Our voice over is 30 seconds long, while thanks to timestretching, the music is now 35 seconds in duration. This gives us 2.5 seconds of music to use at the start and end of the promo to wrap around the voice. So with the music at 00:00:00, we now place the voice over at 00:00:02.500. Now we should get a nice couple of seconds of music before the voice over kicks in. OK, great. So let\u2019s give it a listen.<\/p>\n
We click shift + spacebar to play from the start of the project and the music plays in nicely. But what\u2019s this? When it hits the voice over, our limiter is working overtime, peaks are in the red and the voice over is completely lost in amongst a muddy dirge of frequencies. Yes, of course, we need to dip the music under the \u2018Voice Over\u2019 file so that both elements mix together in perfect harmony.<\/p>\n
Again, there are a few optional ways we can do this. First of all let\u2019s try the manual way.<\/p>\n
Highlight the music track (\u2018Music Bed\u2019) by clicking in the \u2018track header\u2019. Then hit \u2018V\u2019 on your keyboard (That\u2019s \u2018V\u2019 for volume.). A blue line will appear along the entire length of the track dissecting the stereo channels of our music file. Approach this blue line with your mouse curser. The curser changes from an arrow into a pointing finger. Take that pointed finger along the line until it is directly under the start of the \u2018Voice Over\u2019 file on the track above. Double click, and a square block will appear on the line (see illustration). A box attached to this square should read 0.0db. If you now grab the box with your curser and pull it downwards you will notice that the volume alters. (reset it to 0.0db).<\/p>\n
Using a number of these square blocks on the volume line, we can accurately alter the gain on an individual track and mix it with the other elements accordingly. Let\u2019s begin a fade at 2 seconds into the music file. Create a volume block at 00:00:02 and one at 00:00:02.500. Pull the second block down and note the reduction in gain at that point. You may be surprised just how much you need to dip the volume so that the voice over takes precedent over the music. It may be as much as 10db. You\u2019ll need to use your ears to judge when a mix is right. Take into account we may be compressing the audio at a later time, which will bring the hidden frequencies forward. So a little compensation may be needed there.<\/p>\n
When you\u2019re happy with the introduction, do the same at the end of the voice over to bring the volume of the music back up to 0.00db. A gradual fade in of the music over the last 2.5 seconds of the voice over may be effective, but be aware that every syllable of the spoken word has to be clear and audible before bringing the music back in to reclaim those frequencies.<\/p>\n
Mix Automation in Sony Vegas<\/h3>\n
OK, so creating all those square blocks and laboriously altering each one is no fun? Well, there is another way. In Vegas you can automate both the volume and pan functions on each individual audio track.<\/p>\n
First, go to the \u2018track header\u2019 and highlight the \u2018Music Bed\u2019 track. Hit \u2018V\u2019 as before to insert our volume line.<\/p>\n
Next, go to the \u2018track name\u2019 box in the \u2018track header\u2019 there are 6 icons. \u2018arm for record\u2019\/\u2019invert track phase\u2019\/\u2019track FX\u2019\/\u2019automation settings\u2019\/\u2019mute\u2019 and \u2018solo\u2019. Click on the \u2018automation settings\u2019 sun shaped icon (actually it\u2019s a machine cog for \u2018Automation\u2019). This will reveal a drop down menu. Currently it may be set to \u2018automation off\u2019. Move it to \u2018automation write (touch)\u2019 and tick the \u2018show automation controls\u2019 box.<\/p>\n
Now we hit shift + spacebar to play the music from the top. Below the 6 icons, you will note that all the audio tracks have a separate volume and pan control. Grab the volume control and move it around. You\u2019ll notice that those square boxes are back on the volume line, but this time they are appearing automatically in conjunction with your movements on the volume control. Likewise, if we play with the pan control, an orange line appears alongside the blue one on the audio track, and the music pans from left to right as we alter the control. All this happens in realtime, so you get the effect of live mixing.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s an art to this \u2018automation\u2019 process. It may take you a few goes before you get the mix exactly right. Of course you can do a rough automated mix and then alter the volume line manually afterwards. This will be quicker than doing the entire mix manually and may help save some time in the long run.<\/p>\n
