ACX Noise Floor EXPLAINED and how to fix it

[@AleksiJoensuu]

Great video! Couple of pointers for people: - As Angela said, the noise floor has to be below -60dB in the *final* export. This is *after* loudness normalizing. So even if your noise floor is below -60dB in the beginning, it can easily get amplified over that after loudness normalization. Therefore, always check it at the very end of the process. - However, it's I guess considered best to run the noise removal in the beginning of the process, so it will be already removed before doing all your other edits. - There is a simple ACX checker plugin which most DAWs should be able to use, if your DAW doesn't already have that function. It will show you the RMS loudness, the peak headroom and the noise floor and a pass/fail check. Easy! There are also online checkers where you can upload the file and the service will check it. - The traditional noise removal style is called a "noise gate" (or just "gate"). This will simply quiet all your audio under a certain threshold amplitude. I.e. when you're not speaking, the "gate" is closed and no audio gets through. When you are speaking, the gate is opened. The problem with this style is, when the gate is open, all that noise will still be present right there at the background of your talking. And if the gate is working aggressively and your noise floor is a bit high, too, it will sound pretty weird, like the audio is "pumping" kind of weirdly. The worst is if you have a little mouth noise or a breath or something in the middle of a silent part, and then that quiet noise comes in accompanied by all that noise, and then gets shut off again immediately. - I definately like the modern style of noise reduction much better. There are noise removal effects where you select a few seconds of your room noise, and the effect uses that to inform itself on what actually is the noise in your room. Audacity's "noise removal" effect is an example of this. I find these work pretty brilliantly. Unlike a traditional gate, the noise doesn't reappear on the background of your speech, because the effect can distinguish that noise profile from everything else.

[@JosephMiller-y9g]

Nicely explained Aleksi.... Bravo

[@isabelpapagno1433]

You are a phenomenal teacher! My main fear in VO is my technical ignorance. You give me hope1

[@jtenrec1]

It never occurred to me to test it in that manner!

[@isaacpendleton9503]

I'm loving these videos! Who knew the world was so loud in closed closets.😀

[@JUJU-nl4xh]

Love her attention to order and detail she is awesome

[@VoiceOverAngela]

Thank you!!!🙏❤

[@bbhomebody]

You're a great teacher & So helpful! Thanks a million.

[@MasterEditor5]

I think the sample you used, already passes the ACX check. Because the ACX noise floor has to be below -60 dB RMS. The meter shows the peak values. If you check in Audacity, you will see the peak is above -60 but the RMS is below -60 dB.

[@VoiceOverAngela]

It may have been, but this was just a visual representation of what I was talking about for noise floor; for those who are unfamiliar with where to look. ;)

[@jazznutz]

Thanks Angela! Perfect explanation but we need to figure out the opposite when noise floor is too low or (unnatural) Now I've only seen this in ACX checker because I haven't actually as submitted to ACX yet.

[@VoiceOverAngela]

This could be because "silence" was used instead of natural room tone.

[@jazznutz]

@@VoiceOverAngela Yes,I understand that and used to do that with Audacity but now I'm using NS1. I'll keep trying. Thank you as always!

[@MandyDeLucaVoiceActor]

Hi! Did you ever figure out the noise-floor-too-low problem? I use my own room tone, not silence, and no plug-ins and I get -144db with the ACX Check warning that it's too low.

[@jazznutz]

@@MandyDeLucaVoiceActor It's so crazy. I have been very scientific about it and occasionally ACX check will say noise floor pass but cannot recreate it. My room noise is not that low. Whether I use NS1 or not, eq or not. I can tell you that I have not had a file rejected because of noise floor too low even when ACX check says so. I've just had to stop worrying about it or get nothing done. Just to repeat. I never use silence. I always use from tone. I will say that even if there is tiny dead silence, it will not pass. Please if you ever definitively figure this out. Please let me know. It a real hair puller.

[@Ouvii]

In principle, you could sample your room noise, remove the room noise from your recording with a plugin she mentions (or ReaFir, Edison, or processing it with Audacity), master the recording to standard, separately master noise to standard so like -60dB true peak and -60dB RMS or something (or lower I guess), add the noise back in as a separate track, double check that the combined tracks still meet standards for ACX and if not then adjust the individual files to fix. So basically any process that involves making the track unnaturally noiseless and then artificially adding noise back in. I haven't tried this yet, but it seems plausible. Then you can probably reuse that noise track for every recording.

[@ChrisGardinerVA]

I keep hearing about the NS1, definitely need to pick it up. Thanks Angela!

