Mastering a Voice Over with ME3

hdrechsel18 wrote on 8/12/2024, 12:26 PM

I'm adding a Voice Over to my current project. I've done this several times before, but this is the first time I decided to use ME3 to master the narration. My process has been: load my audio (VO .wav) onto an empty track in my project. I then open ME3 and do my mastering (EQ, Compression, Desser, Limiting). When done I export it back to my project. I'm not sure what the ME3 "normalize" function is - supposedly it's the "Auto" button (?????).

I then have to chop up the VO track - because I'm a lousy narrator (mistakes, etc), and I need to place the narrative on the timeline where the video events occur. The problem I'm having with this - when I go back to review, some of the audio objects have no audio. I can see the waveform, but the audio is gone. It seems to happen somewhere in the middle of the object. Can't figure this out at all.

To get around this, I load the audio file (.wav) into a new project, do my ME3 mastering (as above), and then export it as a new .wav file into my project folder. If I pull this into my project - slice & dice as before - I don't seem to be having this problem. Not sure what I'm doing wrong (or right), it's been very frustrating. ME3 seems to do a good job - even though it's hard to work with (I can never get the sliders to the exact numbers I want) - and I would like to keep working with it. But there's something I'm missing - maybe someone can enlighten me. I haven't been able to find a tutorial on this - though I thought I saw one about a year ago???

Thanks in advance. Harry D.

Comments

browj2 wrote on 8/12/2024, 5:16 PM

@hdrechsel18

Hi Harry,

Which version of Movie Studio are you using. Please fill in your signature with the details that we normally ask for.

Are you opening ME3 from the timeline?

What "Auto" button are your referring to? Normalize can be accessed under Effects - top item. A user screen pops up. I usually normalize to 90% or change to -1.00 dB.

Upon exiting, ME3 asks if you want to save. This will overwrite your original file. Do so. Back to the timeline.

I sliced up my audio and moved the pieces around. No problems.

Screen shot of what you're trying to do would help.

ME3 is a 32 bit program, I think, so you can't get fancy new plugins. You would need Sound Forge Audio Cleaning Lab 3 (4 has problems) for that.

Alternatively, just use the Mixer in Movie Studio to add effects.

John CB

hdrechsel18 wrote on 8/13/2024, 8:38 AM

Thanks John,
I am using Movie Studio 2024 Suite. Yes - I was opening ME3 from the timeline of my project, but when I encountered the problem, I opened the .wav file in a new project, mastered it there, and then exported it as a new .wav, which seemed to have fixed my problem.

I've attached a screenshot, showing the "AUTO" button in ME3. If you place your curser over it, "Normalize" pops up, but I'm not sure what that is doing. Thank you for pointing out the Normalize function under Effects - I didn't know that was there.

I've also attached a screenshot showing my VO track. You can see I've chopped it up MANY times. The issue I had happened on only 1-2 of the objects. Just wasn't sure if it were something I did, or a bug. I like the results I was getting from ME3 (except the normalizing - which I didn't understand, and may not even need).

Thanks again. Harry D.