An outsider looking in may think that a voice acting career is easy. They may say, “Wow, you talk for a living. That’s awesome!” While it is indeed awesome, there are tons of challenges that voice actors have to overcome, one of them being noise.
Noise in the voice acting world is different than what you would initially think of as noise. Everything my recording software captures is sound. That sound is divided into 2 categories: signal (which is my voice) and noise (everything else.)
Ideally, I would only want the signal to be recorded. But unfortunately, that is impossible. It can’t even be done with the most expensive equipment.
I minimize this unwanted noise by recording at the correct level. The perfect level is often called the “Goldilocks” level, because it has to be not to hot (which will cause clipping distortion) and not to cold (where your voice is down there in the basement competing with the hiss).
I mentioned that noise is everything except for my voice, but let’s break noise down a little bit more into definable categories.
One form of noise is ‘electric noise’. As electronic hardware has improved, this has become less and less of a problem. But you want to find it if you have it and eliminate it.
Another type of noise is the ‘hiss’. It can be caused by a cheap mic, poorly designed analog-to-digital converters or poorly isolated USB circuitry. The solution to this is spend a bit more money and purchasing a condenser mic.
‘Hum’ is caused by your electronics picking up the electromagnetic waves from the power lines in your studio. It can also be caused by a “ground loop” in your audio system. You can potentially prevent this by having everything plugged into the same socket.
‘Environmental noise’ is what anyone who isn’t in this industry would call ‘noise’. Leaf blowers, firetrucks, airplanes, traffic, a baby crying, dog barking, you name it. There are some sounds we are so used to, like the air conditioning, so it’s best to listen for these background sounds on your recording with headphones.
Another form of noise is ‘room echo’, also called “room ambience” or “room reverberation”. Whenever I speak, some sound goes directly into the microphone, but some sound bounces around the room, is delayed and enters the micro a few milliseconds later. This creates the sound of reverberation in my recording. I prevent this by adding absorbing materials to my studio.
So there you have it, I’m sure there is much more to noise than you thought! I always try my best to eliminate noise, but I have to accept that it will never be perfect! If you are looking for someone to do professional voice acting, contact us now and if you want to hear some of our demos, click here!
