Recording and Processing Voiceover or Narration in REAPER

Recording and Processing Voiceover or Narration in REAPER

[@Jan-S-Simonsen]

I'm a voice artist using Reaper every day, and I still learned something new. Thank you Kenny. You bloody genius.

[@MrHugabum]

Kenny is goated. The man taught me so much about reaper. I have used it for thousands of hours and love it. Definitely a good choice of a DAW for the type of work you are doing with it. Even big game studios like blizzard use it!

[@Jan-S-Simonsen]

@@MrHugabum Kenny is King! Yes, Reaper is just awesome. I've used another DAW since it's Atari ST days, but Reaper is now DAW of choice here.

[@SoComposed]

Daily user, I have a question for you: Do you guys think it's even worth getting the NS1 plugin from waves? I was going to get it (I heard an Audition user talk about how much it helped him), but ReaFir seems to really take out ANY hum/hiss out, even while I'm speaking (which is what NS1 seems to be known for doing so well). Thoughts?

[@ManasahGriot]

Absolutely LOVE this guy! He is my "GO TO PERSON" when working with REAPER. He is detailed, and explains, while showing you what he is doing. He is such a wonderful instructor! Luv ya, Kenny!

[@santoshkannada1139]

Dear Kenny, this world owes you a lot for your teaching. You are a real Guru of Reaper. I admire your teachings. Thanks a lot.

[@DThompson55]

oooh that mono button on the LUFS meter. I've missed that detail before. Always some good nuggets in these videos. Thanks again Kenny.

[@LetsTalkAboutReaper]

I find it much more difficult to process spoken word when compared to music and singing vocals. Excellent video as always, my friend.

[@paulengle5784]

Holy crap, this is so good. Between you and Booth Junkie, there’s so much underrated Reaper education out there.

[@tomasvircik3742]

Finally perfect processing of voice. Like the limits, separare frequencies and all. This makes the sound much better. Finally found someone explaining it on point. Thank you.

[@robertdavenport7802]

I was just going over my fx chain for voiceover when this video dropped. Thanks!

[@mikebubeck2880]

Love the new intros, especially that slap at the end. Lol.

[@MoveUpMedia]

Great video. I’d recommend following these steps for podcasts as well.

[@alexandrarebelheart]

Your content is PURE GOLD. Thanks for your videos so much.

[@CommonsenseIrl]

Lol! The video is awesome. But the outro was hilarious! Thank you for putting this together. Learn a lot.

[@MatthiasLenardt]

Thank you so much for sharing your settings for voiceover. Very interesting. So much things are possible in reaper. I also switched to reaper 1 year ago. I also use it mostly for voiceover. 👍👋

[@donmeles7711]

Wow this is so helpful! Finally a tutorial I can follow and actually understand what I am doing! Often I follow instructions without any explanations and have no clue, why it works. Here I know what you want me to do and I can actually adjust some settings so it fits to my recordings!

[@RyanMcQuen]

I keep coming back to this like a song.

[@jordanvarela6180]

Sir! This was excellent content. I learned so much and will utilize this to the fullest! Thank you. Blessings

[@tybrady]

Thanks Kenny! - I'm using this video to learn how to record singing and guitar in one take on one mic.

[@via_negativa6183]

Easily the best most straightforward tutorial I've seen on this topic (And at this point I've seen alot.) For not only reaper but voice processing in general. Only thing I do different is use a downward expander instead of reafor or some reason it tends to give me bad "phasy" artifacted results. Thanks!

[@unclespooky]

absolutely amazing. I was just closing up my vo shop for the holidays, and I asked myself, I wonder if it's time to revisit my FX chain, and then this popped up in my notifications. And sure enough, a couple of top shelf ideas I hadn't thought of (notably the 2nd eq). thank you for sharing the knowledge.

[@REAPERMania]

Yeah. I didn't explain it but it's better to cut BEFORE compression and boost AFTER compression.

