VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Frank F]

That was the idea.... Only you caught it.

Now THIMK.

F2
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Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com

[Mike Harrison]

Thanks, everyone, for the input thus far.

– Kevin Genus' suggestion to have someone else edit is now high on my list.
– Bish's suggestion of first removing all bad takes by editing backwards to find the last/best take is simply GRAND. That cuts a lot of time out right off the bat. Thank you, Bish!

To clarify a bit, it's not actually performing edits or doing any processing I'm concerned with. It's because, as I said earlier, that others have told me I hear things that most others don't, there's a good chance I'm spending too much time addressing those issues. So, saving time was my main concern.

I'll date myself by saying I began with recording tape and razor blades in 1968 (at home). Since then, I've also developed a very (perhaps overly) critical ear, so I'm quite the master of seamless edits. (Natural speech is very much like music.)

Pickups, as pointed out by Dave, are often very noticeable because after having stopped to do the pickup, when we begin reading again, we've just taken a full, fresh breath, making our energy higher than it was when originally reading the passage we're replacing. There's a bit more velocity to the voice (and our pitch can also be slightly different) and it's noticeable. The way to make pickups seamless is to make the edit point not at the beginning of the pickup point, but several words after the pickup point, where our energy, pitch, etc. will have returned to normal.

Quite often, I'll find mistakes while editing; where the wrong word came out of my mouth or my inflection wasn't correct. Having a good ear allows me to listen to the original read, noting my tone (attitude), pace (speed), pitch, distance from the mic (which should always remain consistent), etc. Going back to the mic, I may record the entire sentence, but I'll replace ONLY what needs to be replaced, very often making edits WITHIN words. Mastering this comes very much in handy when we're asked to make changes to things recorded days, weeks, months or even years earlier… especially so if the voice is a little different; say, for example, we're a bit congested. Replacing only what's necessary is far less noticeable (if at all) than entire sentences or paragraphs.

The best edits are the ones nobody hears.

Keep the suggestions coming! This is a great exchange for everyone.

Many thanks!
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

[Rob Ellis]

It is both an art and a science.


One thing I have had to learn to do is not try to get every last barely audible mouth noise, and just get the ones that are clearly noticeable.

Also, (eureka!) as Frank said, the more error-free I can make my initial recording, the less editing I have to do.

[DenaliDave]

Mike -- I hear what you're saying about pickups...

The best way I've found is kind of what you're describing.

lets say I have one word that needs to be added or replaced due to bad pronunciation or whatever.

I'd record the entire sentence, not just the word. I may even record the sentence before and after the sentence with the mistake as well to keep the flow going.

Also, listen to the entire paragraph before you record your pick up. I'll listen to the sentence I need to replace a few times and read it aloud before hitting the record button a few times. Takes a few seconds, but it helps.

Some people struggle with voice consistency after stepping away and back to the microphone...this is especially true when doing character accents or voices that aren't your normal/casual reading voice.

So, in summary:

1. Record the ENTIRE sentence, or even the sentence before and after the sentence that contains the mistake.

2. "Practice" the line you're going to record by listening to the offending section of audio. Put your headphones on, hear it being read. Then, read into the mic without hitting record so you can hear yourself. Match inflection, speed, ect -- pretend you are doing an impression of yourself if you need to.


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"The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve." - Buddha
www.alaskamic.com

[Bish]

One comment about the DAW. I primarily use Adobe Audition... but for long-form (narration, elearning etc.) I use Twisted Wave for my first-pass.

While AA is a wonderful program and does almost everything I want (with the aid of a couple of plug-ins) but there is one major failing in my view. When it comes to doing drop-ins... it sucks. If you need to replace a single sentence in the middle of a 10 minute piece, you select your drop-in point and record... however the bugger overwrites the existing material for as long as you are recording... which is OK if you're a master with the mouse or keyboard (but still destructive of following material if you want to take a couple of runs at the fix... and even if you get it right first-time, the fact that you've got to get out of record mode quickly is an unwanted distraction). The only real solution is to have a whole bunch of room-tone in your clipboard and insert a section of it to give you workspace. Yes, I know that using AA in multi-track it the right way to go, but that adds an unwanted level of complexity to what should be a simple single-track recording process.

With Twisted Wave, you select your drop-in point, hit record and it inserts the new sequence, nicely pushing the other stuff along the timeline. Nothing destroyed. This feature alone is worth the price of admission in my opinion.

I am perfectly willing to be made to look like an idiot if someone tells me that I can switch AA from overwrite to insert mode for drop-ins. I've looked, but I can't find the option.
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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.

[DenaliDave]

Bish,

1. Record new, corrected drop in via a "New" with Twisted Wave

2. Open project that has the mistake in need of correction in Twisted Wave (now you have to TW windows open)

3. Use the cursor to highlight just the corrected the sentence, word, or paragraph you just recorded.

4. In the project that has the mistake in need of a drop-in, highlight the exact sentence, word, or paragraph in need of the drop-in.

5. Paste the new clip over the existing clip.

I wouldn't even bother with recording OVER something in TW when it's so easy to just paste something from a new document overtop. This way you preserve the pauses before and after as well (assuming you are tight on selecting JUST the audio on each end of the clip). Recording over something in an existing project that's perfectly fine seems like overkill and could cause a more issues than it solves.
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"The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve." - Buddha
www.alaskamic.com

[Lee Gordon]

[DenaliDave]

[Bish]

That's why I use Twisted Wave for that... it truly is a one-step process. Put the cursor in the right place and hit record. Opening up a new file, recording and cutting and pasting the drop-in actually seems like far more effort... and time. The only editing I have to do (after recording the fix once or multiple times) is to snip out the bad takes and everything is hunky-dory.
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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.

[paulstefano]

I do it like Bish too. Twisted wave makes it easy to pick the right spot, and move everything else down the line.

I'll second Dave's thoughts on recording a whole sentence. Also, it usually helps me to pick an edit spot at the beginning of the sentence. I can't match my voice word for word, from day to day, but if I hear the whole sentence and repeat it, (plus the mistake) then I can match pretty closely.

If you are using the dog clicker method, save yourself some trouble later, and only restart at the beginning of a sentence, or maybe after a long pause. Makes the edits sound more fluid later too.
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http://www.paulstefano.com

[Dayo]

[Philip Banks]

Stunt Editor is essential.

[Lance Blair]

With pickups I usually lower the volume (2-3dB) and elongate the time span (no more than 110%) of the first syllable slightly if it doesn't sound like a natural continuation and that often works like a charm.
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