Raw vs. Processed: Navigating Client Expectations in Voice Over Delivery

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Y'all ready to be history?

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Get started.

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Welcome.

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Hi.

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Hi.

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Hi.

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Hello, everyone.

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To the Pro Audio Suite.

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These guys are professional, they're motivated.

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Thanks to Tribush, the best vocal booth for home or on-the-road voice recording, and Austrian

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Audio, making passion heard.

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Introducing Robert Marshall from Source Elements and Someone Audio Post, Chicago.

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Darren Robert Robertson from Voodoo Radio Imaging, Sydney.

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Tech to the VO Stars.

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George the Tech Whittam from LA.

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And me, Andrew Peters, voiceover talent and home studio guy.

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Line up, man.

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Here we go.

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Sound on TV.

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And welcome to another Pro Audio Suite, thanks to Austrian Audio, making passion heard.

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And also, Tribush, don't forget the code, T-R-I-P-A-P-200.

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That will get you $200 off your Tribush.

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Please buy one, because we want to keep Tribush as a sponsor, but you know, it's all about

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numbers.

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Anyway, Robert's had an interesting session with an actor that claimed to have no processing,

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but it appears probably was lying.

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Robert.

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So, yeah, we hook up and everything's good, and first take, George, here's the tip off.

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First take, I mean, the meter goes all the way to the top, but it doesn't hit zero.

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Yeah.

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There's no way.

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Yeah, yeah.

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There's no way.

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And I'm like, can you turn that down?

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That's a light touch.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Well, first, I'm like, are you processing?

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Because it also just had that compressed sound, and I know he's a radio guy.

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You recognize compression when you see it or hear it.

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He's a radio guy, and I know a lot of times radio guys like their compression, I think.

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Yeah, they have a strip.

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Maybe I'm stereotyping that.

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Yeah.

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And I'm like, do you have anything on your mic?

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Are you processing?

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He's like, no, no, not at all.

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I'm like, all right, well, can you turn it down?

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You're like louder than the clients.

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You're louder than everything here.

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The spot's not even that loud.

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So he turns it down, and then, well, the meter just doesn't move beyond minus 12, but it's

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like...

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Magic.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Oh, he turned down the output.

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Yeah, he turned down the output.

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Yeah, whatever.

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He didn't...

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He was still hitting that compressor and, I think, limiter the same.

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Limiter, by the sounds of it.

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I asked him, like...

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So he didn't turn down his preamp gain.

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He turned down the output.

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Output.

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Output gain, yeah.

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Okay.

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So he technically turned it down.

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He turned it down.

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I mean, he turned it down, like, 10 decibels, because it was cranking.

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And then, you know, I think I probably mentioned it two, maybe three times.

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And it was always like, no, not processing.

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So I just, you know, move on.

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But it sort of annoyed me, because it's like, I can't put it exactly where I want it now.

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It's now, like, just in your face.

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I know where you're going, but for the listeners at home who listen to you and me bitch on and

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on each week, what corner did this guy now paint you into?

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He's just, like, in your face, like, and there's no subtlety to the read anymore.

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And I don't know what the word is, but it doesn't sound natural, actually.

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You know, we were kind of talking about that before, and it had that, like, just, you know,

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this isn't a radio show.

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This was a commercial, and it didn't need that.

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It wasn't also an in-your-face kind of, yeah, it was a national commercial.

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It wasn't the type of read that needed to be, like, it wasn't fighting loud music.

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It was...

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Yeah, you tell me, Robert, isn't the state of audio production for a voiceover in a national

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commercial for television very light processing?

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I'd say so.

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Like...

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Like, let's say it's the aesthetic of very light processing.

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You might be using a fair amount for certain reasons, but it doesn't sound processed.

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It doesn't have a compressed...

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Right, you need clarity.

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You definitely...

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Not clarity like waves, but you need, like, you know, you're gonna put a little 4K or

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2K...

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Almost on the edge of sibilant, but it's not...

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Yeah.

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It's definitely not annoying.

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It's not pushed.

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It's not pumping.

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It's not bigger than life.