[@unclespooky]

@@REAPERMania it made perfect sense in the video though, but thanks for confirming. Merry Xmas to you and yours this season. I look forward to what awaits in the new.

[@REAPERMania]

@@unclespooky Merry Christmas to you!!!

[@shawnmiguel]

thank you for this, i was searching youtube for a tutorial on this and none of them were as concise and understandable.

[@paul-seager]

Thank you Kenny for all your videos! You are truly a rockstar!

[@AironExTv]

Great starter method. This gives inexperienced operators a great way to start out and develop their skills. As a dialogue mixer I appreciate good education to improve the end product for as many people as possible. I will point to this in the future when asked for tips.

[@freebirdflyerin]

Thank you so much !!! You dont know HOW MUCH you helped me with this video! It changed my whole work process! Greetings from Germany!

[@Laneth]

Kenny, seriously, thank you so much AGAIN for such a wonderful video! I'm gonna make sure this video tops the list of your "recommended viewing" videos that I give to each cohort of students that join our Audio Engineering for Voice Actors course :) Merry Christmas to you and yours mate - here's to a fantastic 2022 and beyond!

[@ThePersistentRumor]

This is easily the best explanation I've seen on how to create a chain for voice-over. Thank you. :-D

[@jamesnspry]

this is so good. learning Reaper for podcasting. thanks!!

[@Karnas-fl9jk]

amazing!!!! you deserve millions of subcriber. Just save my life. ❤

[@orelanic4178]

Thank you for taking the time to show how you do this, very helpful.

[@Chena_Pan]

The video I've been waiting for ! Thank you 🙏

[@jtn191]

Been doing this a while & multiband compression + your recommendations were still very helpful. Thanks!

[@RevocerGM]

So helpful - I've been looking for a good tutorial on ReaXcomp and JS de-esser

[@bubkasaurus]

As always Kenny, another brilliant video. Detailed and direct. Easy to follow. I like to play around with a touch of reverb and or chorus to give the VO an even warmer or more ‘spacial’ feel (not a dull room recording) and find that tricky sometimes - but it can sound so pleasant and easy on the ears. Maybe as a companion to this video you can add how to do that a-la-Kenny style. Would love to hear how you approach that to find that sweet spot. Keep up the great work Kenny! Love your tutorials!!!

[@JuanMariaSolare]

I also use white spectacles for playing piano 😅

[@rogberube6422]

That, that's what I need. Thanks Kenny !

[@StamatisKekes]

As I plan to start tracking lessons and tutorials in my channel this is extremely useful as my voice is so harsh that I can not stand hearing it when recorded ...

[@mageprostudios4334]

Fantastic! It's been a long time coming. This works great for everything except for finding those technical sweet spots for audiobooks that seem to be the bane of many narrators. Getting that LUFTS and Peak settings just right can be a trial and error for each segment as the dynamics of different characters can be a challenge. Many narrators have their work rejected due to compression being too much or artifacts caused by their noise reduction. The difference I've seen in your presentation has been your application of the Xcomp. I would have loved to have seen you talk about how the Comp and Xcomp work together as well as the use of the limiter to reach desired levels of Loudness and Peaks. Is that scheduled for the next in the series?

[@CreepyCat.]

Few tutorials of this nature just straight up show you exactly what you were looking for. I wasn’t even specifically using Reaper in this case, just curious what people do =) Thanks!

[@OnlineRadioSchool]

Cheers big man. I'm just getting my head around the software after 20 years of Audition - tits well weird at first. Most Reaper tutorials seem to be about music, defo needs more radio / audiobook / spoken words ones etc. Anyway - Tis Christmas Eve 23:33 in London and I'm drinking brandy :) Merry Christmas Reaper peeps - I've finally joined the Reaper family lol - Flipping beginners learning curve though! Thud zzzzz.

