VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[captain54]

I'd be curious to know or hear of other talent's procedure and techniques for live session tracking in the home studio..

I had a particular problem tossed me at during a phone patch session that kind of threw me. Would love some feedback..

the client was in a phone patch with me one end and three others on the other end... The VO was a 2:30 medical narration/educational video.. the clients choice was to have me record literally line by line.. with feed back from them after every line..that's the first time I've ever worked this way.. usually its in paragraphs, or chunks... here's the dilemna I faced:

-Each line turned into about 3 takes each..
-I had to keep track of what takes they wanted as "keepers"
- they wanted me to save all takes, whether they were keepers or not..
- with some of the longer sentences.. they would want the first part of the sentence as a "keeper' and the last part as an alternate...

I tried making this happen in Twisted Wave, but it got too complicated. ( maybe I'm not all that familiar with Twisted Wave beyond the basics).. I ended up opening ProTools and just opened up a track and punched in whenever we would record a take.. I had to quickly on the fly, rename each region as take one, take two, that three, etc.. as well as designating which take was the keeper, ie, "take two - keeper"

I ended up having about 30 regions or "takes" .. which ended up being a combination of alternative and "keepers"

the client then was sent a compilation VO of all the "keepers", as well as all the takes or regions, individually separated in a DropBox folder...

It ended up working out, but was as stressful as hell..maybe my editing chops aren't quite there, who knows..? Is there any other easier way to do this.. ? Maybe open up an individual track in PT for each take?

thanks!

[ChrisMezzolesta]

This isn't quite what you asked, but hopefully you worked a production fee into your quote, as it seems you did more editing than VO-ing! Did you quote by session hour, the project, or finished time? Seems unnecessarily complicated, but without knowing what was agreed upon as far as which side was expected to produce, hard to say. If I record straight thru and the client does production, I do a per-session-hour rate which is lower since I don't have to mess with editing. If I am expected to deliver a full retail-ready production I go by finished hour (or finished minutes in your case) which ought to reflect not only the time for your VO performance, but also the 2nd jobs of editing/producing/filenaming/stitching/etc.

As to the nuts n bolts, I don't know what kind of program Twisted Wave is (I assume it's a standard stereo editor), but I might slate by voice each take in addition to dropping a marker at the beginning of each one so each can easily be sliced out later. One long session file could contain a ton of takes but with markers or at least time signposts you write down you can keep track of em that way - a quick listen to the beginning of each section and you'd hear your slate. Then copy & paste into a new file, making sure the flow is maintained if pulling from different takes. You could, say, assemble your final sentences from "line 5 take 3 top half" and "line 5 take 1 bottom half" or something like that, copying from one file and pasting into a fresh one, depending on what works better for you as far as logging takes. But slating them vocally and dropping markers (or putting an loud cue like a handclap or finger snap or mouth clunk can help too, something you can quickly see on the waveform) will help you keep track of where everything is. Might even help in the long run doing it this new way you described rather than trying to find the good sentence they want in the midst of an otherwise unwanted paragraph, who knows...

Good luck with all that - sounds like a lot of work for a 2:30 narration so I hope it paid well!
_________________
Chris Mezzolesta, Voice Talent
800.356.5519 www.voiceatile.com

[ConnieTerwilliger]

They need to keep track. Every new take or screw up advances the take number. They decide which take...which part of take is good for the editor.
_________________
Playing for a living...
www.voiceover-talent.com
YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/connieterwilliger

[captain54]

I didn't feel I was unfairly compensated , nor did I feel like what they were asking me to do was beyond reason.. on the other hand, I don't think they realized that what they were asking me to do was kind of out of the norm.

Twisted Wave is a lot like Sound Forge.. only mac.. I guess I could have dropped a marker before each take in TW, and verbally slated, all the while writing down which take was a keeper, and which part of what take was a keeper.. then copying and pasting each section into a new session in TW for the compilation take..

