Request for help reducing breathing and other muddy sounds

Jeannie · Post by **Jeannie** » March 1st, 2009, 11:01 am

Hiya. I've been comparing my own recordings to others' recordings, and have noticed that mine have a lot of breathing noises and other, for lack of a better term, 'wet' noises that my mouth makes as I record. I don't want to turn my microphone volume down. Short of editing all of these distracting noises out by hand, is there anything I can do via Audacity to reduce the frequency or severity of these noises? Currently, all I do for editing is take out mistakes and clean up the worst of the apparently incessant lip-smacking that I do. Or should I just cough up the money for a better microphone? Or eat a handful of crackers before I record?

Post by **chocoholic** » March 1st, 2009, 11:19 am

Hi, Jeannie, can you post a short clip? I wonder if your noises are bothersome to other people, or just to yourself.

I have a lot of mouth noise in my own recordings and I have never found a good way to get rid of it. The best (least ineffective) things I've tried so far are green grapes and Ricola herbal cough drops. Sweet hot tea seems to work better than water for me, too, not that I usually take the time to make tea before recording. As for the breathing noises, I just don't worry about them. If I have a REALLY loud intake breath (as in, I can see a good-sized waveform) I'll spot-reduce its amplitude. And I do sometimes crop out tongue clicks at the ends of words if I can see them in Audacity and they bother me when I listen through -- but it is indeed a tedious process.

Jeannie · Post by **Jeannie** » March 1st, 2009, 12:01 pm

Try Chapter 1 of this book:

http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17707

Maybe I should just finally admit to myself that I'm actually a fish. So many other readers sound so much better -- crisp, no heavy breathing, etc.

Great Plains · Post by **Great Plains** » March 1st, 2009, 12:44 pm

Yeah, that's classic "mouth noise". It's a big issue for everybody, even the pros. A Google search should turn up some ideas about reducing it.

* Make sure you're well hydrated.
* Sip water (not tea or soda or coffee) while you record.
* Suck on pineapples or grapes
* Record in a humid environment
* Get a misting spray bottle with some water and squirt it in your mouth.
* Reduce the reverb of your environment (it makes your recordings sound louder, so the listener will turn down the volume).
* Decrease the input gain and speak louder
* turn away from the microphone when you inhale or prepare to speak.

And in the end, don't worry too much about it. Mouth noise is 1000x more noticeable to us because we have an ear out for it. But most listeners won't notice, and they'll be listening on bad speakers with the volume reduced, so only the particularly bad pops and clicks will be heard.

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » March 1st, 2009, 12:45 pm

Everybody will tell you not to worry about them. But I sympathise, because tongue clicks are the bane of my life. They are often so small I can't even see them on the wave form, but I KNOW THEY'RE THERE

and they have to go. (And I don't, as far as I know, suffer from any obsessive disorder.

)

But, of course, editing takes me an awfully long time. I am trying to be firm with myself about the breathing and not remove it all. Hey, everybody breathes, yes? But I'm not very successful... as I get rid of the tongue clicks, I think "Oh, may as well get rid of that breath, too." <sigh>

Ruth

Jeannie · Post by **Jeannie** » March 1st, 2009, 12:59 pm

Well, I find that with every successive chapter of that book, I'm spending more and more time editing out those sounds. Thanks for the advice, all (and any further advice that anyone wants to offer) and I'll start experimenting with various solutions.

Meanwhile, I want to go back and edit the first chapters as well as I have later ones!

(Must not be obsessive. Must NOT be obsessive!)

harvey · Post by **harvey** » March 1st, 2009, 1:57 pm

Jeannie wrote:(Must not be obsessive. Must NOT be obsessive!)

Jeannie, I listened to most of Chapter 1. For the most part, I didn't hear
anything that was objectionable. I like listening to your voice. The
exception was during the initial disclaimer, which has some mouth noise.
My opinion is you're obsessing.

