audio "optimized" for voice?

[AriGoldberg]

I recorded guitar and voice, and when I listened to the recording, the guitar level was fine when I was not singing, but when I started singing the guitar volume level decreased dramatically, so the recording came out terrible. Every time I paused or stopped singing the guitar level came back up to normal. Is there a setting to fix this? I had a similar problem once in the Zoom meeting program, and I fixed it by changing the audio setting from "Zoom-optimized audio" to "Original sound for musicians". I think the "Zoom-optimized audio" filters out any sounds that are not voice sounds.

I guess it's possible that it's one of the audio filters like Noise suppression or Noise gate, but not likely. Any ideas? Thanks.

Ari

 

[AaronD]

The Noise Suppression filter is designed for voice. So it's more-or-less the same as the "Zoom-optimized audio" filter in that app. I'm guessing that's the culprit.

Also, as an audio engineer, noise gates really aren't all that useful to me. I was kinda surprised to find that out for the first time. There are a few cases where they are, like immediately following an adaptive noise filter for voice, or to cut out VERY low-level noise in a less-than-optimal analog cable run, or as an intentional effect to make a drum more "punchy", etc. But I would *not* use one to reduce room noise, for example. Let the audience get used to it and filter it out themselves. If I try to do it on my end, it only makes it more noticeable when it suddenly APPEARS as part of the intended sound, when it's clearly not.
A noise gate will also not separate instruments or voices that bleed into each others' mics. That problem must be solved acoustically, not electronically.

So I would disable (don't remove yet) both the noise suppression and the gate, and see what that sounds like. If you have too much room noise, see what you can do to reduce it acoustically, not electronically. (a lot of YouTubers turn off their fans and air conditioning while recording, and just suffer through the heat that builds up)
(and once you get something that works, then you can remove the disabled stuff)

 

[AriGoldberg]

Thank you so much! I hope that's it. Thanks for the other tips as well. I'll check the settings for noise suppression and noise gate next time I go to the church. I'm not there now, so I can't check it. I'll post a follow-up when do.