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A lot of the times the clients are like, you know, like the old saying was, like, I want

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an everyday man or an everyday person, and you're not looking for that, like, inflated

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chest sound.

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And that's what I was getting.

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And...

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So when he was cast for that spot, he, you know, he did the audition, he got cast.

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That's the sound that they cast him from, right?

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And so now he's like, well, that's my sound.

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It sounded very, very polished, clean, cut, and loud, and consistent, and got that right

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on the mic.

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It was the same thing.

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And you usually think, oh, well, they processed it during the audition to make sure that they

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float above the rest and everything.

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They stacked it.

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Yeah.

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It's a term that's used a lot now, I have to say, stacking has become a bit of a...

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What's the word?

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An adjective?

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Part of our vernacular.

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Now, speaking...

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Okay.

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Well, he's a test.

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Just because you say you're not processing and they don't keep on pushing, that doesn't

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mean you got away with it.

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No.

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That just means that no one wants to be rude, and they want to move on with the session,

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and they'll deal...

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This is the other thing, right?

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In terms of the amount of processing that I'm hearing was on what you were hearing.

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Is in these days, like for television, you've got loudness considerations that have to come

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into play.

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So if you're getting a voiceover that's had the living shit compressed out of it, or is

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quite clearly being compressed, and again, I'm playing devil's advocate here, because

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I know the answer, but I want people to hear your answer because you dealt with it today.

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What difference does that make in terms of your mix, in terms of when you've got to consider

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loudness overall?

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When you're starting something that's heavily compressed.

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I mean, I just couldn't make it as subtle as I wanted to make it, or make it as whatever.

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Natural.

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Natural sounding.

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And the other thing that people don't realize now is like, you know, you go back to 1990,

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and yeah, everything was loud, and you had to make it loud because there were no rules.

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But now, the LKFS level that a commercial has to be at, you don't even need a compressor.

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Right.

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I mean, like, now you're just looking at...

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Minus 24.

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I'll mix it to 23 or 22 because you get a 2dB kind of, you know, window.

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Look at you, sneaky gaga.

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Well, we used to do other things.

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We used to, for the surround spots, until we realized it was causing phase issues, we

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would put the voice in all three speakers across the front, so when it went to stereo,

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went louder.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Nice.

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But, you know, it's not the volume wars anymore, at least in the national spots, because everything

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is so just controlled, and you don't need to fight to make it loud.

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It's very easy with no processing just to make it as loud as it needs to be.

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What you're more looking for is consistency, you know, because does it start low and end

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up loud?

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Because you're going to be measured on your loudest point within the whole spot.

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But that's all stuff that can be done with a fader.

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That's leveling.

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That's not like making it...

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But it's like us turning around to the voice talent and going, listen, I'm sorry, but you're

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gonna have to record this spot with your headphones off.

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You know, you're boxing someone into a corner.

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And it's just, you know, the reason we ask is not because we want to be assholes, or

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not because we don't want you to sound like your audition, or any other reason other than

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I've got my job to do, do me a favor, help me out, turn the shit off.

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I don't want it on.

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Right.

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It's not the promo that's moving so fast that no one's going to take the time to mix it

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That's right.

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Yeah, promo's a different animal completely.

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Promo is ephemeral.

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Goes on the air, and it's gone.

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It wasn't a gate where you could even call it out and be like, you know, you hear that

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thing cutting off for your clients.

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There's no way my clients were going to understand, hey, like, what is compression?

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They don't even know what it is.

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So you mention it once or twice, three times, and then you just move on, and you're just

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sort of like, ah, like, that guy.

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This is the problem when, you know, this is the pro and the con of like the Apollo systems,

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whether you have the ability to do this, is the pro is that it's available to you and

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you can use it when it's necessary or appropriate for whatever it is that you're doing.

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It's also a pro to know that you can be easily shut off with a single click, and that you

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can get back to the setting that you had before, and you can have multiple settings.

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So you can have an infinite number of versions, right?

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The folks that are using Symmetrix 6200 or Symmetrix 52080 or DVX, whatever it is.