[@Eliteguitarschool]

Hey Kenny it's nice to see your mug!! Keep showing those pearly whites it's great to get to know you❤❤

[@JuanMariaSolare]

Kenny is my overall favorite KZbinr ...question: would you add a subtle reverb to a voice over / speaking voice , and with which criteria? 😊

[@REAPERMania]

Not usually.

[@ThePersistentRumor]

I've been struggling to add brightness and clarity to my low, muddy voice. You solved it. Thank you. :-D

[@AnAnimalSpite]

Kenny Gioia is a bespoke God.

[@MrHugabum]

This is a cool one Kenny. I have spent thousands of hours working with vocals and music- always kind of just did guess work when dealing with speaking in a non musical context.

[@dnashofficial]

as usual, i learned something, imma gonna use it, and i can't wait for next time

[@cmd_f5]

Another excellent tutorial. Thanks as always!

[@filmserve]

Excellent video. Many thanks.

[@chrisogle001]

Thank you for sharing your experience. Great information.

[@KayKastum]

Thank you! My final process for delivering is much better now.

[@solzenstein]

Kenny you genius! Your videos are a great help! Thanks man!

[@DemonCreep]

Appreciate the video man! I did one of your earlier tutorials - I still think it sounds great but I'm going to try this and see if it's any different. Just completed my first audiobook not too long ago.

[@foreverud666]

hai kenny could you also make a tutorial on your process for making videos ? Would love to know your take on how to make videos along with reaper(for audio) for KZbin.

[@wcbc6679]

Hi, newbie here so I apologize if this is a silly question, but the render information (at 11:50) shows a peak of -0.2. Shouldn't the target be -3.0?

[@virtuoskommunizieren]

Wonderful tutorial 👍 Showing also, how good the Plugins of Reaper are. That being said, I (also a Voiceover-Artist) wouldn't use such an extreme chain. Especially when the material is meant to be used in a production in another studio

[@specialbeat]

I suppose actually the same kind of chain structure can be used with vocals? Thanks Kenny. Really useful video as always.

[@michaelkilinski2809]

Excellent video! Thank you!

[@DemliMusic]

From Tukey hi again. You ara very helpful bro, very very

[@JayTDemi]

This helped a ton, thank you so much!

[@Getdwillvo]

This has been extremely helpful thank you so much

[@smarter_in_5_mins]

Depending on a mic, an artist's voice, and a recording environment, the EQ usually needs to be more complex, esp. suppressing some ugly frequencies in the range of about 300-400 Hz (boxiness) and 1000-3000 Hz. Also, I'd recommend using a de-esser before a compressor.

[@serpantin_tv]

Dear Kenny, thank you very much for your video and very clear explanation. I have been using Reaper for a couple of days, but still wasn't sure how to rec a voice properly and how to edit it afterwards. Thank you for your explanation. By the way, I have seen such VST Plugins such as Nectar, and there are many others, are they better than these ones you showerld in the video, or the functions are the same but the interfaces are different?

[@mumflaps9133]

Fantastic video. When I add a new track, I get a mastering widget at the bottom, which I don't see here?

[@MahmoudNader]

AMAZING!

[@Ikawa123]

Hello, I use reafir min 05:00 to reduce background sound, and it works, but when I play all my audio the voice is completely ruined and almost nothing can be heard... Any solution? :(

[@paolamolinari5485]

Maybe the background sound is too loud, at the same frequencies of the voice.

[@RyanMcQuen]

This is solid gold.

[@Bossfightmedia]

Amazing Video! Super helpful, thank you!

[@ksmit]

Seems like this chain might be also good for song vocals.

[@TheDavidfallon]

I tried this and with those setting on Reafir it completely scrambled the voice... There was very little noise anyway.

[@MaKeXiuShi]

Never was happy enough with noise removers. So, I prefer to record voiceovers via SM7B+T-decor booster not to drive interface preamp too hard. As a result, no hiss is needed to be processed.

