submitting a sample

The first thing I do when I work on a proposal with a client, is I request a sample of raw audio from them. The sample is incredibly important so that I can give a turn around time. Time is money, and I want to make sure that I'm setting accurate expectations with my clients, so that they can get their work back in a timely fashion.

I want to discuss the process I go through to determine my turn around time for the audio.

1. I start by putting on a filter that takes out the background noise and making adjustments to it so that the voice keeps its integrity and doesn't sound overly tinny or robotic.
2. Next, I put on a noise gate. The noise gate will filter out anything below a certain decibel. This is great for taking out breaths, mouth noises, and any other sounds that the filter missed. 
3. I listen for how many mistakes are in the audio. Cutting out takes doesn't take very much time, but if there are a lot of takes to sift through, or if you have multiple takes per paragraph, that time adds up quickly.

By this point, I have built a filter profile for the client, and can determine how much per finished hour I will spend on cleaning up the takes, and how much time I will spend mastering the piece.  

I will go over mastering audio in my next post.

Cheers!