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They don't want to touch a knob because they're going to lose all those settings, right?

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Well, all of those things have one thing in common, a bypass button.

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So there's no excuse, because they can immediately press the button.

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But they are so addicted to the way they sound in their cans through that chain, and they

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know that if they shut that shit off, it's going to fuck up their headphones.

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And now they're going to be like, they're going to be out of their...

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What's he saying?

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That he trusts his settings more than me?

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Yeah.

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Well...

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He's saying, I want to hear it.

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He's saying, that's what I want to hear and not what you want to hear.

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And that's...

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That's my point.

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That's the problem.

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I shouldn't say he.

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They.

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Sorry.

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His name was.

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Albert.

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This person knew enough to know that the customer was saying, send it unprocessed.

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But he knew that his performance was suffering, because when he heard himself in the cans

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totally raw, it was affecting his performance.

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It was harder for him to get that performance.

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The UA does that perfectly, just turn off the record button.

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I was able to set up a UAD monitor chain that had what he wanted in LA2A, right?

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Slam, just like boom, bigger than life, whatever.

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And then we made up a separate chain in his post process and logic that maybe had some

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of that, maybe not.

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It was a mix.

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It was kind of a mishmash, right?

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But he had a monitoring chain and he had a processing chain.

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We were to separate those two out from each other.

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And, and I think that needs to be done.

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If headphones are a part of what you do, you really are dependent on the way you sound

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in those cans to get your performance.

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If you can't turn off the processing to get that sound, then you have to figure out a

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way around it.

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And there are ways to do it.

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It's not like it's impossible.

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You just need to know.

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When I record a singer, I will put the compression on it heavy in the monitors because it helps

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the performance.

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It helps them hear everything and makes it so that they're not trying to push too loud

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and they can have that subtle performance and they're not trying to float above, get

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themselves above everything, but I'm not recording it that way.

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And then later that's all things that can be done more thoughtfully with a fader instead

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of a compressor.

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That's why every DAW, the processing is always post by default.

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It does not record the processing on that channel.

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Except for Reaper.

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It gives you the option.

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Reaper does have a pre effects that is unique to Reaper, but on others, you have to go out

247
00:11:19,980 --> 00:11:23,520
of your way to make an aux chain and then send it back into another file.

248
00:11:24,220 --> 00:11:28,540
And you can do all that, which I do sometimes too, but you have to go out of your way.

249
00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:30,900
But that's why it's always a post thing.

250
00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:38,340
We want as engineers to record the pre-fader, pre-processed, raw, raw audio on the whole

251
00:11:38,340 --> 00:11:39,280
and make that decision.

252
00:11:39,640 --> 00:11:44,220
Coming back to what you want to hear, I mean, Robert, you're a music engineer.

253
00:11:44,480 --> 00:11:45,240
You would know this.

254
00:11:46,560 --> 00:11:52,300
There's debate out there in music producer or music engineer land, you know, do you mix

255
00:11:52,300 --> 00:11:53,500
into a compressor or not?

256
00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:59,640
There's plenty of people who sort of have a slight compressor happening over the mix from

257
00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:02,840
the moment they press, you know, start mix.

258
00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:04,600
And then there are others who won't.

259
00:12:04,740 --> 00:12:08,880
Do you mean do your mix into a compressor as in if it's going to tape or going into

260
00:12:08,880 --> 00:12:09,300
monitors?

261
00:12:09,420 --> 00:12:14,580
They'll put a compressor on just to sort of control everything and then mix into it.

262
00:12:14,580 --> 00:12:16,240
And then that's not their master.

263
00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:21,420
That's just a compressor on the stereo mix to sort of keep everything in check.

264
00:12:21,560 --> 00:12:22,220
And there's debate.

265
00:12:22,280 --> 00:12:22,760
It's a bus compressor.

266
00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:24,800
There's plenty of people out there who'll go, yeah, I do.

267
00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:27,120
And there are people out there who go, no, there's no way I would.

268
00:12:28,340 --> 00:12:29,280
But that's not...

269
00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:30,600
Are you asking me how I do it?

