- Introduction
- See and Work with Recordings
- Have You Ever Seen an Echo?
- More than 65 VFEdit Commands
- With VFEdit You Can Do It
- Saving and Filing
- Skills
- Put VFEdit to Work for You
- Hardware Requirements
- Sound Card Options
VFEdit®
(vee-ef-edit, short for Voice File Edit) is a program that lets you edit sound the way a word processor lets you edit text. A word processor lets you to cut, copy, insert, replace, and re-arrange written words. VFEdit lets you do the same thing with spoken words-and a lot more.You speak into a microphone and record your words. VFEdit then converts your words and music (plus and anything else you may want to add) into something you can actually see and use. VFEdit shows you what sound looks like.
VFEdit can make words louder or softer. It can elongate them. It can put an echo behind them-in fact, many kinds of echo. Fade in. Fade out. Trim silence, or reduce noise.
Let's say you're running a home shopping network. Your professional voice talent costs $50 an hour (or more). Then you have to change your prices-but just the prices. With VFEdit you just erase the old prices, record the new prices, and keep the old, but good (and very expensive) words.
The basic reason to use VFEdit is that you simply want your audio presentations to sound good-just as you want your written presentations to look good. If you develop for voice processing, or if you only change, fix, and improve your voice prompts, you'll find VFEdit just about indispensable. Satisfying. Fun, too!
Let's say you have a recording that is almost exactly what you want. Except that there's an extraneous noise of some sort, a mispronunciation of a single letter, or some small thing that spoils the message. With VFEdit it's possible to just reach in and pluck out that blemish.
You can start multiple files with several examples of just the right way you want to say something: Toe-MAY-toe; toe-MAH-toe; crisp New England style; drawled Deep South style. Next, you extract just exactly the right phrasing-or even one, solitary speech sound-and 'paste' it in place of the offending one on the recording you want to keep-Presto, Perfection!
Stretching out waveforms, and replacing stuff is not all you can do with For example, you can add an echo, and then see the difference. (Of course you can hear the differences as well.) Look at the next figures to see a comparison of normal spoken syllable and one with echo.
With the 65+ commands that are shown on screen, and the almost uncountable combinations you can make, you have virtually unlimited ability to shape your messages. But all to what end?
This innovative program gives you the capability to do with spoken words, music, and sound effects what you can do with a word processor. The processor equips you to cut, insert, replace, and move written words around. VFEdit lets you to do the same with spoken words, only more. A lot more.
You can RECORD, SAVE, and PLAY your sound bytes, much like the big news services. And with these capabilities you can have an audio filing system, similar to the directories on your DOS hard disk drive. Even more important, you'll be able to organize your working files so you can access them at any time in the future, as clients demand.
For example, what was the name of that exquisite recording of the kitty purring? Ah, there it is, under the Family Pets Folder.
Although skill in using Windows is useful, you can still do creditable work without real computer literacy. The Windows (Quick) Review chapter presents brush-up exercises in Windows, and should help if you're not current.
All this is fascinating, but perhaps it's time to get to work and earn some money. Maybe you have a travel agency. You want your voice messaging system to call your clients, promote a week in Hawaii, and play some exotic Hawaiian hula music to set the scene. (Studies have shown that adding music to an audio phone message can increase retention level by as much as 30%.) With just a few mouse clicks you can mix that music into the background of your sales pitch.
You want your spoken messages to sound as good as your written work looks. And they will: You'll be able to do professional level work right at home, or in your office, without having to call in expensive outside help.
To run VFEdit you'll need an IBM PC (or compatible), with 8 megabytes of memory, and at least 10 megabytes of space on your hard disk. For output from the computer you have ADC (analog-to-digital converter) "sound card" choices.
