Have you experimented at all with Waves De-Breath? IAs someone who specializes in audiobook narration, I just had to look into the possibilities it offered. Not surprisingly, they’re not entirely to the good. It’s very tricky, for instance, to avoid lopping off the beginning or end of a whispery, intimate passage/word once in a while — especially if you’re not altogether learned in all the mysteries of audio processing quite yet. But it can be useful for those unintended gasp-level inhales. Alas, an algorithm ain’t an ear…

It’s interesting to play with, though, and I wondered if you have. And if so, if you’ve got some handy-dandy tricks to share. As you know, it’s pretty nearly impossible to manually adjust every breath you might wish to when you’re looking at a 10-20 hour audiobook.

Cheers,

Judith

Now we’re into ‘creative crossfade editing’ as you cut out breaths – sometimes to nothing, sometimes to ‘room tone’ or as we call it ‘presence’.

Add to that the art of eliminating mouth noise and pops or changing words by editing out sounds and letters to reconstruct what a talent says – and editing a voice over track has become an art-form in and of itself.