Category Archives: Voiceover

SALE – Save 30% Off VocAlign Pro & Upgrades From VocAlign Project Until July 31, 2017

VocALign+Pro+Sale

For anyone who’s been waiting to pull the trigger on a VocAlign Pro licence, the good folks over at Synchro Arts have made it even easier to make the purchase. From now until July 31. 2017 – you can save 30% on VocALign Pro licenses, rentals and upgrades from VocALign Project.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with VocAlign Pro, it’s an incredibly powerful plug-in that allows users to quickly and easily align vocal’s to each other. In addtion, it recently got a massive upgrade when ARA integration was added for Studio One users.

Have a look at the video below to see it in action. It really coudn’t be more simple:

Main Features

  • Automatically analyzes the energy patterns of two audio signals and edits one to match the timing of the other.
  • Includes basic and advanced alignment and editing algorithms.
  • Works with voice, musical instruments and sound effects.
  • Provides time saving and quality benefits for ADR, tightening double tracked vocals and backing harmonies, foreign language dubbing, etc.
  • Simple, intuitive Audio Suite, AAX, VST3 and AU plug-in integration for most popular DAWs. (See Features)
  • The Pitch of aligned audio is unchanged.

Fast, Automatic Alignment with Advanced Functionality

“VocALign Pro 4 is the most advanced version of the legendary VocALign program, providing instant tight alignment of one audio signal to another. Simply capture a Guide signal with the right timing, capture a Dub signal to be aligned, press one button, and a new aligned Dub is generated and returned to your DAW.”

For more information on VocAlign Pro, to demo the software, or to check out the sale prices, be sure to head over to the Synchro Arts website.

Accusonus Announce ERA-N – One-Knob Denoising Plug-in

For anyone working in Voice Over / Narration – you might want to check this out. Accusonus have announced ERA-N, a simple and easy to use one-knob plug-in that is designed to offer “precision-grade denoising and automatic audio repair without compromising audio quality”.

Based on the multi-patented Accusonus noise suppression algorithms found in ERA-D, ERA-N simply just works, and allows for efficient removal of the most common noise sources.  If you are skeptical as to how well a one knob noise reduction plug-in can work – then I’d highly recommend checking out the video above.

Here’s what they have to say;

Enhance your voice-overs, repair your music recordings and restore your damaged audio files. ERA-N is a single-knob high-quality denoise plugin that just works. Based on accusonus’ multi-patented noise removal algorithms, ERA-N offers a quick and efficient workflow and allows you to rescue audio recordings that you would have previously considered unusable. 

ERA-N (AU, VST, AAX for Win and Mac) will be available in early February at an intro price of $39 (regular price $59) .

Accusonus will be showing ERA-N at the NAMM show (booth 201C17).

Building A De-Esser Using The Stock Compressor Plugin In Studio One

At a quick glance through the PreSonus effects folder, you might have noticed the absence of a dedicated De-esser plugin.  I know when I first opened up Studio One and was familiarizing myself with the bundled stock plug-ins, this was something that I noticed right off the bat.  However after taking the time to learn the basic plug-ins I soon realized that this was perhaps not an oversight on PreSonus’ behalf.  

If you have ever had a close look at the Compressor plug-in you may have noticed that in addition to the usual parameters we’d expect to find in a compressor, ie. attack, release, ratio, threshold, etc, there is also a dedicated ‘sidechain’ section on the GUI complete with Lowcut/Highcut filters.  

In this free video tutorial, Marcus Huyskens demonstrates how to use the stock compressor that ships with Studio One to build a De-Esser in PreSonus Studio One.

*Voice-Over clip provided courtesy of Joe Brookhouse.

Review Of The CL-1 Cloudlifter Mic Activator From Cloud Microphones

In this video review Michael shows us the CL-1 Cloudlifter Mic Activator from Cloud Microphones in PreSonus Studio One 3.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the CL-1, heres what Cloud Microphones have to say about it:

Cloudlifter CL-1 Mic Activator

Active Gain for Dynamics and Ribbons

It’s all about gain and impedance. While some of the best sounding microphones out there are low-output dynamics and ribbons, pre-amplification can be challenging due to the gain and impedance requirements. Cloudlifters address this by giving passive microphone signals a major inline boost -up to +25db of ultra-clean gain- while properly loading the microphones’ transformer for optimal performance.

The Cloudlifter® CL-1 is completely self contained, driven only by the phantom power from your mixer or preamp. Ideal for dynamics and ribbons alike, the CL-1 turns phantom power into the extra gain required for using passive microphones. The immediate dose of extra gain can make even a budget microphone/preamp combination sound clean and professional.

For broadcasting and live sound, the active output signal of the CL-1 can prevent added noise over long cable runs. With endless uses, Cloudlifters are quickly becoming a standard workhorse solution for audio and broadcast professionals.

