Narration

Cincyfilmgeek wrote on 11/8/2006, 6:50 PM

I am an extreme beginner at working with Audio so believe me when i say I need all the help I can get. I have filmed a documentary so now I have been recording the narration into my camera, placing it in vegas, running it through Soundforge to get rid of all the video wasted space so that all I have is an audio file. Now, my question is, how do I make the narration sound warm and natural like dialogue is supposed to sound? Is there a certain setting, certain F/X I can use? What DB, etc.. should I use. I know a lot of this has to be by ear but I was just hoping that someone could lean me in the right direction. What about Bass? Audio is truly my weakest part of film making and I really need the help. Thank in advance for anything, no matter how trivial it is.

Comments

newhope wrote on 11/9/2006, 4:16 AM

There's no one fix for sound but a good recording in the first place is the key.

I know you have recorded your narration but close miking is what gives that warm sound you're after. Without having to spend an immense amount you can achieve surprising results with a reasonable quality headphone/mike set up that gamers use for talking to each other in online games.

It isn't what I'd recommend if you have better equipment, or what I normally use, but for an outlay of around $20.00 you can plug it into your PC's sound card and record directly onto your tracks in Vegas. Hence no need to capture off the camera tapes and get rid of the 'black' video. You can also time your read to the image if you have already edited your vision. Just make sure the mike isn't directly in front of your mouth as popping can occur on plosives.

Not knowing what the camera or mike you used (try putting your system specs in your details if you want advice) I fear you've used the inbuilt stereo mike on a handycam and, while they are fine for general sound, they really aren't ideal for V/O recording.

However, a general hint would be to use the track EQ in Vegas to boost between 120 to 250Hz a few dB, cut a narrow band around 350 to 480Hz a couple of dB and boost from 1.5 to 5KHz a little for presence. Adding some gentle compression using the track compressor will also keep the levels more consistant. Try a ratio of 3:1 and adjust the threshold so that the gain reduction indicator is woking on the louder peaks by 3 or 4 dB but not continuously on all of the narration. A good rule of thumb is 'less is more' or 'don't fix it if it ain't broken'.

All of this advice is ballpark as with all sound you have to use your ears to listen to the results and if your recording already has peaks or troughs at the frequencies mentioned then none of it may work. It's somewhat like having someone ask "How do I make my images look warmer?" and giving advice only to find they already have a red shift in the image.. flying blind.

Regards
New Hope Media