Live Voice Capture

I got a call from the television commercial people in The Box on 4West that they needed to shoot a voice track for one of the game trailers they were working on.  Their offices are under construction and there's no way they could shoot their own without hiring out.

I'm convenient.  I'm on 3West.  I carry a microphone.

The first thing I did was book time in the Executive Conference Room which has severe soundproofing, padded air conditioning, very few echoes, and almost complete isolation from the rest of the building.  It helps that I was at that instant working for a production with an actual budget.

I brought my MacBook Pro with Audacity, analog Peavey sound mixer, boom mic stand, blast filter and AKG vocal microphone from home and set up at the top of our time block.  It turns out the producer knew a vocal performer that worked at the company in another capacity and she consented to perform the lines -- as long as it didn't take too long. She was a busy woman.

I set up for a standing performance at the right height, closed all the heavy blinds (for soundproofing), turned all the lamp dimmers off, unplugged the phone, posted a little Hot Set sign on the door and closed it.   I adjusted Audacity for 48000, 16- bit, Stereo because the clips were headed for a video mix in one of the Avid editors on 3West.  We did a few quick mic checks and set to work.  The woman, method actor that she was insisted on trotting around the room several times to become partially winded for the performance.  Roll for Record! Speed! Action!

"Time is short. They are coming, You must help me!"

Multiple times with slight variations.

Aaaaand Cut!  Thanks everyone.  I Exported the WAV files and then saved them again under different names for backup.  I burned all the WAV clips to a Data CD for delivery to the Avid operator along with the producer's notes on the takes he liked.

I opened the blinds, turned the lights back on, packed up all the equipment and went back up to my office to finish doing email.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmM67e_YU0M

Koz