[@MaKeXiuShi]

@Steve H Russian custom Shop dynamic mic booster. Like Cloudlifter, for example

[@rautshsale1948]

is there a logic to add a deesser after the compressor (and even after the multiband comp in this case) instinctively i'd think that it should come before also, just based on the fact that you somehow covered this before, will you go over editing VO again? or are your previous videos still valid about this? (not sure how much of your workflow changed recently for this)

[@REAPERMania]

You can put the De-esser almost anywhere before the last EQ.

[@rautshsale1948]

@@REAPERMania sry, but just to be sure, i'm assuming you mean "almost everywhere"?

[@REAPERMania]

@@rautshsale1948 Yeah LOL

[@rautshsale1948]

@@REAPERMania appreciate it! merry christmas and bring back the pod!!! :D

[@JanJan-rc4zp]

always helpfull with your videos :)

[@cupboardhomestudio971]

Thnx 1000 Kenny 🎼😉

[@AndyCampbellMusic]

Is there a way to match eq using reafir. Say you had two recordings made on different mics or recorded at different times and you wanted to make them sound more similar?

[@JuanMariaSolare]

Kenny, in a previous video (kzbin.info/www/bejne/d6OXmXyYprmtd7s, "Cleaning Up Voiceover in REAPER") you also mention "adding a noise key" [select audio, press D]. Now you ommited this possibility on intention because it is unnecessary, or just forgot?

[@olexiisokolov]

Is there a similar video for a female voice?) I believe some steps may be very different. for example, the one where low frequencies need to be removed

[@anonagain]

Here's a related problem in search of a solution... I have a mono track with two voices (think podcast or remote interview) where the source of each voice was different and each requires very different processing and repair. Is there an easy / automated way to split the mono track into two mono tracks - one for each voice so that each can be processed differently, without having to manually create split points and move each item onto a new track? I'm thinking it needs to recognize each voice by it's frequency profile then route one to another channel, possibly using an EQ. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[@robertdavenport7802]

Not fully automated, but you could use dynamic split and then listen through, dragging down the second person's voice as it plays. Saves you the trouble of finding all the split points.

[@anonagain]

@@robertdavenport7802 Thanks - I am going to try that as a start, but I suspect there will still be a lot of manual work since there are not a lot of pauses between the speakers and occasionally the two speakers overlap. There's probably not a good way to handle that without some kind of AI. Izotope - are you listening? :-).

[@unclespooky]

Kenny, I've been using this channel strip on my VO in Reaper for the past 2 years. Depending on what I'm doing I either tweak the gate or the final limiter. Everything has been great, but there are a few plugins to monitor. in the past 2 years, have you come across a more streamlined version of your VO channel strip? or are there any new recommended plugins? Inquiring minds want to get slapped.

[@jokersanonymous3166]

Came here to decide wether or not to switch from Audacity. This looks complicated. Do I need to do all this after every time I record or will settings apply to future recordings?

[@Ilidan1985]

What am I aiming for when I change settings in ReaXcomp for those separate bands?

[@EazerEbonezer]

Can you teach us inverse eq

[@harrisfrankou2368]

Kenny I am producing a spoken word album for a friend in a project, with my beats and midi jams and my guitars...and he is Big, he has a very resonant voice and does Radio, but at times when he hits certain subject matter he can become nasally, ( The Aussie accent ) I noticed you used the HPF do you ever do a LPF just to get the nasal tone more "mid like" ? It seems hard either too much or too little. Would parallel eq on an aux be viable for high frequency levelling or just be patience with the frequency adjustment?

[@REAPERMania]

I would say just patience. A difficult voice is a difficult voice. Try different mics and just find the best EQ that you can deal with.

[@harrisfrankou2368]

@@REAPERMania Thanks yeah he is very varied, maybe just micro edit each section. The lows and Mids of his voice sit well then it's just not quite right.

