Voice over tool & built-in audio

When I open FCE, I routinely get a message "unable to locate built-in audio." I ignore it and continue, so far as I know without any bad consequences for my projects. Sound input and output seems fine, except when I try to use the voiceover tool.
My mic is hooked up through a Tascam US-122 usb connection. Indicator lights on the usb interface show that the mic is working, and the sound preferences panel also shows the sound from the mic coming into the computer at normal levels (the input levels indicator lights up when I speak into the mic)
My voiceover tool settings are Tascam US-122 for source and for input. My output is set for headphones. Adding to the mystery is that on rare occasions, after trying many changes in settings and closing/reopening the project, the voiceover tool will suddenly work properly (I haven't been able to isolate a cause). Today, however, nothing I do seems to help. I recently upgraded to osx 10.4.10, but the problem existed long before that. Any suggestions?

Hi(Bonjour)!
There is an issue with some USB based sound devices and FCE HD.
You can use Soundflower pref panel to allows virtual "rewiring" of your audio from input source to output destination. That may resolve your problem.
Search this forum with "soundstick, USB, soundflower" keywords.
Michel Boissonneault

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Trouble viewing audio levels in Voice Over tool

Hello,
I often record voice over into Final Cut Pro using the Voice Over tool. In the middle section of the Voice Over window there is a 'Level' meter that flashes Green to Yellow and Red, illustrating the level of audio being fed into the Mac. For some reason though, this has stopped working for me.
My set up is this: A Mic in our voice over booth connects to a Soundcraft 4 channel mixing desk via an XLR cable. The mixing desk is linked to a JVC HD tape desk, which is connected to the Mac via FireWire.
Previously, to capture Voice Over I set the tape deck to 'Line' input, in 'DV' mode and set the Voice Over tool to 'DV Audio' as the source.
I can see sound levels on the mixing desk. I can see sound levels on the tape deck, but I can't see sound levels on the Mac's VO tool. Despite this, it does still capture voice over (I just can't 'see' it).
This problem is annoying because it means Im unsure whether the Mac is actually receiving an audio feed or not unless I do a test recording first.
Any suggestions as to why the Voice Over tool would suddenly stop showing me Levels, would be greatly appreciated!

My secondary Mac works fine when the AV settings are set to HDV, despite it receiving standard DV audio input. Whether FCP is set to DV or not doesn't seem to matter in this case.
In trying to resolve the issue I played around with DV/HDV settings within FCP and the Deck; trying different combinations, but with no success.
+To recap (just to clarify in my own head), the situation is this:+
+Both of my Macs, Primary and Secondary, happily record Voice Over, via the Voice Over tool.+
+The Mic in the sound room connects to a Mixing desk via an XLR cable. The mixing desk is also connected to 2 sets of headphones, one for the Artist and one for the Engineer. 2 audio jacks connect the mixing desk to the JVC tape deck. The JVC tape deck connects to my Mac via FireWire to the port at the rear of the Mac.+
+The issue is that the Primary Mac does not display audio Levels in the Voice Over tool, whilst it does on the Secondary Mac.+
+While Im recording Voice Over on my secondary Mac I can see that there is an Audio input because the Green/Yellow/Red bar flashes up. On my Primary mac this bar is inactive and therefore gives me no clues as to the level of audio being fed into the Mac.+

USB audio input to voice-over tool not working

with FCE-HD on iMac i have system preferences set to USB-122 Tascam box for audio input/output (works great with GB for instance) but when i try using it for audio input on FCE and the voice-over tool set to USB-122, i hear no audio, the level meter doesn't more, etc, its still taking the audio from the built-in mic.
im sure its something simple im overlooking??
tia

Mark,
See if this post helps. Not familiar with USB audio devices myself, but found this searching:
John Hayward, "Audio out from FCE HD to USB audio iMic" #1, 10:11am Oct 4, 2005 CDT

Unable to capture audio from BlackMagic HD Extreme via Voice Over tool

Hi !
I'm trying to capture audio via my BlackMagic HD Extrem card using the Voice Over tool in FCP6, but I can't, no audio is incoming.
I can ingest audio with video using log and capture, then I know my card and my cables are working.
I tried to set the BM card as audio input in my Audio's System Prefereces Pane, but it isn't working either.
I've been looking on the BM website, but I found nothing.
Can you help me ?
Thx

Thanks for the reply.
Looking at system preferences I found that audio input was set microphone. Don't know how it happened. I switched it to DeckLink and now FCP displays 16 input channels in Log and Capture dialog. I didn't try to capture yet but I think it solved the problem, because before I had only two channels displyed.

Voice over tool limited to built-in microphone

The voice-over tool will not give me the dv audio option (my camera is connected via firewire and all systems are go. I know I'm getting a signal from the mic into my camera). Whenever I select DV Audio, I get the following error message:
"No sound recording devices are available. They may be in use by another application, incorrectly connected or may be conflicting with a video output device."
Now I looked up the problem on the Apple support forum and learned that exactly this problem had happened some time in the past with an older model computer. In that case the person submitting the problem was told to update their operating system, to OS X 10.2.3 or higher. I have the latest update to my Macbook Pro so that obviously isn't the issue here.
I'm stumped. Any suggestions?

