Muting own voice or fixing delay on voice over

PhillB wrote on 3/31/2012, 1:15 PM
I'm trying to record a voice over for a documentary on an existing project with background sound and music tracks. All is working fine except I can hear my own voice with a slight delay in my headphones. This makes narration very difficult.
I want to be able to hear the project sound while I'm recording my voice over, so I either need my voice to be in real time, ie no delay or to mute my voice from the output to my headphones.
A quick point in the right direction would be much appreciated.

Comments

B.Verlik wrote on 3/31/2012, 1:26 PM
Have you ever thought about playing back the project over your computer speakers, just barely loud enough the hear, and putting your voice on a separate track, in real time. Then mix it all together afterwards. You could even do multiple takes, on separate tracks and pick the best of the lot.
JJKizak wrote on 3/31/2012, 2:43 PM
Yes, use a separate track for the voiceover then you can stretch it or shrink it to perfectly match.
JJK
pwppch wrote on 3/31/2012, 4:53 PM
If you are not using ASIO drivers, the check if your audio hardware has them. You typically lower the sample frame size to 256 samples, sometimes less. You should then get the delay down to a very workable point.

If you cannot find ASIO drivers, then try lowering the buffer size for the wave mapper or classic wave driver you have set up in Vegas.

Peter
NickHope wrote on 4/1/2012, 1:35 AM
I once recorded a voiceover, listening to myself in headphones. There was very low latency, but just enough to make me think I sounded absolutely incredible while I was speaking, and as a result I put a bit less intonation into the voiceover than I would normally. When I listened back to the recording, it sounded flat. So beware of that! I recently re-recorded that voiceover and didn't wear the headphones.

Have a read of this old thread, which has input from some V/O professionals.
PhillB wrote on 4/1/2012, 4:54 AM
Thanks Peter,
I've now tweaked the settings in the windows classic wave driver to improve the latency which just about overcomes my problem.
I don't have ASIO drivers but it sounds like I would be better off investigating that route.
I don't do anything fancy other than use wav files from my camera's & zoom H4N mixed with pre recorded music and then add voiceover etc.

Thanks for your help.
Frederic Baumann wrote on 4/1/2012, 5:24 AM
Hi,

using ASIO drivers is recommended because it leads to better realtime recording (if not perfect as far as sync is concerned). If you don't use it, you may have a longer and longer delay between what happens on your video, and what you are recording. You won't see (or hear?) it when recording, but will have it at playback.

BTW, if you are using the H4N, is it as a USB microphone (the recording being actually performed by Vegas), or as a standalone recorder? I guess that it's the first option, otherwise you would not have your voice in the Vegas output while recording. Using the H4N as a standalone recorder might be a solution not to get the echo while recording.

Hope this helps,
Frederic - FBmn Software
JohnnyRoy wrote on 4/1/2012, 10:13 AM
If you do voice overs a lot, you might consider getting an external audio device like the M-Audio FirePro 610 or PreSonus AudioBox and monitor your vocals in hardware right off the box. This has zero latency because you're monitoring before it gets to the computer and you'll here exactly what your voice sounds like. This is how I do all of my VO's and tutorials.

~jr
notsopro wrote on 4/1/2012, 12:27 PM
http://www.asio4all.com/

This is pretty much the gold standard asio driver. I have been using it for a few years and found that it actually performed better (lower latency) than driver that were vendor provided. HTH!
Laurence wrote on 4/1/2012, 12:41 PM
like JR said, you need direct monitoring. What interface are you using? It may well have this.
PhillB wrote on 4/5/2012, 7:58 AM
Thanks Frederic,
Thanks for your help, I have been trying to record direct into vegas but the slight echo makes concentration difficult. I am now using the H4N with a small lav mic in standalone mode.
Do you know if its possible to use ASIO drivers if I'm using my onboard sound, as I don't think I have any spare slots for a sound card.
larry-peter wrote on 4/5/2012, 9:22 AM
I'm not sure if the second part of your initial request was ever addressed: "or to mute my voice from the output to my headphones." Have you turned off input monitoring on the track you're recording to? Click on the audio input icon and make sure that input monitoring in not set to "on" or "auto".
Our old school method was to always have non-pro announcers record with one earphone off the ear with their mic muted over the cans, so they heard their voice the way they were accustomed to. We generally got better projection in their delivery than when they heard themselves through the cans.
VOGuy wrote on 4/5/2012, 11:38 AM
Hi Phill,

My expertise, if you will, in this area comes from the fact that before I became a voiceover performer, I spent time as a broadcast engineer and recording studio owner/engineer. I work out of my own studio, and I record often at studios located all over Southern California. In the last six months I have worked on projects ranging from a local bicycle shop to Marvel's "The Avengers" (Opening at a theater near you May 5th, by the way.)

Whenever I do work that requires sync with picture or sound, the engineer ALWAYS sends me the music, dialogue and efx tracks mixed with a direct feed from my mic. That means that the sound from my mic is not digitized and, therefore, there is no delay. Even a few milliseconds delay drives me crazy. When I was a recording engineer, on April fools day, we would send the announcer a delayed feed to the headphones and watch him stumble on every word

You can accomplish what you need by using a small mixer fed with your existing tracks, and turning off the output from the voiceover track.

Good luck,

Travis

http://www.DocumentaryNarration.com
http://www.VOTalent.com