[Neil Anderson]

Awesome, thanks Joe! Sorry I would have thanked you sooner but I just saw your comment.
Thanks,
Neil

[Neil Anderson]

Thanks Ann!

So I add a rectangle, and then add some text, and then click the selection tool to resize the rectangle around the text.

That is completely bizarre way but it works 🙂

[Neil Anderson]

Thanks Manish, it’s a good tutorial but it doesn’t answer my question. I can add overlay text to the video but I want to add a background to the text box.

[Neil Anderson]

Oh man Ctrl-Shift-K DOES razor through all tracks! (Whether they’re selected or not.)

I’d added a custom keyboard shortcut for ‘Add Edit’ instead of ‘Add Edit for All Tracks’. I’m a dumbass. Thanks very much for your help Todd, I wouldn’t have realised if you hadn’t told me the correct command name.

Thanks,
Neil

[Neil Anderson]

I just did some more testing in the day time instead of the middle of the night so I could ask my son if it ‘sounds like me’ (he’s 10). I was thinking I’m maybe just being paranoid and it sounds okay.

He said I ‘sound like a robot’ in the YouTube video above.

I tried using my iRig Mic HD USB mic instead of the Shure to verify it’s the mic but it sounded pretty similar (plus a little background hiss because it’s not going through the gate on the DBX).

Then I tried recording in Audition instead of Camtasia. I’m not sure what was up before but this sounds a lot better than Camtasia now:

11943_mictest01.mp3.zip

So I guess I need to learn Premiere Pro and Audition and completely change my workflow DOH!

Because I’ll be using Audition anyway it’s not going to add any time to the workflow to apply presets to the audio. Any final tips on that?

Thanks!
Neil

[Neil Anderson]

I’ve tried making a few tweaks.

This is the before you heard before:

https://youtu.be/9AgchZa60IQ

And this is my lastest settings the after tweaks:

https://youtu.be/Rm2kIjn9P-I

I’ve reversed the settings on the back of the SM7. I’ve turned the presence boost off and the bass roll-off on. I hadn’t thought about this before.
On the DBX I’ve enabled the 80Hz High-Pass, turned the low frequency enhancer all the way to 0, the high frequency enhancer is at 3 (a third of the way round).

What do you think? Hopefully this is good now.
I think I have hearing fatigue from testing so many variations so I can’t tell what’s good or not anymore ☺

Thanks very much again,
Neil

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[Neil Anderson]

Thanks Chris. There’s an ’80Hz High-Pass’ button on the DBX that filters out low frequencies, I never thought to use it before because all the how to videos I’ve seen say not to.

Here’s the frequency analysis when I’m sitting in silence with the High-Pass turned off (not filtering):

And here’s the frequency analysis with it turned on:

Could you be on to something there? There’s a big spike at the lowest frequency when I don’t enable the High-Pass button.

Thanks! Neil

[Neil Anderson]

Thanks Richard, this is really helpful.

To give a little background to how the situation developed… I originally used an iRig Mic HD plugged directly into my laptop. Most ‘how to’ videos for beginners recommend either that or the Blue Yeti. The problem was I live in rural Thailand, the surfaces in the room are all ceramic or glass (it gets hot) and there’s usually trucks or dogs barking outside. So I could only record in the middle of the night and it sounded like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-seW33P-GA

I started making enough from online courses to do it semi-professionally. I wanted a setup that gave me ‘perfect’ (to me) audio going forward and that I could use in the daytime. So I reinvested a few thousand dollars into a locally built recording booth and the hardware detailed in the post. I wanted something that I could set up once and not have to worry about again, and not have to spend any time cleaning up audio in post production. I was hoping to get audio that sounds like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEaivtPrBe0

I wasn’t able to test microphones because I had to get the hardware shipped to Thailand. There’s loads of rice fields around here but not many microphone shops ☺ There is a place in Bangkok but it was much cheaper to get it shipped from the US. So I went with what was recommended in most of the videos, without going overboard on full on broadcasting gear.

I do realise that my audio now is way better than it was but I want it to sound ‘perfect’ so I can forget about it and move on with my work. I also realise that I’m saddled with my voice and I’m never going to sound like a DJ. It’s just bugging me that my audio sounds a little unnatural or less ‘clean’ as compared to the one mentioned above. It’s that low-frequency hump that I don’t like, it sounds distorted to me.

I’ll try experimenting with the microphone positioning. I’ll probably stick with the SM7 because it’s not really possible to test other microphones to find one I love. I’ll get it as good as I can and then stop worrying about it. (If I get an overseas trip I’ll try finding an AV store to test out others.)

Thanks very much for taking the time to write such a detailed reply. You’ve been super helpful and it’s massively appreciated.

Thanks,
Neil

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[Neil Anderson]

Thanks everyone!

I’ll try experimenting with different settings but now I know to expect 25 fps on both to be best.

Bret – I was kinda expecting the camera to be able to record in 25, 30, 50 or 60 fps for 1080p (it’s a Panasonic G7 and can record in 4K). It only supports 25 or 50 fps though. So I learned something new, the supported frame rates depend on which region you buy the camera in (I’m in Thailand).