Voice Over mixes foreground audio contained in the clipboard (use Copy first) with background audio contained in the file. Voice Over automatically fades the background audio in and out based on silent and non-silent regions within the foreground audio.
Use this effect to:
| Voice Over Settings | |
|---|---|
| Setting | Description |
| Fade out time (s) | Sets the amount of time it takes for the background audio to fade out before the foreground audio is mixed in. |
| Fade in time (s) | Sets the amount of time it takes for the background audio to fade in when the foreground audio ends or contains a long enough span of silence. |
| Fade volume (dB) | Sets the target volume of the background when it is faded out. Set it to the lowest value (Off) if no background audio is required when foreground audio is present. Usually values under -20dB are recommended when background audio is needed. |
| Voice volume (dB) | Sets the volume of the foreground audio. Values around -2dB to 0dB are recommended. |
| Silence level (dB) | Sets the level at which the foreground audio should be treated as silence. Recordings often contain some amount of background noise. To ensure proper detection of silence and accurate automatic fading, use values of -34dB or higher. Using the lowest (Off) value is not recommended. See the notes below to ensure consistent silence level detection. |
| Silence allowed (s) |
Sets the duration of silence allowed in the foreground audio
before the background audio is
faded in. Usually narrations contain brief pauses where fading in is
unnecessary and undesired. Adjust this setting to avoid fading in and
out too frequently.
Note that this value is added to the fade in and out times to determine the total amount of silence required before the background audio starts to fade in. If Fade out time is 1.0, Fade in time is 1.0, and Silence allowed is 3.0, then the foreground audio would have to be silent for a total of 5.0 seconds before the background audio is faded in. |
The Voice Over window shows a graph of the current fade and mix settings. The clipboard (foreground or voice) audio is shown in red, the original file (background or music) audio is shown in blue, and a time line is shown under the graph. By default, background audio is faded out, which is shown by the blue region sloping downward. The steepness of the slope is controlled by the Fade out time setting. How low the background volume goes is controlled by the Fade volume setting.
Next the foreground audio is mixed in, which is shown by the red blocks. The volume (height) of the foreground region is controlled by the Voice volume setting. The space between the two red blocks represents the amount of silence allowed in the foreground audio before the background fades in again. It is controlled by the Silence allowed setting.
Finally, when the foreground audio ends or contains sufficient silence, the background audio fades in again, as shown by the blue region sloping upward. The steepness of the slope is controlled by the Fade in time setting. The level at which the foreground audio is considered silence is controlled by the Silence level setting and is shown as a yellow line in the graph.
If you use the Play button to start previewing, the graph displays a real-time representation of the faded and mixed audio.
See Also: Mix, Crossfade, Fade In, Fade Out, Shape Volume, Presets