[@JosephMiller-y9g]

Love your Videos Angela.... always right on point and with a winning personality to boot. I'm Joseph Miller ... the voice they use on TikTok people can choose to narrate their videos... I'm the voice they call "StoryTeller".... best to you always, You Rock!!!

[@VoiceOverAngela]

Oh wow! You're my favorite tik tok voice! ♥️

[@JosephMiller-y9g]

@@VoiceOverAngela and you're my favorite VO artist and "goto" when I get in a jam with Adobe Audition.... in fact I'm sure I owe you a lunch by now... as much as you've taught me.... Bravo to you... Joseph aka Storyteller

[@dantasticguy5435]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!! And btw, Thank you, Angela!

[@johnguccion7947]

THAAAANK YOU! I have been successfully passing in my QC practice sessions now on a consistent basis since consulting with you!

[@VoiceOverAngela]

That's great John! I love it! Thank you so much for sharing!

[@tomcarr4630]

Love NS1! Great advice to check the noise floor a second time. Before sending anything out I always run it through the ACX Sound Lab. Great piece of mind!

[@johnguccion7947]

Hi I didn't know this ACX Sound Lab exists as I am just starting. Would you mind sharing a link to where you go directly - I searched but just ended up in a menu.

[@tomcarr4630]

After you log into ACX, got to the top right of the page. Click on Production Recourses. Then open Audiolab. You will see a page of instructions. About midway down the page on the left is a yellow button that says Get Started. You will then see a purple button reading Browse Audio Files. Select the file you want tested. It normally takes less than a minute to have your audio checked. It will either pass or tell you what the problem areas are. I am SO glad ACX added this feature. I hope this helps!

[@johnguccion7947]

@@tomcarr4630 Thanks so much - I am literally at step one of getting started on my ACX profile and have really been sweating the idea that I will send lengthy audio that could be returned. Looking forward to using this tool (once my profile is set up). Thanks!

[@tomcarr4630]

@@johnguccion7947 I hope it helps!

[@silverlake973]

ACX sound lab tells me my file is fine even if noise floor is at -40 - -50db, so i dont trust its accuracy

[@banyanstudio]

This is exactly what I needed to know. Thank you so much!

[@peterweicker77]

Excellent process tutorial. You break it down evenly and explain it all clearly.

[@lauragiardina4630]

Thank you for your valuable input! Laura

[@dailypositiveaffirmations]

This is soooo helpful and clear/easy to understand. I use Adobe but I''ve just finished purchasing and downloading Waves NS1 after your demo. They were having a sale on it as well, so I got lucky there! 🤗🙋🏾‍♀️🎙thanks👏🏽

[@marlashaw]

Thank you for sharing this!! Yes OMG I am half way through my first audiobook and thought I was good... but NOOOOOOOO ahhhhhhhhh.. THANK YOU SOOOOOO much liked and subscribed

[@chrisf7545]

Thank goodness for your videos

[@lauraleejingo5463]

So helpful!! Thank you!

[@lauraleejingo5463]

Angela! I have a random weird question: I started watching your videos initially from one that I somehow came across through ACX. Knowing that this summer I wanted to look into doing this. I have made a couple of comments and you are so helpful and willing to answer. That being said: my current gig involves part-time radio work and a homeschool student. Once we have wrapped up that student's school year, I intended to dive into creating my profile, etc. My question is this: did ACX recently MAJORLY update their website? Everything looks so different than it did a month ago! I can't find half of the helpful videos I found last month. Thank you in advance for reading this!

[@abrahamosei7002]

Thanks. This was very useful

[@AudacityTraining]

Great info once again. I love my Waves NS-1 plug-in. I think it’s about time for me to migrate to Adobe. Thanks!

[@nancyburrows8265]

Great information in your videos! Been so helpful for a beginner

[@VoiceOverAngela]

Wonderful! So glad to help!

[@rustichillbilly1107]

As always, great info. Thank you

[@VoiceOverAngela]

Thanks for watching!

[@Tattertotman]

Very helpful thank you!

[@VoiceOverAngela]

Glad it was helpful!

[@donaldblair1982]

Thank you Angela, this was perfect. Great explanation, just what this novice needed! I use Audacity but I get the idea. Heading off to try it now! Thank you!

[@Lazdinger]

Thank you so much! I’ve wondered, though; would it be better to just hold off on *any* noise reduction for last, even after normalization?

[@lytnin88]

Angela, can the noise floor be too low?

