Today you will record your own voice over a piece of background music. Download the track now, because you will open it in AudioMass in step 3.
Download the background track (an MP3, thirty seconds of calm music). It opens in a new tab: save it with the download button or the three dots (⋮) in the player. If you still have your clip from last lesson, you can use that instead.
When you hear a voice and music together, the problem is almost never that the voice is too quiet. It is usually that the music underneath it is too loud.
| What you hear | What is actually wrong | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Cannot make out the words | Music competing with the voice | Bring the music down under the voice, not the voice up |
| Voice sounds harsh or crackly | Recorded too close to the microphone, or shouting | Record it again a hand's width back from the microphone, in a normal speaking voice |
| The music drowns your first word | The voice starts on a loud part of the music | Drag your voice a second to the right, or turn the music down further |
Turn the music down, not the voice up. In AudioMass, your voice and the music each sit on their own channel, which is a separate row with its own volume. Your voice will already be at 100%, and a channel's volume cannot go any higher than that. So to make room for your voice, you turn the music down instead.
Now record a short line of your own and lay it over the music. Keep it to one or two sentences, such as a title, an introduction or a line that sets the scene.
Open AudioMass at audiomass.co. Make sure it ends in .co, because audiomass.com is a different site full of adverts.
Plan your words and say them out loud once. If you decide what to say while recording, you will get lots of “um”.
Now make the two work together, so your voice is clear and the music can still be heard underneath it.
Export your mix as an MP3, then check it by playing the saved file.
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