The Magic Box – Using Stacks, Racks, and Macros in your Voiceover Recording Worfklow – Tuesday Tech Tip

Do you remember those cheesy old sci-fi movies and shows? I’m thinking of the ones which had the scene wherein “data” was fed into a monolithic computer. After the requisite whirring, tape movement, blinking lights and sound effects, an answer spat out of the device. The magic box – which could think much faster and more logically than us – received a query and delivered an answer. What happened under the hood remained a mystery. Whatever came out the other end via ticker tape or a “Bat Computer” answer card became Truth.

We often rely upon “magic box” processes in our studios. That’s not necessarily wrong or bad. I set up clients all the time with Twisted Wave Stacks, Adobe Audition Racks, or Audacity Macros. Those are built up to correct for imperfections in home recording spaces, or handle the repetitive tasks that often occur when getting work out the door on time. That type of automation pays for itself in time saved and audio reliably delivered. It’s well worth figuring out which steps get applied to the audio you deliver for narration, commercial, audiobook or other production and audition tasks. That’s why I recommend dialing in your space, then developing specific presets for different types of delivery specs. 

I do get slightly nervous when everything in the recording process falls under the cloak of a “magic box” process. This mostly occurs with more complicated programs, such as Pro Tools or one of the other multitrack DAW systems. A friend or engineer will set up a simplified template with a number of processes occurring out of sight. Those things can work flawlessly, and for many who are recording at home, the “one button” aspect of their use can be wonderful. 

One issue is that those DAW’s are fairly complex systems composed of a variety of parts from different sources. Just recently, I had a client whose Pro Tools template stopped working. We finally chased down the issue to a third party plug-in which hadn’t been updated. Once fixed, things worked again. However, it had not been immediately obvious what had caused everything to stop working.

Another issue is that most of the “magic box” processing assumes the input is consistent. A modified recording space or a microphone swap will likely demand a change in EQ or other processing. That’s why taking the time to dial in your space matters. Otherwise we get the audio equivalent of GIGO (Garbage in / Garbage Out). If everything changes each time you record, it needs to be fixed differently every one of those times. 

What’s interesting is that there are a few systems starting to show up which may be a bit smarter. Some of this is migrating over to voiceover from other disciplines. Waves Clarity Vx which may solve some significant environmental noise issues came from the Post-Production world. The Izotope Spire multitracking interface which came out a few years ago wasn’t terribly appropriate for VO applications, but did provide a very simple way for singer/songwriters to lay down multiple tracks. The more recent EVO series of interfaces from Audient have an excellent method for automatically setting levels for recording – a boon for those who want to simplify that task. I’ve also been investigating Hindenburg as a working environment. A few podcasting clients had been using it, and it may solve a number of things for audiobook narration as well.

The question will be how well these solutions perform under the pressures of deadlines and workflow requirements. That’s one of the reason I tend to prefer simpler systems. If something stops working, I like to be able to pull back to the manual steps I’ve automated. I’m always a bit careful with those systems that won’t work unless everything works. The above companies seem to get that idea. They all took a few steps back from the problem and came up with a solid approach. It will be interesting to see how approaches like this continue to develop.

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