First, open the "Creative Production" solution on the left-hand side of the screen and click on "Pro Editor". This will open a new window.
You'll see an empty workspace. Note the Content menu on the top. It contains the 4 options:
Generate speech will give you the option to generate text-to-speech voice lines to import into the 'Voices' track.
Sound Designs is music.
Sound Effects contains ambient, natural and synthetic sounds to create a richer soundscape or punctuate your audio track.
Media Files includes the files you or other members of your organization have uploaded (including voices, SFX, music, and more).
1. Creating Speech in Pro Editor
Click on the Generate Speech button and then "+ Create New".
Now, type or paste your script. When you paste, you will see an estimated length of the audio that will be generated based on the word count. When you are ready, click on Save.
Don't worry if it's not perfect just yet. You'll be able to edit your script later.
Now, to choose the script you want to be read, click on it.
One you have selected the script, you will be able to choose the voice. There are two ways to do this:
Use the search bar to search each voice by name, characteristics ('tags') or languages.
Equally, you can also use the filters below the search bar.
You can preview each voice by using the play button, and once you have found the voice you want, click "Use Voice" to add it to the Voices track.
When the track editor opens, the voice track will appear green. Use the Playback Control buttons and the Playhead (the red line with a triangle on top) to play your text to speech content.
💡 If you have other tracks such as Sound Beds or SFX already in the Editor, you can click [S] (Solo) on the voice track to silence the other tracks should you need to listen to the voice only.
Clicking on the green 'voice' track will open it.
Here, you can fine-tune your script by editing the text, changing the speed, or changing the voice.
Once you have made your changes in this window, click "Preview" to listen to the new track. "Save and Apply" will take you back to the Workspace. Click the "x" on the upper right-hand side to close the menu without applying any changes.
Splitting speech
If you want to split a voice clip, right-click at the point you'd like to split your clip and left-click on the 'Split' command to confirm.
⚠️ Be careful when doing this: Splitting your clip with turn your text-to-speech clip into an audio file in order to conserve the speech melody. Once rendered as an audio file, it means you will no longer be able to edit it. Click "Convert and Edit" in the pop-up to continue or "cancel" to go back.
Once your track has been split, you can drag and drop the green box with the audio clip to where you want it.
If you need to make additional changes, you can click on the track and rewrite your script.
Note that the text box will still show the full text (not just the part you split). This helps you rewrite it as needed.
Cropping a script
If you need to cut-off the end or start of a script, hover over your green voice track and click on the three small dots.
Grab them to crop your track to the left (starting from the end) or right (starting from the beginning).
This will not affect your text-to-speech. Instead, it will simply hide the part of the audio you're cropping, and it's fully reversible.
Fade speech in and out.
If you want to fade a voice track in or out, click on the small white dot and move it to the left (to fade out) or right (to fade in).
The steepness of the curve represents how quickly the fade effect will happen.
Feel free to mix up different voices, work with different speeds or splice together different parts!
2. Adding music
To add music, click on "Sound Designs" in the Control menu at the top of the Pro Editor. You cna use the search bar or filter options to find a track you like based on mood, genre, primary instrument(s) and tempo (beats-per-minute).
You can preview each track using the small Play icon on the right.
To add it to your project, grab the track by clicking and holding the three dots in the thin gray box next to each track, and drag them into the Sound Design track on the right. This might take a moment to load. When it has loaded, you will see a blue music track.
You can close the Sound Designs menu by clicking on the "x" to get back to your workspace.
The ways to manipulate your music track are exactly the same as the ways to modify your voice track.
Moving the music track
Drag and drop the music track to move it to where you want it to play in the mix.
You can use the volume slider to adjust volume or mute/solo the track using the M and S button next to the volume slider.
Splitting music
Right-click at the point you'd like to split your clip and left-click to confirm.
Drag and drop the split part to where you want it.
Cropping music
Hover over your blue music track and click on the three small dots.
Grab them to crop your track to the left (starting from the end) or right (starting from the beginning). This will hide the part of the music track you're cropping and it's fully reversible.
Fade music in and out.
Just like with voice, you can fade music in and out. Click on the small dot and move it to the left (for fade out) or right (for fade in).
3. Adding Sound Effects
To add sound effects to your project, click on "Sound Effects" in the Control menu on the top. Use the search bar or 'tag' dropdown menu to find a sound effect you like.
The dropdown menu lets you sort tracks by different characteristics, such as chatter, synthetic noises, nature sounds, ambient sounds and more.
You can preview each track using the small Play icon on the right.
Grab the track by clicking and holding the three dots in the thin gray box to the left of each sound effect, and drag it into the Sound Effects track in the Pro Editor. This might take a moment to load. Once it has loaded, it will appear as a purple track.
Close the Sound Effects menu by clicking on the "x" to get back to your workspace. You can drag and drop your sound effect track to move it where you want it in the mix. Use the volume slider to adjust volume or mute/solo the track using the M and S button next to the volume slider.
Splitting sound effects
Right-click at the point you'd like to split your clip and left-click to confirm.
Drag and drop the split part where to you want it.
Cropping sound effects
To crop a sound effect, hover over your purple sound effects track and click on the three small dots.
Grab them to crop your track to the left (starting from the end) or right (starting from the beginning). This will hide the part of the SFX track you're cropping and it's fully reversible.
Fade music in and out.
Click on the small dot and move it to the left (to fade out) or right (to fade in).
4. Adding Media Files
A media file is any audio file that you upload to Pro Editor. It can be a voice, music, jingle or sound effect file.
To upload a file, click on "Media Files" in the "Control" menu at the top and choose a category. Then click "Upload File".
You will be able to add the file to the 'Media Files' track in your workspace in exactly the same way as you add Sound Designs and Sound Effects, and you will have the same options to manipulate it as well, by cropping, splitting and fading the track in and out.
Once you have created and generated the perfect audio track, you will be able to export it as an MP3 file. To learn more about that, read the next article in this series.