Why would I "whip out my credit card " and pay Waves?
these are old (like 5 yrs) versions that came on floppy disc.
The guy who gave them to me paid for them years ago and does not use them anymore and arent loaded on to any other computer.
I got them in exchange for some work I performed for the guy.
Would you whip out your credit card and pay General Motors if your Father gave you his old 75 Buick?

Deleted and withdrawn due to Cosmo not liking my answer.

Good answer Vocalpoint. You really addressed the question. I'm sure you've been 100% crime free for your entire life. I'm sure you've never driven over the speed limit, or listened to a copied CD, or watched a dubbed video. Whatever. Get off your soap box and try helping this guy.

epirb - to your question. Sometimes it is advantageous to to master your V/O track prior to rendering your video piece. Sometime it's fine to let Vegas render it. It just depends on the quality of the V/O. I usually only take the V/O track out(after mixing it in Vegas) and bump up the signal with something like UltraMaximizer, or Steinbrg's Loudness maximizer...and I also Normalize the file to an extent (I use Wavelab and Normalize is a menu option). In Ultramaximizer I use the 16/24-bit Pre-Master setting as my start point. I also use a Waves C4 compressor set to the VoiceOver preset or PopVocal preset. The C4 is a multiband cmopressor and I use it more for tonal coloration then compression.

Good luck and have fun!

I do not believe you can be "paid" with a software package...your "guy" should have transferred the original license to the plug-ins to you.

Well, maybe he did...?

First of all , Vocalpoint I read your post before you deleted it.
You have some good points and I understand the lisc. agreement.
Maybe my first response to your first post was a bit of a knee jerk reaction and came across more sarcastic than truly replying to your statements.
Basicly because it seemed you are assuming that I'm just loading in all the software I was given ,for lack of a better term, like a kid with a cracked Xbox, with disregard for the software companies and their products.
So I'll explain a little more in detail, maybe in part so you'll understand what kind of person I am, at least.
I fixed a friend's wifes car , as a good will gesture, not expecting payment.
while fixing it, we were talking and got on to the subject of editing, video etc.
Turns out he used to do some sound stuff years ago , not any longer.
As i finished the job he wanted to repay me , I said it wasnt nesc.
Then he said he had some old software for sound stuff he doesnt use anymore, and I was welcome to it. Some he had serial numbers/ registration numbers still other he didnt, some old free DX plugs.pretty much windows 98 stuff, and wasnt sure what would work for me but I was welcome to try.

I also never stated that I was not going to contact the company's and try and change registration to me. What I have done is installed some of them to see if they work even, some are functional, others aren't. For example he also gave me a waves plug in called native power pack 2 ver 2.5. It requires a dongle or wave key to function and my friend no longer has it, So i will decide if it's worth the cost for the wave key and registrition change to install it and keep . For waves current programs its $150 for the registration change alone. In that case I'd probably be better off with a newer version than one from '98.
Bottom line,would I take a fairly new copy of vegas,excalibur and not register it in my name, No.
But if I can load some old plug ins in, transfer registration for free or a small amount , I'll do it,because I know the way I am.
If I like them, I'll be forkin'over the $$$ for the new versions in the future.
(unfortunatly my weakness is I get the Gota have the latest and greatist syndrom) :)
what programs/plugs dont work , oh well, nothing lost I didnt have before.
Hell, Before I discovered Vegas ,bought a copy of Premiere on ebay, turned out it was a "copy", not only did I report it to the authorities, but contacted Adobe and sent them the disc.

So to you I applogize for my Intial reply,
BTW my friend is not an "Idiot" either, his intentions were good as well, not to decieve me or the software companies. Just trying to pass on tools to an
very intermiediate user that cant afford all the new tools right now.(As much as I'd like to have em).

Mr Phil,
Close, he gave his info, as best as he remembers, so I could do just that.
One company doesnt exist anymore anyway. But thank you for giving me the benift of the doubt.


Cosmo,
Thank you for the input,
I have been recording my V/O in SF mono files, usually using the Norm. in SF on the file after I have cleaned up the noise..
Dont have N Reduction, on my list , so I'm doing it w gates etc.
Right now the Ultramaximer isnt working right , any setting and it sound like the input is too high and its clipping big time. might be the install , like I said these are all really old versions.
so I have been using the Waves 5.1 plug from V5. So either way ,are you saying I should apply those while I'm in SF before exporting to Vegas?
Also as a newbie, voiceover guy, I 'm am using a AKG C1000s Mic, that Ive had for years, with a homemade pop screen, but what I notice is I'm going back and having to edit out my inhale breaths between lines.
Is it just my minor athsma wheezing lungs, teqnique, or should i be applying a gate during recording.?

Sorry for the long post guys , but I had to get that off my chest.

epirb,

Thanks for the update and explantion and I too apologize for "climbing up on the soapbox" as it were to make assumptions about the scene. I guess my reaction was knee jerk too....

Anyhoo - onto the question...oddly (and ironically!) enough - I own and operate my own voiceover and digital media company and have some suggestions on how to handle your issue.

