VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[tonyyoungblood]

Greetings all. This is my first post here.

My current audio book editing software is Wavelab 8. The program is effective and powerful, but it's also wonky and fraught with bugs and idiosyncrasies. In short, I am looking to jump ship.

The problem I am encountering is that other waveform editors seem to lack one indispensable feature: the ability to highlight a breath or pause, hit a single keystroke, and replace that breath or pause with the same length of room tone. Wavelab has this feature in "Insert Silence (Advanced)." Instead of true silence, this feature allows you to specify a room tone audio file. You can also create additional shortcuts to insert specific lengths of the room tone file. I also have shortcuts created to insert .5 seconds, 2.5 seconds, and 3.5 seconds of room tone for chapter starts, ends, etc.

Thus far in my research, I have not been able to confirm Sound Forge, Audition, or any other waveform editor having this ability. I find this odd because every other method for replacing breaths with room tone is awkward and time consuming,

So my question is this: does anyone know of another program (for a PC, not Mac) that has this feature? It has to be as simple as highlighting a region and hitting a single keystroke or else I'm sticking with Wavelab 8.

Thanks for your time.

[melissa eX]

Maybe someone who knows how to do it can write a script? Sound Forge has an overwrite function which is available in the right click menu. I usually copy a piece of room-tone the length of which I would most use and just highlight the breath and R-click and hit overwrite. It's a couple of steps but I would love it if someone could write a script for that.

Hey someone managed to write a script allowing punch and roll in SF so why can't this be done?

[vkuehn]

Tony: that indeed is a great feature.

I sometimes do as Melissa wrote: during a clean-up edit I will keep a bit of room-tone on the clipboard in a length equal to my typical pauses. Highlight, delete, paste. Sometimes take a little out as a second step if the original paulse was shorter.

Do you use the full-blown Wavelab or the Elements? Do you know if Elements version has that feature?

[Jason Huggins]

I use Adobe Audition CS6, and it is super easy to copy a chunk of silence, and create a temporary file. Then I cut it down so I have the lengths I need. Then I just pop into the file and use a macro on my Nostromo Razer (I have macros set up to select all and copy with one press). Then just highlight and paste. For me, it's super easy for what you're talking about. But you're right, there is no way to just highlight and replace with room tone other than copy and paste...but it really doesn't take any extra time to just copy a chunk of room tone IMO.

[Jeffrey Kafer]

yeah, not sure the EXACT feature i cloned in other programs, but I've never had a problem just keeping a half second of room tone in my clipboard at all time and just pasting where I need it.

Granted, I don't often remove breaths....
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Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

[bransom]

If you're a Mac user, Twisted Wave has a "special paste" function where you can copy 10 secs or so of room tone to the clipboard. Then, when you need to use it, you highlight what you want replaced, hit Command-Y, and the section highlighted is overwritten with that much audio from the clipboard. No need to time-match the clipboard cut to the selection; the program does it for you.

Makes for very fast noise or breath removal.
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Bob Ransom
"I really need a pithy quote here."

[Jason Huggins]

I remember some narrators doing a two track thing. One track is the narrated audio, while the other is just room tone (same length as your narration). Then, you can just cut hole's in the audio where you want the room tone, and it leaves the timing alone. Then bounce to a single track and master as usual.

[todd ellis]

i am in the kafer-kamp on this one. i've tried the jason-juxtaposition and found it to be a gothic PITA (jmo).
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[Jason Huggins]

Just as a clarification, I've never tried that method... I just remember someone talking about it in another thread a while back.

[todd ellis]

i got that --- but how many times do i get to use "jason-juxtaposition"?
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[Bruce]

I guess I'm just old fashioned. The way I narrate there are plenty of little snippets of usable room tone in the audio track I'm already editing so if I can't edit or cross-fade my way out of a problem I just copy a bit from nearby and drop it in. And if that's not easy enough I stop breathing for a second or two, record that little bit of dead air, and edit it in.

However, does it really matter when we have to gate the heck out of it for audiobooks? Yes, I have a pretty quiet recording space, but I never ever hear "room tone" of any kind in between my spoken words in a mastered audiobook.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[vkuehn]

We some times end up with two masters who think they own our work.

When you work with authors at ACX for example, some of them have "tin ears" but some of them are super, super hearing sensitive. We first have to please them.

Then comes what is the great unknown for many of us because having oodlles and gobs of people recording in their own studios in large numbers is maybe new to the industry. So our second master is the editor at the publishing company who has a whole different view of the world than does the author.

So we make it very "nicey" and quality for the author... and feel a bit cheated when a friend buys the "book" and says: "I've heard some of your stuff. You can record better than THAT!"

[cyclometh]

[Jason Huggins]

There it is! Do you ever have issues with DC offset clicks? Or do you just snap to zero crossings or something similar?

[Jason Huggins]