It’s easy to assume that anyone using Logic Pro uses the app solely for making music. Considering the massive array of instruments, plugins, loops and functions, I wouldn’t fault you for assuming that.
However, given the rise of:
- Podcasts
- YouTube
- Twitch
- Audiobooks
And so much more, I have to suspect someone out there is using Logic Pro to edit and mix voiceover tracks.
And it may be surprising to some, but there’s a lot to consider when working with a human voice. Even if that voice is just talking.
For example, voiceover files tend to be looooong. And the voiceover track might include awkward pauses, sounds, and missteps that need to be removed.
Then there’s the task of ugly mouth sounds. This includes plosives, breaths, pops and clicks. Which can all be severely distracting to listeners.
And once you’ve edited and cleaned up your audio, you still need to process it! Which typically includes EQ, Compression, and De-Essing at the very least.
While Logic Pro is firmly branded as a “music production” application, that doesn’t mean you can’t use it for voiceover work. In fact, every week I edit and mix my YouTube videos right in Logic Pro.
So in today’s video above, let me walk you through my voiceover editing and mixing workflow. We’ll explore Logic’s awesome toolkit, plus some 3rd party options as well.
Links Below For 3rd Party Tools Mentioned in Today’s Video:
Heads up – some of the links below are affiliate links. I may earn a small percentage if you decide to purchase through some of the links.
Hi,
nice column and yes, we love Logic on the Mac for voiceovers!
We do true male / female narration, audiobooks, and we sometimes have as many as 30 different characters to act out. Logistically this is alot to deal with, so we put each character on a different track and block read the character’s entire voice. Yes, we color code the author’s entire script! (Sometimes we are the authors!). Color coding is the only way to fly if you are doing block reads, and you should do them this way, it sounds better then reading into and out of different voices on the fly (to us anyway).
We also layer in our own music (fade ins/outs) so we also love Logic for that. We find that the interface is just the right mix of looks, simplicity, complexity when needed, and sturdy.
As for RX8, we only like it, not love it. We find that for 99% of VO all you need for most people is little bit of de-essing and mouth declick, and we roll those into one Module and we are set. Fortunately that can be done in less then 5 mins most of the time when discussing audiobook chapters.
For cleaning audio, Adobe Audition is superior, we find. We use both iZotope and Adobe, and yes, it costs money to clean up audio! Its a dirty thankless task by any measure. So the less human interaction, the better. Unfortunately, nothing sounds as good as manually cleaned audio, algorithms only get it so far.
Logic Pro already has all the EQ one would ever need for VO, we dont find a we need a secondary plugin.
We recommend only shotgun mics, never anything wide field, definitely no to cardiod, you dont want your mic picking up stray sounds (which makes your audio cleanup job ever harder, and its not much fun to begin with!). We love the Sennheiser 416 mic, and thats why it’s almost exclusively used in film and tv productions around the globe.
Cheers!
Hey Chris, thanks for your fantastic comment! Great insights from professionals are a huge benefit to everyone 🙂
A lot of the audio cleanup tools in Audition are licensed from IZotope…
Great informative video, thanks Chris…
Nigel
I’m one of the someones editing podcasts in Logic Pro – mostly because I’m so familiar with it already anyway. Great to see how you work with voice recordings there, thanks for the tips!
Yay! So glad you finally did a video on voice overs in logic pro. I use logic pro every day to produce commercials that run on iHeartRadio. The tip you gave of using the edit Shuffle left is golden! I’ll use that every day thank you so much Chris!
I wonder if those third-party plug-ins will work with an M1 Mac! Right now waves will not work with M1.
Hey, Chris. Add me to the list of those who mainly use Logic for voice-acting (+ sound effects & music) productions. Great video! I will be watching it again (in part, to copy some of your plugin settings 🙂 A treasure—thank you, indeed!