Voice Tracking With Emotion

[shreveville]

We were one of the first stations in the country to voice track 40 years ago when the term was unknown to most. We might have coined the phrase. I've been voice tracking for over 30 years, back in the days when the tracks were on one tape and that started simultaneously with the music on another tape. I'm sure a lot of you can relate. We then voice tracked with our CD machines, now everything is on the hard drive. Digital Jukebox works excellent for us. I'm old school, nothing beats "live" but voice tracking is great if done well. But something is lost if the announcer doesn't hear the music under his voice as he speaks. A little trick I do that is worth the effort is to listen to the first few seconds of the record (even if I've heard it a thousand times) to get the right emotion. Then you have to imagine that beat in your head when you speak over silence. It would be great if there was a system that allowed you (on a separate track in your head phones) to actually hear the beginning of a song as you voice tracked. You would only need to hear the intro music up to the vocals. What a help that would be. It would get us back to the way radio was meant to be. The beat of the song, actually influencing how the announcer sounds and what he says. Maybe such a system is already out there. If not it is certainly needed.

 

[joep]

It would be great if there was a system that allowed you (on a separate track in your head phones) to actually hear the beginning of a song as you voice tracked. You would only need to hear the intro music up to the vocals. What a help that would be. It would get us back to the way radio was meant to be. The beat of the song, actually influencing how the announcer sounds and what he says. Maybe such a system is already out there. If not it is certainly needed.

Most modern voicetracking systems do this.

 

[shreveville]

We're using Ditigal Jukebox which offers a lot of the very latest features - Internet Voice Tracking, nice mix and timed features to allow you to talk to the vocals. It surely is a "modern" set-up. I don't know of any system that allows the announcer to hear a sample of the music while he is recording a voice track.

 

[bossbill]

As PA_Tune said, several systems have "wet tracking" instead of "dry tracking". You do hear the song ending and beginning in your headphones, and you can slide the three elements around to make for a perfect fit.

 

[SRP]

I don't know of any system that allows the announcer to hear a sample of the music while he is recording a voice track.

Any other system than DJ does this. RCS was one of the first to do it in the early '90s.

Oh, and any good DJ can voicetrack "with emotion" dry or wet. But that's another thread altogether.

 

[ironbear]

We were one of the first stations in the country to voice track 40 years ago when the term was unknown to most. We might have coined the phrase. I've been voice tracking for over 30 years, back in the days when the tracks were on one tape and that started simultaneously with the music on another tape. I'm sure a lot of you can relate. We then voice tracked with our CD machines, now everything is on the hard drive. Digital Jukebox works excellent for us. I'm old school, nothing beats "live" but voice tracking is great if done well. But something is lost if the announcer doesn't hear the music under his voice as he speaks. A little trick I do that is worth the effort is to listen to the first few seconds of the record (even if I've heard it a thousand times) to get the right emotion. Then you have to imagine that beat in your head when you speak over silence. It would be great if there was a system that allowed you (on a separate track in your head phones) to actually hear the beginning of a song as you voice tracked. You would only need to hear the intro music up to the vocals. What a help that would be. It would get us back to the way radio was meant to be. The beat of the song, actually influencing how the announcer sounds and what he says. Maybe such a system is already out there. If not it is certainly needed.

Hi there old timer. I was fascinated by the early voicetracked stations, and experimented on SMC DP-1 and IGM Basic A system stations I programmed. These were 'dry' tracks, and the voice/music synchronization was shaky.

I read everything I could in the trades about how to do it, and got to be a huge fan of Steve Marshall's KNX-FM in the mid-late 70's, which was very seamless and natural sounding (Marshall was a great PD and air talent, too.)

IGM also had a high end DEC PGP-8 mini-computer system in the 70's which could fire Instacarts off-air through a work station for jocks to listen to as voicetracks were cut. And, Concept Production's syndicated formats solved a lot of the sync problems with their 'voicetrack synchronizer' box which compared digital bursts on the music and VT tapes, keeping accidents off the air.

RCS/Prophet and BSI are two of the demo systems you can download which include 'wet, slide-around' voicetracking which is very fun to use. Try it! You'll like it!

