VO Studio Workflow: Why That DAW? – Tuesday Tech Tip

Much like microphones, the best recording software is the one you have in front of you. Well, let me refine that. It’s the best software you have that also works for you. 

I consult with many voice actors who efficiently run their studio each working day using Twisted Wave, Adobe Audition, Reaper, Ocenaudio, Logic, Pro Tools, Studio One, Audacity, or a few others. The truth is that none of those applications record “better” than any of the others. By that I mean that the actual recorded audio will not differ from one to the next. 

Your recording space (and of course your acting choices) determines the quality of the recording. Unless something is set egregiously wrong, any DAW or recording software should be able to accurately capture that performance.

Managing the process efficiently is all about the application UI – the User Interface. I do have some fairly definite preferences when it comes time to get work out the door. Primarily, it means not spending any extra time on auditions. Because we voice actors tend to audition a lot, any small inefficiency here gets multiplied quickly – only an extra couple of minutes each across five auditions equals 10 minutes lost. 

Auditioning Efficiently: Put Stuff Where You Can Find It

A direct workflow helps a great deal. That starts by setting up templates or master files so that you don’t have to deal with simple mechanics repeatedly.

With a master/template already set up in an “Auditions” folder, it’s easy to pop open a 24 bit/48 kHz WAV file and immediately begin working. That reduces the time spent preparing to record. 

When you nail that great take and need to send or upload the result, it doesn’t really matter if you simply “Save” an MP3 or you have to render it through a more complicated method, as long as you don’t have to go searching for the output file. With Twisted Wave and Adobe Audition, for example, the “Save As…” function should be tenacious – in other words, pointing to the folder where you last worked (MacOS tends to be more consistent in maintaining pathways to folders). 

Since my audition templates live in my Auditions folder, I’m working precisely where I need to be. With most of the multitrack working environments, you can define a “global” output destination for the files you will be rendering, or at least have a shortcut in your filing system to quickly jump to the right folder.

Seeing The Audio – Here’s How DAW’s Differ

I appreciate well-rendered detail in the onscreen audio waveform. While it is supremely important to trust our ears over our eyes, the ability to immediately see individual clicks and other acoustic anomalies can be a helpful. It’s also important to be able to work fast, so I don’t like to move my hand off the mouse when editing, nor do I want to select between different tools. That means being able to zoom and scroll the audio file directly from the mouse or trackpad. Just to pick on Audacity, the fact that you cannot zoom with the mouse is a serious lack of function. I don’t know of another recording application which lacks this, and my hope is that future versions will finally fix this.

Ideally, I should be able to use navigation tools from both the mouse and keyboard equivalents, but if I had to choose one or the other, I’d opt for the mouse in terms of waveform navigation. And of course, keyboard equivalents are still my preferred method of accessing menu items.

I feel lucky because I get to work with a variety of other voice actors in a fairly broad range of software and project types. That lets me see other ways of working and in some cases lets me adapt those benefits back to my VO workflow. Of course, it also lets me see that intuitive tools like Audition’s “Gain Adjustment Tool” or Studio One’s “Clip Gain” are real time savers.

All of which nudges us back to our own workflow. That’s where my strong bias is to make things as simple as possible. We’re often comfortable in an existing but inefficient system. It takes effort to change a workflow, and there’s often a period of retraining that can be frustrating. But we benefit in the long run.

That lets our focus remain upon the quality of our acting choices when behind the microphone. Which, ultimately, is what matters.

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