Voice over narration normalization -Sound Forge - PC

Subject:Voice over narration normalization Posted by: jkettler Date:2/8/2008 11:12:55 AM I work in a training department that has recently taken on the development of web-based training that has a lot of narration. Is there an easy way to get all of the narration at a consistent volume level? I was thinking maybe Wave Hammer might work, but there are a lot of settings and I'm not sure how to get the results I need. By the way, I'm pretty new at this so any help would be appreciated.
Subject:RE: Voice over narration normalization Reply by: Kennymusicman Date:2/8/2008 11:28:44 AM Compression is your friend. I'm not going to describe how it works this time around... but.. Either try Wavehammer, preset "voice", or Effects-Dynamics, preset "Soft knee com....." That should get you some ball-park starting options. FWIW every file is different, so there is no magical "one size fits all" solution - but these are good places to start
Subject:RE: Voice over narration normalization Reply by: Phil Sayer Date:2/8/2008 2:38:55 PM Rare for me to disagree with Ken, but I find the Wave Hammer "voice" preset far too vicious, but with all respect to friends across the ocean, U.S. voices and producers seem to like a really heavy pumping compressed sound - in the UK we tend to be a little gentler! That said, I used the Voice preset as a starting point, and adjusted the compression ratio downwards. There's also some evidence that an over-compressed sound is tiring and wearisome to listen to for a length of time. We (Mrs Voiceover and I) supply audio for training applications quite regularly, and we tend to use Wave Hammer on a much softer setting than the pre-set. It's a complicated issue, but achieving a consistent sound level across several projects is more complex than W.H. settings. You probably "buy in" audio from a number of suppliers like us, so immediately you're at the mercy of what WE think sounds right. (Surprisingly, although there are various standards for equalisation, there is no standard "volume level.") Provided you have the right environment, i.e. a reasonable pair of speakers, or even good headphones, the best arbiter is actually your ears. If it SOUNDS loud, it IS loud, no matter what the meters say... a very compressed track, peaking at 4 PPM will probably sound louder than an uncompressed track peaking at 7 PPM. Therefore, your best bet is to keep a reference track, and tweak the levels on a new piece of audio on a comparative basis. If it helps, these are our standard settings - we use a Neumann U87AI, and aim to record peaking around -6dB. Threshold: -10dB Ratio 1:5 to 1 Output gain 0dB Scan Mode: RMS Attack time: 5ms Release time: 50ms Smart release: 0 In the Volume Maximiser tab, we have -3dB on both, a Release Time at 20ms. If we want a harder sound, we wind the ratio up to 2.5 to 1 or even higher, but never for long narration passages. Note that we add the tiniest amount of compression and limiting via the mixer - this is to improve the S/N ratio going through the sound card - so if you're dealing with totally uncompressed audio from suppliers, you might want to wind the ratio up a bit.
Subject:RE: Voice over narration normalization Reply by: Kennymusicman Date:2/8/2008 3:48:22 PM that wasn't much of a disagreement..... It was more just expanding on the parts I didn't want to expand on myself this time around :) [Personally , I never use wavehammer. I like the dynamics as I can completely manipulate the ratio, across differing amplitudes. ]
Subject:RE: Voice over narration normalization Reply by: jkettler Date:2/11/2008 5:30:45 AM Thanks for the help from both of you. It gives me a good place to start.

Subject:Voice over narration normalization

Posted by: jkettler

Date:2/8/2008 11:12:55 AM

I work in a training department that has recently taken on the development of web-based training that has a lot of narration. Is there an easy way to get all of the narration at a consistent volume level? I was thinking maybe Wave Hammer might work, but there are a lot of settings and I'm not sure how to get the results I need. By the way, I'm pretty new at this so any help would be appreciated.

Subject:RE: Voice over narration normalization

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:2/8/2008 11:28:44 AM

Compression is your friend. I'm not going to describe how it works this time around... but..

Either try Wavehammer, preset "voice", or
Effects-Dynamics, preset "Soft knee com....."

That should get you some ball-park starting options. FWIW every file is different, so there is no magical "one size fits all" solution - but these are good places to start

Subject:RE: Voice over narration normalization

Reply by: Phil Sayer

Date:2/8/2008 2:38:55 PM

Rare for me to disagree with Ken, but I find the Wave Hammer "voice" preset far too vicious, but with all respect to friends across the ocean, U.S. voices and producers seem to like a really heavy pumping compressed sound - in the UK we tend to be a little gentler! That said, I used the Voice preset as a starting point, and adjusted the compression ratio downwards.

There's also some evidence that an over-compressed sound is tiring and wearisome to listen to for a length of time.

We (Mrs Voiceover and I) supply audio for training applications quite regularly, and we tend to use Wave Hammer on a much softer setting than the pre-set.

It's a complicated issue, but achieving a consistent sound level across several projects is more complex than W.H. settings. You probably "buy in" audio from a number of suppliers like us, so immediately you're at the mercy of what WE think sounds right. (Surprisingly, although there are various standards for equalisation, there is no standard "volume level.")

Provided you have the right environment, i.e. a reasonable pair of speakers, or even good headphones, the best arbiter is actually your ears. If it SOUNDS loud, it IS loud, no matter what the meters say... a very compressed track, peaking at 4 PPM will probably sound louder than an uncompressed track peaking at 7 PPM.

Therefore, your best bet is to keep a reference track, and tweak the levels on a new piece of audio on a comparative basis.

If it helps, these are our standard settings - we use a Neumann U87AI, and aim to record peaking around -6dB.

Threshold: -10dB Ratio 1:5 to 1 Output gain 0dB Scan Mode: RMS
Attack time: 5ms Release time: 50ms Smart release: 0

In the Volume Maximiser tab, we have -3dB on both, a Release Time at 20ms.

If we want a harder sound, we wind the ratio up to 2.5 to 1 or even higher, but never for long narration passages.

Note that we add the tiniest amount of compression and limiting via the mixer - this is to improve the S/N ratio going through the sound card - so if you're dealing with totally uncompressed audio from suppliers, you might want to wind the ratio up a bit.

Subject:RE: Voice over narration normalization

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:2/8/2008 3:48:22 PM

that wasn't much of a disagreement..... It was more just expanding on the parts I didn't want to expand on myself this time around :)

[Personally , I never use wavehammer. I like the dynamics as I can completely manipulate the ratio, across differing amplitudes. ]

Subject:RE: Voice over narration normalization

Reply by: jkettler

Date:2/11/2008 5:30:45 AM

Thanks for the help from both of you. It gives me a good place to start.