This is a user-to-user forum, and much of what you're writing seems like the kind of thing that Rate Us & Provide Suggestions (under PD's File menu) is for, as that's a primary feedback channel to CL.

I don't think I've ever used the Voice-Over Recording Room an all the years I've used PD, mostly because my main desktop editing stations have never had mics, and also because I've used external recorders when needed and simply imported the audio.

The restriction on Item 1 on your list actually makes perfect sense if you're using the room as intended, as you can't voice-over a video if there isn't yet a video. Obviously you could place a dummy clip on the timeline to enable the recorder, but your feedback may help CL better understand that users might want more flexibility.

I agree with Item 2 that the sound doesn't start immediately once you've pressed the record button.

Even worse is that the audio fades in from that point over about a second even when the Fade-in box is deselected in the Preferences. Also, if you select the 3-second countdown, the count actually goes 3 - 2 - 1 - 1 over ~4 seconds, with the "1" staying there for ~2 seconds. The timeline clip actually starts playing when the "1" should have disappeared, but the frame counter doesn't start until 1 second afterward. It's messed up

For Item 3, again if you're using the feature as it's intended to be used, you're recording tracks that are saved explicitly with the project you're narrating over so there isn't a real need to name them for later use. You can change the alias of the clips within the project if you like, but those changes don't affect the actual filename and aren't visible outside of the specific project you changed the alias(es) in.

Overall, it looks like what you need is simply a voice recorder app rather than the narrowly specific voice-over functionality built in to PD.

YouTube/optodata

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Hi Opto,
Thanks for that. The item 2 answer wasn't really what I was expecting - more like a pointer to how it was done in PD18.
So, what simple recorder package can you suggest in lieu of the PD18 deficiency in this area?

As to the suggestions line - done.

For point 1. You probably know this, but you can do a voice only recording in the capture tab.

For point 2. I recently did my first voiceover for a video, I didn't get the issue you mention. But maybe that's me not noticing as I'm new to this aspect.

No, I didn't even think about the capture mode. But tried it.

There is a trick to it - once you press record, there is a very visible counter beside that red record button that runs down from 3 to zero/white, THEN start talking. And you do get an option to change or add to the default title/name before saving after pressing the button again to stop. AND this method records everything after the counter has reached zero until stopped.

Pity the voiceover recording method in edit wasn't the same.

I'm glad Philwild's suggestion is working better for you!

Meanwhile, I spent several hours analyzing and painstakingly documenting the voice-over delay issue in this video. It's pretty dense because there are so many problems, and it may take several views to understand all the things I've shown that don't work correctly:



I've just reported the issue to CL tech support on ticket #CS002186903.

One thing that didn't show up in my screen recording was the issue about the fade-in always being present. The first time I looked, I had clicked the fade-in box and then unchecked it early on but maybe PD retained the "enabled" state for some reason. When I made the screen recording, I had closed PD after my first tests and hadn't checked the fade-in box, and you can hear the narration clearly start at full volume, even though the first 0.75 second was cut off.

Hi,
Thanks for the interest and follow-up on this.

Curiosity Q - does CL show any evidence of listening to this sort of report and feedback? I'm too new at PD to know at the moment but as one with years of log time in the app, you should know. Too many other NLE vendors are (seemingly exclusively) focussed on the 'thing' that marketing wants to be bothered responding to issues and suggestions from the product users. Particularly those that would make the product more reliable or operate as it should (as in this case). And then theres' the matter of distributing any fixes; how does that go??

Quote Curiosity Q - does CL show any evidence of listening to this sort of report and feedback?

I've been told that they don't typically monitor all the user posts here on the forum, so to bring it to the attention of the right people, submitting an official support request is the best approach.

I've found that the more clearly and simply I can explain the issue - including the exact steps needed to reproduce it, as in my video - the more likely they'll be able to replicate the problem and refer it on to engineering. At that point, it's a matter of waiting for the next patch to come out, although in some cases a "hotfix" will be issued to address the problem right away. That happened just yesterday for this issue.

Hi,
That was interesting: the response to issue, at several levels: that it happens, and what was done about it. Just the feedback alone (good or bad) is more than I've been used to and full marks to the dev team for it.

I am assuming something similar may happen re this voice-over recording room issue you have documented.

So, given that a hotfix exists (example; the one in the link you cite) how is that distributed? Not everyone who would be interested will see the topic thread, read it and get the fix. Is it via the update/upgrades button on the main PD user Interface (UI) or is there some other way?

Patches are intended for everyone, but since CL only releases those a few times a year, a hotfix is the quickest way to get a crippling situation addressed, and people with the issue are much more likely to look to the forum for answers than other users. They'll also find out if they contact tech support on their own.

Feature updates, like anything requested via the Rate Us feeback channel, are much more likely to wait until the next version is released, although there have been more mid-year updates recently as the one that just added access to many Shutterstock clips.

Bug fixes for things that aren't critical to program operations, which I hope is how CL sees the issue with the voice-over room, are made available via the program's update notification and on the forum, usually with a Moderator post detailing the changes.

Great, learning things about CL and PD every day. Is there any normal frequency to new versions (once a year? or less often) and service packs/bug fixes?

Personally I would be happier with a new version less often and a known frequency to service packs in between, so that the version in use has a user recognised relability and stability about it.

Quote I've just reported the issue to CL tech support on ticket #CS002186903

Is there a specific link for reporting issues to CL tech support or do we use the normal support page?

CyberLink - Contact Us

I use the normal support page and add the URL of the relevent forum thread so they can see everythings that's happened here and can also see YT videos or download relevent clips & projects

The normal support page being . . where?

Quote The normal support page being . . where?

The link in Maliek's post. Click on Contact Us from there.

I've heard back from tech support, and they've confirmed the issue in their lab and have forwarded it on to the engineering team. Hopefully, either a direct fix or some feature improvement(s) will show up in a future update.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

Muchas gracias for the effort.
I mentioned (earlier post) plaudits for the support and dev team for even responding to queries like this. BUT this is the best support response I've ever had for any vendor/software issue. Thanks to you. Please pass it on - this is the sort of support that earns loyalty.