Sony Vegas...voice over...

[Libby]

I am still fooling around with this editing tool....

I was trying to delete the sound in the footage I had put together...and dub it over with my voice in a documentary style.
I followed the instructions as per the Help Me...and it guides me along fine...

However

The footage I have is about two minuets long with about seven or so clips. When I record my voice (using a cheap mic) I am only able to cover the first clip..but not the rest of the clips.
So there are about seven clips edited together, but my voice over only seems to record the very first clip which is only a few seconds long...then nothing.
I cannot find anything on Vegas that would explain that.

Anyone know?

Thanks.


Actually what it allows me to do is record my voice over the credit roll and then my first clip...then nothing. I still have it on record and its showing it is recording but nothing. When I put the sound up, I hear my voice for the credit roll and the first few seconds clip...then it goes back to the original sound that was recorded when I was filming.

 

[Smurfy8797]

render the video first without the voicover. then record the audio on normal windows sound recorder or audacity or something whilst watching the rendered video and then just open up the project again and add in the voice track you just recorded on a new audio track

and if you dont want the original audio just cut it out. and replace it with the one you newly recorded

 

[Libby]

Okay. Once I did find an icon for a mic and recorded for the heck of it but now cannot locate it...

I did right click on the horn icon on the bottom right which led me to set up something to use a mic...somehow I am sure this not what you meant or what I had used before.

So how would I find this?

In the meantime, what I am allowed to do is only record each frame at a time. I hve to pause the play button, drag and highlight the next frame then continue recording...it works but is a pita.

 

[Uranium City]

Try inserting a new audio track, selecting that, and then recording. You are probably just recording over an already exisiting audio track that is tied to a video track, so it will have a set length. You need to add a new audio track to your project and record the VO in that.

 

[Smurfy8797]

^^^ +1 i didnt understand. sorry. if your trying to voice over the original audio clips and its in bits then it will stop at each clip because if you click on a clip, causing it to highlight then vegas thinks you only wan tto make changes to that particular part. so just do it in a new audio track and cut out the original audio u dont want

 

[Libby]

Okay. I am going to have to continue to fool around with it...
when its highlighted its in purple and it seems to only highlight each clip at a time. Maybe I have to move the mouse around until the whole strip of footage is highlighted.

 

[Libby]

Also on this subject sort of ...

I bought a cheap mic for under ten bucks which is probably a reason why there is an annoying 'far away' sound when I voice over.
I sound like I am in a room recording over a video clip...I don't know if echo is the right word to use to describe it but it doesn't sound right.

Aside from investing in a better quality mic, what can I do to make it sound less cheap? Or is it all in the mic?

I do hold the mic up close to my mouth.
No other noise in the room.

...and even when I add soft music in the background, it still sounds like it doesn't belong.

 

[Uranium City]

Do you have any audio tracks in your project you are not using? Sometimes Vegas will put generic labels on them like "Music" or "Sound Effects." Look in your timeline under the video and audio tracks. If you do, then click the red button on that audio track which will "arm" the track for recording. You can then hit "record" on the bottom of your project and it will playback, allowing you to record live.

If you don't have any extra audio tracks, you need to click "Insert" and then select "Audio Track." This will add an additional empty audio track to your project, under your existing audio and video tracks.

 

[Uranium City]

Aside from investing in a better quality mic, what can I do to make it sound less cheap? Or is it all in the mic?

Most of it is probably the mic, but you can add a bunch of track FX that are native to Vegas like reverb, EQ, etc. Just click the little green button the track, add whatever you want, and experiment away. Move the mic away, speak loudly without clipping the track, and add some bass to the EQ and maybe some slight reverb.

 

[Buddy Greenfield]

I don’t have Vegas and not sure which version you have or if you tried what Uranium and Smurfy are suggesting (Right click on timeline list > Insert audio track OR Insert > Insert audio track) to add a 3rd track to the project (beneath and separate from the video track and it’s audio track) and record your voice over on that 3rd track, but it sounds like maybe that is what the issue is. It’s not the same scenario as you are trying, but maybe at 0:50 of this tutorial will help.

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-add-additional-audio-tracks-sony-vegas-7-153648/

EDIT: Ooops didn't see the additional posts, sorry.


-Thanks-

 

[Libby]

I forgot about the little green button...I keep going back to the instrutions of this system...trying something...getting caught up in something and forgetting about the other stuff...
thanks.

I did add another audio track...I will try it later tonight when I have more time.

In the meantime I think the mic kind of stinks. I added background music...kept the original sound low on the original tracks (water flowing) and spoke and it sounded aweful, annoying.
I sound like one of those annoying dj's that interupt a song before its done...I sound like I am interupting something nice...I want it to sound like I was speaking at the time I was filming without sounding terrible.

Trial and error.

 

[Alcove Audio]

You bought a mic for $10 and are getting the sonic results of buying a $10 mic.

I'm painfully aware that 99.99% of indie filmmakers don't have the budget for the kinds of gear that I use, but there comes a point where you have to spend a reasonable amount of money to achieve the results that you want.

A company called Blue has put out some okay low budget USB mics in the $75 to $200 range. The "Snowball" USB mic is quite popular (about $130 with stand, pop screen & shock mount). It will do a passable job at VO and ADR work although the ADR will have that "studio" sound until you EQ, add reverb, Foley, ambience, etc.

