Helion's Tips And Advice For New Performers

Welcome to Helion's Tips And Advice For New Performers.

=CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION - SOME OF THIS MAY YET CHANGE=

So, you've found your way to the Sexy Audio threads, and want to join in, but you're not sure what you're doing? Read on my friend, and Helion will share what wisdom he can...

>But Helion, what should I record?

1)Start out with something that you want to do. If you don't know what that is, read through requests in either this thread or the last one and find one you like. These days, we do have quite a diverse range of requests including poetry, sfw scripts, improvs, and nsfw scripts so you should be able to find something of interest to you. If that's a no go, have a look through the scriptbins linked in the OP, or just find yourself a favourite poem or piece of prose and read that, or if all else fails, just masturbate while the recording is running.

2)Question rambles are both in demand, and are actually a really good way of getting started. Yeah, I know, recording answers to the questions for new performers can seem a little pretentious when you have no idea if you're going to be staying around, but question rambles are probably the easiest things ever to record, just imagine that a nice girl (or guy) has wandered up to you and after a bit of pleasant chatting, has started asking you questions. You'll be rambling in no time.

3)Relax and have fun. Speaking in general terms, but especially if you're just starting out with this, if you're uncomfortable with what you're doing or are otherwise just forcing yourself through a recording, the results will not be as good as they could be otherwise.

>Ok, so, how should I go about doing it?

4)If you're doing something written by someone else, don't expect to nail it on the first try. My suggestion will always be to read through a script/poem once in your head, once out loud and once for the recording. If you fuck up, you can either worry about it (and try again/go back to the last silence you can hide the cut in and start again from there) or just carry on. Most people are unlikely to quibble over a stumbled word here or there so you shouldn't either. Either way however, I would advise posting when *you* feel like it was a decent recording - if it felt good, it probably sounded decent as well (listening back to it in full is entirely optional - I almost never do because I can't stand the sound of my own voice most of the time).

5)Recording with a smartphone is super easy, just about any free sound recorder app will do the trick. What you'll need to be careful of is what you do with your phone while you're recording (putting the phone on a desk, or holding it in your hand or laying on your chest, what orientation relative to your mouth, etc. - See point 6 for general guidance) and very deliberately not plugging it into it's charger.

>Ok, how about getting it to sound good?

6)Mic positioning is key when you don't have a super shiny mic. My advice for getting it super right? Experiment with different ways of holding/positioning the mic using the old 'testing one two, one two, one two' line ('nothing' and 'three' are also significant words for headset wearers) and listening back to the produced recording. Do this a few times until you're content with the resulting sound quality (and never forget, the voice on the recording will always sound different to the voice inside your head - there being a difference there is NOT a recording problem, it's a biology problem and one we all have).
	In theory, most mics want to be pointed at the sound source (your mouth) while being kept away from wind noises (see part 9 for more detail), however, some mics (notably the ones on smartphones) are actually designed for being positioned certain ways - experimentation is therefore your best bet.

7)Be aware of environmental noises: An open window can let in sounds of aircraft or traffic, airconditioning and fans can provide an annoying drone in the background, TVs or other people chatting in the next room can provide a deeply unwelcome background clutter to the sexy, playing music or other media yourself can completely bury your voice... You get the idea.
	Dealing with this problem can be done in three main ways: Firstly, directly shutting down/shutting off the noise sources: close windows, switch off music and TVs, record when the house is quiet, etc.
	Secondly, have lots of soft things in your recording environment: Towels, sofas, beds, racks of clothes, being in a carpeted room, all these things will help absorb extraneous sound. It's not exactly all up sound proofing like what you'd find in a proper recording studio, but you'd be surprised at just how effective it is.
	Thirdly, if you're sticking around and have the available funds, investing in a mic with sound-cancelling (sennheiser headsets for example have very impressive sound cancelling, which is why I swear by them tbh) or mics with nice cardioid pick-up patterns can be an option. Headsets in general, because they're designed to be used close to the sound source can generally be quiet good on shutting out environmental noise.

8)If you're getting a lot of fuzz, you'll probably need to deal with some environmental noise factors (fans, air conditioning, laptop or other power supplies), but as long as you've got a decent signal-to-noise ratio, MidnightRambler's noise reduction guide will help you (you can find it here: https://pastebin.com/4F98LTC0 ). However, off the top of my head I'd say anything less than 10:1 and you're better off not putting it through post-processing: If you do, you'll risk getting all sorts of horrible artifacts (digitisation of your voice, squeaks, other distortions) but that figure's mostly guess work at this point. If in doubt, listen to the recording and if you can hear all the words clearly, no editing is required.

9)Thumping sounds generally mean the mic is directly in an air jet from your mouth, and that air pressure is thumping on the diagram of the mic. We therefore want to position the mic out of way of any such jets (or far enough away that those jets are irrelevant), while at the same time keeping the microphone pointed at the sound source (i.e. your mouth).
	Of course, what air jets you've got will vary with what words you're saying: The hard 't' sound at the front of 'testing' and 'two' will especially test mics that are placed in front of the mouth. Meanwhile, 'nothing' and 'three' are especially important for headset users to test: the 'th' sound in those words produce jets that fire sideways out of the corner of your mouth and the most obvious (and often best) place to put a headworn mic other than directly in front of your face is to the side. Also, all mic types should be aware of air flows out of your nostrils... you'd be surprised at how much those things can fuck up a recording if you're not careful.

>Ok, that's the tech side, but what about making my voice sound good?

10)Well, your voice probably will sound either good or atleast alright to someone, no matter what happens. That being said, warming up your voice before recording can be highly beneficial. Just search on google for vocal warm-up exercises, and find some which work for you.
	On the subject of exercises, deep breathing exercises (basically just breathing in with your diaphragm to capacity and holding for a five count) to stretch your diaphragm and loosen off your rib cage and so on can also really help, especially if you don't want to be getting breathless from talking for long stretches.

11)Unless you have a naturally super sexy voice and gift for acting (not unheard of), the only honest answer is practice: Doing recordings, messing around with roleplaying, putting on accents or different voices when chatting with people, even just rattling off quotes, all will provide you with valuable practice, both in the acting side (getting into character, interpreting words into emotions) and in the vocal control department.

>Ok, I have one final question, Oh Great, Wise and Knowing One: Where do I upload my recordings?

12)I'd recommend starting out with using vocaroo as host for your audios because you don't have to set up any account to do so, but if you're sticking around, I would highly recommend setting up a soundgasm profile. It's secure (people can't just download your audios), straightforward and gives you easily viewed listen counts (i.e. listen counts that don't require you to open the file thereby incrementing the count and distorting the information it's giving you). If that doesn't appeal, clyp is much shinier, has some social features, allows you set audios as downloadable if you *want* people to download them, and does actually give you play counts, you just have to be careful with the aforementioned self incrementing issue.

And finally, as said above: HAVE FUN. If you're enjoying yourself, chances are that the listeners will be too. :)

Good Luck and welcome to the threads.