Possible to Punch Record WITHOUT headphones?

[Park Seward]

You could try to put small speaker to the null point of a unidirectional mic. Have it at a low volume and it might not be heard over your voice as you are recording but loud enough to hear the cue.

But I'll let the recording go and edit out the mistakes later. I bet that would take less time.

When I'm transferring video and get a head clog, I back up the video after cleaning the heads and let it roll again. I never stop the digital hard drive recorder. As suggested, I edit out the mistakes or clogs later.

[Ben Jenssen]

Perhaps the solution is simply to use headphones but do the one-side-off trick. Slide one side off the ear. One ear lets you monitor playback, the other gives you the full sound of your voice and ambience. Maybe in combination with the sidechained compressor technique that Carl suggested.

[Bob Olhsson]

If you need compression, you are too close to the mike or headphones are screwing up your dynamics.

[N.V.]

I did a little looking around this morning and it seems that Presonus Studio One Free will allow what I want, per this youtube video. Hey, it's free... I'll give it a try and see how it shakes out.

[Darryl Ramm]

If you are going to switch DAWs why not look at Adobe Audition as well which is widely used for voice overs, audio books etc.. I think they added punch in/preroll at some time, I don't know any of the details.

[Carl Kolchak]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

If you need compression, you are too close to the mike or headphones are screwing up your dynamics.

I'm not talking about using compression to, you know, compress the signal - I'm talking about using it as a means of input muting (the live monitoring, not playback), to prevent spill / feedback.

[Bob Olhsson]

Spill from what?

[Darryl Ramm]

Bob, all explained if you read Carl's earlier post.

[Bob Olhsson]

Why do you need to hear playback if you are reading a script?

[Carl Kolchak]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

Why do you need to hear playback if you are reading a script?

Because some people like to perform the text, almost like a musical overdub, punching in over pre-existing mistakes.


I agree, keeping the machine rolling, and if necessary dropping markers wherever edits need to be made, before going back and cutting the whole thing together, is by far the simplest method.

The possible downside, is that if you've been raised in the Digital age, there's generally not the discipline of taking notes, and if you're not used to that way of working, it could possibly bog the whole process of editing down (in spite of, or perhaps because of the entire performance being laid down linearly).

If you're doing overdubs, even if you aren't taking notes, you only have to worry about dealing with one mistake at a time, and in context.