Question / Help Help Tuning my new Mic in OBS Studio Using Plugins?

koala

Active Member
In the first place, you don't improve the quality of audio recordings by adding filters but by providing a good working environment. In an ideal environment, you use no filters and get a completely authentic recording of your voice. Only if the working environment exhibits flaws, filters may come to aid, but only if you aren't able to provide a good working environment. Filters do repair what should not be present in the first place. In the end, you want your voice appear as authentic as it is possible and not distorted and mangled by some postprocessing filter.

So identify the flaws in your audio recording you want to fix and first see if you can fix it by choosing a different position of the mic, or a different distance between mic and mouth, by reducing background noise, choosing a different mounting for the mic, etc.
 

avrona

Member
In the first place, you don't improve the quality of audio recordings by adding filters but by providing a good working environment. In an ideal environment, you use no filters and get a completely authentic recording of your voice. Only if the working environment exhibits flaws, filters may come to aid, but only if you aren't able to provide a good working environment. Filters do repair what should not be present in the first place. In the end, you want your voice appear as authentic as it is possible and not distorted and mangled by some postprocessing filter.

So identify the flaws in your audio recording you want to fix and first see if you can fix it by choosing a different position of the mic, or a different distance between mic and mouth, by reducing background noise, choosing a different mounting for the mic, etc.
I'm fine with my voice not being authentic, I just want my mic to sound good. There is no actual background noise and stuff like that.
 

koala

Active Member
What is your perception of "sound good"? This is a rhetorical question, since this is different for everybody. Especially with your own voice, since your voice sounds very different on recording compared to what you hear naturally. You have to get used to this different sound and handle a voice recording of yourself as you handle a voice recording of a different person.
You have to work out yourself a sound that sounds good for you. In case of a description of audio filter, see here: https://obsproject.com/wiki/Filters-Guide
 

koala

Active Member
I edited and extended my previous post a bit while you wrote your answer; please read it again. I listened to your recording, and by all shortness, it seems it is a bit saturated, a bit distorted. The input recording level seems too high, so the mic sounds overdriven. Go into the Windows sound settings and reduce the recording level to not more than 80-90%. I don't know your mic, may be there is also some kind of control panel where you can reduce the recording level from 100% to 80-90%. And don't set any level above 100% - this will produce overdriving and distortion.

Other than that, your voice is not bad. Perhaps it is a bit thin. I propose you start to learn to speak. This is not meant as insult - I want you to speak differently. Improved. If you speak to an audience, you don't just speak. You should produce a better, fuller voice from within you. It's as if you're going to sing.
If you want an artificially fuller voice without learning to speak with a fuller voice yourself, you can start to boost some frequencies, running your audio through some equalizer. With recordings, you do this in some audio postprocessing software. With streaming, you can employ some VST filter plugins for that - see the filters guide I linked.

But I propose you record yourself without any filter and listen to the recordings. Identify flaws of your speaking and try to compensate for the next recording. I spent evenings of recording myself, listening to that and improve my speaking. I found bad habits on myself I hated on others - I tried to improve that. I read texts and added accentuation to the speaking and tried to make it appear alive. There is much to improve. I also played online games with voip active, and secretly recorded some gaming sessions (of course my own voice only, not the others) and wanted to know how I behave and sound in this situation. With that feedback I also changed my speaking behavior.
 

avrona

Member
I edited and extended my previous post a bit while you wrote your answer; please read it again. I listened to your recording, and by all shortness, it seems it is a bit saturated, a bit distorted. The input recording level seems too high, so the mic sounds overdriven. Go into the Windows sound settings and reduce the recording level to not more than 80-90%. I don't know your mic, may be there is also some kind of control panel where you can reduce the recording level from 100% to 80-90%. And don't set any level above 100% - this will produce overdriving and distortion.

Other than that, your voice is not bad. Perhaps it is a bit thin. I propose you start to learn to speak. This is not meant as insult - I want you to speak differently. Improved. If you speak to an audience, you don't just speak. You should produce a better, fuller voice from within you. It's as if you're going to sing.
If you want an artificially fuller voice without learning to speak with a fuller voice yourself, you can start to boost some frequencies, running your audio through some equalizer. With recordings, you do this in some audio postprocessing software. With streaming, you can employ some VST filter plugins for that - see the filters guide I linked.

But I propose you record yourself without any filter and listen to the recordings. Identify flaws of your speaking and try to compensate for the next recording. I spent evenings of recording myself, listening to that and improve my speaking. I found bad habits on myself I hated on others - I tried to improve that. I read texts and added accentuation to the speaking and tried to make it appear alive. There is much to improve. I also played online games with voip active, and secretly recorded some gaming sessions (of course my own voice only, not the others) and wanted to know how I behave and sound in this situation. With that feedback I also changed my speaking behavior.
Great, I lowered it down to 80 and it actually fixed everything! This is what it sounds like now: https://www.mediafire.com/file/sd4rsanbejg9gsw/2019-01-15_16-24-39.mp4/file

So anything else I could change or is this the best as it can get?
 

koala

Active Member
It sounds much cleaner and more direct now. I don't hear any distortion any more, so it is fine for me. But I'm no audio studio expert, just an interested layman. In the end, fine tuning settings, sounds and video is a never ending story.
 

avrona

Member
It sounds much cleaner and more direct now. I don't hear any distortion any more, so it is fine for me. But I'm no audio studio expert, just an interested layman. In the end, fine tuning settings, sounds and video is a never ending story.
I know it's a never ending story, that's why I'm still looking around for more ways to improve it, but it's really good for now.
 
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