Sorry -- I'm not sure how the Mbox works... but you cannot monitor VO back from the computer as you're VOing.
SO -- if the Mbox can monitor the audio track then use that. Most of us use some type of mixing board... even a two channel one will do.
Do not try and monitor back off the mac. Won't work... unless they've fixed this in v5.
CaptM

Can I designate where the voice over tool's files go?

Is there a way to tell the voice over tool where the files should be placed? Just curious.
Best,
Tom

In system settings, tell it to capture audio files separately from video files, and then select a scratch disk for the audio files. I think this will work, but not sure. I've never had to do it.

Voice Over Tool Lockup

I upgraded to Lion last week and now when I select Voice Over Tool, I get the beachball and the application just freezes. Is anyone else experiencing this problem? I have to do a force quit to get out. Any suggestions?
Thanks

I did try removing the pref file, but it made no difference. I was already at 4.0.1.
I bit the bullet, offloaded all my files to an external hard drive and wiped my Mac clean. I then reinstalled Snow Leopard. Everything is working fine.
Not sure what the hang up with Lion is on FCE. All the video editing works fine. Just causes the entire system to lockup while using Voice Over. Not sure if it's related to FaceTime but sneaking suspicion says maybe.
Thanks for the help.

Mackie Onyx Mixer with Voice Over Tool

I have a Mackie Onyx mixer and am thinking about buying the firewire option card for it.
Has anyone used the FCP VO tool directly from an Onyx mixer? Mackie says it supports a lot of Mac OS apps including Garageband, however, I have not read that it supports FCP.
Has anyone used this junxt?
thanks-
dk

Yes, give an outpoint BEFORE this extra audio on track 3 and 4 and you'll be good.
Obviously FCP decides which track it is going to send the Voice Over to at the momen't you start recording. Because it does not know how long you are going to record it will decide not to record on A3 or A4, because somewhere down the track there is some audio.
If you'll set an outpoint on let's say 6 minutes, you will know that you'll have plenty of time to do your 3 or 4 minutes voice over recording AND FCP will know that it will be OK to record on A3, because the recording will stop before it encounters other audio on A3 or A4.
Hope this clarifies.
Rienk

Does anyone know how to monitor a microphone when using Voice Over tool?

I use Final Cut studio in conjunction with an AJA Kona LHe card. Audio inputs are via the AJA. I monitor the output from FCP through the AJA card via a Samson C-Control (monitor matrix). Here's my problem. When I'm recording voice over, I am unable to monitor the sound from the microphone through the headphones (or speakers). There is definitely an audio feed being routed to the headphones as I am able to hear the audio cue countdown. The microphone is working fine too - when it comes to playing back the voice over through the headphones (or speakers), I can hear the track absolutely fine. Has anyone experienced the same problem... and do you know how to solve it? Many thanks, AW

its not that you've anything screwy going on .. this is the way it is engineered to work.
the pre-existing audio (and cues) is routed to the headphones but not the voice being recorded.
the solution is to use an audio mixer to monitor both the voice over and the timeline

Voice over tool troubles

Trying to record a voice over and am prevented from doing so by this message:
"The specified capture destination file already exists!" What does this mean, and how do I resolve?

Ensure that the name which you give it is not one which has ever been used before. The voiceover tool cannot create a new file which has the same name as any existing file in your Capture Scratch folder. It might be a good idea to add the date as a prefix in a '031110' format - do not use any punctuation (i.e. not 03/11/10) The resulting name would then be:
031110 Voiceover 01

Why do voice-overs split up my audio stereo pairs?

I'm using FCP 5.1 in OS 10.5.8.
Sometimes after I do voice-overs, I discover that all the stereo pairs on the audio tracks are split apart, and often widely separated vertically. To get them back together on adjacent tracks, I have to un-pair them in the Modify menu, push them back together on the audio tracks, and then re-pair them.
This unwanted splitting-up of audio stereo-pairs is a nuisance. How can I make them stay together?
Tom

Thanks Meg! From now on, I'll do as you suggest and set the target audio track for voiceovers to be a blank one beneath all audio tracks that have anything on them. The project I'm working on has scads of stacked-up sound effects, so I have to aim voiceovers clear down to track A17, which is the first blank one I have! But that way they won't split up any stereopairs on the tracks above them.
I still don't see why the voiceover clips have to split up the stereo pairs to the right and left of them, when they're going onto a blank space on an audio track, but I guess that's just a peculiarity of the program. You've shown me that to prevent such trouble, a voiceover clip needs to appear on a completely blank track of its own, clear of all other audio clips. Then it can be moved up to wherever you want it to go on other tracks.
I was stymied at first when I couldn't get the A1 and A2 patches to appear in the patch panel, so that I could set the target track for voiceovers. They just weren't there. I finally figured out that to get the patches to appear, I have to double-click on any video clip in the Browser. That makes them show up.
Thanks again,
Tom

