My Voice Over Chain

In which I reveal the secrets of my voice over chain. Do I really use an old 58 plugged into a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2..?
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Fabfilter Pro-Q3 (Gear4music)
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Fabfilter Pro-C2 (Gear4music)
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Fabfilter Pro-G (Gear4music)
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Fabfilter Pro-DS (Gear4music)
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Fabfilter Mixing Bundle (Gear4music)
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Fabfilter Total Bundle (Gear4music)
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Shure SM58 (Gear4music)
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Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (Gear4music)
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Video edited with VEGAS Pro 17:
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[@SsgtHolland]

My therapist: "And what does the voice in your head say to you ?" Me: "He says his authority is derived from his accent"

[@usedtowels]

colonizers have given us all PTSD

[@Hybrxd]

Dan: You can't sound like me **cries in a corner**

[@Ferrichrome]

Dan: my voice just sounds epic, deal with it Me: 😭

[@emecorp]

Feel you bro...

[@jeredjanoh]

Hmm, detecting voice envy similar to penis envy ;)

[@icestorm_rb9057]

How to sound like Dan Worrall: a step by step guide. Step 1: be Dan Worrall

[@unclemick-synths]

Reminds me of "To sound like Bonham, first you have to play like Bonham".

[@icestorm_rb9057]

@@unclemick-synths Yeah. In a way, it's the same concept, except with the voice instead of drum playing.

[@inv41id]

I could hear the gating, compression, and ducking, and I'm happy to say that's partially due to your videos teaching me how to listen for these things :)

[@DThompson55]

On the ducking, you should be able to hear the background music dampen slightly as he talks over it. Only slightly. It doesn't take a extremely well trained ear. Once you hear it, you'll hear it, and then you'll not unhear it.

[@inv41id]

@@DThompson55 Well yeah, the ducking was pretty obvious right from the beginning. It was mainly the compression that I wouldn't have been able to spot as well before

[@DThompson55]

@@inv41id I totally agree. Compression takes a LOT of ear training to hear. Worrall does a good job of explaining what it's doing, especially the different settings, but it's still really hard for most people to hear it. Kenny Gioia on the Reaper KZbin does good job of showing how it affects snare and bass hits, but I'd have to hunt to find that video. His was the first time I actually heard the difference. I still cannot use compression to attain those effects, nor can I tell that a track has compression on just by listening, it unless you tell me, and show me the before and after. Most of the time if I put compression on the track it ruins something, so I tend not to.

[@Mr.Bucket-san]

Your de-clicking technique would be great to learn. Keep the vids coming Dan, always a pleasure to learn something from you.

[@JKash7411]

I second this!

[@valerioamato3761]

Add me up

[@fivebyfivesound]

Most practical, applicable, high-value vocal chain video for spoken word I have seen. As a Reaper user, podcaster editor/mixer, and someone aspiring to teach low-cost mixing strategies, I thank you kindly 🙏🏽

[@rushmoreish]

"A blessing... a blessing!" Thanks Dan. One of your throwaway comments, "stacking two 12db/oct filters" was an epiphany for me; why didn't I think of that, duh! Which reminded me, didn't you promise us a part 2 to linear vs minimum phase? Been waiting for that.....

[@RadicalRumin]

If you really dislike compression, there's an SWS extension for reaper that automates the volume of an item. It's called the Envelope-based Compressor. Like you surely know, automating the volume is usually a more natural sounding way of evening out your volume. It's a tedious job, but that SWS extension gives you a great starting point.

[@lucasgoncalvesdefaria7121]

Looking forward to the "Dan Worrall Voice Simulator"® plugin to come out. My podcast will sure see some improvement.

[@Zenvo-uu9tm]

With Dan s videos i use lookahead with the like button. That is, i click like even before video starts

[@matrixate]

Wow, all you noobs are saving yourselves hours and hours of experimenting. This is by far, one of the best voice over instructionals I've seen on KZbin...and I've seen them all. ALL.

[@LCTRgames]

Would love a de-click / spectral editing video 🙂 Also 'happy' to hear other ppl have issues with de-clicking VO tracks as much as I do. I'm using the declicker in RX8 now, but I also used to manually edit. I know I over-process my audio but it feels a bit like a crutch tbh, looking for that amazing perfect sound in a variety of plugins... I know it should be 90% about the performance but I find I struggle to sometimes get clean takes when speaking from a script, so in the frustration I lose some of the control like softening the Ks, etc.

