Best use of 1.5 for radio

The mic positioning in sample 2 sounds better, but you really do need to work on the basics still.

The time to use or think about your external compressor, if at all, is after you set up the whole chain of mic to mixer to monitoring-and-soundcard. There is something seriously wrong with the female voice, and my initial thought is that it's a gain-staging problem. Somewhere the gain is too high. Could be that the mixer is overdriving the soundcard, or it could just be a setup problem in the mixer itself.


The great thing about Audition is the ability to generate test tones, which can then be used to line up the whole system. Make the output of AA appear at the input of the Behringer mixer. Set the Windows mixer appropriately.
With 1.5, you can either set one instance of EV playing looped tones, feed this to the mixer and record what comes back into a second instance of EV, or do the whole operation via the multitrack screen. Then fiddle with and become familiar with the effects of altering the gain at various stages in the chain.

It's much easier to set this up and demonstrate than describe (for me at any rate), but the aim is to get the room sounding good, then set the gain at every stage of the audio processes to optimum leaving ample headroom. Do this all with flat response, no compression or limiting. Get the plain vanilla audio set up right first. Then, and only then, should you start gilding the lily.

You probably have the mics pointing the right way, but I've always been a great believer in walking round a mic facing it and talking while you record. With many mics you will be amazed how the response changes, especially if you do it outdoors on a still day.

oh dear.  There is certainly some room for improvement here.  Get that compressor out of the system.  You don't need it.  Check your gain staging!!! and compress with software.

Buy some moving pads and rig up a way to hang them behind your speakers (as in the people who are speaking).  Assuming the folks are seated, setting up a boom mic stand full height as a "T" works well for hanging pads.  That will help kill the room echo.  Record each person to their own track so you can adjust compression settings and volume individually.

I'm no spoken word recording pro, but with modest equipment and care in setting up, you should be able to obtain results like this:
http://www.cheap-tracks.com/mp3/Backyard.mp3
This was recorded in a room in my house with modest acoustic treatments and the reader backed up against a moving pad.

Thanks for your comment gentlemen.

I've gotten a lot of great input here and I appreciate it.  I'm working on implementing it and will be back in touch after I do.  Karl, your clip is great.  Well read too, by the way.  If I can get mine to where your clip is at I will be a happy man.

Take Care, Tsiyon

Hi guys,

Well, Ive been at doing some of this stuff and I thought I would tell you about a surprise I discovered. First, I put up a large comforter (which is much like the padding suggested) behind the speakers.  Great improvement.  Then I set about  "gain staging" (something I never heard of before till this forum). In the process I made an amazing discovery on my recording computer.  I had previously adjusted the soundcard mixer and that had seemed to be fine.  What I didn't realize is that there is a second soundcard mixer just for recording!  [I know - you guys all know this stuff]  For me this was a big discovery because I had assumed the first soundcard mixer worked for playback AND recording - so I never thought to look for the second soundcard mixer just for recording.  When I opened that second mixer I discovered all the pots very low.  I had been compensating for that by cranking all of my external gear to the max to get by the bottleneck in my soundcard created by the lack of adjustment of the soundcard recording mixer.  While I am still following through on the rest of the suggestions, solving this one problem has made a gigantic difference in bringing everything into line.  

Hey! I can gain stage!  

Tsiyon

I wouldn't worry, I have been in radio for years and I have never heard of gain staging, I have no idea what it is, nor should I think does anyone else who works in radio lol, maybe it's a recording engineer term.

Bernie, it's mostly common sense, I think...At least to some degree.  You may not be familiar with the term, but I suspect you're familiar with the process of optimally setting proper gain on everything in your recording chain, so that one piece isn't compensating for another's shortcomings.  I should think that you've done some of this, otherwise I doubt you'd be pleased with your recordings!

I think that Bernie was only joking... possibly not about the name, because it's not always called gain staging in the UK, where slightly more quaint terminology is often used, like 'set up the levels', etc.

I'm in the UK, and would normally speak of "setting up the studio", but whatever you call it, it is one of the most important procedures when you 'build a studio'.

There are two essentially different functions.

One is to ensure that the signal moves internally in the mixer and soundcard and from one piece of equipment to the next with the optimum compromise between headroom and noise.

The other is to ensure that the operator can monitor at different points in the signal chain with consistent levels and known quality.

To set up, for example, a radio studio properly is a time consuming and tedious task. Sadly, there seem to be fewer people nowadays who understand why.

I agree completely.  My production director CONSTANTLY sets all of his gain pots to 12 o'clock, because it "looks nicer"...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!  So, every day, I have to go in and re-adjust the three or four channels that I regularly use.  Thankfully, by now I've memorized the setup, so it only takes a second, but nonetheless...

He would honestly rather run a slider at -30dB than set a gain pot to 9 o'clock!

I'm in the UK, and would normally speak of "setting up the studio", but whatever you call it, it is one of the most important procedures when you 'build a studio'.

Hmm... it's not consistent. A lot of people think that 'set up the studio' means get out the mic stands, put the mics on them and wire it all up. That's certainly the terminology that some studios (esp. TV) use. I've heard 'set the levels', 'get the levels' and in posher places 'do a lineup', but more often than not it's just  'Jeez, that sounds as distorted as hell! Turn the ****ing gain down!', or 'You left enough headroom? I can get louder than this!'

Gain staging is actually a pretty good name for it, really. It's not perfect, but it's good enough.

I agree completely.  My production director CONSTANTLY sets all of his gain pots to 12 o'clock, because it "looks nicer"...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!  So, every day, I have to go in and re-adjust the three or four channels that I regularly use.  Thankfully, by now I've memorized the setup, so it only takes a second, but nonetheless...

He would honestly rather run a slider at -30dB than set a gain pot to 9 o'clock!

Isn't 12 o'clock flat, and exactly the way you should leave the desk when you've finished? In most live studios the pots are locked down here .. because so many jocks think that turning up the bass will make them sound better. In any case, most presenters do not know the correct EQ for their voice.

There's no such thing as 'flat' when it comes to gain...

I just hope that the OP is calmly and carefully getting on with setting his system up so that it operates simply and sensibly.

I do worry that we (myself included) tend to go off discussing things that don't really matter such as terminology, when all that is needed is thorough guidance with the basics.

Wilduck, I appreciate your concern.  I have been working on getting my system set up better based on all the great help I've had here.  I really don't mind the side route - I find I am learning from that as well.  When
I've got the program sounding as good as I can get it I'll upload another clip and we can all do another round.  I'm not going to bother you with that till I have done my best with what you've told me already so I will be waiting till I have a few more programs in the can before getting back to you.

You guys are each a credit to your field. Thanks to each of you!

Tsiyon

There's no such thing as 'flat' when it comes to gain...

You've never heard of flat gain pot staging? You're right of course. Emmett said that his boss "..sets all of his gain pots to 12 o'clock". So, if we're going to leave a desk the way we (should've) found it, out of courtesy for the next person, then all the other EQ pots should be left at 12 o'clock, i.e. in the flat position, and therefore it would look neater if the gain pot lined up for the aesthetic, feel-good effect.