Deepen Voice quality

P

Polaroid22

Well-known member
Hello,

So I started this youtube channel, and one of the many things I feel insecure about is my Voice. So I am trying to make my voice sound better (besides me upping my actual communicative skills) I figured maybe there is a way to deepen my voice, so it sounds better. Like with a modulator. But I'm not a audio wizard, so I came here begigng to see if anybody has some advice for me (beware I am not a native English speaker, so I have an accent).
But as you check out "Jake Trans" oldest and newest video, I feel there is a major difference in voice quality. Not sure if it is possible for me to make a big jump.

It might help if you can hear my actual voice, so I will leave a link here. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj0...1GndSIIIHQ0RVA
(other feedback is also welcome btw) (Maybe some technical stuff, mic: sennheiser mkh416 into a zoom H6. And in post I throw on a compressor, levelator (got this awesome tip from "cyvideo") and the davinci resolve dialogue processor (male voice preset).

Thanks a lot!
 
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Your voice is normal for you and doesn't need any treatment - it sounds matched to your appearance. To be fair, your voice is matched pretty well. Far more important is your delivery. This is where you need to put the work in - not effects and processing. You talk way too fast, and you don't pause for breath - us Brits have a great word for this. You gabble. Sentences should have clear ends - a pause in delivery. Paragraphs need breaking even more, but also, you seem to need to work on the inflections and the rise and fall of pitch during sentences and individual words - it's a high speed blast of words. Your accent isn't a problem, but the delivery speed is. You don't give listeners/viewers the time to take in each phrase. Especially when you need people to listen - and money always needs listening skills, it makes it hard to understand. The number one improvement is to slow it down. At the moment it's a tidal wave of words, and it washes over you. This is what makes people click away - it isn't remotely your tone and timbre. That is perfectly fine - and it's you. People are naturally suspicious about money advice, so hitting them straight in the face like this is not making the communication work too well. It sounds high pressure - and sales wise, that's a risk.

Technically it is clean, clear and crisp. Your voice is neither boomy or resonant, or has excess HF - anything like that. The delivery is from my perspective the issue.
 
I agree with Paul that delivery matters, and that yours needs some finesse.

Watching through the videos on your channel, though, I’m having a hard time identifying what’s actually VO and what’s just audio recorded from your on-cams. In addition to delivery, proper VO recording requires a little bit of technical work on the front end. You’re recording in a very reflective room, and VO should be recorded in a dead space. Also, if you really do want to make your voice a little more rich and present, it’s all about placement of and proximity to the microphone.

Do you have a walk-in closet? That’s a great start for a makeshift “VO booth” since it has all the hanging clothes to break up reflections, resulting in a fairly dead acoustic space. You can also create a DIY booth with a couple of C-stands and some sound blankets (aka furniture pads, or “furni” pads). Additionally, put yourself a bit closer to the mic... within about 8”. If you don’t have a proper windscreen, or otherwise need to tame plosives (air pops with “P”, “B”, and “T” sounds), speak across the mic at a 45° angle. Record properly and you won’t have to worry about much processing in post.
 
You could inhale Sulfur Hexafluoride, just kidding, it will make your voice sound weird. :grin:

This Art of Manliness video gives some good breathing and speech suggestions. Also, relax, your voice sounds lower when you first wake up because you're relaxed.

You could utilize the proximity effect with a large diaphragm condenser mic close to your mouth.

I don't think that there's a Great Gildersleeve audio plug-in, but notching the harsh frequencies in EQ can improve the overall sound. Here's an Alex Knickerbocker tutorial that you might find useful.
 
paulears said:
Your voice is normal for you and doesn't need any treatment - it sounds matched to your appearance. To be fair, your voice is matched pretty well. Far more important is your delivery. This is where you need to put the work in - not effects and processing. You talk way too fast, and you don't pause for breath - us Brits have a great word for this. You gabble. Sentences should have clear ends - a pause in delivery. Paragraphs need breaking even more, but also, you seem to need to work on the inflections and the rise and fall of pitch during sentences and individual words - it's a high speed blast of words. Your accent isn't a problem, but the delivery speed is. You don't give listeners/viewers the time to take in each phrase. Especially when you need people to listen - and money always needs listening skills, it makes it hard to understand. The number one improvement is to slow it down. At the moment it's a tidal wave of words, and it washes over you. This is what makes people click away - it isn't remotely your tone and timbre. That is perfectly fine - and it's you. People are naturally suspicious about money advice, so hitting them straight in the face like this is not making the communication work too well. It sounds high pressure - and sales wise, that's a risk.

