Voice Tracking for DJ

[FredRichards]

I got hit with a question at work that I just can't answer.

The fellow that runs audio for our TV newscasts asked what it would take (equipment wise) to voice track for radio stations out of his home. He can't voice track out of one of the local stations, but he has some money saved up to buy equipment.

I told him that I would help him with a small console, a decent computer running a program like Sound Forge or whatever is needed, a good mic, and speakers.

BUT, I'm lost on the part of how he would get his list of songs to intro and outtro, and the format he needs to record. I assume, like commercials, he would FTP them to the station in MP3 format and their system would insert them based on some naming convention.

I would like to help him out if someone could provide some guidance. Sorry guys, I've been out of this end of the biz too long to really help him.

 

[sparks794]

My first question would be what kind of system is the station running?

Several of the audio systems now have provisions for someone to voice track/produce audio remotely via the web. He should find out first if the station that he is going to do this for has that option.

If not, the station could send him a copy of the music/traffic log so he could see what he was tracking. I know of some situations in the past where that is how a station did it - they were voice tracking a week at a time.

 

[FredRichards]

I *think* it's Prophet or Nextgen, but I would have to ask on Monday.

Thinking it was Nextgen, I looked at some docs and it appears that to do voice tracking the person has to be on one of their systems in a station with a full library. The only systems I know of in town is Prophet, Scott, and WireReady.

My guess is that he wants to be able to do his work at home being provided a fax or e-mail of what he's suppose to do, and then voicing MP3 files to send to the station. Is this possible?

 

[SirRoxalot]

How about if you ask the station(s) what they would prefer as far as VT's are concerned? If they have remote VT capability, it's easier. If not, they probably have preferences for file format, delivery, etc. Somebody on their end will have to get the VTs into the system.

Either way, the talent will need a decent mic and digital recording capability at home. See the Production board for lots of information and advice on that topic.

 

[CW]

I *think* it's Prophet or Nextgen, but I would have to ask on Monday.

Thinking it was Nextgen, I looked at some docs and it appears that to do voice tracking the person has to be on one of their systems in a station with a full library. The only systems I know of in town is Prophet, Scott, and WireReady.

My guess is that he wants to be able to do his work at home being provided a fax or e-mail of what he's suppose to do, and then voicing MP3 files to send to the station. Is this possible?

If its Prophet (CFS or NexGen, etc), all you need is a PC running Prophet's software and a WAN connection to the station. The remote machine will pull the log down from the station machine...but NO music....when he does his VT, all he will be able to do is record his voice track and then send it back to the station...he will NOT be able to hear any music UNLESS he has that loaded in his own system...
NexGen should be able to import other format files like MP3s etc....but he would be best to do his audio in either WAV or MPEG2 (which Prophet defaults to) or MP3, then send them to the station where someone ELSE will have to add the audio into the system and edit accordingly (music timing, etc)....used to do that on one station where we had CFS (the pre NexGen Prophet version that ran on Win3.1)....

 

[jcolletta275]

What about a VNC client? If the VT module doesn't pull down the music files, would it be feasible for the person doing the tracking to use a VNC client to log into a computer at the station running the VT module and do the tracks that way?

 

[ChiefEngineer]

gotomypc.com

15 dollars a month to link to 3 pc's from anywhere. what a godsend.

 

[CW]

What about a VNC client? If the VT module doesn't pull down the music files, would it be feasible for the person doing the tracking to use a VNC client to log into a computer at the station running the VT module and do the tracks that way?

Sure you can control the PC but how do you get AUDIO into it?? Thats the problem with VNC (I use it and love it myself)..but you cannot pass audio or files between the machines...you merely control the KB, mouse and get to watch it remotely.....

 

[LightGuy48]

If it's NexGen it has the option to do heads & tails.

With VNC look at using UltraVNC which has file transfer capability. http://www.uvnc.com Also look at adding an encryption plug-in for security unless they have VPN capability which will secure the connection.

 

[FredRichards]

This is all good info, and I'll pass it on.

As I said before, the electronic end is a piece of cake with a high end Dell, Delta44 card, console, RE20, SoundForge 9, and a RoadRunner connection.

The part I couldn't help him with is how he would interface with the station.

I hoped it was a simple as a PDF log that said he was coming out of Song-A with a 3.5 second tail, and the intro to Song-b was 10.2, for a total talk time of 13.7. I think he would be comfortable with that.

 

[jcolletta275]

Okay, if not VNC, what about generating a separate log file for the tracker module that calls up the audio files needed (and sends the voice tracks back) via FTP? The user could just log in to the server (using Windows' built-in FTP features) then run the VT program, do the tracks and log out. Then all that would need to be done on the station's end is copy the VT files to the proper directory, and since they're already in the log, no further adjusting would need to be done. What do you all think?

(I'm curious because I plan on doing this myself some time.)