In hindsight, I could have hit shift/Apple/N with each new take in ProTools, creating a new track which could then be divided and tagged on the fly with client preferences. or even better, have had 30 or so tracks already loaded in the session..

I guess if you did projects like this all the time you would be prepared and you could do it your sleep.

[Bish]

I had one like this the other day... I was connected to a room full of "creatives" via their video conferencing system and recording the session into SoundStudio4 (which is almost identical to Twisted Wave). They were getting fed direct audio from my system, and I had them on headphones. The only real difference was that it was about a 2400 word / 16 minute corporate "intro to the company" piece, played "in character".

To keep track, I used my standard "dog-clicker" to mark the audio with a spike, and I made sure I repeated back to them exactly what they said... things like "so we keep the last part of that paragraph, and the first part of the take before" (I also explained what I was doing so I didn't sound like an idiot to them!). I used two clicks on the clicker to signify a piece of editing info. It went surprisingly well and it was very straightforward to edit it down to the keepers. About an hour for the session, less than five minutes to cut out the unwanted takes and then just 16 minutes of audio to edit for clicks, slurps and heavy breathing.

Personally, I really enjoy directed sessions... preferably ISDN, but phone or Skype works OK... I know they're getting what they want and you're getting an immediate sign-off on the read (assuming everything records OK!).
_________________
Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[captain54]

[heyguido]

Well played, sir. Brilliant execution. Prescient planning. You must be a dream to work with. You, sir, are a prince among VO's.

I do not say this lightly.

You have, from a borrowed space, created a legitimate recording environment.
You have mastered technologies both advanced and arcane, to deliver your work product, both live and finished, to your clients. You've taken care to prepare for each job, and to provide for the needs of both your client and yourself. You've learned to organize your workflow, and become comfortable with it. .

You listen to your clients, and strive to deliver. And you do.

I'm really proud to know you. Good on ya.
_________________
Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"

[Bish]

Basically, we broke it down into sections. I read until they called a halt. Then I'd usually get something like "can we go back and do the middle paragraph again", I'd re-do the middle, and when done and approved, clearly state "so we keep paras 1 & 3 from take 1, and drop-in the last take of para 2".

That was a simple example (sometimes it was going back and redoing a sentence), and it looks far more complicated written out than it actually is. It's just recording everything and making audio notes for yourself as you go (because you're not recording theirs). If you're working in a strictly linear fashion (do each para until they're happy) then there's no issue... it's just the last take... but when are clients that obliging, eh?

My "click codes" tell me a lot. A single click is a simple fluff or misread that I pick up myself as I go. Two clicks signify a verbal editing note... and a whole mess of clicks means everything in that section up to that point has been deemed a pile of poo and I'm restarting.
_________________
Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[Bish]

[heyguido]

Screw the charm. It's the rest I'm impressed with.
_________________
Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"

[Jen Gosnell]

Thanks for posting that, Peter - I have wondered how I would structure such a thing, and it's helpful to see your process outlined. I keep intending to pick up a dog clicker - may just have to go hit Amazon right now while the reminder is fresh!
_________________
jen@jengosnell.com
https://www.jengosnell.com
Skype: jen.gosnell
971.258.2448

[heyguido]

Pick one up in the checkout line at your local petsmart or petco. Less than a buck and worth it's weight in gold.
_________________
Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"

[Jen Gosnell]

Haha - the number of times I would find (or remember to put) myself in a pet store is exactly zero at this point. Online shopping is the blessing on overworked moms everywhere! A bit of extra fee for delivery convenience and just getting it DONE is well worth it.

So, yeah - it'll be here on Wednesday.
_________________
jen@jengosnell.com
https://www.jengosnell.com
Skype: jen.gosnell
971.258.2448

[Lee Gordon]

[Bob Stevens]

Those clickers work great for getting the servers attention for a drink at the Vegas blackjack tables!
_________________
"Dialog is the painting on a canvas of silence"