Some audio tips.

farss wrote on 11/14/2007, 2:43 PM

Jus thought I'd pass on these from a local conference.

1) Forget about ADR. It's technically easy to do but actors today aren't trained in the old school ways and you could waste a huge amount of your and their time getting it right.

2) We scout out locations for how they look but we should listen to how they sound as well, see 1)!

3) Exposed lapel mics are ugly. Get a Sanken COS-11 and hide it under clothing. It can pickup clothing noise, monitor carefully.

4) Don't try to monitor audio and run the camera, it's just too much for one person, see 3). The presenter told us the only time he seriously stuffed up an audio job was his own daughters wedding. Not being used to using a camera he got great pictures and blew the audio.

5) If you do have to shoot in a location with sound problems get 30 seconds of clean atmos with the offending sound(s). It's not so much the sound (e.g. leaf blower) itself that's the problem, it's when you cut and it comes and goes. Lay in the atmos of the offending sound so it's constant.

Bob.

Comments

RalphM wrote on 11/14/2007, 2:51 PM

Good advice, Bob,

#5 is one I would not have thought of - great tip

plasmavideo wrote on 11/14/2007, 4:59 PM

Thanks Bob.

I've learned from the school of hard knocks to make a noiseprint before, during and after any event I video tape or do an audio recording of.

Not only can you use it for fill when needed, it sometimes comes in handy for a sample of noise you need to eliminate.

Last week I recorded an organ concert at a church and used the quiet room sample before the audience came in as the basis for eliminating some air handler and LF rumble noise from the main recording using the Noise Reduction module in Sound Forge.

I've also started keeping samples of things like ambient and crowd noise, audience clapping and cheering - that type of thing - in case it should come in handy in a future project.

Tom

jazzmaster wrote on 11/14/2007, 5:19 PM

i would add that you better have a pocketful of $20 bills if you're shooting outside near a street. Motorcyclists love to rev it up when they see a film or video crew. They know. Believe me, I've bought off a few in my life.
Burt

UlfLaursen wrote on 11/15/2007, 1:40 AM

Thanks for sharing, Bob.

Good stuff.

/Ulf

Steven Myers wrote on 11/15/2007, 2:28 AM

This is all good.
When possible, I'd try to get an impulse response, too.

farss wrote on 11/15/2007, 3:43 AM

Speaking of getting an impulse response I hope everyone's aware you can download a pretty big set of them from this site. Just look under Downloads.

Bob.

Grazie wrote on 11/15/2007, 4:15 AM

Yup! Been using the Impulses on a crowd scene I wanted placed in a LARGE hall. Still photo, pan across - mumble rhubarb mumble rhubarb mumble rhubarb - and out. Crowd/hall scene done. Oh, you just HAVE to try the 'toilet' impulse - LOL - oh course Americans call them "Bathrooms" - I suppose they couldn't get away with "Download a Toilet Impulse"! AH-HAH!!

Joking aside, adding these "flavours" ( i can't get that toilet impulse outta me mind . . ) to a sound, via the new Mixing Console, is sheer pleasure - mmmmm..... and relax . .. .

Oh yeah, when you browse for the Impulse you want, you get a Visual Preview representing where the sound came from. Hysterical. No, it's bizarre. I like that! And yes yes YES . . there IS one of a small shower room. I jest not!

Well done Madison. When I saw this I almost fell off me chair.

At the moment I've got this SONY "chuckling crowd" all crammed into a small "bathroom". Ah yes, but now we ALL know. Who's larfing now??

Grazie

plasmavideo wrote on 11/15/2007, 4:38 AM

"This is all good.
When possible, I'd try to get an impulse response, too."

Could you explain more about how to get an impulse response? That interests me as I do a lot of recordings at several specific sites during the year.

I have used the impulses, like Grazie, to liven up a recording, but I've never thought about actually rolling my own for a specific location. That would be quite intriguing. I've missed info about that . . .sigh . . I probably will spend the morning "Googling" now!

Grazie - yep bathroom is de word . . . . or in public, the "restroom"
We don't "Queue for the Loo"

Tom

Steven Myers wrote on 11/15/2007, 4:45 AM

Yeah, but let's say we shoot a scene in the Biloxi bus station men's room. It's perfect!
But let's say an actor read a line that is later found to be politically incorrect and needs to be overdubbed. And let's say we're back in the studio with no money left in the travel budget, so we can't go back to Biloxi.
Do we want to rely on Sony's set of canned impulses to recreate that unique Biloxi sound? I don't think so.

plasmavideo wrote on 11/15/2007, 4:52 AM

"I suppose they couldn't get away with "Download a Toilet Impulse"! AH-HAH!!"

Grazie - Hyacinth Bucket (that's Bouquet, dear) would be appal!ed!

farss wrote on 11/15/2007, 4:56 AM

There's a full set of instructions in the SF help, search for Impulse.
No doubt it's also in the manual.
BTW Acoustic Impulse goes way, way back to the SoFo days.
Thanks Dr Bose for the maths behind it, he's the guy behind Bose speakers.

There was a very neato program developed for the Macs that'd let you build an acoustic environment, place a sound source and a listener in it and process a dry sound to place it in the space. I think I recall Spot saying it didn't work that well so maybe it just faded way. Pity, was a good concept because one impulse recording only gives you listening position.

Bob.

plasmavideo wrote on 11/15/2007, 5:06 AM

I always forget about that darn manual Bob :-)

LarryP wrote on 11/15/2007, 5:38 AM

Given the size, shape and materials used in a room and the location and type of speakers the coverage and "sound" of the room can be calculated and simulated with software from:

http://www.ada-acousticdesign.de/set_en/setsoft.html

This is a more than my budget allows but is popular with some of the better sound system designers.

Larry

rs170a wrote on 11/15/2007, 5:55 AM

Do we want to rely on Sony's set of canned impulses to recreate that unique Biloxi sound?

Had you followed step 5 in Bob's first post, you wouldn't have to worry about it as you'd have "room tone" to use for the overdub.
BTW, 30 sec. of room tone is good.
2 min. (if you can get it) is even better.

Mike

richard-courtney wrote on 11/15/2007, 6:24 AM

But normal for her sister Rose.

plasmavideo wrote on 11/15/2007, 6:40 AM

That's her sister Rose - the one without the Mercedes, the swimming pool and room for a pony . . . . . .

Steven Myers wrote on 11/15/2007, 6:46 AM

Had you followed step 5 in Bob's first post,

I agree that it's a good tool. But it doesn't reflect (pun intended) the room's response to a new sound.