KVR Audio

AudioBabble · Post by **AudioBabble** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 2:35 am

Hey all, I'm doing an audiobook at the moment and there's a scene that is a "zoom" conference.

I'd like to emulate the "low quality" sound in a convincing way...

I know I can lower the bitrate/sample rate, cut off frequencies... but what I'm really looking for is something that sounds specifically zoom/skype -ish , it's hard to define but there's a kind of warbly sound to low bitrate streams, and then there's also a kind of auto-gate that seems to make background noises do funny things... like sort of "whoosh" in and out.

I wonder if anyone knows what I mean?

Robmobius · Post by **Robmobius** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 2:40 am

I'd check out Goodhertz Lossy I think that will get you there.

kidslow · Post by **kidslow** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 3:13 am

Lese Codec

muki · Post by **muki** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 3:13 am

for the "flangies" kind of sound
that's where the spectral components of the compression gets more and extremely pronounced
you could try:
unfiltered audio SpecOps
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... ecops.html
maybe also Fault

or
inzotope RX
noise cancelling with extreme settings
or any other noise cancelling app that uses noise-fingerprinting

AudioBabble · Post by **AudioBabble** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 3:16 am

Robmobius wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 2:40 am I'd check out Goodhertz Lossy I think that will get you there.

Brilliant, just what I needed, thanks a mill

DNnX · Post by **DNnX** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 3:52 am

Goodhertz Lossy is a great tool to emulate mp3 compression.

Skype used inhouse SILK codec for a long time, then it went to Opus. Zoom uses (licensed) SILK codec.
Encoding or Decoding WAV ---> Opus ---> WAV should sound more Skypish / Zoomish.
If you can find tools for en/decoding SILK codec, that will be more accurate! But I don't know if it even exists.

Robmobius · Post by **Robmobius** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 1:46 pm

AudioBabble wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 3:16 am
Robmobius wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 2:40 am I'd check out Goodhertz Lossy I think that will get you there.
Brilliant, just what I needed, thanks a mill

No problem!

CinningBao · Post by **CinningBao** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 4:15 pm

Digitalis goes hard on signal degradation, so it might be worth looking at or at least testing.

https://aberrantdsp.com/plugins/digitalis/

Robmobius · Post by **Robmobius** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 5:02 pm

Digitals is another great tool!

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 5:08 pm

one possible technique...
go old school.

record audio via low quality skype or zoom call.

Shabdahbriah · Post by **Shabdahbriah** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 5:50 pm

^^^ beatmetoit ^^^

kidslow · Post by **kidslow** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 6:14 pm

I assumed that the audio was already recorded and this was an effect to apply after. If the option is to record it via skype/zoom, that may be the best. Of course applying an effect after gives you control of where & when the distortion appears, and murphy's law suggests that the connection will behave flawlessly just when you want a little coloration.

CinningBao · Post by **CinningBao** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:18 pm

You could seed a popular legal torrent and use the software to 'tune' how much bandwidth you want it to take, eating into skype/zoom's packet hunger.

kidslow · Post by **kidslow** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:22 pm

DNnX wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 3:52 am If you can find tools for en/decoding SILK codec, that will be more accurate! But I don't know if it even exists.

https://github.com/kn007/silk-v3-decoder

Appears to also support a partially documented encode function.

ralfrobert · Post by **ralfrobert** » Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:31 pm

Why not just use a bad Zoom connection and record it?

Any plugins or technique to emulate the sound of a low-quality zoom/skype stream?