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Voice takes

How several reads are made and one is kept, and how to hear the takes and choose another by ear.

Video Choose a voice0:41

When you voice a film, several reads of the whole script are generated. Each one is called a take. Showreel Studio keeps the best one automatically, but you can listen to them all and choose another.

How a take is kept

  1. The script is read in one continuous take, with a clear pause between lines. A Gemini read ends on a short sentence of its own, which is thrown away, so a voice that stops a moment early never clips your last word.
  2. Each take is split back into lines at its pauses. A take is usable when every line break falls on a distinct pause. A take that can't be split this way is marked no split.
  3. Of the usable takes, the one closest to the kit's target pace is kept and put in the film.
  4. The kept take is then gently sped up or slowed down, as a whole, to land on the target pace. See Pace and rushed lines.

A longer script is read in parts, broken at its chapter cards (up to ten lines a part), because a voice stops pausing cleanly on a very long read. Each part has its own takes.

Voicing again

Takes are kept. When you voice a film again, a part whose words, voice and direction haven't changed keeps the takes it already has, and nothing is read again for it. Only the parts you changed, or that never finished, are read. So you can fix one line and voice again without the rest of the film's voice changing.

To read every take anew, for a fresh set of reads of the same words:

showreel voice compose --fresh

If a take fails (the voice doesn't answer in time, say), voicing says so and tries the next take. If every take of a part fails, voicing stops there; the parts already read are kept, so voicing again carries on from that part.

Hear the takes and choose one

In the app

  1. Open the film and choose the Voice panel.
  2. Under Takes, to hear and choose, play any take. Each shows its length and its pace in syllables per second.
  3. The take in the film is marked in the film. Others are marked usable or no split.
  4. Click Use on the take you prefer. The film's voice is split again from that take, without generating anything new.

Re-split on the take in the film splits it again as it is.

In the terminal

Use a take you have chosen by ear:

showreel voice compose --use films/compose/vo/onepass/take2.wav

Split the kept takes again, with no new read:

showreel voice compose --resplit

When no take splits

If none of the takes split cleanly, voicing stops and says so. Try:

  • more takes, with Takes on the Voice panel or --takes;
  • shorter lines, so each ends with a clearer stop.
showreel voice compose --takes 5

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