 

[shreveville]

Nice comments, Ironbear. We used Concept Production's synchronizer back in the day. We talked Concept into sending us a synchronizer so we could do our voice tracking. I think most stations were using their syndicated announcers at that time.

Do you have a link for the RCS/Prophet or BSI that you mentioned?

Thanks

 

[Charlie]

EncoDAD also has a really good "tracker" for producing "as live" content such as VTs. Many systems allow you to audition the playlist cuts surrounding your voicetrack - some even configure a single key to carry-out the process: start out-going track, record, start next track, stop recording. Seems like DJB only offers visual info like timing rather than offering the actual cuts...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=RCS+Master+Control for starters 8)

 

[ironbear]

Nice comments, Ironbear. We used Concept Production's synchronizer back in the day. We talked Concept into sending us a synchronizer so we could do our voice tracking. I think most stations were using their syndicated announcers at that time.

Do you have a link for the RCS/Prophet or BSI that you mentioned?

Thanks

Sure do. BSI in Eugene: http://www.bsiusa.com/ , owned by Cumulus. Simian and Simian Lite.

RCS (Prophet) owned by CC. http://www.rcsasia.com/ Player 101, demo download link no longer on site, you'll need to contact sales for this.

They both sell low end products starting around $500 which do a good job with voicetracks. Simian Lite is a better value, since there are no add-ons, and 101 requires a lot of them to be truly functional. Player 101 has a reputation as more stable. Both operate in XP only, as is the case with most other current systems I'm aware of.

Concept had a very smart bunch of people, I thought.

 

[gr8oldies]

I worked where we had Digital Jukebox in 1997 and it had the capability to hear the song intro as you were recording a voice track. I can't imagine a later version wouldn't

 

[Brilliant_Marconi]

B.E.'s AudioVAULT has a great VT'er which allows jocks to produce "live" tracks...with total control of where the track is positioned on the outgoing and incoming songs. Jocks hear the music of both songs and can audition the tracks before exporting them to the air studio. To make best use of our staff, we VT multiple music stations located in 3 markets....in 2 states, using AudioVault.

For the best tracks, jocks have to take the time and effort of producing tracks that are very close to what is done during a live shift. Providing the VT studio(s) with current event material, promo sheets, psa material, water cooler talk, etc. is a must. And, staff should be available to go live if conditions warrant.

 

[shreveville]

gr8oldies said when he used Digital Jukebox in 1997 the announcer had the capability of hearing the song as he was recording a voice track. If this is a feature of the current Digital Jukebox, please let me know how it is done. Very few details are shared in the manual. We had to figure out many of the things on our own.

Brilliant_Marconi, you get it. You are right on the money. Time & effort has to be made when doing VT's to capture that "live" sound. I hear so many stations with the generic "that was...this in" intro/outros.

 

[Randy Lahey]

As others have mentioned I think it's a common feature on virtually all current automation systems. It works great, but one issue I had with Scott Studios (AS32) is that unless it was a "quiet" intro, the announcer would get lost in the mix. Apparently, you can manipulate the intro level by using the segue editor, but whenever we tried it, it would crash the VT program. I think it was a soundcard issue...at least that's what our engineer said. So basically, we could only talk over an intro if it was soft or quiet.


Randy.

 

[gr8oldies]

I take it you don't have support. I do know someone who is using DJB at a station, maybe I can get you in contact.

 

[shreveville]

We paid $1000 for lifetime support but as soon as DJ upgraded (which they do all the time) we were told that the "lifetime support" no longer applied. So "lifetime" could mean a month - two months, just until they upgrade to another version.

 

[RadioMan203]

gr8oldies said when he used Digital Jukebox in 1997 the announcer had the capability of hearing the song as he was recording a voice track. If this is a feature of the current Digital Jukebox, please let me know how it is done. Very few details are shared in the manual. We had to figure out many of the things on our own.

In the DOS version I could never get it to work at all, let alone work right. I figured I might be better off with the Windows version but that turned into a giant clusterf**k. It totally trashed the database during the upgrade/transfer and that's when I decided their software was utter crap! I was looking to go to Prophet101 at the time but didn't have the funds so I opted for StationPlaylist Pro - a decision I mark as a triumphant victory. A massive improvement as far as flexibility and stability. I even wrote the review for Radio World.