[@sfilipee]

Once the chains were completed, the differences are minimal. Which reminds me of those countless threads saying there's no possible way top artists like The Weeknd and Dua Lipa record with an SM7B, when there's a lot of proof around a lot of major artists do use them. If you know what you're doing, everything is pretty much possible.

[@BojanBojovic]

True. I remember people saying they hear converter differences in other people's recordings and some other nonsense. Typical audio snobbery and Dunning Kruger mixed together.

[@Zero-Sun]

That's so lame. SM7B is just a great quality mic.

[@BojanBojovic]

@@Zero-Sun It uses the same capsule as SM58.

[@DanWorrall]

It doesn't, afaik that's a myth. I love SM7Bs, but more for guitar cabs, horns etc. than for vocals.

[@BojanBojovic]

@@DanWorrall Interesting, I read somewhere that both use the same Unidyne III but differently optimised.

[@junkawakami3193]

on one occasion, your voice is soothing, on another, you can get very assertive if you want to.

[@alkazaryyy]

Waiting for reaper to make a range control for their gate anytime now...

[@paul_malhotra]

Thanks Dan, great video! Lots of info. Always wondered about those mics- glad to see you’ve had a good experience! I would LOVE a video on spectral editing.

[@jaymac1355]

Thanks for the peep at your signal chain Dan.. you're voice overs are always so sparkley and intimate.(songs are cool af too)

[@G_handle]

He does it again! I love how Dan can always make the perfect fundamental points, in his own signature style. 1) the tools don’t matter, 95% is the source and performance. 2) master your f-ing tools, that last 5% is the difference between mice and men. (P.S. Why do you bother asking if we want to see you do a video on….fill in the blank? You already Know we want that video, and now we won’t be able to Sleep until we get it. These Jedi Mind fu**s are gonna have me spending good money on counseling that could be going towards more plugins or something.)

[@klick2destruct]

Perfect comment! Hahaha

[@kylegushue]

If tools don’t matter why does Dan opt for thousands of dollars worth of gear and pluggins, instead of the 58 and Scarlett?

[@DanWorrall]

The condenser mic sounds a bit nicer, so I use it; nice plugins get me results quicker than stock plugins. I can justify the cost of my gear because i earn my living with it. But I could make these videos with a 58 and a 2i2 if I had to, and they would be almost as good. Use what you've got, and don't blame your tools.

[@kylegushue]

@@DanWorrall fair, that's different than "tools don't matter" as the poster above was alluding to. The 58 definitely was worse on the scarlett. Its about marrying the tool to the source as best as possible.

[@G_handle]

@@kylegushue The original poster was joking and attempting to be ironic. Point 1) was phase canceled by point 2). Of Course the tools matter, thats why we're all waiting by the internet hitting refresh all day, every day, just hoping for Dan to bless us with another life altering installment of "So you think you know what you're doing Huh..." In today's episode we were presented with the reality that "If you wanna sound like me, Dan Worrall, audio engineering ain't gonna get you here. Start believing in reincarnation, and when I'm finished with this vessel, maybe, if the gods take pity on your soul, you'll get your shot at oratory perfection. I myself, Dan Worrall could speak into an NS-10 woofer running into a RadioShack DI plugged into a Mackie 1604, and still swoon the angels to tears. But for you... You should probably watch more of my videos and learn how to properly Use your Vast arsenal of audio processing tucked inside of your plugin folder. You'll still never sound like me, Dan Worrall, but if you take your training seriously, you do have a really good chance of sounding like a polished and professional version of yourself!" And to be crystal clear, Yes the gear absolutely matters. For all the hatred and armchair engineering taking place on KZbin and Gearspace, a cheap Scarlett interface with its built-in Preamps, in the hands of any competent engineer, can Absolutely capture almost any input signal, and I'd argue in many ways do so Better than all but the best Analog signal paths from the 1980s. And FWIW, the Shure SM58 is likely the most successful microphone in the history of microphones. It's ubiquity might make it an easy punchline, but I highly doubt that there's a single platinum recording artist in the world that hasn't allowed thier million dollar voice to be captured by it. And there's also likely no competent engineer in the world that couldn't make the signal coming out of an SM58 sound pretty damn good. No matter how many dents its accumulated.

[@MrMapacheco]

when I record audiobooks from time to time I use a very similar chain. But instead of Powair and the gate, I found a little free plugin called Trileveler. It does a very good job leveling the whole performance, from whispers to shouting. Although it is very useful to go nearer of farther from the mic so that the effect isn't as obvious in post

[@shorerocks]

Your voice is frikkin' amazing. Thank God you talk about things I am interested in and not some yadda yadda I endure just for the privilege to hear it.

