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Making the middle of a sentence sound like the end
Long time listener, first time caller.
I am having trouble finding a solution to my problem, mainly because I am not sure what exactly to search for. I need to make a soundbite end right in the middle of the sentence before the speaker says “and so…” but he blends the last word I want to keep, “ways” with the “and so.” I have cut it at the best possible spot and I don’t really hear the “and so,” but it just does not sound like the end of his thought. I have tried making his last word louder, but that does not help much. Is there any audio filter I play with on that last word to make it sound like the sentence has concluded.Thanks in advance,
Ben -
5 Replies
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He’s created a new word “wayzensew” You might try searching the rest of the track – or the original session- for the same word or a substitute word that ends a sentence with the correct inflection… or a complete phrase that could be reused in this context without changing the meaning.
First – if you haven’t already – try slicing the audio right after z sound but curving the volume down, maybe just ahead of the z – to get a smoother cut.
Dennis Dean
The Dean Group
-It’s about results-
http://www.deangroup.com -
This is a classic in audio editing. You need a closed intention to finish the sentence but you only have an open intention because you chopped off the end of the sentence. No combination of effects or treatments will give you a convincing closed intention from an open one. You really have to replace the audio.
The absolute best solution to this is to have the talent on hand and just have him read the new sentence end. Of course, if you’ve gone to this length, that’s not possible. Next would be to go through all the session records in the hopes of finding the exact work you’re after with a closed intention that could be patched in. Unless you had an exhaustive alternates list during recording, the chances of this are minute. So, pro-tip, find someone around the office with a similar voice, record them saying the complete sentence in sync with your source sound, but only keep the trailing edge of the last word and try and cut that in there. Work with EQ and whatever other tools you have to make it fit. If the result sounds horrible, maybe you can get away with a subtle SFX to cover it a bit, depending on context. It’s Level 2 audio editing for sure, but it usually works pretty well.
IHTH,
JC Boulay
Technical Director
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com -
On top of all those solutions, you also will get a better result with an audio edit system, not FCP which is frame based, not sample based editing. Audio edit software gives you approx 2000 edit point inside each frame with crosfade options that make this sort of replacement editing sometimes possible.
I use Fairlight and have only had a cursory look at Sound Track Pro, but use it as it is at least a sample based editor and you already have it.
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Just to be clear, you want to make the word “ways” sound like it’s the natural end of a sentence?
Try and find a sentence from your talent that ends on the same sort of “zzz” sound as “ways” does. It doesn’t have to be the same word at all, just a word that ends in the same sound – you could steal the “zzz” ending from “guns” or “cars” or anything like that – and which also ends the sentence so it has a natural downward inflection.
As has been said, you’ll probably need to use an audio editor for the job because you’ll probably need to work at much greater level of accuracy than FCP will allow.
I worked in radio production for years before moving to TV, so this sort of thing cropped up fairly regularly. There are lots of little tricks you can use; for example, some sounds are unvoiced (such as the “zzz” we’re talking about here), so you can actually take a man’s voice saying “guns” and a woman’s voice saying “cars” and cut the ending of “cars” onto “guns” and it will still sound completely natural and not like two different-gender voices.
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Thank you so much for all of your responses. When I have more time, I will have to try them, but for now the client says it is good enough since we are in a rush.
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