[@hereitisagain4880]

Excellent. I have overdone noise reduction and it is now too low. Fixable in Audition?

[@VoiceOverAngela]

If you have the raw file, you can apply less noise reduction. If you don't, depending on how it sounds, you may be able to paste in room tone....

[@MyTerryw]

I think you probably answered the question, but would using the average rms value from amplitude statistic scan put into dynamics autogate be considered too harsh? I could lower the value to not be so clean of the noise floor but as I use this to clean audio for radio broadcast I just wondered what you thought. Thanks for all the tips.

[@justnotg00d]

DAW? That sounds awfully close to duh ! hee hee. Yes. I need more information on noise and stuff. I am making progress because of your videos, thank you.

[@VoiceOverAngela]

Haha, yes, DAW - Digital Audio Workstation. I say it so much, I sometimes forget to explain the meaning. :) Thank you for watching!

[@marissadenoia]

Hey Angela! Thank you so much for all your videos they have been immensely helpful for me starting out. I have a question that Google is not helping me with at all: on my Adobe Audition screen, the volume levels bar at the bottom only goes down to about -60, so I can't see my levels further than that. I noticed your volume bar has way more numbers! How do I change mine?

[@VoiceOverAngela]

Great question! Hover your mouse over the volume bar, right click. You should be able to select the -72db volume range there.

[@JanReads2You]

Hi Angela, Great info as always. I have the opposite issue, my noise floor is continuously too low. Example, last file sat at -91.63. Thought I could do what you suggested here for 'to high' in reverse but this doesn't seem to work. Any suggestions?

[@newideanetworks1260]

plz what's that it's good nois floor or not

[@Allthatwethink]

Great vid! Two questions please and ty: Since our goal is to process as lightly as possible does it make sense that if we apply a noise reducer and we go below -60db that we should go back to the effect and lessen it even more? I wish we could have heard the effect on an actual recording to see if there was any distortion in the audio. Maybe u didn't do that bc this vid is about noise floor and not effects 😊😂 Please advise why you purchased the other plug ins if the plug in that comes with your daw works the same? Thank you for always replying to my questions!!😊

[@VoiceOverAngela]

Hi Kori! Your noise floor for ACX cannot be above -60db, so if it is just below, success! The effects I use, when lightly applied, do not cause any noticable distortion. The plug in NS1 is the best I have used for reducing ambient noise, Adobe Audition's de-noise is great as well for ambient noise. The best way to address noise, is to treat your recording space, reduce reverb and comuter fan noise etc. The effects can help clean up whats left. :)

[@shoresaybow]

Using the ACX Check Plugin for Audacity I often get a result that the noise floor is to low and that might sound unnaturally. I am not using any harsh noise reduction or gate. It just seems I have quite a decent recording situation. Have you ever gotten a ACX rejection because of too low noise floor?

[@VoiceOverAngela]

I hear this alot, but I've never personally used the checker. I have never had ACX tell me my noise floor was too low. I would go by what ACX QA tells you.

[@johnguccion7947]

I have seen this a good bit too - to cure this, I have been successfully testing with the little circular DB dial to adjust after highlighting the noise floor space and I take it down slightly to keep the noise floor in the -66 to -72 range - this seems to check out on the Audacity bar and trick the Audacity checker into a pass (and of course you want to heal any pops or clicks) :). Hope this helps!

[@TheDaveycrocketcat]

@@johnguccion7947 I'm getting the same issue with low noise floor. It's a good thing . I assume it means I've created a good recording space with little to no background noise. With that in mind I created another sound file of actual noise floor and after processing and clearing up my recording I then insert it into my recording. I then retested the recording and it passed fine. The only other thing I can think of is to crank up the gain.... but now one is into a major clipping issue.

[@johnguccion7947]

@@TheDaveycrocketcat It absolutely is a good thing - yet ACX plugin checker will flag if it is too low as it says it is unnatural. I have been using the NS1 Mono plugin from Waves and adjusting based on the level of sound I pick up in my headphones - I have a noisy vent that has a loud sound even with a vent cover. NS1 is helping a lot - I got the plugin on sale for about $35.

[@TheDaveycrocketcat]

@@johnguccion7947 Just a note John. I've found if I record a track as a noise floor, I don't pre process it. So far it works well to simply insert the raw noise floor file into the recording as is. Since the booth is very quiet it doesn't record any crazy barking or other outside sounds. I'm finding it allows me to go thru my vocal recording, noise reduce the quiet areas then delete the sections in-between completely wiping out breath, clicks or whatever. Once the noise floor is put back into the file it sounds clean. Or maybe I'm going deaf LOL. I will check out the NS1 plugin though.... sounds interesting if I have future issues.

