Regarding Room Tone with Alex the Audio Scientist

[@jarvishooten1476]

I searched for two days, and FINALLY this is the only video I found that explains this technique in Pro Tools! Thank you, thank you. Now I can take the editing test for a job at an audio book production house that uses this function instead of inserting silence, which is what I am accustomed to doing.

[@imaallstar4eva]

Good advice, thank you, can't wait to make my audio books.

[@joycegriffen2444]

Boy, does knowing this save editing time!

[@GaryTerzza]

Useful advice from the sound guy who knows his stuff.

[@jasoncoffey8657]

Thank you

[@lowenbad]

I don't have any room tone in my recordings. I mix and master them silent. The only thing you can hear on my recordings is my voice. I'm very conscientious about this part of the production.

[@paech2]

Bradley Swanson Hi Bradley..... I’m actually a music producer and audio guy getting into voice over work and production at the moment and like you I can’t wrap my head around why one would want room tone instead of silence? Your comment is the only comment I’ve found that agrees with the way I see it as an audio person, the only reason I can think one would want to insert room tone is to match with the fact that there is also room tone behind your recorded vocal...... see for me I remove all this with Izotope de-noise plugins anyways which leaves me like you ...... with clean silent vocal recordings.....why is this room tone such A thing then, I’m very confused?? I feel like you and me are correct on this ...... am I missing something??

[@joeydunn1646]

I use room tone to get rid of noises, breaths etc. I also use it to format the book correctly. Inserted silence usually makes sound like a void was introduced, inserted room tone sounds like nothing.

[@reavewatkins8963]

What is the minimum and maximum room tone at the beg. and end of a file?

[@skeeternash]

In Reaper, I have the expander set to give me silence when I’m not speaking. I listen very carefully to see if there is a noticeable difference in room tone from when I’m speaking and the gaps between, and can’t detect any. Is that the‘near perfect silence’ he speaks of near the beginning of the video?

[@soniagabriellamilanpattona4550]

...Please help me on this... When I have the file on audacity, I added the room tone and the ACX test sound pass pass pass... When I export the file and I import it again to check if it is ok, it says IT SOUND UNNATURAL!!! I took pictures but I am not allowed to upload here....

[@carleesaduncan9082]

What if your room tone does pick up some extremely minimal noise, can you take care of it through normalization or a specific step in Reaper?

[@soniagabriellamilanpattona4550]

Hi. I use Logic and then Audacity but the room tone sometime is too low though I record in the same place! It is driving me crazy! I tried adding gain but it is not working... Do you find a solution??? Thanks! Cheers from Italy!

[@ZachWalz]

Sometimes when I do this, you can hear a click when it transitions from the recording to the noise floor. Solutions?

[@SuperJamesus]

if you have a daw that has the option to auto crossfade your edits that will remove the pop, or click.

[@soniagabriellamilanpattona4550]

I have a question: what if the room tone is too low and, as you say on ACX it sounds unnatural? I recorded many files in the same studio and on 7, 2 have the room tone too low. I am driving myself crazy. How can I correct? Do I have to record them again? Please give me a suggestion! Thanks

[@johncharlesceccherelli2876]

Is there a way to do this in Audacity? Does anyone know?

[@markewin]

Audacity has two downloadable plug-in called Punch/Copy Paste & Punch/Paste. Use the first to record your room tone and then use the second to insert the exact amount of room tone.

[@mapicepla]

Would you do one with Audacity?

[@markewin]

Audacity has two downloadable plug-ins called Punch/Copy Paste & Punch/Paste. Use the first to record your room tone and then use the second to insert the exact amount of room tone.

[@JaLisaMariecountrygi]

So will flat silence in the beginning and end work or not?

[@AudibleACX]

Hi Courtney, thanks for your question! Low level room tone brings a natural, consistent, non-distracting presence to a production. Silence can make a performance feel artificial (especially when using silence during editing to replace breaths). It would also make extraneous sounds like mouth noise more apparent.

[@Freek314]

@@AudibleACX So it's definitely worth the effort to add in an artificial room tone to smooth things out and provide a sort of padding for people who prefer to use noise removal plugins or similar options, but how do people who analyze audio professionally feel about these de-noisers? I'll be checking for a video from you on this but wanted to write the comment in case I forget to come back later.

[@Fuzzycuffsqt]

Thanks Alex! You're not recruiting me to your screwey Apple cult, though!