[Jeff David]

Thanks coach!

Uh duh – I forget I have the backups! Yup the rookie finally realizes the need for backup so I have my clips on the Seagate personal cloud and also on Onedrive. This clip was insignificant but if I really needed it I could have gotten it from the backup. Although the whole backup stuff and how to work the Seagate drive is still confusing to me, although Seagate offers 27 months of phone support and the support is in USA = Americans and they are SUPERB! They are always there to help and I’m picking it up from them!

Haha – I realized I had the file history back-up set i.e. Microsofts auto backup, as well as through the Seagate dashboard backup set so I actually doubled backed up my clips. That would be good except it was all to the same Seagate personal cloud drive so I duped everything! I suppose I could delete half and get down to just 1 tb full but I am too paranoid that I would screw it up and lose clips so I’m not going to mess with it.

Of course, I have been working on this project for 5 years so I’m not sure if I’m still a rookie but as far as the knowledge I am a novice! So much to know!

However, my brother told me he had two external drives he stored stuff on, and both went bad and he lost his data so he was saying don’t even trust the external drives and 2 backups is not enough.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

The Seagate cloud external drive is connected to my computer via an ethernet cable.
I ran windows defender and found I had a virus. Maybe that was the problem. The virus has been removed. Today, it did not take as long to load, although it still took awhile.
At one point I added a lot of additional clips to the Seagate personal cloud drive and ever since then it seems to take way longer to load.
I went from about 1 terabyte to close to 2 terabytes and that is when I noticed it got slower.
Is having 2 terabytes of clips on an external drive the problem?

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

Maybe 11 inches is too far away. Although on other recordings I was that far away.
Interestingly enough, the sound waves were very small on the older recordings and are very large on the last recording yet the mic was the same distance.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

Thanks John.
You may be right. The mic was pectoral level, but I was looking up to read off of the teleprompter.
The distance to the mic from my upward turned mouth was 11-12 inches – I measured it.
However, I’ve always had it like that. The other thing is the lines in the voice recording that show how loud the recording is, on older recordings were very small. Not sure what they are called but when looking at the recording of the sound clips yo have two lines that express how loud the sound is. On older recordings – they are very small. On recent recordings, they are very large extending to almost the top.
I am careful each time to set the sound levels at 75% so that is always uniform. Very odd. The set up is all the same except maybe last time the issue is I had the mic turned sideways. Although I don’t think that is the first time I had it that way. This sound stuff is extremely tricky and baffling.
I am positive I am not recording from the internal computer mic, as – thanks to your teaching I ALWAYS go into, “options, preferences, audio device” and make sure that the ATT20 that you advised me on – is the recording device. However, thanks for the great tip about tapping the mic to make sure!
Could it have anything to do with, “AUDIO DEVICE TYPE”??? I always leave that at, “Windows classic wave driver” cause I am clueless as to what the other options mean. Of course, I am also clueless as to what, “Windows classic wave driver” means too. Maybe that got switched? Baffling. I can see there Is a lot to know.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

I went, “control panel, sound, manage audio devices, properties” and clicked on each tab and looked for “reverb” but did not see any reverb option.

I am not sure if that is what you mean but there was no reverb in there that I could find.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

Perhaps the diff in sound was caused by the fact that although everything else was set up exactly the same, I had the mic sideways instead of straight up and down.
I put it like that so it would not be seen in the video footage. I won’t put it sideways again and see how it sounds.

To capture my voice, I connect ATT20 USB mic.
I make sure to check that that is the mic that is being recorded through via “options, preferences, audio device.
I check that the ATT30usb is the specified recording device by, “control panel, hardware, and sound, manage audio devices” and check the level.
I set the level to 75 – is that where I should set it?
I stand up while recording and have uh – not sure what you call it but a lamp like thingy what extends etc. the mic is on that.
I am video taping myself while recording through the ATT20
The mic is about the level of my pectorals – so it won’t be seen in the video.
The buss thingy in the upper right-hand corner of Sony Movie studio is usually one quarter from the top although I notice that produces static on playback so I reduced it to 25% from the bottom and that reduces the static.
I am not sure if I should just set it there while recording instead of having it 25% down from the peak setting and then reduce it on playback.

Environment is my living room. Of course the windows are closed and no tv or anything is on except the computer. There are no external sound sources that can be heard.

Device used to record voice on? I record to my computer hard drive via Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13.

How do I monitor? – I don’t – I am looking at my teleprompter and trying to not sound while I am reading while I am doing the voice over so I’m not looking anywhere else.
I only look at the level bars in Sony Movie Studio upon playback.
It’s only occasionally that I get the static most times it’s clear as a bell.
Thanks for all of your help!

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

Thanks but I’m not sure what that all means? I don’t understand. Sorry – I have little to zero experience recording.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

I inadvertently included the clip in w some other clips I did not need. It was not a big loss.

I know that it said it deletes it from the drive but I thought it might be in the recycle bin. Now I know it’s gone for good. No biggie.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

The Signal flow is the flow of the Signal, here that is the mic input that you want.

I TRY TO SET EVERYTHING THE SAME. THE ONLY DIFF LAST TIME WAS I SET THE MASTER BUS TO 42 INSTEAD OF 15.
SORRY FOR CAPS JUST DIFFERENTIATING MY WORDS – NOT YELLING.

You want to get and keep the Signal to Noise high.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? NOT SURE WHAT IT MEANS?

I’ve learnt that noise can come in all sorts of flavours. Here, it’s that static you talk of. Having a hollow sound does suggest you’ve got more Noise to Signal and tried “something”.

Can you test something. Unplug your mic, turn your record volume up and record.

ARE YOU SAYING TO RECORD THROUGH THE MIC THAT IS BUILT INTO MY COMPUTER?

I WILL TRY THAT – IF THAT IS WHAT YOU MEAN.

I NORMALLY SET THE VOLUME OF THE MIC TO 75. IS THAT WHERE IT SHOULD BE? I NEVER HAD ANY TRAINING IN SOUND AND JUST TRYING TO FIGURE IT ALL OUT.

Play this back and note the levels of the sound you’re getting. What does that sound like?

I’LL LET YOU KNOW LATER WHEN I DO THAT – WHAT HAPPENS.

Look, I’ve spent much time in isolating analogue/digital noise from my sound floor. Oh yes, before I started it was coming in at around -20db, that was really horrid.

WHEN YOU SAY -20 YOU’RE REFERRING TO THE MASTER BUS? THE THINGY ON THE RIGHT TOP TO THE RIGHT OF “PREVIEW”?

I’VE ALWAYS HAD THAT SET TO 15 OR SO – AND THAT IS WHEN THE PLAYBACK WAS STATICY SO I’VE REDUCED IT TO 42 WHEN I RECORD.

IS IT BETTER TO LEAVE IT AT 42 AND RECORD AT 42 OR TO PUT IT BACK TO 15 AND THEN JUST REDUCE IT TO 42 DURING PLAYBACK? IT SOLVED THE STATIC NOISE ON PLAYBACK WHEN I TURNED IT DOWN TO 42 BUT THATS THE CLIP THAT IS HOLLOW SOUNDING. NOT SURE IF THE BUS IS WHY?

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

While we are on the topic, what does the “preview” button do in the “master bus”? What level should it be set at? I moved it up and down and there was no difference in the sound???

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.