In olden days — say, 5 years ago — home recording studios were not common among voiceover talent. Today, though, having your own recording studio has become a necessity to compete in this industry.
Recording yourself requires one skill set. Editing the recording requires another one.
I am meticulous about editing out undesirable sounds to provide a pristine recording to my clients. This :41 video shows you how to isolate and eliminate a click from your recording. I use Pro Tools LE, but this technique should work with any audio editing program.
Since editing is done in real time, you can just imagine the amount of time needed to edit your recording of a long video or e-learning narration, much less an audiobook! When quoting a price for a job, you always have to factor in the time required to edit the audio. In fact, the general rule of thumb that I use is to expect 2 hours of audio editing for every 1 hour of finished recording.
Was this video helpful to you? Are there other audio editing techniques that you would like to see? I look forward to your comments on the blog!
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Karen,
Thanks for sharing this video!
Fabulous job.
Best,
Lauren
Lauren, thanks so much for the kind words and retweeting my link on Twitter. I had fun making this video and look forward to making some more of them!
Karen
LOVE that you took the time to do this karen. you’re awesome!
Greetings, Hillary! I’m glad you liked this video. I’m planning another one to show how to smooth out a popped P in the wave form.
Thanks for stopping by the blog!
Karen
Hello, new to Blog.
Would like to learn VO for reading purposes. I volunteer at Tradtions (nursing, hospic, health rehab home)while seeking employment.
Are there classes under $99.
Kindest regards,
Greetings, Summer! I can’t answer your question. I suggest you do a Google search for classes in your area. Also, check out my recommended reading list at Amazon (the link is on my Advice page) or the coaches directory at Voices.com for more assistance.
Karen
Hi Karen. Thank you so much for sharing this! It’s such a little thing but to one who struggles with vocal noise in his voice-overs I greatly appreciated this! I’ve been in the Voice over industry for a year now and you’re right about the editing for sure. Your video here has helped me to isolate and understand what the vocal noise looks like and how to eliminate it. Thanks again!
Greetings, Greg! Thanks for the nice note. I’m so happy that you found the video to be helpful.
This video shows one technique to eliminate the noise. You also can reduce the gain on it or patch over it with room tone. I delete it if it’s a single up/down wave like I show in the video.
When you’re editing, it’s important to look at the pattern of the wave. Sometimes the wave pattern is a pattern of 2 or 3 humps on the same side of the horizontal axis. You have to get all of the ones in the pattern in order that you don’t hear a drop-out in sound.
Clicks often are not as dramatic as the one I showed in the video. The more you look at your audio, the more you’ll recognize the patterns and be able to isolate any unwanted sounds.
Of course, prevention is the best cure, so it’s good to stay hydrated, brush your teeth, and do other preparations before hitting the record button. Everybody seems to have their favorite routine.
Best wishes for your continued success!
Karen