270
00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:32,080
Well, actually, yeah, that would be interesting.

271
00:12:32,260 --> 00:12:34,700
I mean, I can make a few comments on that.

272
00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:38,740
Like number one, if I'm moving fast, yeah, I'll mix into a compressor.

273
00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:41,340
I'll mix and master all in one pass.

274
00:12:41,340 --> 00:12:45,200
I had a client the other day that was like, the other studio is telling me that I need

275
00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:46,000
to master it.

276
00:12:46,140 --> 00:12:47,400
And are they ripping me off?

277
00:12:47,900 --> 00:12:49,560
I'm like, no, they're not really ripping you off.

278
00:12:50,500 --> 00:12:55,920
But if you know what you're going for, you can kind of hit both in one stroke.

279
00:12:56,860 --> 00:13:00,920
And maybe these days, people are just doing songs and they're putting them up on YouTube

280
00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:02,820
and there's not an album.

281
00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:06,020
If you're mastering and you're looking at the whole album, you need to master.

282
00:13:06,500 --> 00:13:10,320
If not, yeah, you can kind of mix and master in one shot, especially because you're not

283
00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:12,160
sending it to somebody else for their opinion.

284
00:13:12,680 --> 00:13:16,800
If you're the same person who's going to mix and master, hey, why not do it in one

285
00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:17,140
shot?

286
00:13:17,980 --> 00:13:21,240
If I'm trying to move fast, I'll mix into a compressor.

287
00:13:21,820 --> 00:13:25,420
But I don't think you necessarily get the most detailed mix that way.

288
00:13:25,780 --> 00:13:29,640
Because there's a certain point after which you start pushing all your faders up.

289
00:13:29,700 --> 00:13:31,020
It just doesn't matter anymore.

290
00:13:31,580 --> 00:13:33,940
I think that's the point is like, do you monitor...

291
00:13:33,940 --> 00:13:36,140
I know we're way off topic again, as usual.

292
00:13:36,140 --> 00:13:41,960
But it's like, are you better off as the engineer mixing through compression that you're monitoring

293
00:13:42,540 --> 00:13:44,300
versus printing that compression?

294
00:13:44,640 --> 00:13:48,920
Because you just want to hear that mix monitored through that bus compressor.

295
00:13:49,260 --> 00:13:53,360
During the session, it's nice to record through a compressor so that you just start hearing

296
00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:58,440
the details of that vocal and you know if there are any problems and the singer knows

297
00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:03,660
that they're not pushing too loud and you're getting a nice dynamic.

298
00:14:03,660 --> 00:14:08,420
But I mean, by now you're mixing, you're in the mixing stage and you're mixing through

299
00:14:08,420 --> 00:14:09,680
a bus compressor.

300
00:14:09,940 --> 00:14:13,560
Are you always printing that compressor or are you monitoring the compressor?

301
00:14:13,740 --> 00:14:15,280
Because you want to hear the way it would...

302
00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:21,660
I used to do it where I would mix into a compressor just to have an idea of how it's going to

303
00:14:21,660 --> 00:14:21,880
be.

304
00:14:22,380 --> 00:14:27,280
And I got burned one time because I did one of these albums where the band had this engineer

305
00:14:27,280 --> 00:14:29,280
do three songs and that engineer do three songs.

306
00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:32,880
And one of the engineers just sent them a pretty much mastered mix.

307
00:14:33,580 --> 00:14:39,020
I mixed it and I did, especially because often when you send the clients home with a mix,

308
00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:43,540
you throw it through a quick master because if not, they're like, it just doesn't sound

309
00:14:43,540 --> 00:14:43,760
right.

310
00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:44,660
I can't...

311
00:14:44,660 --> 00:14:46,340
So you're like, here you go.

312
00:14:46,420 --> 00:14:53,440
Here's just a smack compressor to get it into place so you can listen to it relative to

313
00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:54,420
other things and have an idea.

314
00:14:54,420 --> 00:14:59,440
And then when I sent it off to the mastering engineer, I turned all my stuff off, came

315
00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:01,080
back and this guy sucked.