How about you guys? Anyone out there running a CL-1?

Removing Harsh Whistling Artifacts Using iZotope RX Spectral Repair

In this free video, Marcus Huyskens demonstrates how to use the Spectral Repair Module within iZotope RX, to quickly & transparently remove harsh “whistling” artifacts from speech eliminating the need for turning to EQ, or a De-esser.

Macros Continued: Trim Event Start & Shuffle Delete

In this free video tutorial, Marcus expands on his last video (creating a basic delete time Macro). This time Marcus creates a Macro that will trim/shuffle delete the start of an audio event, based upon where an event has been split using the split tool. Although this Macro was designed with the purpose of editing Voice Over/Narration, this macros is equally useful when working with Music.

Editors Keys Release New Portable Vocal Booth Home Edition

Partner brand Editors Keys have released the new version of the Portable Vocal Booth Home Edition under their Studio Series brand.  The new Portable Vocal Booth Home Edition is the successor to the hugely popular original edition of the Vocal Booth Home which was last updated in 2013. 

The 2015 Vocal Booth Home Edition is 51% smaller when folded down yet expands up to 38% wider when opened up, allowing extra room for multiple microphones. 

Designed to give users improved quality recordings at home when recording singing or vocal work, the updated booth takes up less space due to it’s ability to be folded inwards. The specially moulded foam, which has been increased by 10% in density, has been shaped and processed to help create drier vocals and reduce unwanted noise such as traffic, air conditioning and computer hums from spoiling your recordings. 

The new Vocal Booth Home Edition comes with it’s own unique clamping system which allows the vocal booth to be attached to any microphone stand. The New Portable Vocal Booth Home can be purchased from the Editors Keys website for £89.99 from today.

How to Remove Unwanted Sounds from a Take iZotope RX

RX 4’s visual editing tools make it easy to identify and remove unwanted sounds captured during the recording process. 

Coughs, bangs, buzz, and other imperfections can distract from an otherwise flawless performance. In this video, RX guru Mike Thornton shows you how to remove them, using an acoustic guitar track as an example.

Accusonus ERA-D Announced – Noise Reduction Plug-in

If you have issues with noise both from the room you record in such as unwanted reverb and other unwanted sources then this may be the plug-in you are looking for. If you are a voice-over artist then you may want to download the demo and try it.

Accusonus, makers of the hugely popular drumatom2 drum leakage plug-in, have announced Accusonus ERA-D, Noise Reduction plug-in.

They say:

Noise and reverberation are around us all the time. But these normal sounds of every day life can be a complex sea of ever-changing distortion that an audio editor must wrestle with. Traditional tools cope with noise or reverberation separately and their simplistic algorithms fail to “understand” the complexity and interdependency of noise & reverberation. The brain trust at accusonus, recognized as academic experts in the field of audio analysis, exhaustively researched both the common and distinct sonic elements of noise and reverberation and set out to develop technology that could analyze and manage them either separately or together. The result is ERA-D. 

ERA-D’s patented technology (US 9,060,052) is also the first to analyze information from multiple microphones; when more than one microphone is available, the ERA-D explores the multichannel information to better suppress reverb and/or noise. The product offers unique solutions to problems that couldn’t have previously been solved. ERA-D features a flexible signal-processing engine that allows for dramatic improvement of sound quality and saves recordings that would have otherwise been unsalvageable. And all of this comes with a slick, innovative interface that allows you to quickly achieve astonishing results.

After more than 10 man-years of R&D, more than 30 scientific papers and chapters in technology books, and a recently granted US patent, the game-changing accusonus ERA-D is ready to shake the audio post-production world!

Features

  • Fast, easy workflow to reduce unwanted noise and reverb more quickly and effectively than any current method/toolset.
  • Advanced mode for detailed processing: controls for de-noise and de-reverberation, estimation time constants, choice between three de-noise algorithms, artifact control with separate algorithms for steady state or impulsive sounds, etc.
  • Control of processing range and intensity in four user-defined spectral bands.
  • ERA-D is perfect for broadcast audio (radio/TV/internet), dialog/ADR editing for film and television and sound design.

More information, sound examples and download info can be found on the Plug-in Alliance web site

Using Waves Plug-ins To Enhance Voiceovers Part 4: R-DeEsser & Doubler

In part 4 of this series of 4, Production Expert member Marcus Huyskens picks up where he left off in part 3 on using waves plug-ins to enhance the Voice Over for a high energy promo. 

In this last video of this mini-series, Marcus uses the Renaissance DeEsser to tame any sibilance that has built up in the V.O. As a last step, he adds some stereo width using the Doubler plug-in before double-checking his levels with the WLM and printing the final mix.