[@MIHAO]

Thanks Dan, informative as always. I'm doing some video tutorials for my company at the moment, but have no background in VO. This sure made me rethink my vocal chain. Cheers

[@crowlsyong]

Dude you're so nice man. I mean c'mon, this is just pure quality tips for mixing, mastering, and the like. Gosh I feel so lucky to know people like you exist. Have a good day man.

[@danielnaron]

Thanks, Dan! This has been insightful. All we can really think about when watching your videos is your mysterious voice, and yes, an editing video would be great. I mix podcasts and voiceovers frequently and I like your approach, but I'll have to compare mine to yours first

[@iainmackenzieUK]

Many thanks Dan. As a singer, this is really useful for tips about which plugin and how to use. Best wishes

[@ts4gv]

Wow. Your EQ setting is perfect!

[@thirdhemisphere]

As always, very solid and useful information! Earlier this year I've prepared a detailed guide for a wide spectrum of voice recording situations and the processing part is in a lot of ways very similar. One thing I'd like to underline is the importance of the multistage dynamic processing. I like to conceptualize it as working on different time resolutions: I separate it into microdynamics and macrodynamics, both serving different purposes in sculpting the overall sound. In Dan's video you can see how he uses the maximum available RMS parameter in ReaComp to work on a "low resolution", in other words partly replacing manual volume riding/automating the level fader. A lot of people tend to just squash everything in one pass but the heavy-handed approach rarely works with a human speech. It's a shame you can't post *any* links since I'd really like to have a discussion on some of the ideas in the guide I've written.

[@fuzztony3940]

Thanks so much for showing us the examples with the reaper stock plugins!!

[@CNTRRNDM]

Thank you so much for sharing this. I've been trying to create a decent voice over chain for quite some time now!

[@theopbmusic]

Thanks a lot Dan, right when I'm producing a podcast for the first time, perfect timing!

[@bartjelories]

Good luck.

[@theopbmusic]

@@bartjelories Thank you!

[@JaxsonGalaxy]

I just found your channel a few days ago and was formulating an email to ask for exactly this. Thank you!

[@C.S.Argudo]

With the amount of people who have podcasts near me and don't know how to adjust their levels and add FX, you sir just helped me figure out how to help them

[@The-Bloke]

Wonderful, thanks so much Dan. And yes please to editing / spectral editing!

[@NiMareQ]

Your voice is so amazing and ominous at the same time. Also the way you introduce pauses and halts increases the tension. You should definitely narrate some thrillers or investigations.

[@ksmgmedia]

Oh my god, what a voice this guy has. I could listen to you for hours reading stories. Nice upload 👌

[@creativecraving]

Woo! This is awesome! I wanna try your mic placement and Reaper chain and see what it does with my voice and my room . Thanks for sharing! Getting the sound I want is still such a mystery to me, even though I've done a ton of research.

[@StormBurnX]

I was terribly excited, thinking it was some video about a physical effect akin to a plate reverb - a voice, over chain. But alas, it was a chain for doing voice-over, which is in an entirely different way still incredibly relevant as I've been doing off and on work for small podcasters and appreciate the walkthrough of your setup! The idea of simply ducking a noise floor rather than killing it entirely is a good idea, and I'm glad to see that other than that specific difference, nearly everything about your approach is the same end result I settled on just by experimentation and intuition.

[@woosix7735]

holly crap, I never though getting such a great voiceover requires so much effort and fuss, but it does make sense. worth it (easy for me to say, I don't have enough patience to bother doing this myself)

[@jeronimoandresaguirrecardo3985]

I'd love to see what would you do with JS: General Dynamics. Thanks for keeping making those!

[@TheSittingArchitect]

What a great video - and a video on spectral de clicking would be fantastic

[@tccan3783]

Helped me out so much

[@ottam]

Big fan of the 3U Audio mics. They're beautiful for the price and the guts are very high quality. The owner is very hands on and accessible as well. I upgraded mics three times before my Warbler (M-Audio Luna, ATH 2020, SE 2200), and haven't had the urge to do it again.

[@mastablasta9x]

Very cool chain! Love your channel!

[@TheElectricRoseShow]

Really nice. I wish I still had my old beat up beta 58a! Lost to the tides of gignorance... lol Thanks for the great content!

[@TraxtasyMedia]

Awesome setup. I stream and I am looking for a plugin chain setup that makes my voice sound okayish. I think I have to adjust some stuff in this chain. Thank you very much for being such an awesome tutor. Learned tons of things in your videos.

