Voiceovers & commentary in Version 12

[Michael Slowe]

Ajmetz, I know I’m not answering your question but surely it is preferable to continue with your current method because then you can record it all, not worry about fluffs, retakes, coughs etc and edit the narration properly on the timeline and make sure you are happy with the sync all in one operation. Not wishing to interfere with your editing preferences!

[Andrew Mehta]

=P Even with my current method, there are plenty of fluffs, coughs, and retakes. Lol. ^_^.

I currently record on cam, to a looped range, waving my hand infront of the camera between each take, then listen back to them all whilst it’s digitising, typing notes as to which sounds best. Then take ’em out of the bin, chop ’em up, get it down to about 3 of the good ones, and play ’em in succession to see which one sounds the best, then drop it into the timeline.

Meh…maybe it is better, but, I remember when I first went to do a voiceover, was just shocked there wasn’t a dub feature in 7.5, and wonder if that was addressed in any of the later versions?

Would be nice to record it straight into the system, rather than to tape first.

[Juanjo Mora]

Hi!

Just out of curiosity: which systems or software packages/capture cards do support this feature?

Thanks.

Jj

Media 100 XR v8.2
G4 dual 1.25, 2GB RAM
MacOS 10.2.8
Dual Monitor, Wacom Tablet
144 GB SCSI-160 RAID, ATTO UL4D
240 GB ATA Internal
1.5 TB External Firewire 800

[Andrew Mehta]

Since I’ve only ever really used Media100, I’m not sure.
But I thought my lady friend Martina spied a microphone button in iMovie ’08, and went: “Oooh..voiceover!”. We haven’t used it yet, so dunno if it works like dubbing over, or simply digitises conventionally from the mic input.

[Dave Jenkins]

Final Cut allows you to record into the timeline. It works great when you are adding a second language like Spanish.

[Paul Crowe]

Ajmetz

are you using a system with Kona set up or some kind of in/out box? If so, you can go into that and digitise your audio on the fly without having to record it to your camera first.

I do that with a mic (in a Voice over Booth) then into a mixer. It digitises straight into a bin in M100 and I just delete what I don’t like as I go.

Saves heaps of time. But I’m not aware of any system that’ll let you playback from a timeline and digitise at the same time. But I could be wrong about that.

Cheers
Tankboy

[Andrew Mehta]

Hi, yeah, I have a BOB (the one for the P6000), so I can digitise audio straight in.
In fact I did as much recently, for a couple of short two words that needed redoing, but for the majority of my stuff, I need to ensure it fits the timing of the edit on screen, and sits well with the background music, so it’s preferable to record whilst the rest is playing. Again, I do this by playing a range on the M100 timeline (often looped to enable multiple takes) and record my voice to tape,
but since seeing the voiceover option in iMovie, which does appear to let you play and record voiceover at the same time, I thought to ask if any similar feature had been included in any of the more recent M100s? From the lack of a direct answer, I’m guessing that it hasn’t.
As also pointed out, recording to tape first might actually be a more professional workflow than using any iMovie-esque feature. But since I do a lot of voiceover, it’s just something that would have been cool to have. ^_^, and I just thought I’d ask if it was part of the modern M100 setup, incase it was introduced ages ago in v8.2 and I still didn’t know. Lol. Am using 7.5 and there have been a lot of improvements since then I’m sure! ^_^.

Having said that, I think the team have done really well to update the software, get it running on AJA, get it running on Intel Macs, adding support for popular formats, integrating Boris FX, etc…wil be interesting to see what they’ve got up their sleeves next. =)

[Floh Peters]

[Ajmetz] “Having said that, I think the team have done really well to update the software, get it running on AJA, get it running on Intel Macs, adding support for popular formats, integrating Boris FX, etc…wil be interesting to see what they’ve got up their sleeves next. =) “

You are right, audio voiceover to the timeline is not a part of the current Media 100 software, but unlike with the P6000 hardware it would be possible with todays Aja hardware.
And I think what the engineers will implement next depends on what users are asking for. I think it is very helpful for the Media 100 team if you (and all users) provide feedback by posting their thoughts here, sending e-mails to Media 100 and by visiting and talking to them on tradeshows like NAB and IBC. Tell hem what you need.

[Holycowseattle]

Yeesh,

Everybody wants every feature in every application….(hey developers take a look at my list while you are at it!)

Audio has always been a little weak on Media100. No offense to those who a religous about m100…but its the truth. (HERE’s my list Floh: no 3rd party audio control surface support (come on HUI has been a standard for years now!), no plugin support, no time-stretch/remapping ability, etc.)

When we need a VO “read” into the timeline…we simply export a reference movie of our Media100 timeline and open it in either Pro Tools or MOTU (Digital Performer). WE use the audio capabilities there…as they are vastly superior to those in the Media100. Sorry to say..but its true.

We simply open the movie (within one of the two audio apps) and record our VO’s. Clean up, retime, add effects/master, etc. and then export the voice tracks (bounce) to an AIFF file and re-import into the Media100.
Works just as well.
Regards
-P

[Andrew Mehta]

Oooh…my wish list then.^_^:

HDV support through firewire.
So a laptop, a Sony Z1, and a copy of Producer is all you really need. 😉

Colour wheels!
To enable us to emulate the stylistic colour correction so often used in Final Cut Pro.

Compositions as clips!
A little tick box to treat composition clips as regular video clips or not – thus you can trim and cut ’em without unrendering everything. Usually I always import the HAL clip to the bin to do this, but it would be nice to have the option in the programme to turn a blue clip green to work with, without having to go to the import settings each time, which a novice user might not realise you can do. ^_^
[Or you could do an After Effects style “Import Render to Bin” option, so it not only renders the blue composition clip in the timeline, but auto-imports the HAL clip as a green videoclip in the bin for you to work with that as well, if you wish…that would probably be an easier feature to implement].

Optional Voiceover Options:
Extra options to make voiceovers easier. (Like, select a range, loop it, hit record, and be able to play the range on loop whilst recording a voice over via either mic or firewire/BOB input device[camera or deck, etc] straight in, and have each take from each iteration of the loop saved as a clip to the bin automatically. ^_^). Touch