[@Jubinell]

Thanks Kenny. Btw do you have the same video but for piano? I am struggling to process beautiful piano sounds from Reaper. I have an electric keyboard that produces MIDI inputs. The original texture from my keyboard is alright, but I want a more dreamy, crisp sound. I also want to get rid of hard-struck notes without having to process each MIDI notes' velocity separately. Thanks!

[@robertrichnavsky7772]

Thanks for the video! When I use the Reafir EQ as instructed here it makes my whole audio sound muffled. What am I doing wrong?

[@paulschubert6422]

Does the order that the processing effects are put in matter?

[@taleofthemanticore]

Thanks, Kenny. I always learn something new from your vids. I use Reaper a lot for VO. Occasionally clean vox will distort after the fact... it's a mystery. Have you ever experienced that? Like a spontaneous file corruption? Can be fixed by copy pasting to a new project and rendering, then re-importing - but I'd love to know what causes the problem in the first place.

[@SteveJoneshorror]

Hi Kenny, could you say a little more about what you are looking for when applying multiband compression? Are you mainly looking at the meters (e.g. looking to boost as much as possible before it clips in each range), or are you just judging by the sound? I've watched dozens of tutorials on multiband compression, and they all just apply compression without explaining how to assess where to stop

[@viktornagy3783]

Exactly my question as well, that was the only point that remained unclear to me. Other than that, excellent video as always!

[@robinmcgee-i7z]

Hello! I truly appreciate your video. I have been using Audacity and became frustrated with it! I just downloaded Reaper today and followed video step by step until I got to the REAfir. I noticed i do not have a VST list at all. Just a JS list fro the meters. There is nothing in my FX that has VST: Rea anything. It's all blank under Cockos tab and VST tab. What am I missing here??

[@SoComposed]

Do you guys think it's even worth getting the NS1 plugin? I was going to get it, but ReaFir seems to really take out ANY hum/hiss out, even while I'm speaking (which is what NS1 seems to be known for doing so well).

[@antilles27]

I ran into a major roadblock with the "select a section to loop it" part. First of all it would only let me select in big chunks not smoothly like for you, and how do I loop it?

[@Lombourdi]

Deselect the magnet symbol on the top left to smoothly select an area of items. To loop it, press R on your keyboard. It'll begin looping once it hits the selected area of time.

[@rokitrik6783]

How do you determine that your final recording meets RMS requirements for an Audio Book?

[@stephendverner]

Well explained.

[@diecody]

gonna explain how to loop or make a selection?... like damn man

[@damosedafa124]

🤝🏼 Grazie..... è possibile avere anche i sottotitoli in italiano?

[@HibzYT]

Thanks !!!

[@richbutnotfamous1158]

Hey man, really great video its helping me a lot! I have a couple of questions though: - I've seen other people use a noise gate instead of reaFIR to clean up noise/breaths/clicks, which method is better? - I've been conscious to record between -12 and -18 db but what level should my processed file end up at?

[@tristengrant]

Try both and see which ones gives you the best result. It may depend on the file.

[@mamandapanda185]

Hi, Kenny. I've gone over the settings for ReaXComp a few times to make sure that I'm doing it right, but it's making everything sound very muffled. Do you have any idea why? It's only happening with that FX enabled.

[@heavyvibrationstudiopl3256]

Where is recording button in my Reaper?How to find it?Where is whole pannel?

[@Lombourdi]

Should be on the lower left side of your screen and you can record by hitting Ctrl+R

[@sir_marlfox]

Should I be using live monitoring from Reaper or from my Scarlett?

[@Lombourdi]

I use Reaper, that way you can hear all the effects and what not. From Scarlett, you only hear what your directly inputting.

[@wecology]

I want to process my voiceovers to speakintriplets... likeyoudo, Bilbo.

[@theblizzardofoz3]

Don't I need a GATE? I'm so overwhelmed. Kenny come over to my house please lol I'll pay you!

[@WHITETOWERSTUDIO]

you´re the fuck....ing... master! thanksss for sharing all this knowledge