We paid $1000 for lifetime support but as soon as DJ upgraded (which they do all the time) we were told that the "lifetime support" no longer applied. So "lifetime" could mean a month - two months, just until they upgrade to another version.

You'll find threads scattered about Radio-Info regarding the lack of integrity of the company, operator and software in question. Personally I would rather pay a human to sit in the chair and be there than trust a questionable vendor, software or support for my on-air presentation. Why would anybody running mission critical on-air audio trust that to a vendor or product of questionable merit? I would run for the hills and avoid that sort of product/vendor like the black plague.

As far as voice tracking goes, in a couple of weeks I will be working with high school students, teaching them the aspects of voicetracking. Since few of these students have any radio background it will be an interesting challenge to see just how this lesson gets executed.

 

[RadioMan203]

gr8oldies said when he used Digital Jukebox in 1997 the announcer had the capability of hearing the song as he was recording a voice track. If this is a feature of the current Digital Jukebox, please let me know how it is done. Very few details are shared in the manual. We had to figure out many of the things on our own.

In the DOS version I could never get it to work at all, let alone work right. I figured I might be better off with the Windows version but that turned into a giant clusterf**k. It totally trashed the database during the upgrade/transfer and that's when I decided their software was utter crap! I was looking to go to Prophet101 at the time but didn't have the funds so I opted for StationPlaylist Pro - a decision I mark as a triumphant victory. A massive improvement as far as flexibility and stability. I even wrote the review for Radio World.

We paid $1000 for lifetime support but as soon as DJ upgraded (which they do all the time) we were told that the "lifetime support" no longer applied. So "lifetime" could mean a month - two months, just until they upgrade to another version.

You'll find threads scattered about Radio-Info regarding the lack of integrity of the company, operator and software in question. Personally I would rather pay a human to sit in the chair and run things than be held hostage by a questionable vendor, software or support for my on-air presentation. Why would anybody running mission critical on-air audio trust that to a vendor or product of questionable merit? I would run for the hills and avoid that sort of product/vendor like the black plague.

As far as voice tracking goes, in a couple of weeks I will be working with high school students, teaching them the aspects of voicetracking. Since few of these students have any radio background it will be an interesting challenge to see just how this lesson gets executed.

 

[Charlie]

The details at http://www.digitaljukebox.com/SoftwareSupport.htm seem to indicate that the yearly support gives you free upgrades whilst you are "in support", so your $400/year gets you the support metioned plus any updates to the software. The "lifetime" option below appears to offer the same sort of deal - as a software author myself, if I offer "lifetime" support for a fixed fee - I would mean exactly that, updates/assistance for as long as the customer was breathing in/out.

When you say "DJ upgraded" do you mean that they (Digital Jukebox) upgraded the software but you didn't ? If so, that's a good reason to ask you nicely to upgrade - especially if major issues have been found with the software or there are some much needed new features. It is usually in your best interest to keep the software current... and supporting "obsolete" software versions can be a major PITA at times ;D

EDIT: Just seen Bill's post re: StationPlaylist - I agree, it's a good system - more suited to 24/7 auto as I personally do not find it that good for live DJ work although it's got better in recent years with the additional "cartwall" window. It does, however, operate brilliantly if you want a live-sounding automated feed with dry liners/voicetracks playing over intros.

 

[shreveville]

We paid the $1000 support several years ago. When we did the first update with the software, we were told the lifetime only applied to the system before the update. Since then we have had to pay the annual $400 for support. We complained but were told to get any support we had to continue to pay the annual $400.

 

[RadioMan203]

We paid the $1000 support several years ago. When we did the first update with the software, we were told the lifetime only applied to the system before the update. Since then we have had to pay the annual $400 for support. We complained but were told to get any support we had to continue to pay the annual $400.

If a group of unhappy customers were to get together to press some legal action I would be you his tune would change. It's just too bad people actually spent money to buy his software. It may work better now, but without decent support you might as well run your station on iTunes!

StationPlaylist has come along quite well. It may not be as slick as many other systems but for under $1,000 it's pretty darn versatile. The support is many multiple times better than the digital junkbox.

BTW: Sorry about the double post above - that's what happens before getting the morning cup o' joe.