Voiceover question

[Greg Ondera]

It sounds to me like you would be making more work for yourself than if you were to capture an AIFF file in, say Audacity or even FCP, then edit up the voice first instead of trying to make it fit the video. Does your program have to be a definite length or can you fit to fill some of that video to fit the audio?

Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org

[David Roth weiss]

[Dave LaRonde] “It’s a LOT easier to use some other application to record the VO.
“

Dave,

That’s really not true. The VO tool is easy as pie, you just need to what you’re doing.

The real question is, what the heck were you doing that makes you think it’s so difficult?

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

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[Shane Ross]

Do I have to do a tutorial to show how easy this is? I guess I do…

DO NOT record VO on your main timeline. Although that is essentially what the VO tool is designed to do, it is a REALLY ODD thing for it to be designed to do that. Because as editors, we record VO, THEN edit the footage, not edit, THEN add VO.

So do this. Make a new sequence. Drop slug on it for a few minutes. Multiple instances if needed. Now, target A1 by dragging your audio tab there. Start recording VO. This will make a file on the timeline only. Drag this to the Browswer and BOOM, you have a VO clip. Load that into the Viewer, and then look for the words you want, edit them into the cut.

I guess it is time for a tutorial.

Shane

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[Shane Ross]

Depends on how quiet your bay is, but yes, most VO recorded with the VO tool in FCP is scratch. But you can get good VO if you have the right tools.

But using that argument, wouldn’t you need two people no matter WHAT application you use? One person in the booth, the other running the app you are recording the VO with. Even if you recorded with QT, STP, ProTools…whatever. If the bay isn’t quiet and you need to be in a booth, it is a two person job.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
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[Walter Biscardi]

[Dave LaRonde] ”
Oh, it’s not difficult to run voiceover tool, but using it implies proximity to the machine running FCP, yes? Now, perhaps I haven’t been in the right places, but the edit rooms I’ve seen aren’t exactly nice, controlled sonic environments like announce booths.”

Yep. We use the VO Tool primarily for scratch tracks the same way Shane describes. USB Snowball Mic directly into the Mac, record a scratch track to get a sense of timing, and then do a real recording of the VO later.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
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[David Roth weiss]

[Shane Ross] “VO recorded with the VO tool in FCP is scratch. But you can get good VO if you have the right tools. “

I’m with Shane on both counts…

I use the VO Tool primarily to perfect the writing and the reading of the words, because it’s the fastest way of getting from words from the page to the timeline. When I’m in that stage of development I could care less about fan noise etc.

Later, once I have perfected the writing and reading, and/or locked the picture, then I might re-record with the raid and all other hardware with fans turned off. Or, I’ll just re-record using a professional in a real sound booth at another facility.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Joe Lloyd]

Right, thanks all. Think I got the picture so to speak. I’ll sort STP out, use that for multi-track VO then import the AIFF file into the FCP timeline.

Thanks for all the input!

Curbsyde Productions

Australia Inside Out – Coming Spring 2010

[Scott Sheriff]

So recording a VO becomes a two-person job: one person running FCP, and another doing the actual VO, probably in a location away from the machine running FCP. It’s great if you have a way to communicate with the VO person. If you don’t, it’s pretty much a pain.

I think the VO tool in FCP works just fine.
Yes, two people is the way to go for a non scratch VO. We have a small audio booth with a nice condenser mic, and do what Shane sez, and record the VO on a fresh timeline with a slug as the video. Unless there is a compelling reason to do a scratch track, I find it a waste of time. To solve the communication issue to the VO booth, I just take an AUX from the audio board on a channel that has a stick mic on a desk stand on the edit console. I send the Audio Booth Headphones an AUX mix of the VO Booth mic, my desk stick mic, and the return from FCP. The AUX Send allows the talent to hear themselves, me, the cue tones, and playback, but doesn’t get recorded. The VO mic is on the AUX Send, and the Main, so that is what gets recorded in FCP. To do a scratch track I just use the Desk Mic. The board we use is a Alesis 8 channel USB.

[Andy Mees]

That voiceover tool is there primarily for quick ‘n dirty stuff, like news people would do… but since they rarely know how to use it, the tool is pretty much useless.

A bizarre and inflammatory statement Dave. Indeed the VO Tool is a great tool for quick and dirty punch in punch out audio recordings “like news people would do” …. but contrary to your statement, in my experience, those folks know exactly how to use the tool and regularly do so with ease, apparently far better than some others. “Useless”? Far from it.

[Alex Elkins]

Hi Joe,

I know this thread is a few days old now but I thought I’d try to answer your question, as the thread seems to have been sidelined into a debate about the usefulness of the VO tool itself.

[Joe Lloyd] “My question is, is there a way to reset the VO destination track? What happens is on VO 7, after multiple takes I could be on track 65.”

The reason this is happening is that when you stop recording (perhaps to review a take or whatever) you are setting your in point for the next recording before the out point of the previously recorded VO clip. FCP automatically shifts the new audio destination onto the next track to ensure you don’t accidentally overwrite part of the previous recording. A bizarre feature in my opinion because presumably if one stops to review a clip they know exactly where the out should be and don’t need a computer to tell them otherwise, but anyway, that is what is happening!

So to combat this feature make sure you set an in point for the next recording AFTER the previous one has ended (or roll back the out of the previous clip).

All the best,
Alex Elkins

Salad Daze Films – Freshly Tossed

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