a metal tumor growing out of the ass of your computer. These converters can also cost you about the same price as the microphone itself. Headsets are typically better about this than studio/concert mics since they're meant to be plugged into a home device but occasionally you'll buy one that's meant for your phone & not a computer, which means, again, converters. Another drawback of analog headsets is that they depend on the computer's audio drivers & if there aren't any by some chance, the headset won't work.

USB microphones are the way to go for a beginner, mostly because I assume your attempt at this is a budgeted one. The only two real drawbacks to USB mics is that their drivers will occasionally be set up the wrong way & not work properly, causing all sorts of audio corruption in the recording. The other one is the fact that you can't use voice changing software such as Screaming Bee [software like that requires the computer's default audio drivers to work]; this means that your changes have to be done in post production.

Headsets VS. Studio Microphones VS. Desktop Microphones

Headsets, depending on the manufacturer & model, can be anywhere between an okay start to utter garbage. They typically come equipped with these things called windscreens which are essentially omni-directional pop filters that are wrapped around the mic itself to prevent spit from melting the microphone, preventing pops & to block out the wind from your breathing. However, that says nothing about the quality of the microphone itself as most of them are designed for "gaming", which means poor quality is expected. Never bother getting the kinds with cushioned earcups, they're expensive & the microphones on those are typically poor; they're meant for monitoring playback, not for acting.

Studio mics can range anywhere to professional quality to broken out of the box since some of them are designed with precision tech & others were treated like shit while being shipping out. Keep your receipts when dealing with any microphone & only buy from A; local stores, B; Newegg & C; Amazon. Keep in mind that just because you now have a studio mic that you're not going to instantly get studio results, that comes later.

My experience with desktop mics is that they're typically the bottom of the barrel when it comes to voice acting. I've only seen a handful of people use them for such a purpose & they're typically terribad. I had once gotten lucky with one myself when it turned out to be pretty decent, it was meant for business conferences held over the internet but it's been discontinued so I can't recommend it. I'd say these things are typically a gamble for starters. One thing to note is that unlike headsets, they do not come with windscreens so be prepared for all kinds of popping & wind.

Condenser VS. Dynamic

Just a heads up, having a microphone for both of these types & recording with them together is generally a good idea.

Condenser microphones are the ones that are most typically used for voice acting, they're designed & meant to detect subtleties & they're also largely used for capturing new sound effects. It is not meant for yelling & screaming, it will begin clipping if you do that, even when it's put on a low volume.

Dynamic microphones are built for high resistance to noise, which means that it's meant for screaming, yelling & blocking out subtle noises. They're typically used in concerts because they resist against wind, crowd noise & recycling audio output from the speakers. They're the type of mics that windscreens are actually meant for.

Sound treatment:

Spit Guards VS. Pop Filters VS. Windscreens

I have limited experience with spit guards. From what I understand, they're basically just pop filters without the nylon filter; it's just a metal grid. Pretty useless. I've had people tell me that "spit guard" is synonymous with "pop filter" & I've had other people tell me otherwise. I would assume the former to be true since, if you search "spit guard", you'll usually just get a list of pop filters in the result. I also read on Wikipedia that they're just metal pop filters & found no results when I searched "spit guard". My best guess is that few people know the actual difference. However, I have owned one before & I will say this right now, the metal pop filter I owned didn't stop any wind or clipping, mostly because it's a metal frame covered in holes. If you've ended up with one of these worthless pieces of shit & can't return it, buy some pantyhose & slide it over the fucking abomination & there you go, you have a makeshift pop filter.

Pop filters are the standard approach for a person using a studio mic. Pop filters share the same purpose with windscreens, to prevent saliva from melting the mic, to prevent clipping in the recording & wind from blowing into it. Be aware to those of you who are using desk-mount set ups, most pop filters are meant to attach to tripods & nothing else, which means the little screw clamp is not designed to wrap around anything that isn't a tube. They can't be attached to say, the edge of a shelf or something square in general without first having the shit bent out of them first. However, companies are starting to develop pop filters & spit guards meant to clamp onto cliffs & square shaped objects. Another common problem with pop filters is that their 'necks' don't really support the weight of the filter itself & will gradually bend itself out of the way of your mic so your spit may have safe passage into Mordor.

Windscreens are, logically, the best option you can find. Key word being "logically". They don't need to mount onto anything, they slide over the mic & rather than simply guarding one side of the microphone, they're omni-directional. Unfortunately, when it comes to studio mics, they're mostly designed as cheap, shitty, throw-away concert paraphernalia that break apart after a few uses & the ones that aren't cause cancer. It also doesn't help that windscreens meant for headsets are sold as ones meant for studio mics & vice versa. If you're lucky enough to find one in that "not shit" sweet-spot, hold onto it forever. I cannot stress how difficult those are to find for a studio mic. Also, no, your sock is too thick to be used as a windscreen, it'll just block out the majority of the audio.