[@bazjaddley6369]

Dan.. you just said sparky tape and a Sharpie. I've been mocked for saying sparky tape instead of "LX" for decades.. As if it's too layman a term by theatre type AV techs You have warmed my heart

[@mialove7035]

I am definitely interested in learning more about this and whatever else I am able to learn from you.

[@GrandNebSmada]

That trick for making a 24db roll-off in ReaEQ is genius! I don't know why I never thought to do that before. So many times spent frustrated because the Bandwidth control is so weird on that plugin.

[@verdrehtewelten]

your voice is really great and your knowledge is awesome. it remembers me to my tutor, he was a living brockhaus^^ greatz from germany

[@quantumhorizon]

Thanks for showing your reaper chain, that is a huge help. I use a Linux box so fab filter and many of the other high end plugins aren't an option (although one can dream of a brighter tomorrow). I would also be interested in the spectral editing video you mentioned.

[@matthewblake2258]

Great video thanks Dan

[@LongPlay4u]

Power and useful voice over chain!

[@BuzzaB77]

it's not in the gear, it's in the delivery. you have a lovely cadence Dan!

[@xanxac5]

Thank you for all your videos. Perhaps also a video on how you composse and mix your cool background music!

[@ChrisJacobs-gy9en]

Thank you, sir. You are the man. 🎉

[@alexeyayzin8512]

Excited for this!

[@forrestsalamida3721]

Would love an editing video, this was great, thanks Dan!

[@rdplatform]

Thanks !

[@IainThacker]

I'd love to see how you approach the de-clicking but more so how you use spectral editing. Pretty please!

[@Zet237yt]

Now, on a serious note, thanks for that explanation video, Dan! One thing I'd be interested would be loudness normalization for KZbin with voice over videos. I noticed that pushing a podcast to -14LUFS will make it sound unpleasant to listen to and totally pumped. Also, I am not sure how stereo and mono loudness measurements correlate, there seem to be some differences that I wasn't able to find an answer to through Google. If you find the time to explain any of that, loudness of voice over videos and stereo-mono loudness differences, I would appreciate that very much!

[@operarocks]

Thank you SO much!

[@kirkegodfrey414]

such excellent work

[@void_snw]

Honestly for a while I was unsure if your voice was real or not. A performance so consistent, neutral, and clear, that it seems like it's generated, but way too natural compared to anything that I've heard so far to not be real. Good to know for sure that it's a real person speaking and not some next gen program :p

[@macronencer]

5:22 Off topic, but I want to thank you for using the word "thence". I think it's a lovely word and it's almost disappeared from English.

[@MoreMeRecording]

Love seeing the D.A.V. As someone who used to be sucked into the whole Gearslutz scene, but have thankfully discarded that drivel over 10yrs ago, it was all about "you *need* a Neve, API, Chandler, et al. You need *character!1"* Actually as someone who has used countless, countless mic amps over the years, and love the usual suspects as much as the next guy, there's a lot to be said for straight wire mic amps (I use Forssell) as *character* is about the easiest thing to add post, and the tricky part doing it ITB is not adding too much! For vocal mics, I find using the super clean mic amps for dynamics - like a 7b to be especially beneficial. The last thing a highly coloured mic needs is more colour from the mic amp IMO. They need gobs of headroom and clarity. Let the box or OB chain take care of the rest.

[@trushreitsam5802]

I'd really love to see a spectral editing video by you. It would be great, if you'd show that in Reaper and Acoustica aswell, since there is really almost no video that captures the enormous extent, in which Acoustica is able to affect Audio on a spectral level (applying processing to the spectral region, copy pasting and more things, I haven't found out yet) Thank you for your great videos, they have really changed my approach to audio!

[@woodenhatrecords]

D.A.V. Mic Pre "not much to say here" Haha! Just about one of the best mic preamps one could buy, at about half the price of all the other high-end mic pres. I looove their sound.

[@dominatusonido]

Just saw the video, just after ReaLimit was released. Range would be definitely useful in the stock plug-ins. I’d love to see how you edit those clicks manually. Long live to SM58 as well. Great video, thanks.

[@fluctura]

thank you, great channel! def interested in spectral

[@timothydrewfilms5272]

PLEASE do a video on your vocal de-clicking process! That would be incredible.

