VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[robert jadah]

Seven years I've worked with ProTools, yet a client has me stumped.
He's ordered forty-four separate audio files. They are, of course, superbly voiced and recorded.

But he wants them burnable to a CD, with built-in separations so that he can jog forwards and backwards at will.
I've diligently pretended to read through the manual, but can find no reference to this little secret. I'm also very dense on Monday mornings.
I'm hoping that there's a simpler way than bouncing each individual file to disk and then using Media Player for the burn.

Surely there's a way to lay separators on to my master track.
One genuine Jadah maple syrup sample goes to the guru who can guide me.

[Deirdre]

You can do the "export regions as. . ." command from the bin. Or whatever the heck it's called.

Can I call you? It's easier to talk thru it.
_________________
DBCooperVO.com

[robert jadah]

Yup.
Please do.
Otherwise, I'm consigned to housework.
450-2473242.
(I hope you speak Layman, though. Czarina. Even the "Export Region as..." reference caused mild chest pains.)

Thanks.

[Edo]

Hopefully I interpreted your question right as English can still be somewhat confusing for me at times... sorry if I misunderstood you.

Why don't you make a large 'masterfile' in your session and separate into new regions by highlighted the wanted section, then separate with [control + E] or [command + E] on the Mac until you have the 44 regions.

Then highlight each region, 'export regions as audio files' [control + SHIFT + K] / [Command + SHIFT+ K]. You would have to do this 44 times... Remember that if this is an end user's cd, you need to do your final processing on that file before exporting, as you're not bouncing/mastering but merely quick saving the file as-is elsewhere. Also (too keep it handy) rename all newly created regions so you'd know what they stand for. Heck, you could even number them 1 through 44 for ease of use.

Then burn al 44 audio tracks onto a cd making sure that the auto pause option in your burner software is disabled. It's called a number of things depending on the burning software you use, but it needs to be a continuous file to listen to, without the audio muting in between tracks.

If you'd play the cd in a cd-player it will sound as one big piece of audio, but it will mean there's 44 different tracks to choose from and to skip to.

Good luck!

[georgethetech]

What Edo said is correct, but you DON'T have to do this 44 times.
Just separate the regions, then highlight all of the desired regions while holding the Apple key (or is it Shift), then Command-K (Export Regions as Files) and they'll get exported all at the same time to the desired folder.
Then, just drag the folder into a new playlist in iTunes and burn that to CD.
Or, use your CD burning application of choice.
_________________
If it sounds good, it is good.
George Whittam
GeorgeThe.Tech
424-226-8528
VOBS.TV Co-host
TheProAudioSuite.com Co-host
TriBooth.com Co-founder

[Edo]

Yep, I stand corrected...

[Deirdre]

We took care of it this morning. I get a session going, and walked Robert thru it.

yay!
_________________
DBCooperVO.com

[jasbart]

That's a great shortcut. I have a narration client who requires each sentence to be it's own mp3 file. I've always named them manually, ie SwagShop 01, SwagShop 02, etc. Do you have any tips for automatically naming the files sequentially?

Thanks, Jim
_________________
Jim Barton
Barton Voice & Sound
www.bartonvoice.com

[Lizden]

I've used this free little renaming tool when I have a bunch of files to rename & am not using VoxStudio

http://www.fauland.com/af5.htm

L.
_________________
Liz de Nesnera O.A.V. ~ Livin' The VO Dream!
English/French Bilingual VO w/ ISDN
HireLiz.com / liz@hireliz.com

[bobsouer]

Liz,

Thank you for that. But, Jim as you probably know, when you split regions in Pro Tools the regions take on a name derived from the track name. So, in your example, if you named your track SwagShop, each segment you split from it would become something like SwagShop_01-01, etc. I'm not sure if that kind of naming will help you all that much, but it might.
_________________
Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
ISDN, Source Connect, phone patch

[robert jadah]

I am utterly grateful for the help.
That DB would even take the time to call this morning and be my Sherpa guide is a huge testimony to the camaraderie of this business and forum.

After wrestling with it for most of the day, I have got to believe that there's an easier solution.

I mean, if a musician is finally putting out his album containing 14 tracks - each with various plug-ins and tweakings and hopelessly tired choruses about the girl who left him in 1989 - does he really have to bounce and register them individually? And then plod on to another program.

It seems to me that software as advanced as ProTools would permit one collective Bounce to Disk with markers between songs, no?

[bobsouer]

Robert,

No.
_________________
Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
ISDN, Source Connect, phone patch

[Edo]

Robert,

Cutting an album (preparing to technically put a record out) is a pretty complicated process. As I've been involved in releasing several records over the years I'd like to run you through some aspects of the process. BTW it is by far the least understood part of making a record.

So you've recorded your songs and the mixing process is done. I assume it is done the proper way... there are some bad mixes out there. After you decide the mix was done to satisfaction, that's where the real magic comes in... to master the songs. Be careful, mixing is not the same as mastering. The mastering engineer will be busy with the hard job to make the album's overall sound, the order of the songs/sequence, making sure everything has professional sounding audio quality and applying his/her art as far as EQ'ing, compressing and carefully managing song breaks are concerned. In other words... major tweak city.

It would be safe to say that out of every 5000 experienced sound engineers you'd find only one or two that really have the skills and ears to master a record. It takes forever to get to know the process. Furthermore it is wise to use a mastering engineer with 'fresh ears'... meaning he or she probably wasn't involved or emotionally attached to the things that happened during the recording process and has therefore the best position to objectively judge the contents of an album ready for mastering.

That's why it is often done at another studio from where the original songs were recorded. There are specific mastering suites, where you couldn't even record. The perfect mastering facility would be a dedicated control room only, where the listening environment plus probably very expensive tools are present. The experienced mastering engineer does his job at very low volumes. A song tends to sound better when played loudly (it's the way our ears react to sound pressure) but a truly great mastered song will sound awesome at any volume. It also helps you prevent damage to your ears.

Each song has its own atmosphere, so you need to match the songs with EQ and compression, so that your audience doesn't have to adjust bass and treble all the time or even worse... adjusting the volume all the time when they listen to your songs at home or via the car stereo. Even when a ballad sits in between two rock tracks on the same album, the perceived overall volume needs to be consistent. This is a careful and very difficult process as it involves personal taste as well as complicated tricks. It is often very hard to achieve loudness perception without actually making it louder. And while were on th e subject...

The final decision is whether the album is being cut for broadcast purposes (hit records) or for home use. The latter allowing more of a 'hi-fi' experience with wide dynamics and careful enhancement of the particular instruments, whereas the hit record mainly needs to be "ALAP"... as loud as possible. The loudness wars in radio broadcasting put a new perspective on mastering songs as sound quality is no longer the first concern... being the loudest is, even if that involves clipping the sound (adding distortion) in certain frequency ranges in order to make the programming sound aggressive.

Oops... there goes the neighbourhood of you carefully putting the album together and making sure every instrument or vocal is carefully tweaked to perfection. Your song will sound considerably different on the air, and maybe not to your liking at all... frustrating isn't it? Then again... getting the exposure sells the album, so that's the compromise of hearing the song sound different than the way it was intended to sound.

[robert jadah]

Not only is this place more understandable than my mammoth PT manual, it is far more entertaining.
Thanks again for the time-saving tips and suggestions.

I'll soon be mailing the Czarina her coveted Maple Syrup Thank You. Due to postal rates and my own laziness, the others (Bob, Edo, Jim et al) will just have to drop in and pick theirs up.

[jasbart]