MalcolmOng
Veteran
Hi just wondering, whats the most common post production procedure for purifying audio? I mean for video the standard procedure is to crush the blacks and play with levels. How about for audio? Whats the standard effect?
Post Production voice treatment
- Thread starter MalcolmOng
- Start date
moonlitnite
Well-known member
Hi Malcolm,
Geez, books could be written on the topic, but most would at least agree on the SEQUENCE of editing. First off, always do your limiting to get rid of ambient noise, as well as manual editing (cutting/cut-n-paste/muting/etc). Okay, now you can normalize the audio amplitude. If you're going to condition the sound using VST plugins, etc, that probably comes next. Now you're ready for equalization and then adding a touch of reverb, tweak the panning, etc. The final step is compression - don't try this before the other steps. Of course, if you're going to remodulate from WAV to MP3, that comes after compression.
Hope that helps, Michael
Geez, books could be written on the topic, but most would at least agree on the SEQUENCE of editing. First off, always do your limiting to get rid of ambient noise, as well as manual editing (cutting/cut-n-paste/muting/etc). Okay, now you can normalize the audio amplitude. If you're going to condition the sound using VST plugins, etc, that probably comes next. Now you're ready for equalization and then adding a touch of reverb, tweak the panning, etc. The final step is compression - don't try this before the other steps. Of course, if you're going to remodulate from WAV to MP3, that comes after compression.
Hope that helps, Michael
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
What?
Not in the film world. This sounds more like pop music editing.
First you have to separate the jobs. There is editorial and there is mixing.
Some of this depends on how big a project your talking about but assuming a feature that has aspirations toward festivals etc.
Editorial is the first clean up adding any ADR that you have done. Filling in Room Tone in the holes, cutting out ugliness and depending on the size some noise reduction (with a real mix on a stage most of the noise reduction if any is done on the stage).
In the mix usuals would be some EQ to match takes and remove hums and crap. Poss some Noise reduction. Some light compression to bring out the dialog a bit. Maybe some reverb to smooth the edits or place the dialog in the right space. Then you mix - balancing the levels and making things flow.
Stay away from any "normalizing", your not making a pop vocal.
Not in the film world. This sounds more like pop music editing.
First you have to separate the jobs. There is editorial and there is mixing.
Some of this depends on how big a project your talking about but assuming a feature that has aspirations toward festivals etc.
Editorial is the first clean up adding any ADR that you have done. Filling in Room Tone in the holes, cutting out ugliness and depending on the size some noise reduction (with a real mix on a stage most of the noise reduction if any is done on the stage).
In the mix usuals would be some EQ to match takes and remove hums and crap. Poss some Noise reduction. Some light compression to bring out the dialog a bit. Maybe some reverb to smooth the edits or place the dialog in the right space. Then you mix - balancing the levels and making things flow.
Stay away from any "normalizing", your not making a pop vocal.
MalcolmOng
Veteran
Oh...So far all I've done is slap on every single hum or hiss reduction there is in premiere pro..
moonlitnite
Well-known member
Malcolm,
If you don't mind us asking, tell us about your recording environment (studio, indoor home, office, outdoor, noise pollution sources...) and purpose of the shoot (film, interview,...) BTW, Adobe's Audition has lots of tools that could come to your aid (especially spectral analysis if you're fighting 60Hz hum).
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/332261.html
http://blogs.adobe.com/hartshafer/2006/05/spectral_record_1.html
http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/pdfs/audition_nfhs.pdf
Thanks, Michael
If you don't mind us asking, tell us about your recording environment (studio, indoor home, office, outdoor, noise pollution sources...) and purpose of the shoot (film, interview,...) BTW, Adobe's Audition has lots of tools that could come to your aid (especially spectral analysis if you're fighting 60Hz hum).
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/332261.html
http://blogs.adobe.com/hartshafer/2006/05/spectral_record_1.html
http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/pdfs/audition_nfhs.pdf
Thanks, Michael
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Noiz2
Sound Ninja
I would add that Premiere, like FCP and Avid, is not a sound editing program and you would have much better results with an app. designed for sound work. Pro Tools is the standard in the pro world but Audition, Nuendo, SAW, whatever Sound Forge is called now are all good and work on the PC. There is a slightly diferent cast for the Mac but since your using Premiere I'm assuming your on a PC.
moonlitnite said:
Dave_Fisk
Well-known member
If you are using premire, then Adobe Audition would be a great thing to have. I've only seen it used, but people that use it like it. It seemed to me that it's no Pro Tools, but It's also not nearly as expensive, and pretty cool for what it costs. Plus, premier and audition work well together. When I've had stuff come from premier to me ( I use pro tools), I've always had issues.
