Documentary: advice from the pros

ReneH wrote on 6/17/2005, 12:29 PM
Hello! All,

I will be working on my first doc in a few weeks and I wanted to get some advice with regards to sound in Vegas.

Most of my shots will be one person talking into wireless mic and was wondering what considerations to make while making adjustments in Vegas. For example, should I pan the sound coming for the interviewee to emanate strictly form the the center speaker? I have a Panny dvx100a and will be using a G2 Senn wireless mic.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 6/17/2005, 8:19 PM
By your comment of "center speaker" it suggests that you're doing a 5.1 mix? While it's a general rule that dialog comes from the center channel, it's not fixed nor fastly held to.
If it's a stereo mix, you may want to pan the dialog to slight left or slight right, depending on what else is in the picture and in the audio space.
If you do pan your dialog to center speaker-only, be sure to check your mix for phase issues, particularly if your dialog originates as a stereo file or you're splitting files. In Vegas 5/6, you've got a downmix button in the Master mixer section that will permit you to test the mix in stereo (if it's a 5.1 mix) or in mono (if it's a stereo mix)
HTH
ReneH wrote on 6/17/2005, 11:42 PM
Spot,

Delighted you chimed in! Thanks for the info, all I want to do is conform my doc's audio according to what the pros have done based on experience. Should I pan the audio to the left if the person is located on the left most part of the screen and vice versa? Any recommendations will taken into strong consideration.
Spot|DSE wrote on 6/18/2005, 6:40 PM
It's pretty rare that a dialog event would be panned hard to one side or the other in any event. There are some scenes that might start with dialog hard panned and rapidly moving towards center.
There are no hard/fast rules to obey, but it's common to not go beyond mid-point to left or right. However, if the scene calls for it, then give it a shot.
Don't forget to check the mix in mono.
ReneH wrote on 6/18/2005, 7:22 PM
Thanks a lot, Spot, great advice indeed.