VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[KarenL]

Hello, oh Talented and Experienced Ones...
Do you know of a way to have a specific amount of silence inserted between each of a zillion little wav files automatically?
I use Sony Vegas software to edit audio...
Any advice in one- or two-syllable words is appreciated - as soon as possible!
Thank you!!!!!
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[todd ellis]

don't know about vegas - but - in adobe audition you can, very simply, create a script to add silence to the front/back of the file - highlight all the files you want to apply the script to and click "go". ta-da.

i know --- no help!
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[Eddie Eagle]

Do you also have Sound Forge? It has an Insert Silence tool in the Process tab that you can add a custom amount of silence before and after each clip.

[KarenL]

Thanks you guys -
I am working with the "insert time" thingy, but that seems to be different than insert silence.

The really tricky part today is about trying to insert time to the day so that I can devote some time to finding a solution! Any ideas about how to do THAT?!?!??!?



I think my next step is getting Sound Forge added to my repertoire - too many things come up that I could probably solve with that. Can I just layer that on to the Vegas program that I have? (seems like it was part of the Vegas system I learned on...I could "open a copy in Sound Forge", work on it there, and render or save what I did...)

*edited to try and be more clear!
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[jsgilbert]

This isn't any sort of automated function for specifically doing what you want to do in Sound Forge.

Insert silence simply puts a pre-defined amount of silence at your choice of 1 of 3 locations; the cursor, beginning of file or end of file. This silence is added to whatever existing silence is there.

If you already have a bunch of named files, you could achieve unifomr silence at the front and back of the files (heads and tails as it is routinely called) in Sound Forge by using a batch process to trim whatever existing silence there may be from the front and back of the file using the trim command, then select whatever amount of silence you want to add to the front and set the add silence as a batch process, then also do the add silence for the back of the file and batch process.

If you have one long wav file, you can break it up by creating regions, and then use a similar process to obtain uniform amounts of silence.

I have at one time or another used all of the major sound and editing software suites. There are certainly many things I might recommend ProTools or Logic for, however I do believe that for voiceover the two best choices come down to Sound Forge and Audition.

Just my opinion.
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[Eddie Eagle]

Yes Sound Forge can be assigned as to Vegas as the Audio Editor.
You can use the open the audio in the editor function and Sound Forge will open automatically with the clip.

[ConnieTerwilliger]

Do they ultimately want the files as separate files Karen? If so, is there some bit of silence between each "word" or "Phrase" right now?

If that is the case, then you could use Vox Studio to split the file into individual files - and then go in on a second pass and add a specific amount of silence to the beginning and end.
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[KarenL]

They want one long wav file with less than a second of total silence between each word (not individual files).
I need to find a way to do this as expeditiously as possible, and it seems that no matter what, it could be very time consuming.

I think I have the info I need now - thank you again for your advice and input!


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[jsgilbert]

I just did what you need to do. I had one long file with varying lengths of space between words. I wnet in and used Trim/crop and was able to get the silence between words to become uniform throughout. It tends not to sound very natural though, but I'm not sure if that is the goal. You can help it a little bit by setting faders, etc. but...

There is a free trial version of SOund Forge 10 at the sony website. I am not sure if this feature is available or if there are any kinds of limitations, but it might be a good place to start.
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[captain54]

[jsgilbert]

I started oout editing with a razor blade and tape and moved into S.A.W., SADIE and several others. Prior to that I had a digital 4 track recorder/ editor. I the moved on to Logic and tried to stay with it, but they screwed too much with the interface for my liking.. I've used Audacity and certainly have no problems recommending that in certain circumstances. I have used ProTools and can see numerous applications for ProTools. In some cases, a single pulg-in may warrant the purchase and use of ProTools.

I've had a chance to play with some of the proprietary software at Sony - not much but a little. And I had the proiveledge of working on early audio codecs with some of the devlopment team at Atari, where different programs and tools were introduced on a regular basis. Sorry that I have long forgotten the names of most of this stuff.

I have a friend who uses Ubuntu studio spend some time with me,as I learned a little about it. And as a writer, who had reviewed lots of products designed for gaming, production and such, I have had the opportunity to beta test or otherwise be exposed to many different products.

As for the second part of your question, you are assuming I prefer SF to Audition. I actually never say that. I did mention a solution for this posters problem that I know will work. I was able to go in and set up a similar scenario and handle it with Sound Forge.

I do not prefer Sound Forge to Audition. Sound Forge is the piece of recording/ editing software I have used the longest and have logged the most hours with. I am most comfortable with it. Since I assumemost users looking for opinions will be starting at groound zero, this is not criteria for recommending one over the other.

If I had the time, need or inclination, I might play around more with Audition. It is here primarily because another editor is more comfortale with it. since his highest level of productivity and accuracy is with audition, I wouldn 't ask him to have to learn Sound Forge.

It is as simple as that.

As for my statement about saying that I think Sound Forge and Audition would be the best choices from the spectrum of available software, it comes from my experience, the experiences of other voice talent and somewhat of an understanding of what voice talent may be called upon to do.

I should mention that if someone is doing a lot of e-learning or certain work, they may wish to consider Word2Wav.

I do try to keep an open mind and will be spending full days at AES and attending a number of the workshops. I also read many of the trade publications and routinely interact with audio engineers and production people. I am also fairly aligned with a couple of audio engineering schools and other educational programs. Matt Donner, who wrote the book on ProTools is a friend. I regularly communicate with Scott Garrigus and also have friends who have contributed to books on Garage Band, Acid, Logic and others. I am always learning and also relaize that it's different strokes for different folks, in partricular those who may have a different operating system besides Windows. Even now, one someties differentiates software based on whether the user has Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7. Now with 64 bit versions of some programs emerfging, that can also figure into the decision making process.

The smartest thing I do is surround myself with people who are smarter than I am and continue to stay as up on things as I can. My tossed out comment was my compendium of those experiences and opinions. Sorry, I should not have made offhanded blanket statements without at least some form of explanation.
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[captain54]

I think ultimately the most effective software a for VO is one that allows more right brain than left brain. Of course, everyone has there limits as far as apptitude and grasp. I just want to hit one of two keys or click once or twice and start recording. Now editing, that's a different matter.

the advantage to Sound Forge, being a non multi-track program, is there's less stuff to futz around with. Audition is a great editor, but for basic recording I find myself clicking too much and navigating thru too many windows and menus. Audition 1.5 seems more basic in that respect

for all the ProTools bashing that happens in the VO community, I still find PT very easy to work with once you have your initial template setup. You never really have to leave one window while tracking, including having everything you've recording in your session only one click away to your left, in the region list.