Advice on voice-overs for Huey missions

[Yurgon]

I'm (still) working on my first mission and haven't decided yet whether to record voice-overs or not.

 

I did some tests yesterday and found that I had a really hard time to create a recording that can be easily understood in the cockpit, although my mic is a fairly decent model (Samson USB).

 

I've attached a tiny test mission with a sample recording that I edited in Audacity (First sentence: unedited, second sentence: more treble, less bass, third sentence: even more treble, even less bass, forth sentence: same as third, but adds volume).

 

I can barely understand my own words with the Huey running. The only part that is somewhat understandable is the forth part, but the boosted audio sounds terrible.

 

I've also compared my recording to some of the voice-overs from the UN Pilot campaign. They add a bit of "radio" distortion, but the overall voice volume seems to be less than in my recording. But as far as I remember, most of the voice acting could be understood very well while flying the missions.

 

So, do you have any hints and suggestions on how to record voice-overs and how to edit those recordings so that they can be easily understood over the noise of the Huey?

yurgon_dcs_audio_test.miz

Edited February 18, 2014 by Yurgon

[camsr]

I don't know if you want a radio sound, but here's an example

NOTE: File is actually .OGG format, not zip! Just rename it

yurgon radio.zip

[RagnarDa]

Advice on voice-overs for Huey missions

 

I would suggest you use audio compression. It's not the same thing as file compression or MP3/ogg file-size compression but a way to level out the volume of your voice so it will be easier to hear (also, if you want, louder without being distorted). They use this with spades on talk-radio. I am sure Audacity has at least one plugin preinstalled or you can just download one.

 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compression

 

Edit: Also, don't feel bad if you don't match the quality of the Huey-missions voice-overs. They where most likely recorded by a professional voice actor in a professional studio with professional-grade microphones which are super-crazy-expensive.

Edited February 18, 2014 by RagnarDa

[Yurgon]

Thanks a lot for the input, much appreciated! :thumbup:

 

I don't know if you want a radio sound, but here's an example

NOTE: File is actually .OGG format, not zip! Just rename it

 

Yeah, that sounds pretty much like what I had in mind. :)

 

I was going to ask you for directions on how to achieve the effect, but I've found a brilliant 46 second tutorial on how to achieve a similar effect in Audacity:

 

 

I would suggest you use audio compression. It's not the same thing as file compression or MP3/ogg file-size compression [...]

 

Very interesting, thanks! :)

 

There's an effect in (my localized installation of) Audacity called "Dynamikkompressor", which should translate to "Dynamic Compressor", but no matter what I tried, it seemed to have almost no effect at all when applied to my sample.

 

But it gave me some ideas and directions for searching about it.

 

Edit: Also, don't feel bad if you don't match the quality of the Huey-missions voice-overs. They where most likely recorded by a professional voice actor in a professional studio with professional-grade microphones which are super-crazy-expensive.

 

Haha, don't worry.

 

But I think the gap between an entry-level mic and a good mid-level one is much bigger than the gap between said mid-level mic and a top-level, professional mic. It's amazing what kind of quality can be achieved with a microphone in the 50 to 100 Euro region (like the one I already have). I'm sure if I did audio recordings for a living, I'd be looking for a much higher standard and would appreciate the additional level of quality, but for now I'm quite happy with what I have - and given that I only intend to fake low quality radio transmissions, even entry-level hardware should do the trick.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Yurgon
Wrong YouTube link

[camsr]

What I did was the simple "telephone sound" thing. Apply a 12db/oct highpass filter at 400hz and 12db/oct lowpass at 4000hz. Then add some noise and use "dynamic range compression" :)

 

Kinda like this

http://www.larryjordan.biz/telephone-audio-effect/

[Yurgon]

What I did was the simple "telephone sound" thing. Apply a 12db/oct highpass filter at 400hz and 12db/oct lowpass at 4000hz. Then add some noise and use "dynamic range compression" :)

 

Kinda like this

http://www.larryjordan.biz/telephone-audio-effect/

 

Great description, cool!

 

Audacity also has an Equalizer preset called "Telephone", I just didn't see it when I first looked through the options.

 

These videos aren't exactly on topic, but they're pretty interesting as well:

 

 

[Wrecking Crew]

I have messed with voice over recordings. From the advice I got, I recorded separate tracks (files) of backgrounds like A-10s flying, C-130's flying and taking damage, big jets like KC tankers. Then I got separate voice recordings with no background noise. Now all I need is an editor to put it all together into the five or so files I need -- and I plan to use .ogg format.