To add some beef your VO...I would suggest staying away from anything like the UltraMax and do NOT apply any Normalize functions either. Concentrate on getting the best natural dry signal to the hard drive that peaks somewhere between -5 and -2 and then process accordingly applying a gate/comp (in that order).

When I launched my company - I used SF 4.0 for the longest time and used to get quite plug-in happy at times. Then a producer pal of mine gave me an eyeopening demo on how to please clients everytime by using a clean, clear, unprocessed dry initial signal to start and then run the whole shebang thru a very subtle combo of noise gate followed by a compressor (Your choice) to arrive at a usable result.

To address your scenario - remember that the Ultramax is a limiter and it while it may sound good over the headphones - this plug actually kills your dynamics. Normalizing also destroys your natural dynamics by raising peaks and alters your original VO in a unnatural way. If your are producing VO for a client - trust me...none of my clients has ever come to me and said - could apply a limiter to your voice to pound the volume way up?

High quality VO comes from a series of techniques and tools - all in concert. I have been doing VO for 23 years...and I cannot stress technique enough...this is the greatest single difference between good VO and not so good...learning to work the mic, breathing techniques..learning what to say...what not to say (silence/pauses is a very powerful tool in VO) all contribute heavily to what goes onto the drive during recording.

I have been doing this so long that I can do a few passes on a script now and quite frankly - there is no need for a lot of processing. That was the biggest lesson I ever learned - is to lay back on the processing and be yourself....Raw VO is a very nude, raw artform where you must let your voice do the work...thruout my VO career...countless clients have paid me to perform to sell their products and 99.99% of them like the delivery non-processed and as natural as possible. Like I mentioned earlier - I got processing happy too and was asked on more than one occasion to redo the material with no processing at all.

One huge tip I can offer is what you are using to get your voice to the hard disk...for a good end result - you have to have a good starting result. Today - my voice travels into a beautiful Rode NTV tube mic then to a Mindprint Envoice channel strip. This unit provides subtle compression to my voice on the way into the computer and makes a ton of difference. The Mindprint has SPDIF out and I send that signal directly into my Delta 1010 via SPDIF in...a beautiful, clean all digital input signal...On the back side...I edit everything in Wavelab and process the resultant file thru a very subtle usage of the UAD-1 gate/comp. Again - very subtle (more gate than comp) but gets rid of any extra noise within the file. Also - do not edit out ALL of you breaths...choose a few obvious ones here and there...it does not sound natural to not breath.

Using the UltraMax or a normalizing process on your raw files is most likely bringing the volume up so much that the breaths, wheezing etc are so obvious that it sounds weird....

VO is a bit of science and done right - it's a killer skill to have. Just try out different things and see what works for you.

Cheers,

VP

Now there's a reply worth reading!!! Thanks for all the tips Vocalpoint. And I too fired one off a bit too fast, sorry.

I went back to see what in fact I actually do on voiceover tracks vs. vocal singing tracks. I don't normalize anything and in fact, have stopped using the ultramaximizer months ago. For the reason Vocalpoint mentioned about sucking the dynamics out. I had a mix that we were scrutinizing here in this forum and in the end the problem was the ultramaximizer squashing everything. In voiceover tracks I don't do too much. Sometimes a C4 and compression going in, but not much else. Most important is to get good audio from the beginning and not have to fix anything in post. Can't stress that enough.

Vocalpoint,
Dont sweat it, thanks for listening to me (or at least taking the time to read my last post).
Ironicly, the same things you stated in your last post are the shortcomings of internet and all forums. That being, like for me its hard to create the dynamics and feelings in the typed or written word that we can convey when speaking to others face to face.
I personaly am terrible at writing, never liked it in school, still dont like to write/ type now. But that dislike ,has created disadvantages for me now.
Sometimes I dont always convey my meaning properly in writing.
Plus, writing my Scripts for my Tech. instructional videos takes me FOREVER!

The biggest reason I stay active in this forum is I truly believe the people here are uniquein truly wanting to help others. And when something like the misunderstanding we had prior happens, It's well ,just that, a misunderstanding.

As cosmo said,
Your last post is great advice, so much so that I printed it out to keep with my other reference material, that Ive gotten from people like Spot,Alistair and the like.
As I said earlier, I do have a tendency to fall victim to the oohh gotta get that-itis.
As Mies van der Rohe once said "less is more". I will try more at improving my technique and keep the processing to a minimum.
Probably some of my problem is being too self conscious of the natural sound of my voice.

.
Fact is , I probably wont be doing all the V/O's for my project's forever
the more I think of it, perhaps I should "whip out my credit card and pay you!" (to do my V/O's ) ;)
But for now, as I get the company started I'm a one man band.

Perhaps, I could post a short sample of one of my clips on a web page.
In an unprocessed form and you guys could give me some pointers.
We'll see what happens with Hurr. Ivan here, unfortunatly I'm on the west coast of Fl. and three in three weeks is another reason I'm a little edgy.



Seriously,
Thanks again Guys for passing on such valuable lessons learned.
I would be lost in editor's limbo with out this forum.
Eric

Oh almost forgot, is the condenser mic i mentioned good/ok for recording with?
I'm running it through an old 8 channel board with a touch gain on the low 125hz ish eq bands.