Workflow ideas

[haroldlentink]

Dear readers,

Within my company we create e-learning. With this e-learning we record our own voice overs. We have a proper soundbooth.

Now I've found out that my workflow is pretty time consuming. And since I'm not a professional sound engineer It might be possible to improve my workflow. If you read this and have any suggestions or ideas please be so kind to advice me on this. My workflow is somewhat like this:

1. We start with a proper script for the voice over
2. In the studio we record the voice over. With a template document (in multitrack mode) with proper set of effects in the effect rack with noise gates etc.
3. After recording i have to split my recording in a LOT of seperate files. And here's my issue.
4. I go through all of the recordings and mark the right best with range markers. This is incredible timeconsuming I can be busy for appr. 4-6 hours work on audio for 8-10 minutes clean audio and placing and naming the markers correctly. This can be up to appr. 40-60 rangemarkers.
5. After being done I save the file as a wave file with the markers included.
6. I re-open de wav file in Audition and export the markers to seperate files.

Placing and naming the ranged markers is such a precise work it takes me ages to do so. For one e-learning course I can be busy with cleaning up the audio and exporting the audio for appr. 120 hrs. While the e-learning course in total takes about 2,5 hrs to follow.

Is there something I can do to speed up this workflow and decrease my spend hours on placing these markers. I hope somebody can relate to my issue and share some good thoughts.

Kind regards,

Harold Lentink

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

haroldlentink  wrote

Is there something I can do to speed up this workflow and decrease my spend hours on placing these markers. I hope somebody can relate to my issue and share some good thoughts.

Your workflow sounds fairly typical, but the more you practice this, the quicker you'll get. 40-60 range markers really isn't a lot - I often use more than that, and I'm editing music, which is way more picky about positioning than speech ever is. And there's no way that I'd spend 120 hours making and placing them.

The quickest way to make a range marker is to highlight the section of audio for it on the screen and hit F8 - you don't have to mark each end. It's automatically saved as a range, and all you have to do is give it an appropriate name.

[haroldlentink]

SteveG(AudioMasters)​

Thanks for responding. And off course you're right the more practice the better I get. I've already found the F8 (or key 'M') was already found by me. But I'm still wondering if I would be able to find a better and more efficient way because I (and especially my manager) would like to find a faster way.

For instance it's also possible to place the markers during the recording but in my opnion it would not really save time. Even more so I'm taking up the time of the voice over as well. Therefore I choose to do this afterwards.

Another point of view:

Now I just push the record button and record the voice over constantly. Could there be an advantage if I would not place markers but just toggle on/off the recording button. I don't think this would work better but just sharing my thoughts by thinking out loud.

SteveG(AudioMasters)​

"And there's no way that I'd spend 120 hours making and placing them"

This is for the complete course which contains about 110-120 minutes of clean audio (probably appr. 750 separate wav files).
So that probably makes it more understandable.

Love to hear your or others point of view on this.

[ryclark]

As Steve says with practice it becomes much quicker since you learn to recognise the audio in the waveform and what speech it represents. This makes it ever so much quicker for this type of workflow. Once you have found the rough position by listening it is very easy to place the marker accurately purely by eye.

[haroldlentink · Accepted solution]

SteveG(AudioMasters)​ and ryclark​

Well I do understand your replies. So thanks to you both. I'll mark your both answers as the solution. Since your are probably right.

And I hope my experience will indeed speed things up. I can already read the visual representation of the wave form. So that's a good thing

Kind regards.

Harold

[Travelor]

Harold,

I hope you do not mind my continuation of the conversation.

I have only had short glimpses into the "voice over" world, and you're providing another one of those glimpses into that world. When it comes to projects like one Disney would take on. When the "voice" actor arrives on-set the actor is just one cog in a much larger machine. The two most important parts of that machine are the actor and the director. The actor must "feel" the part and they themselves will practice their lines before they shoot. Or they may get into character and let it flow and letting their talents well up and produce something presentable. Some may prefer to work in a step-by-step process of record, listen, record again or move on, Maybe even   stopping tape and trying the line in a different way. The director is right there as well, and they too will stop tape, or make suggestions, and ask the actor to resay the line "with passion" or "without so much passion". The actor and the directors "workflow" must include an ability to work with others.

You're teaching and you are also playing the role of the actor and the director. You're also playing the engineer, mixer and grip, to keep the analogy and add some perspective. I think that what ryclark​ and SteveG(AudioMasters)​ are suggesting are some great places to focus your thinking in regards to how you develop your workflow. Because that is really what you are doing, is taking this concept of workflow and making it your own. Would I do your job differently? Most likely, because I am a live in the moment kind of personality, and my training experience is "live" oriented which requires an audience. So my workflow would probably be a rough cut of the entire training session in one take, if possible. If it were a narration training video, I would likely do the same thing  by  recording myself in sync with the video as I see that video and how that video impacts me in a live moment. This would give the rough draft of the presentation and help me find the flow of the training, for the way that I work. My work flow is goal oriented as well and a rough draft meets one of my workflow goals as it gives me a sense or feeling of accomplishment. Again, emphasis is here, is seeing that this is me and my ways of doing it.

It is a very personal concept, this thing called "workflow" and sometimes IMHO the word gets used too flippantly at which point it looses meaning. Much like someone saying the workflow of that DAW is blah blah blah bleh bleh. The DAW, in reality, is a tool and a support piece to the workflow of the person using it. The DAW support the workflow of the artist, and just like a hammer, we all had to learn how to hit the nail or hit our thumbs. How often we did the latter is how quickly we learned to use it.

Be inspired and live in the moment and let the workflow be a reflection of the final product. At the end of the day that final product is a  reflection of yourself to those who are listening to your voice. If something that you're doing as you flow through the work, and it does not feel natural to the way you would do it, then do it differently. I cannot tell you how many ways there are to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But I can tell you how I make that sandwich, and you might think I'm crazy to do it the way I do.

You're doing it right, and you're trying it this way and that way. You're seeking peer and professional input. The awesomeness of your you're doing is that you are making it your own. That might mean practicing the presentation or practicing and honing your skills and techniques in the marking up of the recording and using the software, as you seek the input of others. In a world that bombards us with instant gratification, generations of people are going to have and have had some rude awakenings as life moves forward. Life is not as easily and quickly gratifying as we have been lead to believe. It takes hard work, willful determination, and hard work.. (not to mention hard work). Emphasis on the hard work.  I hope that I have inspired you to do your work your way. You are doing just that in the very fact of seeking advise and input. Which is a part of my workflow as well. You're a unique person, so let that uniqueness shine bright!!

Be You and Be Blessed..