Sooo... you want to want to have good quality audio in your videos?
Well first of all, for this tutorial you will need a microphone- or a webcam- and a copy
of audacity, which you can download for free in the description of this video.
To make this more of a challenge for myself I'm going to be replacing my normal microphone...
...with THIS.
Or something of similar quality.
First things first, you need to get the volume right.
Now at the moment you can see it's too loud, and it's going over the limit of 'how loud
it can be'.
Once it goes over this threshold, you can hear popping sounds.
So, to reduce this, I am going to lower the input volume.
Now I'm going to have to talk a LOT louder for it to go over that limit.
My advice is that it's better to be too quiet than too loud as you can always amplify it
up, though it's best to be consistent with your volume.
I've gone back to recording with my good microphone because I don't want any of you to kill yourselves.
Any way, the second step is to put your microphone somewhere where it DOESN'T MOVE.
Like a table or tree.
This reduces vibrations and also helps with noise cancellation later on.
Thirdly, you must get your FACE in the right place.
Now, there's no point in being back here because it's way too quiet and echoey,
but, on the other hand...
...you don't want to be too close because you end up with lots of
POP
sounds in your recording.
Now you can reduce it with a pop filter- that's 'pop' with one 'o', but it isn't 100% effective,
you can still get through if you try hard enough, like
PFFFFF PFPFFFPPFPP FFOFFFFFF.
So to reduce it completely, use a pop filter if you have one, and talk off to the side
of the microphone a bit like THIS.
Or like THIS.
This should deliver fairly good results.
Now you've done all that, record some audio.
Now it's time to clear it up a bit.
First of all, listen to this recording.
When I'm not talking, you can still hear background sound.
You can remove this by selecting a bit of your clip where there's only this background
sound- ie, no talking, kicking of the microphone or random, one-off sounds going on outside.
Go up to Effect, and choose Noise Removal.
Click 'Get Noise Profile'.
This lets Audacity remember what to remove from the whole of your clip.
Next, select your entire clip, go up to Effect, Noise Removal.
You can adjust the amount of background sound it removes- on some microphones, removing
too much can make it sound robotic.
I'd say to start with 12 and to see how it goes.
The quieter the background noise is, the better the results.
Quite a difference.
Time to go back to that toothbrush recording, using all of the previously mentioned techniques.
Although this doesn't sound as good, with enough tricks you can get it to closely imitate
better microphones.
You could always add background sound if everything else fails.
You can up the bass if your microphone sounds tinny.
Remember that this will make the recording louder, so before we do this, select the clip,
go to Effect, Amplify, and reduce it by, say, 12 Db.
Now, go to Effect, Bass and Treble, and adjust the Bass by 12.
Click Ok.
It will likely be quieter, but here's how it sounds now.
Not too shabby.
Finally you must get the volumes consistent.
It's best to aim for as loud as possible since that's what everybody else does.
Damn you, adverts!
If it's all the same sort of volume, select it all, go to Effect, Amplify and it should
automatically choose the right figure for you.
If there are some bits that are significantly quieter than others, or the odd bit that's
way too loud, select that bit of the clip and amplify it to make it more consistent.
This can sound rather odd if done to the extreme- I'd advise limiting small clip adjustments
to about 3 decibels.
There's also the Leveller tool which tries to make everything a similar volume.
I'm a bit scared of this tool, but I'll let you experiment with it in your own time.
I hope this helps you to make good quality recordings.
And, if the worst comes to the worst, you could always invest in a decent microphone.
I haven't regretted buying my Samson Meteorite for a second, as it saves a lot of time and
effort.
It's about £60, or $60 in America because we in England get screwed over.
The good thing about this microphone is that it's got a USB port.
Most expensive microphones require an external power brick and all sorts of connections.
According to audiophiles or pedophiles or some group like that, those mics can produce
better quality sounds, but honestly, it's up to you if you can be bothered with the
hassle.
I can't.
I hope this helps!
Have fun.