0061: What’s Left: How To Make Your Pickup Editing Foolproof
Video:
Audio:
Show notes:
Hey there, hero!
When doing pickups, your final product has to sound completely natural, as if that’s how you recorded it in the first place.
And sometimes, breaths can be a bit confusing. Do you edit around them? Do you include them? Do you leave them out? Do they get doubled by mistake?
I have a one-word solution: “Left.”
And I’ll show you a demo in Audacity so you can make this rule your own.
Does this help? Make sense? Let me know in the comments below.
Raw transcript:
Raw transcript:
so when editing auditions or finished
work in voiceover we will often find
that the edits aren’t just they’re just
not quite right
uh we leave a breath in or we chop a
breath out and i’ve got a way
to help you understand how to make that
editing a lot more precise especially
when you’re doing pickups
in uh your audiobook work in your
auditioning work and so on and i’m
actually going to show you on screen so
if you’re watching this with video great
if you’re listening to it with the audio
podcast pop over to vo heroes for this
particular episode of the vo heroes
podcast
[Music]
so when you’re editing i want to give
you a quick tip on how to make your
editing really really precise almost
foolproof
uh when it has to do with pickups and
you’re editing around breaths
so i’m going to record a very short
recording and force myself to do a pick
up on the last end of it and i’m going
to over emphasize the breath that i take
before that last phrase i’m going to
actually gasp it in just so you can see
the um the waveform on the screen so
let’s take a look at audacity i’m going
to start the recording
now is the time for all good men to come
to the aid of their country
and to serve their fellow man
let’s do a pickup
and serve their fellow man
all right so there we go there’s the uh
the actual
let me play it back here just so you can
hear it now is the time for all good men
to come to the aid of their country
and to serve their fellow man let’s do
it
and serve their fellow man and yes i did
use the qw uh keyboard shortcut to do
the the the pickup and the creation of a
new um
a new track now the track down here has
a breath
right here
and the pickup itself
so does this track there’s the breath
and there’s the pickup i’ll play this
for you so you can hear it
you hear that gasp
now here’s the trick here’s what you
want to do
you want to choose
to use
one breath or the other
all the time
and i’ve chosen to use the breath that i
did
in the original piece that i am then
picking up
because it’s likely to be more in line
with the story that i’m telling and more
aligned
with my performance at the time
so when you are editing make sure that
you put your cursor right there
right to the left
of
the content that you’re voiced not
including this breath right so start
here
highlight it
copy it and then do the very same thing
choose to put your cursor
right to the left of what you’re
replacing right
and then when you hit
paste there it’ll be and now when you
begin that country
and serve their there’s no there’s no
way that you could have
grabbed this the whole thing
copying this and then somehow mistaking
and forgetting about the breath
now listen country
and serve there we don’t want that right
so again
choose
to take your pickup
not including the breath
and using the word left
you can actually
use this as a mnemonic to remember it
click your cursor just to the left
of the the process of the of the copy
that you want to grab
and leave behind the breath so it’s left
behind
copy it i just hit command c
and then
again leaving the breath behind here
replace what you have
so
replace the mistake that you made so
hopefully that can help you be a lot
more precise about your editing
some people are like uh i can’t see the
breath well that’s okay because what
you’re looking for is that waveform that
you can see
so
uh leave the breath behind from the
pickup
and leave the breath behind from the
from the original piece that you’re
copying into
i hope that makes your editing a little
bit more precise
um it works
uh whether you have a breath there or
not
just remember to pick and replace
exactly the same content
from each one of your pickups i hope
that helps
i’m david h lawrence 17th i thank you so
much for watching in this particular
case again if you’re listening uh with
the audio version of the podcast pop
over to voheros.com for this particular
episode check out the video and you’ll
see me demonstrate this in audacity
again i’m david i thank you so much for
watching and for listening and i will
see you in the next episode of the vo
heroes podcast
[Music]
you
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I’m confused about one thing, David. I have always been given to understand that normal breaths are good but gasps should be removed or reduced.
Did you leave the gasp because it was okay, or because removing/reducing it was outside the scope of the lesson?
I overdid them on purpose so they were easily heard on playback and easily seen in the waveform. Normally they would be less noticeable.
David,
Your explanations of how to do the pick ups has helped me to understand how to do them. Thank you!
Mare
I was slipping a little on this in my auditions. Thanks for the reminder David 🙂
I can see the value of using the original breath, but I worked in one studio (Recorded Books) where you would always record the last sentence or sentence fragment before the pickup, thereby getting the flow in the pickup. You just cut out the repeated phrase and keep the new breath before the pickup. That’s been my go to when doing it myself ever since. BUT (and this is a big but *ahem*) you’ve got to be precise on where you’re editing or you’ll get a repeated phrase.
Always appreciate your sensible tips. May give your technique a test run to see which I like best.
That’s exactly why we teach the Stairstep method, and not punch and roll. Your timing has to be pretty accurate, and your energy has to be uniform; both eventually controllable, but I’ve never understood the need. Thank you for the comments!