So, We have timestretched our music and mixed our voice track over the top. We are now well on the way to finishing our project. But we still have a number of processes available to us before we can wrap things up and present our finished promo to the folks at the garden centre.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n We have already put a limiter set to 0.00db across the entire project, which we accessed through the effects icon on the master volume control. But for individual FX processing, we are instead going to access the FX bank via the FX icon situated on the track header. Remember the 6 icons next to the \u2018rename\u2019 box? This is where we look for our individual track FX icon. It\u2019s the third one. Between \u2018invert track phase\u2019 and \u2018automation settings\u2019 (see illustration).<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say, for this exercise that the \u2018Voice Over\u2019 track needs compression, as even after mixing, the original recording was getting a little lost when the music bed was added. Compression may help add some \u2018thrust\u2019.<\/p>\n Click on the FX icon on the \u2018Voice Over\u2019 track and you will see a display called \u2018audio plug in\u2019. On Vegas version 8, the audio tracks already have 3 default FX: Noise Gate, EQ and compression. These are pretty standard Sony FX. You may have a favourite Waves compressor that you want to use instead. So first, highlight the Sony compressor plug-in. In the top right hand corner of the box there are 3 FX icons. Hover over the one that displays a cross over it (\u2018X\u2019). This removes that particular plug-in. Click this and the plug-in disappears leaving you with just the Noise Gate & EQ. To add your favourite Waves plug-in, click the icon next to the one you have just used. This will display a box \u2018plug-in chooser\u2019 and the name of the track \u2018Voice Over\u2019 (see illustration). There you will see all your familiar FX as Vegas supports both VST and DirectX plug-ins and will have accessed them all during the installation process. Highlight your Waves compressor, click \u2018add\u2019 and then \u2018OK\u2019. If you just click \u2018OK\u2019 the effect doesn\u2019t load into your project. You have to \u2018add\u2019 it to the effects chain. Your compressor will now appear alongside the Noise Gate & EQ.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say you adjust the expander by a few db to smooth out the dynamics, you can then save those setting by renaming the compressor (\u2018Garden Centre Voice Over\u2019) and clicking on the floppy disk icon next to the name box. Already the voice over is sounding better and maybe it will benefit from some added EQ as well. Click the EQ plug-in and you will notice there are a number of presets in the drop down menu. One of these is called \u2018(Ultimate S) Female Voice Over\u2019. Perfect! Add that. Similarly, you may have other more defined EQ that you wish to use from your own FX bank. You can of course access these as you did the Waves compressor.<\/p>\n As for the voice over, it\u2019s now showing a marked improvement, holding its own nicely against the music. You can now exit the audio plug-ins box.<\/p>\n Just like volume and pan, you can automate all the FX plug-ins and have them running in realtime with automated FX. But for this project, we just need a single effect over the entire track, so we\u2019ll leave the automation to a later tutorial.<\/p>\n As for our project, the music was sounding just fine, so no need to add any external FX or processing. The voice over is now punching through nicely courtesy of some added compression and EQ.<\/p>\n Now, I may be temped to add a touch of compression over the entire project, <\/p>\n Listening through to the mix a number of times, I am now happy that I don\u2019t wish to make any further changes. It has a nice introduction, the voice is sparkling with its added compression and EQ. And a moderate amount of compression over the entire project has made it bounce along nicely. It\u2019s a job well done and I\u2019m ready to render the file to our \u2018Garden Centre Promo\u2019 folder.<\/p>\n To do this I go, \u2018file\u2019\/\u2019render as\u2019. Previously, you may have been rendering a video project, so the \u2018Save as type\u2019 setting could be set to .avi, .wmv or .mov etc. We are making an audio file and we wish to render as a .wav. Look in the \u2018Save as file\u2019 drop down menu for the \u2018Wave (Microsoft) *.wav\u2019 setting. This will ensure that our project is rendered as the correct type. The description should be 44.1kHz at 16 Bit as per our project settings. Rename the file garden_centre_promo_1, browse for the folder, click \u2018save\u2019 and away we go.