316
00:15:01,700 --> 00:15:08,260
And my stuff sounded small and the other guy's stuff sounded big because he didn't put anything

317
00:15:08,260 --> 00:15:08,880
on my...

318
00:15:09,860 --> 00:15:10,720
I'm so glad you said this.

319
00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:12,460
And I wish I had just been like, here it is.

320
00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:13,160
I'd done that.

321
00:15:13,460 --> 00:15:17,320
I thought you were going to do it better because that's what you're supposed to do as a mastering

322
00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:19,300
engineer, but you didn't do any of it.

323
00:15:19,300 --> 00:15:24,380
And now I'm forever stuck in this, like my mixes sound small.

324
00:15:24,460 --> 00:15:25,080
Thank you, Robert.

325
00:15:25,300 --> 00:15:26,440
I have to thank you.

326
00:15:26,540 --> 00:15:29,700
I'm going to send you one of those edible oranges, whatever you want.

327
00:15:29,700 --> 00:15:30,260
Edible undies?

328
00:15:30,800 --> 00:15:35,800
Because this is why I set up stacks for voice actors.

329
00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:41,440
They have to know, if they don't know who the client is, this is especially for pay

330
00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:41,780
to play.

331
00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:43,780
I would say this is mainly pay to play.

332
00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:48,880
And the pay to play client says, we want the audio raw.

333
00:15:49,860 --> 00:15:53,520
They just know that that's something to say to a talent.

334
00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:55,020
We want the audio raw.

335
00:15:55,320 --> 00:15:58,040
Well, you get the final product if you happen to hear it.

336
00:15:58,100 --> 00:16:00,760
A lot of times you never hear it, so you just move on with your life.

337
00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:05,480
But if you do hear the final product, sometimes the audio mix blows.

338
00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:06,540
It sucks.

339
00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:08,300
It is not well mixed.

340
00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:09,960
The voice is totally flat.

341
00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:10,960
It's not compressed.

342
00:16:11,400 --> 00:16:18,120
I hear stuff on YouTube ads occasionally, even television, proper television ads, that aren't

343
00:16:18,120 --> 00:16:18,420
mixed.

344
00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:24,520
And so it's this weird thing that actors have this razor's edge where it's like with enough

345
00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:29,820
experience you start to learn that you have to actually process certain things because

346
00:16:29,820 --> 00:16:32,120
if you don't, nobody else is doing it.

347
00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:34,300
That used to only be in promos.

348
00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:38,060
That's a tail wagging the dog problem now where we have to figure that out.

349
00:16:38,060 --> 00:16:41,980
That used to only be in promos where they would record the promo straight to the tape

350
00:16:41,980 --> 00:16:46,840
and before you knew it it was on the air and they were just moving so fast no one had

351
00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:47,540
any time to think about it.

352
00:16:47,540 --> 00:16:48,520
That's just moving fast.

353
00:16:48,700 --> 00:16:49,440
Yeah, moving fast.

354
00:16:49,740 --> 00:16:54,700
Yeah, but the trouble is a lot of times when they say they want the audio raw, it's not

355
00:16:54,700 --> 00:16:56,120
what you think they mean.

356
00:16:56,280 --> 00:16:59,820
What they mean is they don't want any music or sound effects.

357
00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:04,599
And so the interpretation is, oh, okay, no processing.

358
00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:05,359
No.

359
00:17:05,359 --> 00:17:08,099
What they want is no sound effects or music.

360
00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:09,160
They mean clean.

361
00:17:09,300 --> 00:17:10,280
Because they're clueless.

362
00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:11,359
They have no idea what they're doing.

363
00:17:11,540 --> 00:17:12,220
So they don't know.

364
00:17:12,220 --> 00:17:13,079
Yeah, it's jargon.

365
00:17:13,220 --> 00:17:13,619
And those jargon-

366
00:17:13,619 --> 00:17:14,520
They don't know their terms.

367
00:17:14,839 --> 00:17:22,720
Yeah, that doesn't translate across cultures or even from one studio to another what raw

368
00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:23,359
actually means.