 

(I want someone to edit these voice with backgrounds. I don't have that kinda of experience or time :-) )

 

(I wrote out the five voice scripts. Had different people read their parts, advice was to let the person read one part then the next and so on, and to not start / stop to try to redo. If the talker messes up the line(s), pause, and then have them start over w/o stopping the recording. It will take a few of these to get any one of your actor's voice recorded onto one session, and even if that contains start-overs, the audio editor-guy can section it out.

 

Then each voice section can be mixed with the right background sound and the volumes between those and the mission needs can be adjusted.

 

---

 

Now, more to the OP re the volume of sound files. I can't hear any background mission sounds when flying the Huey. I can hear those sounds in the A-10C or in the external views, but the cockpit of the Huey is so loud that a sound for other a/c can't be heard; if you increased the volume level to accommodate the Huey cockpit noise then that event may be too loud for everyone else.

 

WC

[Yurgon]

Now, more to the OP re the volume of sound files. I can't hear any background mission sounds when flying the Huey. I can hear those sounds in the A-10C or in the external views, but the cockpit of the Huey is so loud that a sound for other a/c can't be heard; if you increased the volume level to accommodate the Huey cockpit noise then that event may be too loud for everyone else.

 

That's a good point. For my task at hand (Single Play), I know exactly which kind of aircraft the player will be in while receiving radio calls, so I can edit the audio files before I add them to the mission.

 

For missions with different flyable aircraft (that can be picked at random by the player, like in Dragon's Training Pack), that won't work, though. Do you think there's a more generic approach?

 

Obviously, it would be possible to edit all audio files for the different types of aircraft, and in the mission detect the player aircraft and select the appropriate recording, but creating multiple versions of the same recording and creating the triggers will be a continuing nightmare of repetitive actions.

 

I guess what we need (if it doesn't exist already) would be some kind of volume amplification within the ME taking into account the type of player aircraft.

 

Then again... a Huey without engines running is about as loud as an A-10C without engines (and APU) running. Would it be useful if there was a dynamic, in-cockpit, volume adjustment of ME-triggered sounds?

[RagnarDa]

There's an effect in (my localized installation of) Audacity called "Dynamikkompressor", which should translate to "Dynamic Compressor", but no matter what I tried, it seemed to have almost no effect at all when applied to my sample.

 

That's because our ears and brains are so bad at detecting changes in strength (volume) of the sound, compared to detecting changes in pitch. If you only play your sound by itself it might be hard to hear but if you also have other things sounding at the same time that isn't being compressed you will hear the difference. Also, the video about sound editing ones voice didn't use one of the settings for compression which is important. Ratio is (unlike what he says in the video) the amount of compression (higher = more compressed) and threshold (what he says in the video is amount of compression) is actually how low sounds would be compressed, so if you are having background noices that you don't want to hear, increase this value, if it's hard to hear certain phonems of your recording (like "m") then decrease the threshold. Pay attention to the visualized waveform and how it changes once you apply different settings.

 

Hope this helps!

[camsr]

Compression is a difficult topic to grasp at first. A simple downward compressor (like most) will have 4 important controls: Attack time, Release time, Ratio, Threshold. It's a matter of practice how you approach dialing in each setting to get the best result.

 

To simulate a radio amp compressor, I took a very simple approach and used an Attack time of 1ms, Release of 50ms, Ratio of 6dB, and adjusted the threshold to garner maximum 10dB of gain reduction. Then turn up the Output Gain roughly 6dB. You may need more gain reduction, but Yurgon's audio file was pretty stable in terms of average volume, and compressors like stable signals :thumbup:

 

A great free compressor is ReaComp, it's a VST plugin. http://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/

It should work in Audacity if you can load VSTs.

[RagnarDa]

Compression is a difficult topic to grasp at first.

Yes indeed, I have used them for years and are still unsure what they are actually doing. I read a story about a swedish music producer (don't remember what his name was, but he was famous) that recorded a lot of artists in his studio. His favourite sound processing tool was a old compressor he had found (I think) on a flea market or something and he used it for everything, songs, drums, guitars, the lot and he really loved how it transformed the sound and added warmth. One day someone showed him how to turn it on... :D

 

So yeah, compressors are difficult to use mainly because we are not wired to hear the difference they produce, but they DO work and are important. Any sound guy will tell you that.

[camsr]

The work they do is more a recording utility than a sound effect. But the audibility of a non-compressed VS compressed signal is appearant to the trained ear. Pushed to their limits, they do provide creative input in the form of "altered" dynamics, and that's become a growing trend (good and bad).

 

The original form of compression was "riding the fader". Just making careful changes to volume by hand. Compressors do the same exact thing, just faster and more accurately. But they don't make everything sound good automatically :)