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Also, make sure you even need a windscreen before using one. To solve this issue, make sure your ports are clear of debris, and use the appropriate windscreen for your specific device. This causes muffling because you’re only capturing the lower frequencies that give a foundation to the clearer mid- and high-end sounds. If your covering is too thick, it won’t let enough of the short high-end frequencies through, but bass tones can still penetrate. If debris blocks the port, sound waves have a harder time penetrating, and this can cause your recording to sound muffled.Īdditionally, if you’re using a windscreen or other type of cover, the thickness of the material matters. This could definitely be the case if you’re recording using a smartphone or laptop mic that has a small port. Something is Blocking Your Port or CapsuleĪnother possibility that could lead to a muffled sound is something physically blocking your microphone.
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This tool will give you a visual representation of where frequencies are peaking so that you can narrowly define your EQ settings and cut specific low-end frequencies to reduce muffling and mud. If you’re recording multiple sound sources that have a broad range of frequencies at once, consider using a frequency spectrum analyzer plugin to see where hot spots may be developing during your recording session. Once again, it’s almost always better to cut frequencies than to raise them, so consider cutting mid- and high-end frequencies instead of raising lower frequencies. If you’re recording specific instruments, you’ll want to temper your EQ settings for each one individually.īassy instruments, like kick drums and bass guitars, already have bass to them, so you may experience muffling and muddiness if you raise low EQ levels. This prevents harshness while reducing muffling and brings overall clarity to a voice. That’s because even baritone voices won’t reach much further below this mark, and by cutting, you give yourself more room to accentuate mid-range frequencies without raising them. When too much bass is introduced, clarity suffers because too many tones are competing for your audio space at once.ĮQ settings will be specific to your sound source and the complexity of your recording.įor example, if you’re recording the human voice, you will want to roll off bass frequencies below 100Hz. Lower frequencies tend to take up a lot of head space within a recording. The problem is that raising bass too much can cause a recording to sound muffled or muddy.
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This can be done with broad bands, narrow bands or even tiny bands that are specific to one frequency. Your EQ settings allow you to manipulate your audio by giving it more bass, mid-range, and treble. When a mic sounds muffled, the details of your recording often end up destroyed, and once recorded this way, even the best post-processing tools and techniques can have a hard time bringing them back.īelow are some common causes for your device sounding muffled and how to fix them: Your EQ SettingsĮQ, also known as equalization, is the process by which you raise or lower frequencies in a recording. Easy Steps For Clearer AudioĪ muffled sound can stem from internal problems within the recording unit itself (make sure you’ve actually cleaned your microphone before doing anything else), but they can also be the result of your recording environment, gear placement, and more. The good news is I’ve learned multiple strategies for tackling this problem that I’m going to share with you below.
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Once you hit this stage, you may play your audio back only to be left wondering: “Why does my mic sound muffled?” This creates a huge problem because, although there are software tools available that can restore some muffled audio, you very well might have to go back and re-record a session that can’t be fixed due to muffling. To make matters worse, if you aren’t monitoring your recording using a good pair of studio headphones, you may not even notice that your recording sounds like underwater until you get your audio into post for editing. Unfortunately, even the best microphones can sound muffled, and this problem can kill an otherwise perfect recording. As an instructional designer who’s recorded more eLearning modules than I can count in my home studio, I can tell you that when it comes to recording, clarity is crucial.