[@jasonjellie9342]

Very informative but I do have Question on the noisefloor. If your not killing your noise floor how do u make sure your floor is low enough that it’s not bringing in mic noise, especially in gaps where your not speaking? When ever I record my mic is constantly bouncing at just below 54 even when I’m silent, which I guess is not too bad but obviously there’s noise there. Granted my rooms untreated, which brings me to my next question. If I’m going to treat my room to get rid of ambience which could potentially stop my mic bouncing when I’m not speaking, how do you treat the ambience in a way your not killing your noise floor? Coz surely it’s the room ambience that’s preventing your floor from not being dead or at least too low on the acx even if ur in a naturally echoey room no? Just an interesting side note: audacity has a plot spectrum view so u can see the frequencies in your audio, even if I don’t speak and my audio meter is still bouncing it’s saying I have frequencies of anywhere from 400 to 1k so it’s obviously higher than low rumble, although it’s barely visible on a spectral view. Ideas? Coz even if it’s just room tone I don’t want acx to fail due to the floor being too low, but I also don’t want the echo but if your floor is too low it tells you the sounds too unnatural. So in my case room echo is it’s natural noise????

[@VoiceOverAngela]

I'd say treat your rooms walls, floor and ceiling for the echo, they may help a bit with the noise floor as well. -54db is pretty low, we just need to get it a bit lower to just under -60db for ACX. You can use a plug in, either NS1, or clarity vx from waves.com, either of these are great at reducing your noise floor without totally destroying your voice, just start on the low end first. Also, always check compatibility of the plugins with your particular DAW, not every plug in works well with every DAW. You can typically find this info in the plugin's specs.

[@jasonjellie9342]

@@VoiceOverAngela but in terms of the acx saying the noise floor is too low dead silence is unnatural, how is it determined if the room noise is unnatural? If a room is echoing due to high reverb which u can hear on a recording, if I treat the echo, wouldn’t that mean the room is unnatural and potentially cause the acx to state it’s unnatural?

[@VoiceOverAngela]

@@jasonjellie9342 as long as your noise floor is just below -60db , you sound be fine. You do not want echo in your room for any reason, echo will keep you from winning jobs.

[@jasonjellie9342]

True. I mean my acx passes even at the silences but as stated, spectral and plot spectrum is spotting some resonance at 400 to 1k hz on a silent part but it’s not raising my acx which puzzles me as the bar is below the 60 line on the meter as per acx standard but there’s clear resonance on the spectral higher up but it’s not touching the acx reading in a negative way

[@FittedMisfits1]

Can you Narrate with USB microphone for ACX, and how difficult is it to get the audio settings in compliance with their requirements? Is it difficult to learn , I’m hearing that the audio is why people struggle with .

[@jefflep1]

I freaking love you.

[@Acradius]

Hi Angela! I'm just getting started looking into this gig. Is it possible for me to record in the same room as my computer?

[@VoiceOverAngela]

@@Acradius thanks for watching! Yes, as long as your computer noise doesn't affect your noise floor. You may have to move it away from your mic if you can.

[@DaniSheriff]

Hey Angela! I am following this - question! Why does my levels bar - and most in other tutorials - show only up to -59? Does the fact that mine is not even displaying -60 as an option mean I'm setting something up wrong?

[@VoiceOverAngela]

If you're using Adobe Audition, you can hover your mouse over the volume level bar, then right click. You should see the option to change the range of the volume bar :)

[@MindReaderAudios]

👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽thx!

[@skypix777]

Thank you Angela, very clear and helpful. One question: in my messing around with my file before I knew much of the tech involved, I pasted in silence in the gaps so I have a noise floor that the ACX check in Audacity flags as being too low, i.e. -140db or so which you can't even hear when you crank up the volume to full. Is there a filter or plug in that bumps noise floor back up uniformly, or am I doomed to reprocess the file...or paste in appropriate room noise in all the gaps in the entire file...which I really don't want to do. thanks again, very helpfuyl.

[@VoiceOverAngela]

Thank you for watching! I would not use silence. Select a section of room tone after you've applied your noise reduction and use that if you need to. Using silence will make your noise floor too low.

[@MandyDeLucaVoiceActor]

Hi! Did you ever figure out the noise-floor-too-low problem? I use my own room tone, not silence, and no plug-ins and I get -144db with the ACX Check warning that it's too low. It's happening to RAW files, too.

