Audio Cleanup Editing Order

[Reg88]

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to digital audio and I did the lynda.com audition cs6 training. What I'm trying to figure is the proper order to edit an audio file. So far I have this -- can someone please let me know if it's in the ballpark?

FWIW I'm editing the voice tracks for my screencasts. I record them with a samson C01U directly into audition cs6 at 44.1K/stereo/32 (float).

1. Clip out the umms, page turns and do overs.
2. normalize the amplitude to - 0.1 db. (favorites drop down)
3. remove the hiss (effects -> reduction -> hiss process).

Is this the correct order? My goal is simply to have an even, crisp sound. And remember I'm totally new to digital audio.

Thank you.

 

[ChrisA]

1. Clip out the umms, page turns and do overs.
2. normalize the amplitude to - 0.1 db. (favorites drop down)
3. remove the hiss (effects -> reduction -> hiss process).

At that level of detail, it looks good. Put of course the devil is the details, like exactly HOW to normalize and reduce hiss and so on.

To much souds bad and what you can remove depends on the sound you are looking for and lots more of those details. But #1 is always "remove the junk" so you don't was any more time messing with it.

The number one thing about recording voice is the person speaking. It's hard to do well. If you have the talent for it the rest is easy, if not no amount of post processing can help.
#2 is the recording technique, mic plaement and room reflections and all that. Get that right and you don't have s much work later trying to fix it.

Lastly and related to #2, where is the "hiss" coming from? Best to kill it at the source then try to remove it later. Try experiments, turn the gain up and down move the mic closer and farther, move the computer FAR away so the mic does not pick up fan noise. All these details matter a lot

But #1 is yor speaking voice. If it's good you're lucky and it will come out fine.

 

[Reg88]

At that level of detail, it looks good. Put of course the devil is the details, like exactly HOW to normalize and reduce hiss and so on.

To much souds bad and what you can remove depends on the sound you are looking for and lots more of those details. But #1 is always "remove the junk" so you don't was any more time messing with it.

The number one thing about recording voice is the person speaking. It's hard to do well. If you have the talent for it the rest is easy, if not no amount of post processing can help.
#2 is the recording technique, mic plaement and room reflections and all that. Get that right and you don't have s much work later trying to fix it.

Lastly and related to #2, where is the "hiss" coming from? Best to kill it at the source then try to remove it later. Try experiments, turn the gain up and down move the mic closer and farther, move the computer FAR away so the mic does not pick up fan noise. All these details matter a lot

But #1 is yor speaking voice. If it's good you're lucky and it will come out fine.

Thank you. I actually don't have much hiss, but I find that if I adjust the amplitude to normalize the audio, then I do get a tiny bit of hiss.

I've been dong some more reading since I posted this, and I read about compressing. Audition CS6 has a compression favorite for voice-over, and when I try it, it packs in the waveforms nicely, but it also give a metallically sounding background.

Do you know of a good beginner tutorial for compression? I'm only doing it because I saw it as "very important" on another checklist, but I'm not sure at all really what its doing.

Thanks.