369
00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:24,579
That's a really good point.

370
00:17:25,359 --> 00:17:29,780
Anyway, I'm not trying to defend my use of stacks or setting them up for clients because

371
00:17:29,780 --> 00:17:31,820
they really need to listen to what they're putting out.

372
00:17:32,340 --> 00:17:34,200
If they're just hitting a button and sending it-

373
00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:37,300
No matter what you do, you're screwed if you do or you're screwed if you don't.

374
00:17:37,360 --> 00:17:39,880
If you don't, the wrong client doesn't process your audio.

375
00:17:40,040 --> 00:17:44,960
Now you don't sound as good as you could or you end up pissing me off because I'm going

376
00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:49,340
to process your audio the way I want it processed and now I'm pissed off at you for processing

377
00:17:49,340 --> 00:17:51,120
it and not giving me a choice.

378
00:17:51,380 --> 00:17:55,240
There's also the belt and suspenders, which is you track it raw and you have a stack.

379
00:17:55,380 --> 00:17:56,020
You send them both.

380
00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:57,220
Well, this was a live session.

381
00:17:57,420 --> 00:17:58,500
This wasn't like, you know.

382
00:17:58,860 --> 00:17:59,040
Yeah.

383
00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:01,100
Here's the perfect analogy, right?

384
00:18:01,100 --> 00:18:06,900
You walk into a really nice steak restaurant and you sit down to order a steak and you

385
00:18:06,900 --> 00:18:10,840
go, yeah, I'll have a sirloin and I'll have it blue.

386
00:18:11,120 --> 00:18:13,180
Thank you because, well, that's my choice.

387
00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:18,720
But the chef goes, oh, no, sir, sir, sir, I'm sorry, you cannot have blue.

388
00:18:19,020 --> 00:18:23,660
You must have well done and you must have the onion gravy, you know, and it's like,

389
00:18:23,820 --> 00:18:24,120
hang on.

390
00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:25,420
That's not what I'm ordering.

391
00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:30,320
I'm ordering a steak blue with mustard, please.

392
00:18:30,840 --> 00:18:33,880
You know, but you're being told and it's the same when you sit down and in a session and

393
00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:38,340
this dude's refusing to turn his compressor off, he's like, dude, don't try to sell me

394
00:18:38,340 --> 00:18:38,980
what I don't want.

395
00:18:39,460 --> 00:18:42,260
Yeah, but I've got a feeling this guy doesn't know how to turn the compressor off.

396
00:18:42,260 --> 00:18:43,120
Or doesn't want to.

397
00:18:43,180 --> 00:18:48,500
I think George's story is more up my alley in terms of and the reason I've got a bugbear,

398
00:18:48,580 --> 00:18:52,720
by the way, can I just say is because the moment Robert opened his mouth on this, I had a session

399
00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:55,700
last week with a very well-known Australian voiceover artist.

400
00:18:56,260 --> 00:18:57,640
And I had this exact argument.

401
00:18:58,260 --> 00:19:00,180
And at the end of the session, I was so pissed off.

402
00:19:00,300 --> 00:19:03,080
I rang his agent and told them, did you finally give in, Andrew?

403
00:19:03,980 --> 00:19:04,940
Did I give in?

404
00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:06,260
Yeah, no, it wasn't me.

405
00:19:06,340 --> 00:19:07,080
No, I'm joking.

406
00:19:07,360 --> 00:19:13,120
It wasn't Andrew, but this guy, this guy should know better.

407
00:19:13,460 --> 00:19:18,120
And now his agent and his agent, to be honest, the guy, the guy makes so much money.

408
00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:22,100
His agent probably just went, ah, Robbo rang and complained, but get fucked.

409
00:19:22,740 --> 00:19:24,140
I think I know who that was.

410
00:19:24,280 --> 00:19:25,100
I've got a horrible feeling.

411
00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:25,680
I know that was.

412
00:19:25,780 --> 00:19:26,580
But anyway, I won't.

413
00:19:26,780 --> 00:19:27,560
I'm not going to name names.

