--- Needed: Vid-Clip Music/Audio Level Feedback

Soniclight wrote on 1/10/2008, 8:06 AM
(Later Edit: I added a title with some sfx since this was first posted. See update below)

I recently tweaked a clip I that I had posted here a year ago, duration is 2:13 min. Originally done in V6, I re-edited it in VP8 then used On2 Flix Standard 8 for Flash 8 output.

While I have audio levels at mostly 0 db (there's only music happening), it seems a bit low in volume, as if not normalized on render. Things just seem louder to me locally and also at most sites online.

I would much appreciate several views of this clip by people with variety of systems/audio setups so I can get a reality-check sound check on this.

If the consensus ends up being that it is a bit low, how/where can I fix it in VP8?
Thanks.

Comments

Soniclight wrote on 1/10/2008, 3:58 PM
Wow, I must be on a losing streak here these days. My last two Qs got zilch responses. Are people away somewhere, i.e. CES?

I would appreciate some input on this Q, it's kinda important.
Thanks.
farss wrote on 1/10/2008, 4:23 PM
I'm not in my office for another 10 hours!

Bob.
musicvid10 wrote on 1/10/2008, 5:57 PM
Y'know, personally I would not change a thing.
The uncompressed (read that exciting!) dynamic range in your piece is refreshing.

Your "concensus" statement is the result of people who have listened to overcompressed (FoxTV et al) audio tracks for too long.

The softs are not too soft, the louds are not too soft (I meant that), and anyone with a decent sound reinforcement system should be able to appreciate the work you've put into this.

That all being said, if you want to "genericize" the sound track a bit to fit the current "taste," you could apply a very modest (1.5:1) compression. But if you already own a bull, why castrate it?

That's my impression. Well done.
UlfLaursen wrote on 1/10/2008, 9:35 PM
Hi

I think the audiolevel is just fine for me or maybe just a tiny bid too high.

/Ulf
farss wrote on 1/10/2008, 11:40 PM
I tend to agree with the above.
The only way to make it 'louder' is to decrease the dynamic range and the way to do that is by using compression. You have to judge how much dynamic range will suit your target audience. Too big a range and the quiet passages vanish into the ambient noise in the listening environment. Most streaming content is being listened to under less than ideal conditions, PCs are pretty noisy. Even so I'd tend to just leave it alone or as suggested above use very mild compression just to bring the quiet passges up a little.

Bob.
Soniclight wrote on 1/11/2008, 12:45 AM
OK, thanks, everyone.

Kind of forgot about the whole compression thing. I'll try it out at some point, but for now, I'll just leave it as is since it seems it is hear-able and I do like to leave in the subtleties.

Besides, one can also turn up the volume locally, too. It's really not that hard to do :)
Soniclight wrote on 1/13/2008, 8:50 PM
I recently did a (hopefully) final noodling with this clip by creating my first Add and Multiply overlay intro title with sound effects (from the default VP8 stuff mainly). No Pro Tiler used. This actually resulted from a mistake I made initially - lol.

I also bumped up the sound a bit.

Let me know what you think of the title sequence/lead-in.
Thanks.
farss wrote on 1/14/2008, 1:35 AM
Better and so is the sound.
Just remember more is less, mostly.
Or
It is what it is.
Or
You're using a medium to communicate a message. You can make the 'medium' so overbaked people forget about the message.
Or
In this game nothing is ever perfect but you can spend forever trying to make it perfect. Thing is there's a time to leave good enough alone and move on. Take what you've learned to something new. A fresh canvas awaits.

Bob.
Soniclight wrote on 1/14/2008, 12:33 PM
Right on on all counts of wisdom, Dr. Bob :)

I definitely got to the limit with this clip: I even noodled around with adding some lead guitar and other layers to the last verse, but it just sounded way over-produced and took away from the simple message of the child's face, so I went back to the original.

So I'm learning to keep it simple and do the time-to-move-on thing. As a somewhat compulsive perfectionist, it ain't easy, but necessary.

But I do like the new intro and will keep it.