Really, start with moderate compression and a little reverb. EQ the frequency response a little if necessary. Maybe add some background music? Don't overprocess.

Lay your speaker down on the desk facing down & record that. :)

Don't do it in a studio. Try to simulate the original as much as possible.

Dave T2

Could you describe the kind of sound you want? That would help.
hints: echos (as in a room), thin sounding like a cheap microphone, background noise like an office? etc.. Once you know what you need, then the guys can help.
Suppose it needs to blend in with whatever your footage is. So what is it.
Paul.

"... I had to voiceover some stuff in my studio."

Based on the above, I presume you mean you had to do some dialog replacement.

The best way to accomplish this is to...

1. Make certain you have recorded some "wild sound" or "ambient sound" on the location where the original audio was recorded (this should be habit).

2. Use the same mic recording the replacement dialog as used originally and have it placed the same distance from the subject as it was originally.

3. In your TL replace the bad audio with the newly recorded replacement dialog and drop the ambient sound beneath it.

4. Tweak the level of the replacement dialog & ambient sound to match the original.

Hope this helps.

They are vows, but the DJ started playing music too loud. It is not a hall.

I'm going with Jay on this one. You need to mix your voice over with some background (ambience) sound. if you did'nt manage to record ambience sound on the day (and as Jay suggests - you should always do this), can i suggest locating a section from your recordings and try to pick out a part where people are not talking. Use that - maybe on a long loop, as your background track. Voice over usng the original mic - and that should work.

Paul

check out Izotope Vinyl (free!)

Play the original back on an "okay" speaker and mic that was a subpar mic. If possible monitor the result in another room this way you can change the mic and mic/speaker placement until you get the sound you want.

Overdrive the mic pre a bit to get distortion if you want it a little scratchy. To me most simulations sound... well.. simulated.

- Mark

I've never ever had a problem recording crappy audio in fact I've mastered it. don't fake it simply record crappy audio from the start. :-)

Jay is right on the nail, plus his:

4. Tweak the level of the replacement dialog & ambient sound to match the original.

Can be assisted by the use of the "Acoustic Mirror" - a very much underused, already part of the Audio Fx package SONY tool. You can mirror an "ambient" from a piece of your audio onto/over a voice over.

Marvellous!

Grazie

rory, you must have gone to the same school i did ;-)

"Can be assisted by the use of the "Acoustic Mirror" - a very much underused, already part of the Audio Fx package SONY tool. You can mirror an "ambient" from a piece of your audio onto/over a voice over"Grazie (or anyone else). How do you go about using "Acoustic Mirror" to do this? I've gone thru the help menus and the instructions are Greek to me. They keep referring to "impulse files" using generated tones and timing spikes. ???? I Googled "Acoustic Mirror Tutorial" and the only thing I could come up with was a YouTube video in French (I think).

So, does anyone have a step-by-step of how to use "Acoustic Mirror"?

TIA,
...Jerry

I'm with you, Jerry. I've never been able to figure out "Acoustic Mirror".