Technically it is clean, clear and crisp. Your voice is neither boomy or resonant, or has excess HF - anything like that. The delivery is from my perspective the issue.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot, yeah I listened to the wrong advice at the start (talk really fast so people dont get bored), so I tried to slow it down in the last 2 video's already, but I can def step it up a notch. For the next one I am def gonna talk real slow. (prolly gonna avoid calculations as it seems to drag everything down.)

In my last video in the intro I did a VO, but it does not sound theatric cinema at all, guess I am just not blessed with a great voice.
 
Alex H. said:
I agree with Paul that delivery matters, and that yours needs some finesse.

Watching through the videos on your channel, though, I’m having a hard time identifying what’s actually VO and what’s just audio recorded from your on-cams. In addition to delivery, proper VO recording requires a little bit of technical work on the front end. You’re recording in a very reflective room, and VO should be recorded in a dead space. Also, if you really do want to make your voice a little more rich and present, it’s all about placement of and proximity to the microphone.

Do you have a walk-in closet? That’s a great start for a makeshift “VO booth” since it has all the hanging clothes to break up reflections, resulting in a fairly dead acoustic space. You can also create a DIY booth with a couple of C-stands and some sound blankets (aka furniture pads, or “furni” pads). Additionally, put yourself a bit closer to the mic... within about 8”. If you don’t have a proper windscreen, or otherwise need to tame plosives (air pops with “P”, “B”, and “T” sounds), speak across the mic at a 45° angle. Record properly and you won’t have to worry about much processing in post.
Click to expand...

Yeah everything is recorded with the sennheiser mkh416 as close I can get it without being in the frame. The voice over is also just me talking into the camera where I slap some Broll on. Yeah I threw sheets on the floor, absorbing materials and hung a giant thick black sheet to minimize reflections, this helped a ton. the 45 degrees angle is new to me, luckely it kinda hangs around 45° right now by accident. I may need to invest in a windscreen. Or should I buy a different type of mic? I also have these sennheiser g4 lav's but I feel the boom mic is a bit nicer, allthough it picks up more noise. (+ I like that I can just record without the process of laving me up).
 
Imamacuser said:
You could inhale Sulfur Hexafluoride, just kidding, it will make your voice sound weird. :grin:

This Art of Manliness video gives some good breathing and speech suggestions. Also, relax, your voice sounds lower when you first wake up because you're relaxed.

You could utilize the proximity effect with a large diaphragm condenser mic close to your mouth.

I don't think that there's a Great Gildersleeve audio plug-in, but notching the harsh frequencies in EQ can improve the overall sound. Here's an Alex Knickerbocker tutorial that you might find useful.
Click to expand...

Thanks that are some usefull links, I saw what the mic did there. Allthough I dont want any mics in frame, but If I would record some parts at an other time where I am sure to use Broll this could be very handy. Allthough not sure if it makes sense to buy another mic right now just for this purpose just yet (as I think I dont have any work use for it)
 
Polaroid22 said:
Yeah everything is recorded with the sennheiser mkh416 as close I can get it without being in the frame. The voice over is also just me talking into the camera where I slap some Broll on.
Click to expand...

Then you aren’t recording VO. You’re recording on-cam dialog.

Good, quality VO recording requires an acoustically non-reflective space and much closer proximity to the mic. There is no camera involved, so the mic can get very close.

Polaroid22 said:
Yeah I threw sheets on the floor, absorbing materials and hung a giant thick black sheet to minimize reflections, this helped a ton. the 45 degrees angle is new to me, luckely it kinda hangs around 45° right now by accident. I may need to invest in a windscreen. Or should I buy a different type of mic? I also have these sennheiser g4 lav's but I feel the boom mic is a bit nicer, allthough it picks up more noise. (+ I like that I can just record without the process of laving me up).
Click to expand...

