Voice over in VS9

Alan303 · Post by **Alan303** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 7:37 am

Guys,
When recording voice over in VS9 I can not listen to the video at the same time (Full duplex) my soundcard is full duplex and all settings seem to be as they should be. Is this a "feature" of VS9?

Is it possible to listen to the video whilst recording a voice over (seperate headphones and mic) if so how.

Any help will be greatly appreiciated.
I can of course take the video file to another app (sound forge ect) to do the voice over but would prefer to stay in the same app (VS9) if possible.

Take care

Alan.

rguthrie · Post by **rguthrie** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 11:00 am

Alan,

I just gave voiceover a try on my system and I couldn't hear the video track either. I guess you're choices are:

1. Develop some visual cues for your voiceover.

2. As you said export the video audio to an external editor and record the voiceover there. BTW, have you heard of Audacity? It's a great freeware audio app that I use quite often. It's at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/.

Ron G.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 11:35 am

I personally go through my video, with Word for Windows in the background. Whenever I get to a point where I want to do a voiceover, I write the script on Word, with a number. I do this for the entire video. Then I use the final script, recording the individual voiceovers on Nero Wave Editor (just happens to be the one I use), save them as .wav files, and then go back through the video, inserting them at the relevant place in place 1, 2 , 3 etc. And of course you can then use the rubber bands to adjust the original audio and the background music, if you have inserted the latter as well, so that the overall balance works. While it is at one remove from a 'live' recording, at least the written script avoids tongue-tied repeats!!

rguthrie · Post by **rguthrie** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 11:47 am

Ken,

As always, some excellent ideas!

I think it would be good to also do a practice run with the video. For example let's say that you want to put in a voiceover from point A to point B. Using Ken's advice develop some script, then go into VS and do a "dry run" with the video. Heck I'd even say record it ('cause you can always delete it) and listen to it. Are you trying to put too much information in? Are you speaking too fast? Sure, you may understand it clearly, but the listener who hasn't seen the video yet needs time to absorb what you're saying. A voiceover should have impact and the viewer shouldn't have to go, "Huh? What did he say?" and rewind the movie. Listen to any documentary and you'll get the point.

my .02,
Ron G.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 11:59 am

Thanks Ron. Good points. And in point of fact, I think it an excellent idea to keep any voiceovers relatively brief and very much to the point. If you have a lot to say at one particular point, it is often better to make 2 or 3 voiceovers. That way, you only have to re-do one (relatively) small bit at a time, rather than the whole lot if you make an error towards the end of a particularly lengthy intervention which otherwise has gone quite well!!!

petrea · Post by **petrea** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 5:55 pm

I just completed a project with music & voice over.
I completed a first run dvd - then ran it with no music & recorded the voice over as the individual watched the show. Then loaded - deleted video & kept the audio.
It was really effective. It does however, take two DVD's one for basic
and final for combination of voice-over.
Petrea

rguthrie · Post by **rguthrie** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:50 pm

petrea,

When I said

Heck I'd even say record it ('cause you can always delete it) and listen to it.

I didn't mean actually "record" a DVD, I simply meant record a voice-over track. You could then preview the project and get a feel of the results before buring your project to DVD.

Happy New Year!
Ron G.

Alan303 · Post by **Alan303** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 3:23 am

Firstly guys, HAPPY NEW YEAR (07:21am GMT + 4 Dubai)
But mostly thanks for the responce and ideas.
Its just a relief to know that its a querk of VS9 rather than something wrong with the system.

I'm going to give it a whirl in another app (Sound Forge) and see where we go from there. I need the live feel for the recording (long story). I will off course script the vocals but the "feel factor" is important.

It is such a shame to have such a basic and obvious weakness it what is otherwise a very solid app.

Take care,

Alan.

rguthrie · Post by **rguthrie** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 10:52 am

Alan303,

I'm taking a guess, but Ulead probably had to choose a balance of most users being able to use VS9 versus features. I'm figuring recording live, playing back video (which could be a 4GB or greater file), and playing back audio would probably be too much for the "average" machine. But that's just a guess.

SoundForge! I'm drooling. That's a heavyweight program. Do you do multi-track recording?

Happy New Year!
Ron G.

Alan303 · Post by **Alan303** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 6:10 pm

rguthrie,
Yep, I did and still do when I can find the time.
I grew up (so to speak) on the early versions of Cakewalk and Cool Edit.
I think I started on CW 4 or 5.
I currently use Sound Forge 8 (the Sony version) it aint cheap but then again it aint garbage either.
I like its precision and detail, yet its very user friendly.

Whoooo, nearly forgot stop the press.
I'm having major probs with the flash animation in VS9.
Basically you drag it into place hit play and "CRASH'.
You got any ideas on that?
I can live without it, but it looks like a nice toy to play around with if it would work.

Take care and thanks again for the help.

Alan.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 4:58 am

Alan,

This is precisely why you want to record the video in DV Type2.
You can load the DV video into Soundforge or Sonar and create
as many audio tracks as you want to (really no limit) Full Duplex Audio,
panning, effects etc.
Then export the video as DV Type 2 and load into VS9.

If your videos are in mpeg format possible you can use ES (Elementary Streams which is separate video and audio streams). Soundforge may support that.
Everything on that order that I do is DV Type2 because DV is exact frame by frame editing.
The possibilities are limitless on the audio end. Over 256 audio tracks at full duplex.

I can work with Mpeg's in Sonar but prefer DV Type 2.

Maybe you should take a look at Ulead's Media_Studio_Pro 8.

Hope this helps,

MD