414
00:19:27,660 --> 00:19:31,600
But the interesting thing is in the in the good old days where we used to go out to studios

415
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,200
with engineers that I sort of had some sort of friendship with or whatever, I'd always

416
00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:39,840
ask them after we'd done the session, what what are you going to do to my voice?

417
00:19:39,900 --> 00:19:41,160
What processing are you going to use?

418
00:19:41,580 --> 00:19:44,760
And a lot of the time I'd sit there and I'd watch them after the session if the client

419
00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:48,460
had gone or, you know, and just see how much they put on.

420
00:19:48,460 --> 00:19:51,580
And most cases they didn't put much at all.

421
00:19:51,860 --> 00:19:52,300
Totally.

422
00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:52,680
Yeah.

423
00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:53,420
Very little.

424
00:19:54,060 --> 00:20:01,140
So my question is going to be once again to Robert and Robbo was if you if you were doing

425
00:20:01,140 --> 00:20:05,540
a session with me for a commercial and it was like a, you know, not a big promo kind of

426
00:20:05,540 --> 00:20:07,440
thing, just a nice conversational kind of commercial.

427
00:20:08,500 --> 00:20:10,460
What processing would you use on my voice?

428
00:20:10,980 --> 00:20:15,960
I would probably just I'll interject real quick and say, Andrew, that is testament to

429
00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:16,720
your performance.

430
00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:21,120
Like it obviously it's the room, it's the mic, it's the it's all the way down.

431
00:20:21,460 --> 00:20:26,240
But it starts with you because you have excellent control of your instrument, your delivery,

432
00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:29,140
your dynamics are consistent, all these things.

433
00:20:29,140 --> 00:20:33,580
So they do absolute bare minimum to the processing because they don't need to.

434
00:20:33,660 --> 00:20:41,080
I would I would basically probably just put a very, very low set high pass filter.

435
00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:46,360
If I if I didn't hear any thumps, I'd probably just still put like a, you know, whatever

436
00:20:46,360 --> 00:20:49,700
even like 40 hertz high pass filter with a very gentle slope.

437
00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:57,220
I'd probably maybe bump the high EQ around two or four K, a DB or three.

438
00:20:59,260 --> 00:21:07,800
And then a light sort of fastish compressor like LA 2A style to three DB.

439
00:21:08,300 --> 00:21:12,380
And then everything else, I would just push the fader for what I needed it to be.

440
00:21:13,420 --> 00:21:14,800
And that's about what I do, probably.

441
00:21:15,820 --> 00:21:18,920
And maybe, maybe with you, probably not.

442
00:21:19,040 --> 00:21:21,680
But maybe I'd have like a little de-esser.

443
00:21:22,120 --> 00:21:23,320
I don't really use a de-esser.

444
00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:27,860
I tend to use a multiband compressor with just a high, you know, just kind of tapping

445
00:21:27,860 --> 00:21:30,060
the high high frequency down a little bit.

446
00:21:31,220 --> 00:21:32,900
A nuanced de-esser.

447
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:33,380
Yeah.

448
00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:34,480
Or DIY de-esser.

449
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:34,940
A flexible de-esser.

450
00:21:36,340 --> 00:21:38,800
What would you do with Andrew's voice?

451
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:40,980
You know, processing wise?

452
00:21:41,820 --> 00:21:42,020
Yeah.

453
00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:46,780
Look, LA 2A goes on most things for me.

454
00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:49,320
And that would probably be it.

455
00:21:49,380 --> 00:21:50,260
A little bit of EQ.

456
00:21:51,120 --> 00:21:51,480
Yeah.

457
00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:52,980
Like Robert's talking about bottom.

458
00:21:53,580 --> 00:21:54,980
Do you have the switch and compressor?

459
00:21:55,320 --> 00:21:58,700
I like it in compressor mode, but there's another bone of contention, isn't there?

460
00:21:58,720 --> 00:21:59,360
Let's be honest.

461
00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:02,760
Would you put a high pass filter on it anyways, even if you don't hear anything in there?

462
00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:04,080
Probably.

