Voice Over Tool Questions

[T. Payton]

Nathan,

I totally hear you. I’ve been in the same boat. What I do is create an smart collection for audio with the role of dialog. Then put the browser in list view and sort by “content created”. You’ll know exactly the order you recorded your takes regardless of the naming.

After a few takes I’ll select those and apply a new name in the inspector, then I’ve setup a custom naming setting for “current name plus increment” and it will put a take number on the clips.

With all that said, most of the time I’m recording right in a timeline and I just rename the clip there and I’m not terribly concerned with the name it has in the event browser. 😉

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Dave Gage]

[T. Payton] “With all that said, most of the time I’m recording right in a timeline and I just rename the clip there and I’m not terribly concerned with the name it has in the event browser. ;)”

Huh?? Maybe I’m missing something obvious that I’ve not encountered up to this point, but are you saying you can record audio live into FCPX? By the context of the post, I take you mean you are recording a voice over directly into the program.

Thanks,
Dave

[Paul Figgiani]

FCPX “Window” Menu/Record audio

-paul.

[T. Payton]

[Dave Gage] “By the context of the post, I take you mean you are recording a voice over directly into the program.”

Yes exactly. Just open up a timeline and Window > Record Audio and it will record at the location of your playhead. Just like it did in legacy FCP but better.

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Nathan Tinsley]

T.Payton that’s a great idea and I will implement it! Thanks for the tip!

Nate

[Dave Gage]

Okay, that’s just silly that after a year I just found out about that. I’m not sure how I missed it with all the posts and tutorials I’ve read and seen, but I did (I even checked all the menus last night and still missed it).

I don’t have a ton of need for voice overs, but now that I know it’s there, I might be cool to add some VO to some family video that could use some explanation. I figured if I ever needed to do VO for any reason, I would just do it via Logic. Cool, one less hoop to jump through.

Thanks,
Dave

[T. Payton]

I use it all the time for scratch VO’s and foley work, and the occasionally commercial that just needs a well timed grunt. 😉

I used to have to head to soundtrack pro or protools to get a decently compressed VO with filters, etc. Now I haven’t touched those apps in months because 90% of the tools I need are in FCP X.

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Dave Gage]

[T. Payton] “Now I haven’t touched those apps in months because 90% of the tools I need are in FCP X.”

I agree. It’s very cool that the Logic filters like Channel EQ, etc. are available within the program.

I just made a quickie music video last week to upload to Youtube and the audio that originally came off of a VHS tape had a couple of horrible pops in it. I took it down to the frame level (I just recently found out about the Sample Level option or would have done that) and added a few volume keyframes and made the pops virtually un-noticeable.
—

I tried a quick test of the “Record Audio” last night with my built-in MBP mic. The Inspector shows it as a stereo 48k aif file. It didn’t show the bit rate so I went to the file via the Finder and opened it in QT7 and it shows up as 16-bit. It doesn’t appear that there is a Preference setting any where to choose 16 or 24-bit. Have you found one somewhere? In QT7, it defaults to 44.1 and 24-bit which I believe was set in the Audio MIDI Setup. It appears that FCPX doesn’t get the file settings from the same place. Does FCPX only accept 16-bit?

Also, if you don’t already have anything in your Project, FCPX creates a Gap clip of the same length in the Primary Storyline and then adds the audio as a connected clip. Nothing too extraordinary, just kind of interesting.

Thanks,
Dave

[T. Payton]

My audio interface only has settings in Audio MIDI for 16 bit, but it looks like the settings are overridden by FCP X because it is setting channels.

As far as FCP X being able to handle 24bit audio it can without troubles (I just brought in some 24bit audio from ProTools and it played without issue).

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Dave Gage]

[T. Payton] “As far as FCP X being able to handle 24bit audio it can without troubles (I just brought in some 24bit audio from ProTools and it played without issue).”

That makes sense. I still wonder why it defaults to 16-bit when recording via the built-in mic. I checked again in the HUD for a bit setting, but I didn’t see it there either. No biggie, just curious. I don’t notice any difference in sound quality between the 2 bit rates, but I like the added head room you get with 24-bit.

Thanks,
Dave