Prior to hearing Jeannie's Chapter 1, I did a test on another recording.
In the LibriVox recording of Brad and Grace Bush reading 'Twas the Night
Before Christmas, Gracie (about four years old) inhales loudly through her
mouth between phrases, although, in this case, it accentuates the charm
of her reading.

I tried the Noise Reduction filters of both Audacity 1.2.6 and Cool Edit
2000 to select one of the inhales and use it as the noise to be removed.
Unfortunately, in both programs, this introduces an aural artifact, making
Gracie's voice sound hollow (but not nearly as noticeable when Brad reads),
while hardly affecting some of the other inhales. This indicates there is
too much similarity between inhaling and talking, and not enough among
different inhales, for this technique to work.

However, noise reduction might work for lip-smacking. It's worth a try.

luciburg · Post by **luciburg** » March 1st, 2009, 4:23 pm

But I sympathise, because tongue clicks are the bane of my life. They are often so small I can't even see them on the wave form, but I KNOW THEY'RE THERE

We are very critical when it comes to our own recordings, tend to pick up the smallest of errors.

Small sips of water is what works for me but I suffer from the opposite complaint (a very dry mouth) to keep the clicking to a minimum I always wear lipstick when recording, the male readers may not like this idea (but who would see them when recording)

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » March 1st, 2009, 4:29 pm

luciburg wrote:to keep the clicking to a minimum I always wear lipstick when recording, the male readers may not like this idea (but who would see them when recording)

Once my mind has stopped boggling at the thought of our honoured male readers

, I'm going to try that.

If I do, my husband may begin to suspect that my constant Internet presence is not as innocent as I claim.

Great Plains · Post by **Great Plains** » March 1st, 2009, 4:41 pm

Well, we could use chapstick instead of lipstick. Not as much fun, but hey.

bublsort · Post by **bublsort** » March 1st, 2009, 5:11 pm

speaking for myself, mouth noise grosses me out, but I'm in the minority. (partly it's that I always listen on headphones.) yours is not too bad though, and you also have a very nice voice!

I wish I could tell you what the solution is because sometimes mine is worse or better and I don't know why. Generally you want to stay hydrated, just generally drink a lot of water beforehand, and also during but not have too much water, like, sloshing around in your mouth at the time. and don't speak too close into the mic.

But honestly it just takes editing for the most part. (though really you can only edit the stuff that is at the end of phrases.) it's totally up to you if you feel like doing it.

erin

Jeannie · Post by **Jeannie** » March 2nd, 2009, 1:30 am

Well, thanks so much for all the help! And also for the reassurance -- I'm actually quote glad that the problem doesn't seem to be as bad to others as it is to me. I'm going to try to stay more hydrated, and also experiment with placing my microphone in different positions.

The bugger of it is, I don't hear the mouth noises until after I finish the recording. But on the good side, it's becoming easier and easier to recognize those sounds by sight on Audacity. I'm going to try the noise reduction on just that sound and see what happens.

You guys are great -- thanks again!

ExEmGe · Post by **ExEmGe** » March 2nd, 2009, 12:57 pm

I always worry about those noises and edit obsessively but if it's any consolation, I've just been listening to a commercial recording of 'The Nine Tailors' (By Dorothy L Sayers) read by Ian Carmichael, a much respected actor with many audio books to his credit and he is dreadful with mouth noises and breathing; far worse than yours (which I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't commented). But because I enjoyed the story, I stopped noticing after the first few minutes.

Jeannie · Post by **Jeannie** » March 2nd, 2009, 2:04 pm

And The Nine Tailors is such a good read! Thanks, Andy. That's reassuring. Maybe if I only read bestsellers I'll be okay! But I'm glad to hear that others edit obsessively as well. It just seems such a shame to post a story or chapter when a little more work will make it better...

And I think listening on headphones makes a big difference. I've been recording my own voice for years but I've never listened to the result on headphones much. It makes a difference -- you really hear everything!

On the other hand, my husband (who is visually impaired) and some of his visually impaired pals have made the point before that it's all the little sighs and lip smacks that make a recording human -- and occasionally sexy!