Which DAW?
Hello, and welcome to the Veo help desk podcast. My name is David Jacobs, and I'm a voice over actor. And I started this service and podcast to help other voice over artists with their nagging technical problems. This could be problems with your performance software, your business software, your computer, or just getting started in the business. So I'm glad you're here for our very first episode.
David Jacobs:And we'll start where many people start, which is your DAW. But wait, what is a DAW? Digital audio workstation. A very fancy word for the software which is going to record your voice for all your voice overs. There are many choices.
David Jacobs:So which one do I choose? Which one is best? Well, the answer, as is the answer for many voice over things, is it depends. It really just depends. There is no one software which is better than the other, which is the one to get.
David Jacobs:It depends on many, many factors. So let's just run through some of the top ones. These aren't all of the choices, but these are the most popular choices in general. And let's just run through them and see what we have. So much of this will depend on how much money you have.
David Jacobs:What's your budget? Maybe you have no budget whatsoever. Not a problem. Or maybe you're willing to spend a little bit. At the low end, with no budget whatsoever required, is a software called Audacity.
David Jacobs:Audacity has been around for many, many, many years. It's quite good. It's very stable, and it will do everything you need to record voice overs. So this is not a bad place to start if you're just getting started so you don't put out a lot of money when you're getting a feel for things. Audacity is completely free.
David Jacobs:Always has been and probably always will be. You just download it from the site and start going. It records your voice. It has all the editing features that you would like. Are they as fancy as some of the others?
David Jacobs:Not really. But you don't generally need all that. You generally need fairly basic editing, especially when you're getting started. It does a fine job of all of this. It saves in any file type you want.
David Jacobs:And it even has multi track recording, which generally you don't use in voice over, unless you're adding background music. Or if you want to also use it to produce a podcast, having multiple tracks is super useful. So, Audacity is a very nice choice. If you're willing to spend a little bit more money, there's the software that I use called Twisted Wave. It used to be just a Macintosh software, but they have now come out with a PC version.
David Jacobs:Now, Twisted Wave used to be one price and you've bought the software. Now, they have moved to a subscription model, which many people do. It's just the fact of life these days. So, Twisted Wave is 9.99 a month. Or, if you pay for the whole year of $99 that works out to $8.32 a month.
David Jacobs:Save a little bit of money. Now what's interesting about twisted wave is every year you keep it, the price actually goes down. So for the very 1st year, you'll pay 99.90. But in the 2nd year, you'll pay $70.90 or $6.65 a month. And in the 3rd year, you'll pay just 59.90 or $4.99 a month.
David Jacobs:You see, every year you stay loyal, it goes down and down. Now if you really, really hate subscriptions and you just want to pay one time and be done with it, you can do that. For one payment of 99.90, you have unlimited use of that version of the software. But you will not get major upgrades. You may get small incremental ones, but not the major ones you bought into that particular version.
David Jacobs:Now do you need all the major upgrades? Not necessarily. It really depends. But that's one way that you can get a one payment and be done type of deal. But I think the subscription here is really quite nice and quite clever that every year you pay less and less.
David Jacobs:And $5 a month by the 3rd year is very, very affordable for a very nice piece of software. I really like Twisted Wave. Now is it tremendously different from Audacity? Not really. It records your voice.
David Jacobs:It edits your voice. It has effects. It basically does the same thing. It's like a car. Every car has an engine and wheels and a steering wheel, and it'll get you places.
David Jacobs:But there's always little differences in style. And that's really what you're doing. The user interface. How easy is it to use this software? How intuitive does it feel to you?
David Jacobs:And some of this is personal. Some people like the feel of Audacity. Some people prefer the feel of Twisted Wave. You really have to try these on for size and just see how they feel to you. I just happen to like the feel of twisted wave.
David Jacobs:It has a few less buttons. It feels a little less cluttered, And there's a few key things, like the way you can scroll through a timeline and zoom, that I think on Twisted Wave are just a little easier and faster. That's just my personal opinion. Some people love Audacity. Now at the top, you've got Adobe Audition.
David Jacobs:You will hear this software being referenced a lot. And when I first came into the business, I thought, oh, this must be the one to get. This is the one that so many people seem to be using, and I did use it for a little while for that reason. But it's 35.99 a month, by far the most expensive software. Now it is the most sophisticated piece of software of all of these that I have mentioned.
David Jacobs:Audition is a full blown, full on recording suite. It is multi track. It can do all kinds of really crazy, cool, great things. Things that the other 2 can't do at all. I think everyone producing voice over demos uses audition to do so.
David Jacobs:But you're not producing a voice over demo. You're just recording your voice on a single mono track. Very, very simple. And you don't want to process your audio. There's so much processing in audition that you can do.
David Jacobs:But if you don't know precisely what you're doing, and even if you do, most people recommend not processing your audio very much. You don't really wanna go in there and manipulate a whole bunch. So what's all that processing power gonna do for you in Audition? Not that much necessarily. Audition is also the most complicated piece of software.