Using AJA IO with the FCP Voice Over Tool

Has anyone used the io with the VO tool? I have gotten it to work in the past, however, there are a number of convoluted settings to go through to get it to work. It seems intermittent. Today it doesnt want to work at all.
Does anyone have a list of the specific A/V settings, Capture presets, etc, that i need to have set in order for this to work?
FYI--I have never had a problem capturing from tape--(using log and capture with beta, digibeta, dv, vhs)--only when capturing analog audio using the VO tool.
gracias.
dk

You can do it here, in the Audio/Video settings under the Final Cut Pro menu. Click on the Capture Presets tab, then go to Generic Capture Template, duplicate it, then edit. Give it a name that you can recognize when you need to set up your project.

FCStudio2 - Voice Over Tool not working

We just recently upgraded to FCStudio2 and are wanting to use the VO feature. First we ran into the fact that we had to have Log and Capture open to record the audio but we didn't get the countdown. Then w/o log and capture, we get the countdown, but not the VO recorded audio. Now, today, it works with or w/o log and capture open, but cannot get the playback to work with the VO. What a frustrating tool.....any ideas? We have Blackmagic card and Soundbooth mic going to mixer then from mixer to computer.

I believe the issue is with the Blackmagic card rather than FCP or the VO Tool specifically ... your I/O card does not identify itself to the system as an audio interface but rather a video digitizing (vdig) interface ... hence FCP's VO tool (which is looking for an audio interface) doesn't see it (or something like that). I would imagine that your Log and Capture window open method is a kind of hack that is causing the card to activate and hence onpass the signal to the VO Tool ... I don't know if its an officially sanctioned method for using the VO Tool but it sounds a bit quirky.
I can tell you that the VO Tool seems to work just fine here with my audio specific interface (Sound Devices USBPre) ... I dare say that doesn't help but hopefully it frames the problem a little.

Unable to record audio for Voice Over from camera

Hi All:
I have an early 2008 black macbook, FCE4 and a canon HV 30 with an xlr adapter and mic. Imported all my footage just fine. Now I want to record a voiceover track using my nice mic through the camera. I plug in the camera to the computer via firewire. When I go to Voice Over Tool and try to select DV Audio, it tells me this:
"The Selected sound input device is unavailable.
It may be in use by another application, disconnected or improperly connected, or may be conflicting with a video output device."
Uh, okay. I check the manual, it warns me that "External Video" under the View menu must be to OFF. Problem is, there is NO "External Video" option whatsoever in the View menu! None! Whatsoever!
My firewire port is functioning, the computer knows there's a camera attached to it (I checked the Hardware overview, and surely enough the computer detects the camera)...
What am I doing wrong?

I have Built-In Microphone, Built-In Input and DV Audio as source options...but I only get the above-mentioned error message when I select DV Audio. Even when I don't have the firewire & camera connected, I get that same error message when I select DV Audio...which makes me think that the computer doesn't detect the camera, but I know it does because the computer detects a Canon HV 30 in System Profiler (and I can capture w/o a problem...I just click Capture and press escape when the tape end is reached).
And what I meant earlier about capturing is that a window does pop up whenever I'm capturing from my camera and it shows the footage during capture, but the computer does not automatically respond to just my plugging the firewire cable in (idk if it's supposed to recognize it and ask me if I want to capture or not, but it doesn't...I have to prompt it to capture)
I'm also puzzled that I don't have an External Monitor option under View...I'm not using an external monitor, and the only thing close to External Monitor under the View menu is Video Out, under which there are: Refresh Video Devices, Toggle Last, Canvas Playback & Digital Cinema Desktop Preview - Main.

Recording Voice-Over via Final Cut Pro and Recording Via Pro Tools?

Hey all,
I'm recording some voice-over for a documentary shot on DV.
Here's my question: all other factors being the same, is there any disadvantage in terms of audio quality of recording into Final Cut (through an m-box2) using the voice-over tool, or recording into M-Powered Pro Tools using the mbox 2 (and then bringing the file to Final Cut)?
Pro Tools obviously allows for a far more sophisticated treatment of the sound after it has been imputed - but in terms of using it for capture?
I know that Pro tools allows 24bit recording, but I'd probably record at 16bit anyway so as to match the sample rate of the rest of my audio in the project.
I'd be using the same mic-xlr-mbox2 set-up and the same computer, does anyone have any views on the difference in the quality of the recorded audio?
Thanks
Richard O'Sullivan
San Francisco

actually an in point by itself won't help you
a valid recording range needs both In and Out point, or simply a clip in the timeline which by its presence denotes the recording range
the recording range must be less than 5 minutes
in a blank timeline some like to throw a slug in there to mark the recording range, i find it easiest to just enter a duration in the canvas (i type 4.. in the duration field at top left of the canvas and it automatically marks a 4 minute range)

Voice over tool & built-in audio

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