[@whitex4652]

I'm glad your SM58 looks like mine. Dented. 👍

[@TylersTrying]

Would love the spectral editing video. I do audiobooks professionally and I find spectral editing to be a pandora's box. The ability to edit minuscule bands over micromoments of time generally leads to inane perfectionism. I'm curious if you'd have any interesting insights into vocal click or mouth noise editing that I've not thought of or even your general approach to spectral editing. Great video! Keep it up.

[@PocketSunlight]

Love yer dry humour, Dan

[@rodolphe1018]

Cette chaîne est incroyable, merci.

[@user-gl1hk3qz9d]

Yay for a editing video!

[@r.d.marshall9383]

Just wanted to leave a comment to say I'd absolutely be interested in that video on spectral editing.

[@DThompson55]

Brilliant!

[@cmd_f5]

Very subtle stuff. I dunno. For some reason I was thinking there would be more going on. The beauty is in the simplicity though. It really comes down to the performance and mic placement, then using some processing to push up levels or do some gentle EQ shaping. Very nice.

[@onataltn4596]

"The voice in your head, if you like" Nice! I can't help it now to read the manuals in Dan's voice now

[@LeonTodd]

Watched this late at night with sound off and subtitles on and it still sounded like Dan in my head. Watching again with sound and I must say I'm impressed with how good you got the 58 to sound.

[@unclemick-synths]

Thanks for sharing.

[@merrimac4846]

tfw you open this and currently use a 58 plugged into a 2i2 for your rap vocals shoulda waited til I had some more funds to start investing in this stuff 😂. But it seems to be a good way to learn!

[@Skrenja]

The SM58 is my favourite mic of all time. It's often better than mics way more expensive than it.

[@hendrixonwheels]

I love how you talk about the ducker slapping a transient in the background music too hard, right after slapping that snare transient incredibly hard at 10:13 don't know if this was deliberate but it's great :)

[@delmedio1032]

Thanks for never saying Ummmmm…. Also, thank you for not giving misinformation, then backtracking, then giving the correct info. Much appreciated! Cheers!

[@maxanchidin5604]

OK but the track at the end slaps hard. Is there a full version that we can listen to? I love those guitars, damn.

[@seazenbones6945]

Thank you.

[@VNDM-MUSIC]

Listening to Dan sort of humbles me in the sense that I feel I have a lot to learn still, which is actually a good thing. But he does so without me feeling small. Quite the opposite: Dan invites me to learn and understand, perhaps even better myself musically. That's unique and powerful.

[@MrKarlsor]

damn right

[@jason_andropolis]

Hi Dan, do you have any plans to make a video of all the plugins you would typically use in a mix? I would love to know your go-to plugins and why you chose them :)

[@tinball]

I teach at a big audio school and just love this video. I'm going to share it with my classes from here on out! I have to say I actually like the 58 better! :)

[@cryptout]

I loved how you proved a point first hahah

[@danielarco8566]

Magic Dan's Voice..It turns out that it's not about processing😉 Thanks Dan for your videos!

[@quentinmorales]

Thanks

[@juancarlosguagnoni4062]

You are just great man !!! For real !!! XD

[@neuroxik]

Reaper users using stock plugins will probably have an update to add Rate on ReaGate after this video. As I already suspected, the first element in the chain (your and delivery) is the most important part. It's a bit like those (I tried myself) trying to mimic old broadcasts with emulations of old equipment but don't talk with the transatlantic accent that was purposefully learned/used at the time.

[@BrianDorsey]

Dan, in one of the mid-side videos (I think) you mentioned ducking only the mid to make space for the voice over. Blew my mind! Is that something you do often? Thank you so much for making this video. It’s exactly what I was hoping to learn. 🙏

[@DanWorrall]

Rarely, and only if I'm struggling to get them to fit together otherwise. If I do that I'll set the mids to duck a little more than the sides, rather than purely just ducking only the mids, which will quickly start to sound weird.

[@BrianDorsey]

@@DanWorrall Thank you!

[@cimatico]

@@DanWorrall This is regarding your LCR mixing videos. If you have the chance to listen to Prince track "Cream", there are some hard panned elements, such as guitar licks. For me they sound the same loud in mono, side and left/right. (If they are panned to the left i.e. they're muted on the right). Could you tell me your thoughts on that? Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@ephjaymusic]

Waiting eagerly for the Dan Worral sample pack... 😉☺️

[@ringoman08]

I like this audio visualiser ! Is that a stock or a plugin

[@redblock1382]

0:35 entire world roasted in 3 seconds

[@ilrassoemil9854]

A reaper spectral editing guide would be nice!

[@XRaym]

Acon Digital Declicker is definitely the best in its category.