Speaking across the mic at a 45° angle is for proper VO recording when you need to reign in breath pops. The way you’re set up right now, you need proper boom placement for your on-cams, and that’s a completely different scenario from VO recording.

So that begs the question: are you really wanting better (actual) voice over, or are you looking to improve your on-camera dialog sound? Because, again, these are two different things.
 
Alex H. said:
Then you aren’t recording VO. You’re recording on-cam dialog.

Good, quality VO recording requires an acoustically non-reflective space and much closer proximity to the mic. There is no camera involved, so the mic can get very close.



Speaking across the mic at a 45° angle is for proper VO recording when you need to reign in breath pops. The way you’re set up right now, you need proper boom placement for your on-cams, and that’s a completely different scenario from VO recording.

So that begs the question: are you really wanting better (actual) voice over, or are you looking to improve your on-camera dialog sound? Because, again, these are two different things.
Click to expand...

Both ideally, as I am not recording any proper VO now. (I guess I need to invest in some other gear before doing that right). But for now improving the on cam audio would be my priority. I have it boomed as close I can right now. Was thinking about putting carpet in this room(which cleans up the reflections), allthough this is yet another expense I am not sure I should make as this channel might not go anywhere.
 
Sounds fine with the slower delivery - although the section at 1.25 had be really stuck - after hobbies. Something that sounds like 'jews is worth the squeeze' - I'me not sure what this means. The slower delivery works, but as you naturally speed up it gets more difficult. (and spelling is preparation - not preperation. just a typo I think. I think.

One question? Your video assumes the word FIRE means something. I could Google, I guess, but it means nothing at all to me? A term I have never ever heard before? I guess it's to do with retirement? Is that the F?


Recording wise - the slower delivery has worked, and you just need to check with the word linguists in the world (the Brits) that your English is understandable. The video content is a switch off for me personally - if I want a laptop or something - I just look to see if I can afford it, and buy it. The notion of checking to see how it impacts a date in the future (probably closer for me than for you) I wouldn't dream of doing. Too many friends I've lost this last year who won't see retirement - so my mind is now saying spend it now, I may not be here tomorrow. Hence why I have bought lots of recording 'toys' I can't really justify.
 
paulears said:
Sounds fine with the slower delivery - although the section at 1.25 had be really stuck - after hobbies. Something that sounds like 'jews is worth the squeeze' - I'me not sure what this means. The slower delivery works, but as you naturally speed up it gets more difficult. (and spelling is preparation - not preperation. just a typo I think. I think.

One question? Your video assumes the word FIRE means something. I could Google, I guess, but it means nothing at all to me? A term I have never ever heard before? I guess it's to do with retirement? Is that the F?


Recording wise - the slower delivery has worked, and you just need to check with the word linguists in the world (the Brits) that your English is understandable. The video content is a switch off for me personally - if I want a laptop or something - I just look to see if I can afford it, and buy it. The notion of checking to see how it impacts a date in the future (probably closer for me than for you) I wouldn't dream of doing. Too many friends I've lost this last year who won't see retirement - so my mind is now saying spend it now, I may not be here tomorrow. Hence why I have bought lots of recording 'toys' I can't really justify.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot Paul! Damn I meant "Is the juice worth the squeeze" lol. The typo is a complete oversight.... oh well could be worse..

And the point on fire is also a very good tip I can use. As there are alot of people who don't know what fire is, as its a subniche. But a lot of people are watching this video as their first video, and their like "what is this guy on about". So def I should recap each video if I do something about FIRE.

So FIRE is Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE), its a financial movement that allows people to retire young by saving and investing in index funds or ETF's. But its not about retiring and just lying on a beach, its about the financial independence, that you dont need to work. You can work the jobs you like, as the majority of people are stuck in a job that they hate, and they are afraid they cannot pay the bills anymore if they make a career switch (they have a big mortgage, married, 2 kids,...). But yeah as you said, you still should be able to enjoy life. A new car does not bring me any joy so there is no point in me buying a new car every 4 years, but I do enjoy trips around the world. Searching the balance is different for anyone, and this is just a calculator that shows you how much longer you need to work at your job before pursuing your dream. But yeah the FIRE movement is mostly for people at a relative young age and is a really small niche atm. But I found it interesting none the least.
 
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