Help me get a good VO edit workspace?

[Scott Whigham]

I have a voice over studio and, after I record the VO, I pass the audio + video file to a production assistant in another office. His computer, at the moment, is just "boring" - it uses the mobo's integrated sound card and he has a cheap USB headset he monitors through. He's not doing mixing or anything - his job is just to line up audio to video and make sure there are no audible issues. He won't EQ, compress, etc.

I've recently upgraded my VO stuff from a Logitech headset mic to a Shure SM7B and I'm wanting to upgrade his "monitoring environment".

Should I just buy new, better headphones? Or should I upgrade the sound card and the headphones? I'm concerned that better headphones would be a waste if it's the sound card that is the limiting factor.

This is a Windows PC running on a Dell Inspiron 530 if that matters.

[Scott Whigham]

Bump?

[Kiwi]

Does the poor bastard have to wear cans to do that? Can't he use some monitor speakers? Even some cheap Logitech ones should be nicer to use all day than expensive headphones.

Are you still recording to 16 bits? Yuck. There are many reasons to use an external interface or converters, and getting 24 bit audio at a decent sample rate and low latency and lower noise are some of them.

Budget? If he has to wear cans, I would recommend a Benchmark DAC-1.

[Scott Whigham]

Well, now that I've moved on to the Sm7b, I'm tracking through a Chandler LTD1 pre into a Lynx Aurora at 48k/24bit. It's still just a mono track though.

I don't need him to hear ultimate detail - he's using a $39 headset now with an integrated motherboard soundcard and it's been "good enough" for four years. I hardly think stepping up to a $1000 DAC is warranted here.

And he actually prefers the headphones to speakers, I think. He has speakers - el cheapo computer ones - but he likes to hear the VO stuff in the headphones and listens to music on the speakers. I don't want to speculate too much but I think he might feel the headphones allow him to hear more nuance without having to turn it up so loud it bothers others in the general vicinity.

[Brickwerks]

A good chunk of my work is voiceover too. When editing on headphones, I've been using my Sennheiser HD650 cans lately... they sound phenomenal and they're very comfortable, I can wear them for extended periods with no problem. My interface is a Saffire Pro24 and the headphone amp on it drives them just fine... I don't think your stock soundcard would have enough juice for those particular cans. BeyerDynamic's 880 gets a lot of good comments too, a little bit cheaper than the Sennheisers and they offer a 32-ohm model that would work with the stock soundcard.

Though really if he's just doing basic editing and not any real audio surgery, I would think he'd just need something relatively comfortable.

[psycho_monkey]

Originally Posted by Brickwerks

A good chunk of my work is voiceover too. When editing on headphones, I've been using my Sennheiser HD650 cans lately... they sound phenomenal and they're very comfortable, I can wear them for extended periods with no problem. My interface is a Saffire Pro24 and the headphone amp on it drives them just fine... I don't think your stock soundcard would have enough juice for those particular cans. BeyerDynamic's 880 gets a lot of good comments too, a little bit cheaper than the Sennheisers and they offer a 32-ohm model that would work with the stock soundcard.

Though really if he's just doing basic editing and not any real audio surgery, I would think he'd just need something relatively comfortable.

I have pretty much the same setup at home for editing (HD600s and a Pro24). I also prefer to do my vocal editing on cans like this.