Voice Tracking

 

 

 

Voice tracking is an industry-standard technique to create the illusion that there is a live announcer sitting behind the desk in a radio studio whereby in fact all the audio has been prerecorded and played out automatically. Voice tracking can allow you to record a three-hour show in less than half an hour.

 

PlayIt Live enables you to do this by inserting Voice Track items into the playout log and recording the audio with your microphone. The recorded audio can then be sequenced with other tracks in the log and tweaked using the segue editor. It is also possible to record voice tracks remotely, on another computer, and send these voice tracks to PlayIt Live. For more information on this see .

 

Start by dragging tracks into the log for the hour you wish to voice track:

 

 

Then drag a Voice Track item into the log for every voice track you would like to record between tracks:

 

 

 

A placeholder will be shown in the playout log for each voice track item you need to record. Click the red circle record icon on the voice track you wish to record.

 

The segue editor will be shown allowing you to record your voice:

 

 

If you are using voice tracking for the first time, go to Settings... and ensure that your microphone device and audition time settings are set up correctly. The audition time is the number of seconds of the end of the previous track you will hear when you start recording your voice track. Remember to click OK to save your settings.

 

To start recording your voice track click the Record button, or press the R key.

 

A pop-up box will be shown if you have not purchased a VoiceTrack licence: see note.

 

Your recording will start and you will hear the end of the previous track. Start speaking to record your voice. The record button will change to the Play Next button:

Click the Play Next button to play the next track after the voice track, or press the R key again. The button will change to the stop button:

Click the Stop button to finish recording, or press the R key one more time.

 

Your segue editor view should now look something like this:

 

 

You can trim the audio of the recording by clicking the edges of the waveform to remove any unwanted audio at the start or end of the recording. You can also move the audio around by clicking and dragging the top bar the waveform and edit the volume by clicking and dragging on the orange fade envelope. If the audio you have recorded is too quiet, use Gain to increase the volume.

 

 

You have now recorded your first voice track. Click Next Voice to save and record the next voice track, or click Save to save and return to the playout log.

 

The voice track will now be shown loaded into the players if playing next, and shown in the log with the other tracks.

 

 

Voice tracks can be recorded as far in advance as you need. Just scroll down the playout log to the required time.

 

When recording a voice track item a Carts section is shown to the right hand side under the Audio Settings section. This can be used to record other audio along side your voice track, for example, a bed. Simply drag and drop an audio file into the cart, or you can use the icon to load an existing track, file, or eject the cart. You must ensure carts are loaded before starting to record your voice track. Use the volume slider to adjust the volume of the audio if you want to talk over it.