The Voice-over tool
Recording a voice-over in Studio is as easy as making a telephone call. Just open the Voice-over tool, click Record and speak into the microphone. You can narrate as you watch the movie play so your words match the action on the screen. You can also use the tool as a quick way of capturing ambient music or home-made sound effects via your microphone.
Before you can record audio using the Voice-over tool, you need to connect a microphone to the input jack of your PC sound board. You must also have at least one video clip in the Movie Window.
Review the video scenes in your movie and decide where you want the voice-over to begin and end. When you are ready, open the Voice-over tool. Note that the recording lamp – the dark rectangle in the upper left of the above illustration – is not lit.
Select your starting point on the Movie Window Timeline. You may do this by selecting a clip, playing the movie and stopping it at the desired point, or by moving the Timeline scrubber.
Position the microphone for use and try speaking a test phrase to check your recording level (see “Voice-over level” below). When you are satisfied, click the Record button (which toggles to a Stop button). Wait for a few moments as the recording lamp first signals stand by then steps through a 3-2-1 countdown.
When the recording lamp signals recording, and the movie begins to play back in the Player, perform your narration.
Finally, click the Stop button. The lamp goes out, and the voice-over clip is automatically placed on the sound effects and voice-overs track. Review the clip by selecting it then clicking the Play button.
The record level for a voice-over clip is set when you create the voice-over and cannot be changed thereafter. However, you can adjust the playback volume at any time. The record level is set with the Recording level slider and its accompanying level meter on the Voice-over tool.
Watch this meter to make sure your recording levels don’t get too high or low. The indicator changes color from green (0-70% modulation), through yellow, to red. Generally, you should try to keep your audio peaking in the yellow (71-90%) and out of the red (91-100%).
The Studio setup dialogs include several settings that affect your recording configuration and quality. Click here for detailed information.
To access these options select Setup Ø Video and audio preferences from the main menu bar.
The Microphone dropdown list on this dialog lists the multiple ways a microphone can be connected to your particular sound card. The entries on the list should look something like the following, from a system with an NVIDIA® sound card:
Choose from this list, then connect your microphone in the manner indicated (e.g. Microphone or Line In).
The Channels and Sample rate adjustments on the options dialog control the quality of voice-overs or other recorded audio. Set them at the highest quality level you anticipate needing, but keep in mind that increasing quality requires more disk space.