narrator voice for a video — Pianoconcerto Forum

Member

Posts: 536
City: torino

June 6, 2014, 19:24

Hello everyone,

At school, with my students, I have created a series of photographs in video format using iMovie on my Mac. Now, I would like to add a series of vocal captions (read as "voiceover"). I recorded the comments with Logic Pro 9. I am a complete novice in mixing matters, so I followed this process:

- I record the vocal comment

- As it is, raw and naked, I "bounce" it

- I import the audio file into the iMovie project

Considering that, simultaneously with the speaking voice, there are various ambient sound effects (e.g., sea noise, footsteps, traffic, etc.), the vocal audio track does not sound good; it lacks highs and mid-highs, is heavy on the bass, but has some peaks of distortion and consequently the words cannot be understood. In short, the effect is a real mess!.

I imagine it is a mixing problem.

anyway... I am not looking for sonic perfection, I just need the words to be clearly understood.

so, the undersigned ignoramus kindly asks you for a standard pseudo-mixing procedure of the type:

(Once the raw and naked voice track has been acquired),

- open this

- lower that

- insert this other thing

- etc.

I am momentarily without monitors, so I will have to adapt with a pair of earphones for an MP3 player.

I know well that you cannot do a good job in these conditions... and I also know that the mixing result depends heavily on personal taste...

anyway, I repeat, it is not music but simple spoken voice and even for just a few seconds at a time, e.g.

"The sea in winter".... or...
"but what did he mean?"... etc.

is it complicated?

Have a good weekend and above all, have a good dinner!

ScalaQuaranta

Ecc

ScalaQuaranta

Member

Posts: 536
City: torino

June 6, 2014, 19:30

Clarification:

The sound effects (noises) contemporary to the voice (which I was talking about before) are not inserted into the same audio file as the voice actor. Instead, they are more audio files that I added in the iMovie project, e.g.

(Audio file 'sea waves' in fade-in, audio file 'footsteps on sand' - audio file 'seagulls' with a lower audio level,

etc.)

Lucas

Member

Posts: 71

June 9, 2014, 10:31

A few ideas

http://www.pianoconcerto.it/forum/index.php?/topic/2005-audacity/?hl=audacity

Thesimon

Administrator

Posts: 4,504
City: Ariccia, RM

June 9, 2014, 13:04

Hi Marco, you have to do everything in Logic.

I am writing you the steps to take, or rather what professionals do.

First of all, you create the video edit (Essential), without audio. You export the video and import it into Logic.

(To prevent Logic from freezing every time playback starts, you create a low-quality, low-resolution video since we only need it as a reference point to synchronize effects and dubbing inside Logic).

In Logic, you import it from the File -> Import Movie menu.

It is advisable to work with two monitors, where Logic is kept on one and the video on the other; otherwise, you will constantly have to move the movie window whenever you need to make changes and automations.

At this point, first you perform the dialogue dubbing and then the sound design, all inside Logic. You do the mix in there so that with automations you can adjust the volumes of all the audio regions you have inserted.

Once this step is finished, you have the mix ready. Normally, one tries to bring the audio product to a certain loudness value, so a compressor is placed on the master.

You perform the bounce....

Reopen the video editing project and, instead of the video's audio track (if it exists), insert the one created in the bounce which, having been tailor-made for the video inside Logic, will be perfectly coherent with the video.

You render the video with the custom-made audio and that's it...