<\/p>\n Within seconds the file will be rendered and ready to be transferred to CD or memory stick, or an FTP site that can be accessed by your customer. Once you have rendered the track as a WAV file, you may wish to burn a CD directly from the project. This couldn\u2019t be simpler. Put a blank media you\u2019re your CD burner drive, Click on \u2018tools\u2019 and \u2018burn disc\u2019. Choose an option from the drop down menu (\u2018track at once\u2019 audio CD or \u2018disc at once\u2019 audio CD) and click \u2018start\u2019. The entire project will be rendered as one track onto the CD. (You may also want to refer to this article about choosing the right burning speed when burning audio-CD’s. Ed.) With our \u2018Garden Centre Promo\u2019 project rendered as a WAV file and burned to CD, it\u2019s now ready to present to the folks down at the garden centre. At 35 seconds and with pleasant music and a sparkling voice over I reckon it\u2019s well within their brief. It won\u2019t be long before we hear our production being broadcast between instrumental cover versions of well known hits, while newly wed couples scour the shelves on their quest for the perfect potted plants for their new home!<\/p>\n It\u2019s not what you quite imagined doing for a living when you set up your multi media audio\/visual production business, but, hey. Work is work. Whatever pays the bills! All you can do is make it sound as good as it can possibly be and build up a reputation for quality work at a competitive price. And hope that eventually Jay-Z returns your call!<\/p>\n Vegas Pro product page<\/a> at Sony Media Software You may also want to read Part One of this series<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n by Simon Power \u00a0 In this series of articles we will be offering fundamental help and advice to amateur and semi-pro audio\/visual producers who use Sony Vegas and want to incorporate music, voice overs and SFX in their productions. Introduction In part one of this tutorial, we looked at importing and timestretching audio files […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,5],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shockwave-sound","tag-author-simon-power","tag-sound-design"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2935,"href":"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/2935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/105_5_volumeblock.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nVolume edit points appear as squares. <\/i><\/p>\nFX processing and Plug-ins<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/105_6_fxicon.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nThe FX icon is the third icon along in the track header.<\/i><\/p>\nOverall FX processing<\/h3>\n
\nBut compression can be an unruly beast if it\u2019s over used. You have to consider every possible scenario in which your piece will be heard. It\u2019s OK for broadcast through a public address system at a garden centre. They probably don\u2019t use any compression on their broadcasts. It\u2019s simply a CD player attached to a mixing desk. A touch of light compression over the entire mix will be fine here. But what if they decide to broadcast our finished promo on local FM radio? They compress like crazy! If I add too much compression now, it may sound awful. The best thing to do is to make all your decisions \u2018moderate\u2019. Adding a pinch of compression over the entire mix will add life and buoyancy to the over all sound. With moderate use of compression, we\u2019ve created a robust mix that will suit a number of different circumstances.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/105_7_fxchooser.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nSelect an effect using the plug-ins choser <\/i><\/p>\nRendering in Sony Vegas<\/h3>\n
\nBurn to CD<\/p>\n
\nConclusion<\/p>\nResources:<\/h3>\n
\nRoyalty-Free Music by Pierre Langer<\/a> at Shockwave-Sound.com
\nMore in this series:<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.shockwave-sound.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/author_simonpower.jpg\")
<\/a><\/b><\/div>\n
\nthe author: Simon Power has made over 50 short films and documentaries
\nfor the music technology website Sonic State. He has also removed &
\nreplaced copyrighted music on a number of commercial BBC releases. In
\nthese articles he offers advice and tips about using music in your low
\nbudget film and audio\/visual projects. You can learn more about Simon
\nand his projects at his website, http:\/\/www.meonsound.com\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"