Voice-Over

A voice-over is a standard part of any professional video project. Its inclusion often separates an amateur project from a polished one, but only if it is done correctly. Liquid Edition has the ability to record a voice-over directly to the Timeline using a standard microphone linked to the computer's sound card.

To create a voice-over

1.	Place a mark-in point on the Timeline where you would like the voice-over to begin. You can also place a mark-out point where you would like the voice-over to end. If you do not, the recording continues until you turn it off.
2.	Open the Audio Editor by pressing F4.
3.	Select which track you want the voice-over applied to by clicking the Audio Recording rectangle at the bottom of the slider. When it goes red, it has been selected (Figure 7.48). Figure 7.48. Activating Audio Recording for this track.
4.	Click the Microphone button , and the timeline cursor is placed five seconds before the mark-in point, and then the clip begins playing back.
5.	You should begin speaking when the clip reaches the mark-in point. If you have defined a mark-out point, the recording stops there. If you haven't, you must stop the recording by clicking the Microphone button once more.
6.	Once recording has stopped, a dialog box appears asking you to name the clip and to accept it (Figure 7.49). Figure 7.49. Naming the voice-over.
7.	Click the check mark and your recorded voice-over is inserted at the mark-in point (Figure 7.50). Figure 7.50. The voice-over inserted on the mark-in point.

Tips

• When the Voice-Over function is used, a new Rack called Voice-Over is created in the Project Browser and all your recordings are sent there (Figure 7.51).

  Figure 7.51. The new Voice-Over rack with your voice-over recordings inside.

  

  
  

• When you first click the Microphone button, the cursor jumps back 5 seconds before playing. This is known as the preroll time, and you can alter it by opening the Audio properties box found in the Control Panel.

Creating a Better Voice-Over

But there is a problem with using the voice-over feature in Liquid Edition. By and large, computers are noisy beasts; they whirr in the background with a variety of fans while their hard drives click mysteriously away. In short, this is not an environment for producing a clear-sounding voice-over.

And on top of that, how good a narrator are you? Can you cope with the pressure of reading from a script and getting each word perfect as the video rolls by your slightly anxious face?

The answer, perhaps, is to use a professional microphone, a well-prepared script, and a quiet (computer-free) room to record your voice. You can also use the camera you use for video to capture your voice, probably with better quality than most PC microphones produce, and you can capture it via the Logging Tool by deselecting the video channel (see Chapter 2 for details).

Once you have captured or imported this, you are free to trim it in the Source Viewer, cut it up, or simply use the bits that you now need.

Personally, I find this a better way to work, but if you need to insert a simple voice-over of a few seconds, then the Voice-Over function in Liquid Edition is probably the way to go. Of course if you are looking to create a rough edit for client approval, this direct voice recording may also help you save time and effort.