Voiceover Studio How-To: Tricks of Insert Editing – Tuesday VO Tech Tip

We all make mistakes, right? OK, maybe a few of you are amazingly accurate cold readers with an uncanny ability to predict how phrases will resolve. However, even skilled voice actors are going to flub a word, or accidentally skip a phrase here and there.

We will need to fix things. Yet, many voice actors are thrown off by that step in the process. Anticipating that we will have to do some clean up lets us consider our tools and form a plan.

Last week I explored whether the recording software itself influences workflow in our home voiceover studios. Regarding efficient editing, a few people asked if I meant “punch-in” or “punch and roll” functionality.

Any VO-friendly recording application will let you punch in when initially recording. This can be helpful for maintaining the narrative flow in audiobook projects. Punch-in recording lets you hear a segment of the recorded audio right up until the time you start recording new material so that you can easily match tone and pacing.

The actual “editing” that I was referring to takes place later – for example, when you get corrections from your client or notice errors during a proofing pass. You already have a complete track, but need to put some corrected audio into the middle of it somewhere. You’ll either insert something that was missing, or replace something that was incorrect. It is a simple task, but one we’re going to be repeating frequently during our production process. Any small inefficiencies will be multiplied significantly.

Many voice actors I work with have only ever used a single recording app. Whether that’s Ocenaudio, Audacity, Audition, Pro Tools, Reaper, or Twisted Wave (or many of the others out there), the method learned feels “natural”  because of repetition. However, it might not be the most efficient approach.

A direct waveform editor like Twisted Wave, Adobe Audition, or Ocenaudio will allow you to choose a spot, press record, and “insert” the audio directly at that point. The existing audio to the right of the insert point is not destroyed. It simply repositions itself in the audio timeline until you stop recording. You end up with the entirety of what you recorded beforehand, plus the inserted audio placed where you wanted it. Delete the stuff you don’t want and you end up with a clean, contiguous recording.

When using a multitrack recording system like Pro Tools, Reaper, or Studio One, you can think of each recorded segment as a layer. When recording a new insert into a specific track, nothing moves in the audio timeline. You essentially record “on top” of the previous audio. If the timing is exact, you can leave it in place, as the software always plays the “top” layer in each individual track. More frequently, you have to “slice” the original audio and adjust the starting or ending points, creating space for the new insert. In this type of workflow – called “nondestructive” – no audio ever actually gets deleted. You just “hide” parts of it by adjusting the edges of the audio chunk.

Audacity provides a different approach. First, it will not allow you to record into the middle of any track. You can either record to the end of an existing track, or record anywhere in the timeline to a new track. Then, to insert a correction you’ve got to figure out a way to put it in the proper location. Some will copy the new audio and paste it in place. Another method is to split the first track, make room and then drag the correction into place. The behavior of the audio in the timeline will be different with “Synch-Lock” on or off, and change when you use “Split Cut” or “Split Delete” versus the “regular” version of those tools.

Of those three approaches, I find Audacity’s to be the least efficient. Hopefully, as AudacityTeam continues to enhance features moving forward, they will refine this legacy behavior. Enabling multiple layers in a given track, or simplifying the Synch-Lock tools to operate more like “Ripple Edit” behavior found in most multitrack systems would be solid improvements.

Anyone who has worked with me knows that I prefer the direct waveform editing approach found in Twisted Wave or Adobe Audition – particularly for the single voice track deliverables we generally supply. When working with multiple discrete tracks such as a multi-person podcast, the timeline approach of a multitrack system lets us both edit individual tracks and keep everything in synch.

Want to receive these resources (and more!) the day they come out? Each week I send out a new article to my email community focused on creatively using recording technology in your home voiceover studio, and how to balance those technical challenges with the need to be brilliant behind the microphone. If you would like to join in to receive those emails the day they publish, please take a moment to share your contact information through this sign up form. Thank you!

If this resource has been helpful to you, please consider sharing it with one of the buttons below!