November 22nd, 2012
I finally saved up enough to buy me an iPad. And the timing was just right, too. Right when I had the cash available Apple decided to grace the world with the new iPad (4th generation).
So, how exactly am I using it for voice overs? Does it improve my workflow? Any good apps? And, have I finally finished Angry Birds Star Wars yet?
All of these burning questions will be answered…
First, here’s a photo (Click on it to see a larger size). Nothing shocking or groundbreaking here. I just put it on an old music stand I had. There are some attachments you can buy to securely attach an iPad to a mic stand. But I’ve heard that they can be pricey. My cheap old music stand works just fine.
What I like about using the iPad is that there are no “page turning” sounds. No rustling paper. I can record in a truly noise-free environment (not including my rumbling stomach right before lunch time 
)
The workflow
The main reason I got an iPad (other than to see Angry Birds in huge, retina-display beauty) was to cut back on the amount of expensive ink I used and to save paper. One of my clients sends me anywhere between 50-100 scripts a month (1 to 10 scripts a day). They’re short little things — only one page each — but when you include the other scripts I do monthly then the total amount of wasted paper gets pretty high. And ink ain’t cheap either!
I receive scripts in my email. One script per email. Right there in the iPad’s Mail app I can easily view the scripts. The iPad can open many document types, including Microsoft Word documents, PDFs, RTF, normal text docs, and a host of others.
As I finish off each script, I flag that email as a signal that I’ve completed it. Because my iPad email is synced to my MacBook Pro email, that flag will automatically appear in my computer’s email program. Nice!
(This isn’t an “Apple to Apple” thing only. It will work if you have a PC. Just make sure you are using an “IMAP” email account and set up that email account on both your iPad and your PC as an “IMAP” account.)
Once all the scripts are recorded, I head on over to my computer (which is in a different room) to do the editing. I edit one script at a time, then send each one off. Each finished email gets moved to separate folder where I keep my finished jobs.
All nice and easy.
An app or two
There are a variety of apps that allow you to highlight and annotate PDF files. My personal favorite is an app called GoodReader. Another reason I like this app is that it can take the text from a PDF and allow you to change the font size while wrapping the text around the screen. Very very useful!
Another nice app is Apple’s wordprocessing app called Pages. While Good Reader will only allow you to read Word docs, Pages will actually let you edit them and resave them as Word docs. Very nice, indeed!
I’m also fond of Apple’s spreadsheet app called Numbers (even though I don’t really use spreadsheets). Think of it as Excel with a more artistic flair! And yes it can open and save Excel files.
For calendar apps I really like Saisuke HD, but only for the iPad. The iPhone version isn’t as well thought out in my opinion. Not bad. But Saisuke really shines on the larger screen. Gorgeous!
For my voice over business, that’s about it for apps. I’ve heard good things about a recording app called Twisted Wave for the iPad/iPhone, but I haven’t tried it yet. I do have the Mac version and it is pretty nice recording software. But I need to split up my recordings into shorter files and the Twisted Wave app can’t do that yet.
Angry Birds Star Wars
Yeah, baby! All done!
(But I haven’t gotten 3 stars on every level yet… 
)
If you own an iPad and use it for voice acting, why not post a little something in the comment section? Pretty please!