David Jacobs:It can be very intimidating when you first load it up. It was even to me. I thought, oh my goodness. How am I ever going to deal with this? But the truth is, as a voice over actor, you're only going to use 10 to 15% of what audition can do.
David Jacobs:All those other features, you don't need. You're not recording instruments or a band or any of this other stuff. It's just you and your voice. It's really very simple. So, again, why pay $36 a month for a piece of software to which you're only going to use 10 to 15% of it?
David Jacobs:It's my opinion, but I think that's a lot of money for something that you could get much, much less. Now maybe you just love audition. You love the interface. You love the way it works. Someone taught you some really cool techniques that you can use with it.
David Jacobs:That's fine. God bless you. You're free to do whatever you like. Like I said, it doesn't matter. Each of these software will do the job.
David Jacobs:No problem. People make plenty of money and book plenty of jobs with audition, twisted wave, and audacity. It doesn't matter. There is no right choice. You use whatever works for you.
David Jacobs:Part of that is budget and money. How much do you want to spend? And you want to think about this because there are other things that are gonna cost you money in this voice over game. You might want a CRM or customer resource management program. We'll get to that when we talk business software or your accounting software.
David Jacobs:These things are gonna cost a little bit of money. So maybe you wanna use Audacity, save that money, and put it toward a CRM. Or maybe not. It just depends on your budget and what your needs are. But you should really think this through.
David Jacobs:Anytime you can get free software, it's something you really need to think about because there is investment required in all the voice over. There's investment not just in software, but in training. All that coaching, that costs money. So how much money would you save if you didn't spend $36 a month over a year for audition that you could put into coaching? And I would say that's money much better spent, especially when you're starting out.
David Jacobs:And the most important thing is coaching. You've got to be really careful with how you spend your money. There's all kinds of fun hardware you can buy, and it's easy to get real excited at all cool software. And you wanna be the best and have the best, but you can't always afford the best. And you don't always need the best.
David Jacobs:I'm telling you, free Audacity will do everything you need. So try on each of these pieces of software. I believe that they all have free trials, and you can run them for a few days. See how it feels. Record some things, edit some things, save the file out, and you'll get an idea pretty quickly how it feels to you.
David Jacobs:And one of them will just feel more right. It's like trying on clothes. You try on clothes. You look at yourself in the mirror, and you feel like these feel good to me. These look good on me.
David Jacobs:I like this. And that's very much how it is picking software, especially these DAWs that all do the same thing. They do it just as well as one another, and there really isn't a great deal of significant advantage to one or the other, especially again when you're starting out. If you're more advanced, maybe things change. But I know plenty of very advanced VO's who still use Audacity for free.
David Jacobs:So that's it. Picking a DAW. It's one of the very first things you do have to do. And it can be a little bit intimidating. You're probably not familiar with this type of software.
David Jacobs:Maybe you've never run it before. So hopefully, my suggestions have been very helpful for you and will get you down the road to making a decision. Now, if you want some custom consultation from me, I offer that. If you go to v0helpdesk.com, that is the page for my services. And you can work with me 1 on 1, and we can talk through these DAWs if you like And figure out what you're doing.
David Jacobs:Where are you recording? What are your circumstances? And we can talk through it 1 on 1 if you like to help you get an even better perspective. I can even show you how these dots work in real time as we share screens, if you'd like that. I can give you a small little demo.
David Jacobs:And, of course, I can help you with all your other technical needs with regards to voice over. Microphones, other software for performance, software for business. Your computer's acting up. Files. How do I save them?
David Jacobs:Where do I store them? How do I back them up? Are you backing up your stuff? Because you should. Do I need to save the raw wav file as well as the m p 3?
David Jacobs:Do I even know what a wav file is versus an m p 3? I can tell you. And if you're just getting started. Now, everybody has their how to get started in voice over thing, and I do too. But it's my perspective, my personal perspective based on my journey.
David Jacobs:I'll tell you some of the same things that everybody else does because they're basic things. But I may have some insights that are slightly different from the others. I do tend to stress slightly different things, so you might get something more out of it. I will tell you, for instance, the hard truths of voice over. There are some very hard and difficult truths that you really must come to understand and expect before you really make any move at all, and I don't think people talk about this enough.
David Jacobs:Before you waste any time, there are certain things you've gotta know, and I'm not afraid to tell you. You're not going to wanna hear them probably, but I will tell you. And the more you understand and come to know and expect these things, the better your journey is gonna be. So let me know if I can help you with any of your technical issues at v0helpdesk.com. I appreciate you listening to this podcast.
David Jacobs:Keep on listening. We'll cover all kinds of topics, software topics, technical topics, and stuff based on performance, business, computer, getting started. All the technical topics, we'll try to hit them all as we go through this show. Thanks again for subscribing and listening. If you could tell a friend if you like this show, get some other people involved.
David Jacobs:We're brand new. We're just getting going. So tell somebody else if they might like this show. We're gonna build this little community together and it'll be some great fun. Technology doesn't have to be scary or intimidating.
David Jacobs:Don't worry, I'm here for you. I'll walk you through it. It's not so bad. Thank you very much.