463
00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:06,440
Yeah, probably take some of that.

464
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:13,040
Like I'm sort of a, I mix voiceover like, almost like vocals, like everything that's

465
00:22:13,040 --> 00:22:14,060
unnecessary goes.

466
00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:19,480
You know, that sort of muddy, yucky sort of low mids.

467
00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:20,340
Dump it down.

468
00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:29,960
I sort of tend to, because my go-to EQ is the F6, the Waves one, which is, you can use it

469
00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:31,220
as an EQ or you can use it.

470
00:22:31,220 --> 00:22:32,320
Is that the multi?

471
00:22:32,620 --> 00:22:34,300
Is it the F6 or the C6?

472
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:39,320
You can use it as an EQ, but you can also use it as a multiband compressor as well.

473
00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:44,220
I use the C4 from Waves, but same basic idea.

474
00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:50,080
So I touch, so if you could see, if you could see the curve on those low mids, it's sort

475
00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:53,740
of, there's a little bit dialed in, like maybe minus one or minus two, that's there hard.

476
00:22:53,860 --> 00:22:55,140
And then I just run the compressor.

477
00:22:55,360 --> 00:22:57,780
Do you boost up the highs or do you just scoop the lows out?

478
00:22:59,300 --> 00:23:00,200
Depends on the voice.

479
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:02,700
It depends what you're hearing, again.

480
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:04,760
Because we're kind of saying the same thing, right?

481
00:23:04,980 --> 00:23:06,880
A little bit, maybe, I guess, up the top.

482
00:23:06,940 --> 00:23:11,880
Yeah, because I kind of leave the lower mids alone and I just give a boost on the highs,

483
00:23:12,020 --> 00:23:17,120
but scooping out the lows or boosting the upper mids is like six and a half.

484
00:23:18,300 --> 00:23:19,600
And then I like...

485
00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:24,300
Actually, I've just realized that I've actually done jobs for, worked with both of you, actually,

486
00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:25,360
Robert and Robo.

487
00:23:25,660 --> 00:23:26,220
We should compare.

488
00:23:26,420 --> 00:23:29,420
My stuff always sounds better than Robo's, right?

489
00:23:29,420 --> 00:23:29,840
Yeah.

490
00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:34,720
Of course it does, Robert.

491
00:23:35,060 --> 00:23:36,620
When are we going to have a mix-off, huh?

492
00:23:37,500 --> 00:23:39,140
Yeah, a mix-off, that'd be interesting.

493
00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:43,080
I'd be interested to see what audio you're going to send him, though, AP.

494
00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:45,320
I mean, if you send him pristine audio, that's not fair.

495
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:46,220
He gets head start.

496
00:23:46,300 --> 00:23:47,020
Yeah, that's right.

497
00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:51,360
That could be a really interesting one to do.

498
00:23:51,420 --> 00:23:57,200
I'd send you both exactly the same file and just see what you both come back with.

499
00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:00,920
And then you can derive our two hearing curves from that.

500
00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:03,040
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

501
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:04,680
Which one's deafer than the other one?

502
00:24:05,780 --> 00:24:10,860
Well, surprisingly, I was at the audiologist about three or four months ago and...

503
00:24:10,860 --> 00:24:11,260
What was that?

504
00:24:11,340 --> 00:24:12,040
Yeah, I can't remember.

505
00:24:12,220 --> 00:24:12,820
What did you say?

506
00:24:13,220 --> 00:24:15,400
I think my headphones have just stopped.

507
00:24:18,340 --> 00:24:19,560
I mean, that's...

508
00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:20,440
Well played, sir.

509
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:21,260
Well played.

510
00:24:21,620 --> 00:24:22,060
Anyway.

511
00:24:22,300 --> 00:24:22,640
Yes.

512
00:24:22,900 --> 00:24:23,780
No, we should do that.

513
00:24:24,740 --> 00:24:25,720
I'll stump up.

514
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:26,620
It's fine.

515
00:24:26,620 --> 00:24:27,640
Well, that was fun.

516
00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:28,120
Is it over?