-Dave
-Dave
MalcolmOng
Veteran
Well my audio capture practices would make most people in this section scream - on camera mic, no considerations about shooting environments, but generally outdoors. I usually try to treat my audio so that its at least legible - no spare cash for a mic at 16 years of age. I would be trying to rent a senheisser 416 for my next shoot though, and I was just interested to find out about standard operating procedure for audio.
This is a video i did a couple of months back which basically shows the environments which i shoot in (my high school), and the quality of the audio captured with the on camera mic and after throwing in all the premiere stuff - http://wobblin.net/2006/06/29/acsi-ib-world-school-student-council-2006/
Thanks alot for all the replies.
This is a video i did a couple of months back which basically shows the environments which i shoot in (my high school), and the quality of the audio captured with the on camera mic and after throwing in all the premiere stuff - http://wobblin.net/2006/06/29/acsi-ib-world-school-student-council-2006/
Thanks alot for all the replies.
moonlitnite
Well-known member
Malcolm,
Thanks for sharing your clip - excellent job! Yes, since you're challanged with a tight budget, it's difficult to get the kind of audio quality that matches the good work you've done with the video. In some segments, you might get by with an inexpensive wired mic or improvise your own homemade boom mic. Lacking that, you want to get much closer to your talent when recording. The outside voice testimonials where you have lots of noise in your city/school are a real problem, requiring you to crank up the gain (and noise) in post-production. Getting closer to your work (improving the "Signal/Noise" based on the inverse-square law) well help. One method would be to first take the wide shoot (like the SWAT team near the end) and begin a zoom, perhaps with a disolve to a close up on the speaker - then when you're close enough for a breast or head shot withou the zoom, roll new footage and begin the recording.
As far as the post-production audio goes, you might try downloading a free program like Audacity - this will allow you to visually see the problems you're facing with the large dynamic audio range. In your current state, the listener/viewer practically needs to manually adjust the audio voluma - something you always want to avoid. If a dramatic moment calls for a loud sound more than 10dB above a baseline peak, try to limit the duration. I'd guess the current music inserts are well over 10dB hotter than the talent's voices. So subliminally, in a way you're suggesting to the audience that the music is more important than the message by the talent - consider how the music enhances the atmosphere/mood so it doesn't distract from the talent (unless that's an integral part of the message at certain points). BTW, the foley effects were a real plus and you're on the right track to get the hang of them.
Back to my original comment, if you had low-level ambient noise from something like a slight wind you could clip it with software - then when you increased the gain, you wouldn't be increasing the ambient noise level.
I'm sure others will have some useful suggestions - stay tuned, and who knows - maybe one of our readers here is near you in Singapore and might loan you a wireless mic...
Good luck, Michael
Thanks for sharing your clip - excellent job! Yes, since you're challanged with a tight budget, it's difficult to get the kind of audio quality that matches the good work you've done with the video. In some segments, you might get by with an inexpensive wired mic or improvise your own homemade boom mic. Lacking that, you want to get much closer to your talent when recording. The outside voice testimonials where you have lots of noise in your city/school are a real problem, requiring you to crank up the gain (and noise) in post-production. Getting closer to your work (improving the "Signal/Noise" based on the inverse-square law) well help. One method would be to first take the wide shoot (like the SWAT team near the end) and begin a zoom, perhaps with a disolve to a close up on the speaker - then when you're close enough for a breast or head shot withou the zoom, roll new footage and begin the recording.
As far as the post-production audio goes, you might try downloading a free program like Audacity - this will allow you to visually see the problems you're facing with the large dynamic audio range. In your current state, the listener/viewer practically needs to manually adjust the audio voluma - something you always want to avoid. If a dramatic moment calls for a loud sound more than 10dB above a baseline peak, try to limit the duration. I'd guess the current music inserts are well over 10dB hotter than the talent's voices. So subliminally, in a way you're suggesting to the audience that the music is more important than the message by the talent - consider how the music enhances the atmosphere/mood so it doesn't distract from the talent (unless that's an integral part of the message at certain points). BTW, the foley effects were a real plus and you're on the right track to get the hang of them.
Back to my original comment, if you had low-level ambient noise from something like a slight wind you could clip it with software - then when you increased the gain, you wouldn't be increasing the ambient noise level.
I'm sure others will have some useful suggestions - stay tuned, and who knows - maybe one of our readers here is near you in Singapore and might loan you a wireless mic...
Good luck, Michael
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MalcolmOng
Veteran
Thanks alot for your reply! I really appreciate the advice!