Final Cut Pro - Module III

IV. Adding audio: Voiceover: Page 1 of 3

Voiceovers, or narration over visuals, allow producers to record someone talking about what's being seen on the screen. In a finished video, the voice talks while other visuals scroll in front of the viewer. Sometimes, an interview subject can provide the voiceover text. In an interview, the video itself, usually of a talking head, is boring. But the sound is important. Using the interview subject's speech while playing visuals that illustrate what he or she is talking about is one way to create a voiceover. These kinds of voiceovers are prerecorded on video and placed into the sequence on a separate track when digitized.

While the makers of Final Cut Pro 3 don't recommend people use the built-in computer microphone to create voiceovers because the audio quality tends to be poor, they do provide a tool that allows them to do so.

A built-in or plugged in external microphone is required in order to complete this step. Without them, users can still follow along and learn the process.

1. From the Tools menu, choose Voice Over. The Voice Over tool loads into the left side of the screen, in a window called the Tool Bench.
   

2. Drag the yellow arrow at the top of the Timeline window to the left, just at the start of the March clip. The voiceover will start recording there.

Continued on next page