Hey guys, welcome back to the next video in how to get started with your gaming channel
on YouTube. Over the next few weeks we’re going to be
releasing a bunch of tutorials showing you how to start your gaming channel using free
software, covering things like: recording gameplay footage in OBS, getting your audio
just right in Audacity, creating picture in picture and green screen effects in HitFilm
Express, and a whole lot more. Before we get started we've teamed up with
AMD to bring you guys an exclusive prize draw. Download the latest version of HitFilm Express,
our all-in-one editor, compositor and VFX software from the card on-screen or the link
in the description and you'll be entered in with a chance to win an awesome gaming PC
courtesy of Armari and AMD. In our last video we showed you how to set
up OBS for recording gameplay footage. Today, we're focusing on setting up the audio side
and recording the voiceover. Good audio and sound design make a huge difference
in the professional quality of your video. Unfortunately, it can be tricky to recognize
when your audio isn't sounding so great. So first take a look at how to record audio
properly and then, make it sound great. Before we even start recording, there are
a few things we’ll want to take into account with setting up the actual microphone. The
first is your distance to the mic. If you’re too close, you’ll end up with
blown-out audio, which will be pretty much impossible to correct in post.
A good starting point is to make this sign with your hand, staying this distance from
the mic and making adjustments as needed. Tip number 2, invest in a pop filter. A pop
filter is a useful but inexpensive investment. It gets rid of the explosive “puh” sounds
that come with any word starting with the letter p.
The filter doesn't go right up against the mic, it'll need some space to dissipate the
"puh" sound you make. Now we can move from the physical to the digital
world, and actually start recording. We’re going to be using Audacity to capture the
voiceovers for our gaming videos. OBS, which we used in the last video, is capable of recording
audio alongside the gaming sounds. But in order to make your voice sound the best it
can, we’re going to record it in a separate program.
Audacity can be downloaded from audacityteam.org which I’ve linked in the description below.
The reason we’re using this software over any other if because, much like HitFilm, it’s
free. Once you’ve downloaded the software and
installed it onto your computer, open it up. If your mic is plugged in correctly, you should
see levels bouncing when you make noise. In Edit, Preferences, check that the Device is
using the microphone to record. To start recording, click this red button.
Now we have the audio captured let’s listen back to it.
This is an example of voice over recording in audacity.
It sounds fine, but there are some things we can do to make it even better. Having good-sounding
audio is even more important if you don’t have a facecam, because your voice will be
the only thing your audience hears from you. We’re lucky enough to be recording in a
quiet room here, but you may not be in a location that is free of background noise and fuzz.
Let’s see what we can do to fix that background noise interference and really add a level
of professionalism to the sound. First, find a spot in your video where you
aren’t talking. The longer, the better. Highlight it, then come up to Effect, Noise
Reduction. Click Get Noise Profile. Audacity will analyze the space for noise. Now, highlight
everything with Control A, and go back to the Noise Reduction effect. Adjusting the
settings will depend on how much noise you need to filter out. Click OK. Audacity will
reduce the noise in your audio based on the section you highlighted earlier.
Compressing audio is another really good thing to consider. I don’t know about you but
when I’m playing games I go from really quiet to loud to quiet back to loud in just
a matter of seconds. This could be really jarring for the audience, especially those
wearing headphones, so let’s take a look at a couple of things we can do to adjust
that voiceover so it’s more digestible for the people watching.
Once again, press Control A to select all. Come up to Effect, Compressor. The Threshold
determines how much of the audio will be compressed. The Ratio controls how much compression will
be applied. Notice how after I hit OK, the waveform is
much more evenly distributed. The last thing to make sure of is that no part of your audio
goes above 0 decibels. Highlight your audio and select the Limiter effect. I’ll limit
it to negative .1 dB, right below 0. This is an example of voiceover recording
in Audacity. This is an example of voiceover recording
in Audacity. Now that we have the finished audio file,
let’s go to File, Export as WAV. Save it to your computer, then open up HitFilm Express.
If you don’t have HitFilm Express, you can find a tutorial on downloading it in the card
onscreen. I’ll create a new 1080p project at 60 frames per second.
In the Media panel, click Import, then navigate on your computer to where you saved the gameplay
footage and the voiceover recording. Click Open to Import them.
Drag the gameplay footage into the timeline. You can see it has a video and an audio track.
Now I’ll bring the voiceover in as well. You can create as many tracks as you need
from the right click menu. It’s worth mentioning that HitFilm has several
built-in audio effects, if you need to edit the sound of the voiceover some more.
Remember that when you download HitFilm Express you'll be entered into our prize draw to win
an exclusive gaming PC courtesy of Armari and AMD. The deadline for this prize draw
is September 29th 2019. We really hope this video helps you improve
your audio. If you missed our video on recording game footage, that can be found right here.
Join us next week for more tips and tricks on creating a successful YouTube gaming channel.