In public, I always tend to be louder and more animated, but when I'm inside, I am a soft-spoken weirdo by nature, and it's very difficult for me to raise my "indoor" voice.
Consequence of growing up in a household of constant bitter shouting matches? Maybe! But not always useful now that I'm trying to figure out how to make home recording a part of my self-promotional lifestyle. 🙃
You don't need to be loud, you need the right mic.
It is always the Microphone.
And good mic habits.
@corlin I have the right mic now! The question is whether I'm doing enough with it. If I need more post-production to raise the volume captured by it, that will slow down video upload, by *hours* but might be necessary.
Hmmm.
This seems odd to me.
If you have a good mic. And are using it properly, the "gain" should not be a problem. My first guess is something in the recording chain is not working.
@corlin It's possible that I'm not using it properly.
I got another critique of my volume this morning - but it was for everything preceding today's post, not including it.
I recorded this latest early, when it was quiet out, so I may simply have chosen a volume that, while in the top third, was not at its peak because it didn't sound to me like I needed it. But I probably need to trust my ear less, crank it up to the max, and bring it down later if need be. Will try that for the next one.
@corlin I think it comes down to needing to not trust myself. My laptop is terrible for audio, so I always have headphones in when playing back content - but just because the content comes through clearly via headphone doesn't mean I've optimized the audio experience by a long shot. I've also noticed that replaying video locally is *always* louder than it ends up being when uploaded to YouTube (format conversion issue?) so I think the best bet is to put volume at max even if it seems loud to me.
Could be.
I don't have any experience recording for youtube.
@corlin It's a learning curve for sure! I've been spoiled by having my podcast put together by an actual A/V editor in studio - soft-spoken, but still clear and engaging.
Recording at home, I can always hear background noise even if my audience can't, so I'm still smoothing out the kinks of recording sharply enough for my voice to come through, but *not* with a force that will bring more of my background noise into the equation, too.
I'll get the balance just right eventually, I suppose!
Yeah, the recording studio isn't happening for a while. An attempt was made in pandemic. It didn't pan out. But the Blue Yeti mic is fine - and it *does* look like I just need to boost volume on the mic to achieve the desired results. Right now I'm seeing if YouTube will let me re-upload some boosted versions of past videos. We shall see!
(Nah, nothing to be done about videos uploaded to date. But! For the next, I will boost the volume well past the point of audio comfort on my headphones, and hope that the result comes through much more clearly for others on final upload. Cheers!)
@MLClark
Record outside?
@Jeber Hah. Thanks for the laugh!
@MLClark Thanks for sharing that; you sound like a very interesting and BRILLIANT person.