[@HeraVoiceOver]

@@MandyDeLucaVoiceActor Yeah, I've been getting that as well. ACX check says it's a 'pass' but warns that the floor is too low. I haven't been pasting in silence, but maybe my denoiser is too aggressive?

[@Logan24855]

AKKKKKK!!!!!! I'm using Audacity, what else do I need to reduce my noise floor? What is the actual Noise Floor requirement for ACX? Is Noise Gate safe? Don't want to pay for Adobe just yet.

[@VoiceOverAngela]

Yes, you can use a noise gate, just be careful as they may distort your voice if it's too heavy. Your noise floor requirement is no more than -60db for ACX. If you watch your volume bar in a section of just room tone, you can see what your noise floor is. Also, ACX has Audio Lab where you can upload your files and it will tell you what you need to address.

[@Logan24855]

@@VoiceOverAngela Thank you 🙏 I’ll look in the Audio Lab and the website a bit more. Talked with a customer service representative at ACX this afternoon and she said “the sample isn’t subject to a noise floor but a audiobook or paid gig is”….btw, I adlibbed there. But I just want to get it just right on my sample as a first impression can be a last impression.

[@SofiaRaeBishop]

Any idea how to fix a -infinte noise floor? I just recorded my first acx audition and used the acx check. I tried all the fixes I found in my search for answers for but can't seem to get a number on my noise floor at all, just keep getting negative infinite. Do I just need to re-record the whole thing? And if so how do I keep that from happening in the future? I'm using audacity with a fifine T669 in my home made booth

[@VoiceOverAngela]

I'm unfamiliar with this issue in Audacity, but let's try... when you select just your noise floor in the file, and hit play, looking at your volume bar, where does the noise floor peak? Or what volume level does it show? Are you using silence in your editing or room tone? There's something you're doing to make the noise floor unnatural, are you using effects?

[@SofiaRaeBishop]

@@VoiceOverAngelathanks for the fast reply! I took a short clip of room tone but not sure what to do with it. I don't know how to add silence🤷‍♀️ When I get back to my computer I'll see if i can find my noise floor peak of my room tone when I get home in a bit and get back to you.

[@SofiaRaeBishop]

​@@VoiceOverAngelamy room tone i took at the beginning is showing peak level -54.66, rms-70.26, noise floor -71.46. The room tone I took at the end is showing peak -61.54, rms -77.86, noise floor -80.27. The parts where I'm speaking the noise floor is 82.12. In both the room tones peak level and rms fail, but in the speaking part only the rms fails at -29.76. Last night I got the peak and rms to pass using compression with threshold -20 and radio 2:1 and then normalized at 3.1. I got both peak and rms to pass but then had infinte noise floor. So then I tried the filter curve with low roll off for speech, then loudness normalization set rms to -20, then the limiter. That didn't work so then I found another video saying to use the graphic eq. By the time I was done trying all of that peak and rms was good but still -infinate noise floor and it sounded really sharp. Now I'm wondering i selected the whole recording including the room tones, did that maybe screw things up? Should I only select the spoken clips and not the roomtone when adjusting things?🤦‍♀️

[@VoiceOverAngela]

@@SofiaRaeBishop it sounds like you're having to do way too much. Do you have the original raw recording with no effects applied? If not, you may need to re-record it, but save a raw file this time. Be sure your volume when recording is somewhere between -15 and -12. Then, using the equalizer to roll off the low end, compression closer to 4:1 or so, light nose reduction if needed, then normalize to -3db. You should be close, but may need minor adjustments. Remember, less is more.

[@SofiaRaeBishop]

I did remember to save the raw version thank goodness. That worked! I finally got it to pass with peak -3.1, rms -22.97, and nf -79.15. First ACX audition submitted🎉 Thank you so much for the time you take to do these videos, for the tips, and your help during your Saturday it is much appreciated 😊 I was getting really frustrated and really didn't want to re-record the 6 minutes that felt life it took me forever to edit😂 Sending you best wishes for the most awesome rest of your weekend!

[@doctorrobin3040]

Like... What is acx standard?.better explain the jargon .

[@taab7]

Probably one of the most painfully annoying videos ever. Over a minute of unnecessary waffle as to what the video is about when the title explains what the video is about. Noise floor, more often than not, is caused by line noise from the mic and cable to the audio interface - not from air-con or computer.

[@VoiceOverAngela]

Thanks for watching and for the feedback. I tend to waffle, it's part of my charm. 😉