The iPad is exploding as a potential tool for Voice Actors.
Seen Ed Victor’s Webisode about using iPad as your mobile recording unit?
Got the Twisted Wave app for your iPad yet? Got an iPad yet? Read Linda Ristig’s article on VoiceOverXtra: iPad & VoiceOver.
Look, I’m not elitist, and I know budgets are tight…but this thing is waaaay cool. Read my blog VO + iPad=OMG. You may not be the techno-geek I am, but hear me out.
Take a second look at that picture above. It’s an iPad with a mobile production interface. My thanks to Billy James — voice actor, of Charlotte, NC for letting me know about this product. He’s the one who told me about another iPad tool for VO’s that isn’t quite out yet. I wrote about that in Handheld iPhone/Pad Mic. Thanks for the heads-up Billy! (he’s a tech angel sitting on my shoulder).
The Alesis Studio Dock would appear to be for musicians, and yes that may have been the thrust behind it’s design, but like so many other things VO’s borrow from adjacent fields, this works for us too.
Here’s a quote from their site: “…The StudioDock provides microphone and instrument users with two combination XLR and 1/4-inch inputs, each with its own gain control and switchable phantom power for condenser microphones…”
This won’t be the end of things…if it’s not the iPad, it’ll be some other tablet-type product…but I don’t see anybody overtaking the iPad in the forseeable future. More and more apps and attachments will start appearing, and the iPad itself will start being more affordable too.
Just remember, you heard it here first…and I heard it from Billy.
Oh, and noticeable blog changes coming within the next few days. Tell me what you think when you see it.
CourVO
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I create a lot of screencasts (not ipad screencasts). :)
I have started using a process lately, where I record the video and narrate my way off the cuff through what I have just recorded.
I then run that recording through Camtasia’s voice transcription process. It converts my speech to text and gives me the time que for each segment throughout the video.
I then use that as the rough draft script, and re-write it. The beauty of this is, that I am able to keep the timing of the script in check with the video. (fewer script edits, less audio editing)
Then I record a voice over from the script, which is almost always dead on in sync with the video first time through!
Where does the iPad fit in?
I hate printing this out on paper, and have been using the i-prompt pro ipad app. It basically turns your ipad into a teleprompter. They have a separate remote (gadget) that plugs into the ipad as well. I haven’t bought that yet, but the more of these I record the more I can understand how that would be very useful!
Just watched the video, and realized I already have that ipad usb adapter thingy, going to try that out with my Rhode mic and usb mic adapter. :)
I tried using my Rode Mic Procaster (not a USB microphone) plugged into a USB converter that I paid about $50 for in 2009 on Amazon ( OSP XLR to USB Microphone Adapter with Phantom Power ).
It does work with my iPad using i-audition. There is a setting on the OSP XLR that allows you to boost power. The button is labeled ’48v’ When I activate the button to increase the power, I get the pop up message saying the device is trying to use to much power.
When I leave it off, I can use the microphone!
On the down side, the recording level is pretty low, about 15-20% and with i-audition there is no current way (jan 2011) of editing the file to increase the volume level. Not sure if Twisted Wave offers this option or not.
Trying out i-audition myself, it is relatively simple, but there are definitely some un-intuitive aspects about it. I could for example cut off the end of a recording, but not cut out a breathe from the middle of a track. (seemed to be possible in the YouTube video, but the specific steps, actions, swipes, triple swipes or whatever necessary eluded me). :)
i-audition apparently does offer an FTP upload option, which I did not know about.
All that said, I would not necessarily recommend the OSP XLR to USB Microphone Adapter with Phantom Power . I saved about $25 buying it as opposed to I think a Samsung device I was considering, but I haven’t been terribly impressed with the OSP XLR other wise. (a dial fell off out of the box, and I super glued it back on).
Saw it at NAMM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tTZlBE8Naw
Looked very cool, but couldn’t get a recording test…
THAT is what matters here.
George