Oh my! I’ve added a new software that has already made my some of my work efforts so much more productive, and it’s absolutely amazing, it’s called Word2 Wav, a software developed and authored by Herve Chain, who in my humble opinion also gets a Five Star rating in customer service.

I first learned about this software about a little over a year ago and did a test-drive and offered feedback. At the time, I wasn’t certain it would benefit me because of the types of projects I was working, figuring it was primarily suited for telephony and IVR work. But now, shall I say,  I have seen the light and opportunities for the program’s application!

I recently participated in a focus group/open discussion hosted by VoiceoverXtra’s John  Florian, where participants could view an online demonstration and engage in a Q&A discussion with Herve Chain.

After the presentation I decided to try it again after knowing what it was built for and accepting a specific project that it would be a perfect fit for: An e-learning project requiring over 6,000 individual, one-word audio files. The reason Herve gets the 5***** customer service ranking is because he was very responsive and helpful with my script set up and helped to get me started.

From the W2W website:

W2W :  ” an automated recording interface that makes it possible to automate any multi-file scripted recording session.

For studios or independent narrators who need to produce hundreds or thousands of audio files for eLearning, video games, or telephony, Word2WAV saves countless hours of tedious file splitting and naming – which inevitably entail naming errors and loss of time in successive rounds of Quality Assurance.

Word2WAV is extremely easy to use. Once the script has been imported, the only required intervention is two mouse clicks per audio file: Record and Stop. As soon as the narrator clicks on the Stop button, Word2WAV automatically saves the recording as a WAV file whose name is taken directly from the script. No waste of time. No error.”

Here’s a sample screen  of the prompt script from Record mode:

So with this handy-dandy new software, last week I voiced 6100 or so  one- word individual audio files under a very tight deadline for an e-learning project. Next week, I’m recording 9 national radio spots for an online flower retailer requiring about 750 code-specific tags for  its Mother’s Day campaign.  (Dang I wish I could say which company it is)  Hint: “P– Flowers”

Herve told me there are some big improvements coming in W2W, including ability to edit, (for longer sound bytes) batch convert  from wav to mp3, trim silence, and normalize plus more.

Word2 Wav –  is an excellent productivity tool applicable for many types of voiceover projects. See FAQ’S

Or take a few minutes to look at the short Flash tutorial covering Word2WAV’s main features or at the detailed instruction manual (PDF). 

Better yet, download a free fully-functional 30-day trial version and put Word2WAV to the test on actual jobs.

The time you will save editing will pay for the software, most likely over the very first project.