There is also controlling the technology - gain-staging, etc, - and mic technique - that is getting the talent (yourself in this case) the proper distance from the mic, controlling voice pops ("P"s and "B"s) & sibilance ("sssssss") and breath control.

All of this is needed to record passable sounding audio. Otherwise, no matter how many ITB tools you have - EQ, reverb, compression and the like - you will end up polishing a turd. The old computer admonition from the '80's still applies; "Garbage in/garbage out."

 

[Libby]

For now I am going to fool around with this cheap mic...as you wrote, all the money invested in the world will mean nothing if I (the talent) sound like crap.

I like Morgan Freemans voice in vo. I will have to use him as my lead. His voice is friendly, knowledgable without the boring. He pauses at the right place without sounding out of breath nor sounding as though he were reading from a q card.
I also like Bruce Brown. His voice has a sense of humor to it and makes it all interesting, even if you are not into surfing at all.

 

[Libby]

Okay, I tried it again and get what you wrote...First, I do need a better, much better mic. I never thought of the breath part when recording believe it or not. So I would need a better mic with a stand because I cannot sit here and hold the mic so many inches from my mouth forever long it takes. My hand might get tired and move further away and thus the vo sounds different.

I am still at a loss as to how to solve this issue with vo without having to pause the record and move the cursor over to the next piece of footage, highlight it and then press record to continue. I want to be able to record a whole event without the need to keep doing this. It seems it only recognizes each piece of footage as an individual and not a group put together to make something.

I have Windows vista...and I know it was suggested to locate the mic icon then record on that while watching the video and then add it afterwards. what I did do was right click the sound icon which gave me choices, one of which was using a mic...I highlited it - but that doesn't help.

Sometime ago I was fooling around here and found a mic icon and recorded my voice without the need for a mic and play it back...seriously, I cannot find it now. I am not sure if I am going crazy and cannot find it or it is as simple as right clicking the 'horn' sound icon.

If any of this makes sense.

 

[Libby]

Me again. Okay I tested this thing with and without the mic and to be frank, the mic is hardly much different than using the computor mic. The only noticable difference is when I hold the mic up to my mouth...otherwise there is very little difference. In fact, I might even say the computor mic is a bit better because it doesn't sound as echoy.

What are some really good mic's for this? If I were to look for something in the near future?
What would I be looking for?


(I will tell you what my goal is here...the local tv station is looking for stuff to air...about local stuff. Local meaning, between this and two other towns so its real local. Although I am not 100% I would do a vo, it was something I was thinking about. Right now I am just fooling around with the footage I have for the sole purpose of practicing. The local station may and probably do have mics to loan out - not sure. They have loaned me a small cheap camera. So it was something I was considering BUT despite the fact its for local tv I don't want it to sound like it was filmed for local tv.)

 

[Uranium City]

If I have a chance tonight I'll take some screengrabs of what you need to do. It's hard to describe without being able to point you physically in the right direction.

 

[Smurfy8797]

you could try grouping the footage - just highlight it all > right click > group > New.

see if that helps?

 

[Libby]

If I have a chance tonight I'll take some screengrabs of what you need to do. It's hard to describe without being able to point you physically in the right direction.

Thanks.
I keep fooling around with this thing...its actually quite fun when you start to get the jist of it...still..lot of work putting things together to make sense.

 

[Libby]

you could try grouping the footage - just highlight it all > right click > group > New.

see if that helps?

Nope. Just tried it. It only lets me highlight one at a time. When I right click it will only highlight that footage the cursor is on. Even so, I hit group (it did not let me choose new because it wasn't highlighted) I clicked on 'select all' and another time 'copy all' and nothing. It still only lets me highlight/record one footage at a time. So I have to record. Pause. Hit 'done'. Highlight next frame and record that next frame until that one ends. I have to do that for each frame.


Frame is not the correct word is it? Footage? Frame? I am thinking frame as in a photograph but you know what I mean.

 

[Alcove Audio]

What are some really good mic's for this? If I were to look for something in the near future?
What would I be looking for?

From my previous post...

A company called Blue has put out some okay low budget USB mics in the $75 to $200 range. The "Snowball" USB mic is quite popular (about $130 with stand, pop screen & shock mount). It will do a passable job at VO and ADR work although the ADR will have that "studio" sound until you EQ, add reverb, Foley, ambience, etc.

If you have a decent mic pre the Rode NT1-A ($230) and the Audio-Technica AT2020 ($100) are popular low budget large diaphragm mics.

BTW, the two mics I use for VO the most are the Neumann TLM-103 and the AKG 414-BUL/s (both about $1k). The Sennheiser MKH-416 short shotgun ($1k) and the venerable Neumann U87 (about $3k) are very popular with the big audio post houses.

For breath problems you need to learn phrasing and to breath correctly. It's very much like singing, and many VO artists have taken singing lessons or have vocal coaches. Take full breaths (but don't overfill), inhale through your nose and mouth - you fill up faster and reduce inhale sounds - and push from the diaphragm. Don't speak directly into the front of the mic, be slightly off access. Getting really close in to a good medium or large diaphragm mic will give you that big beefy voice due to the proximity effect. The day before the VO session stay away from dairy (phlegm), coffee and sodas (dry mouth = clicks and pops), rinse your mouth with water with just a dash of lemon juice, drink room temperature water (cold water constricts your vocal chords), do some stretching (joint pops), and make sure that you've had something to eat (stomach rumbles).