[Psychopath]

Reflection Shields VS Makeshift Studio

Now we're talking about acoustic treatment for a room & one of the bigger problems amateurs face when it comes to voice acting; reverberation.

Without further ado, fuck reflection shields. I actually managed to buy one on the cheap & they are overpriced, overhyped, useless shitballs on a tripod that you could make at home for a quarter of the price that they cost to buy. The logic of a reflection shield is that you mount it on a tripod & talk strictly into its direction & nowhere else. The problem is that sound coming out of a person's mouth is omni-directional, especially if you're at any kind of distance away from the shield itself. In short, it doesn't prevent reverberation from occurring, it merely reduces it by a negligible measure, which is to say not worth the fucking money at all. The only way this shit would work is if you put your mouth on it as if you were screaming into a pillow.

A makeshift studio is more or less dependent on your budget & location but is generally cheaper than a reflection shield. In case you're wondering what a reflection shield is made of, it's Auralex foam & yes, it does work... when you have more than two or three wedges mounted on a tripod for $150.00; at $100 dollars, you get about twenty. The idea is that you're supposed to nail these to the walls around you & not just in front of you. This works particularly well in every amateur's ghetto studio, the closet. If that's not good enough, I suggest getting the biggest box you can & gluing your foam to the inner walls of that & seat your mic inside it or wear it as a hat. I've heard of another company that's cheaper called Green Gizmo, however, they only seem to make one type of wedge to my knowledge. I've heard that you could just buy the foam that both companies sell for super-duper cheap but I haven't been able to find anything other than just differen't brands that were just as expensive with the wedges cut poorly [Soundproof Store]. When I search for the possible material's its made from like melamine foam, the most I can find are handheld sponges. I believe they may use polyether foam. For now, Auralex, while expensive, is your best bet & the only brand I have personal experience with. However, don't bother with shit that's labeled "bass traps" because they're bullshit, just get the normal foam wedges. Remember, you want the noise in your acting space as dead as possible because the purpose of doing room treatment is to capture your voice exclusively & nothing else so covering every inch of the used space possible is for the better; small splits between foam wedges will still allow for minor reverberation to come back into the microphone & add an unwanted "accent" to your voice.

I can't tell you all the things you'd need to do to achieve more nuanced results in room treatment but this guy can probably help you out.

Room static

To those who don't know what room static is, if you've ever heard a voice acting clip that had a light humming, static, noise, ect. in the background, that's called room static & the most common culprit for causing it are computer fans. Room static is one of the more painful banes to get rid of in voice acting, mostly because it has to do with the very nature of your setup. Anyone who wants to voice act with pure, dead results in the background cannot do it at their computer. You will have to distance yourself from it as much as possible to get rid of it & the problem is that it may not be the only source of it, it could be caused by the air conditioning in your house, someone flushing the toilet down the hall, ect.

When you're creating a studio, it's best to think of it as an auditory clean room; purge the environment of as many impurities as possible & isolate the microphone in the most quiet place where you are the only nearby source of sound. This typically, also means, extension cables. Get ones with gold tips so that way they won't corrode or rust anytime in the future, that shit will fuck up your recording.

Recording Software:

Mixcraft

Mixcraft is the software that I use and the one I have the most experience with. I've never had problems with it and I use it to record multiple microphones at once. Really easy and intuitive to use if you're willing to drop $100.00

Audacity

The freeman's Mixcraft, costs nothing to download as it is freeware. Be aware that because of this, it has been targeted by hackers by breaking the software's code to insert viruses into it so check your source above all else. Audacity was once very terribad with its drivers but seems to have been rectified it's issues.

This concludes the amateur's tutorial. If anyone would like to add to this, please leave a reply.

[MegapiemanPHD]

Kristal Audio Engine is also a good program for recording. It's free and I've never had it crash on me while recording, something I can't say about Audacity. It also automatically saves files once you tell it to stop recording so if it does crash, you still have the last file you recorded.

I still use Audacity for editing since Kristal's stuff is way more in-depth than I know how to handle.

Check it out peeps: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/index.php?section=download

[Psychopath]

*Microphones:

Stereo VS. Mono

Stereo microphones are the more common types you run into. What this generally means is that you record into both channels and get the playback in both channels. There's not much to be said about that.

Mono microphones are different in the fact that if you record in a stereo channel setting, the audio will playback in either the left or right channels exclusively depending on their design. To get a stereo quality playback from a mono microphone, it's required to record into the channel it was designed for, left or right. Knowing this will save you the time of re-balancing your botched take to play through both speakers.