technical questions about equipment and software used by voice talent who record at home - moderated by Beau Weaver
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My favorite audio editing tool for Voiceover

Guys,

As I have mentioned frequently, I am a long time hater of Pro Tools. If you are recording multiple channels of music, routing through plug ins and locked to picture, it sure is the right tool. But for recording and editing voiceover tracks, it is a needlessly complex and cumbersome resource hog. And those are it's good points.

I cannot count the calls I have taken from folks who are new to home recording, literally in tears, trying to figure out how to save a simple recording as an mp3 file with Pro Tools. And don't even get me started on how any OS update from Apple usually renders Pro Tools inoperable. And a year to support Leopard? Give me a break. But I digress.

I have done extensive testing of virtually all the audio editors for Mac OSX, including, Logic, Soundtrack Pro, Peak, Adobe Sound Booth, Sound Studio 3, Wave Editor, Amadeus Pro, etc. On the PC platform, I was a long time fan of Sony Sound Forge, but they do not have any plans to port the app to Mac. Peak has it's fans, but it crashes regularly, and support is spotty. I was liking Sound Studio 3 a lot, but there were some bugs, and omissions and the developer did not respond to support requests at all. All of the above programs have their strengths and weaknesses, but for the way I like to work, they were just not quite right.

Anyway, I have been working with a software developer to perfect a suite little app that I just love, and I want to pass it along to you. For my money, the best tool for recording and editing voiceover is: TwistedWave. http://twistedwave.com And, the price is 49 Dollars!*

It loads in about one second. No changing cursors into different tools. It works like a word processor. It saves directly as mp3 files, and will convert between almost all important audio file types. It exports the selected portion of the waveforme as a new file, of any type you specify. Navigation is a dream. You can zoom horizontally in the waveform and zoom in all with the tiny trackball in the Apple Mighty Mouse. It will record the highest resolution audio, sample rate and bit depth your sound card supports. It works with any digital interface that uses Apple Core Audio. For the advanced user, keyboard shortcuts are customizable, and you can create and save customized effects stacks of AU plugins.

I have worked closely with the guy who created the program to make some ease of use tweaks and fine tuning. He has responded to every one of my requests the same day. I think if you spend a little time playing with it, you may fall in love too.

You can download from this link, and try for a 30 day evaluation period for free. A major 1.5 update has just been posted, with additional improvement in development.

I have been using this as my daily editor for some time now and it is a huge time saver. If you are also a musician, or music producer, then Pro Tools is obviously. If all you need to do is record voiceover sessions, quick edit and cleanup and ship off via ftp, then give Twisted Wave a try, and never look back.

Full Disclosure: I am a paid user, and receive no compensation for this recommendation, other than gratitude for a tool so ideally suited for the task at hand.


Beau Weaver

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Comments

  • Maybe the better question is when listening at a normal level, how much sound bleeds out to the mic?
  • The answer to both questions is I don't know. I live in a rural area, so noise is not a problem. Also, I have never gotten used to working with one can on the ear and the other off.

    I can tell you that I still can hear some sounds going on in the house, even though they are not as loud as if I weren't wearing them. So, they might not be the idea choice for you.
  • Rod,
    I'm somewhat familiar with the AKG 240's from a station where I worked several years ago - before my VO days. I remember them sounding good, being fairly lightweight and comfortable, and having round ear-cups. How are they at closing off outside noise? How are they if you work using just one of the 2 cans (sliding one off to leave an ear open).
  • I have had the AKG D240 headphones for many years (I know it's 240, don't know about the D, the medallion came off). I would say they are at least 10 years old and are still working. They seem to be very accurate. However, I have no comparison with current day headphones.
  • I've given up on the Sennheiser brand after they quit using stainless steel in their cables. The cables used to be indestructible - not so much, now. Thanks for the insight. I'm pondering the Sony MDR-7506 model.
  • I have the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones. Avoid them. Very uncomfortable, which is especially bad when you're recording long form.
  • Hey All,
    I'm needing to purchase a good set of professional headphones. I have a Sennheiser HD400 that sound great, but is not closed ear and bleed into the audio when I'm doing a phone patch.

    For those who use headphones for phone patch, (or ISDN or SourceConnect etc) what headphones do you recommend? Durability and sonic accuracy are a must.

    Thanks!

    -Dan
  • Hey, Beau, thanks for making the time to run this group. It was nice meeting you last night at the Atlas-LA holiday party.

    Cheers,
    J.V. Martin
  • Thanks Jenny. Keep me posted on your VO experience!!

    Blessings:)

    Christine Ivy
  • Thanks Christine! Good to hear from you. I'm waiting to get my Holiday magic cd so I can listen to my friend do her wonderful story!! Well done ! Can't wait to hear it. All the best!
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