ADR from home?

junct

junct

Active member
So obviously, it is less than ideal to be recording dialogue and sound effects as someone who isn't an audio guy, or without any dedicated equipment or space.

With that in mind, I'm looking to start experiment with animation and stop motion. My first projects will be pretty experimental, and light on any form of crew (probably just myself and a friend), just as a means to learn the form a bit more. But I don't want the sound to be terrible.

I have been doing live action stuff for the most part. I usually do shorts with no/very little dialogue, and have a boom op and post production sound editor, so I don't own any gear myself. My university does have some facilities available, but I don't really want to abuse that for lowkey/experimental/practice productions.

So what can I, someone with very little knowledge on recording proper audio, in a student flat, and no audio equipment, do to get some half decent dialogue and maybe some Foley recorded (though I'd probably be using my friend in audio post for that - he lives in another country, so I can't get him to help with the recording)?

Obviously I'll have to spend a little, but whats the minimum setup I can get away with? What stuff should I read up on to get the most out of the equipment?
And if possible (though it's probably not), can I use this gear for quicker, more experimental live action productions, on the end of a boom? I have two *large* projects planned in the long term, so in the mean time, while I write and go into pre prodcution on those, I'm looking at making a heap of super short experimental pieces, so I don't really want to be calling in favours to get passable sound recorded.

Thanks for any help!
 
I do stop motion animation, and record most of my audio in my lounge. I used to simply plug a mic into my laptop, but the sound quality was never great (especially background noise). My audio has improved enormously with my current simple setup:

- a sound recorder (I use a Sony PCM-M10 and love it, but something like a Zoom H2N/H4N may be easier to find)
- an acoustic shield such as the SE Reflexion Filter or Primacoustic Vox Guard, and a mic stand or similar for it to sit on.
- and I'm careful to record with curtains (or something equally sound-absorbing) behind me and the acoustic shield in front of me, and everything hummy (fridges, computers, etc) switched off.
 
I've had what I consider good success building a "sound booth" with moving blankets. Make four walls (even better if doubled up/blankets folded in half) -- youll need some kind of stands or something to suppor the blankets. If hard floor another blanket for a "carpet". Mic goes inside booth with you. Get pretty close to mic, use a pop filter (friend/audio engineer told me his rule is to put your hand up, fingers closed, flat, like you're going to karate chop-- one hand's distance between your mouth and pop filter, same distance between filter and mic grill). Probably want that booth out away from walls /corners. space inside booth should not be TOO small or the sound can get "boxy". . .so if possible make your "walls" maybe 3-4 feet each, at least. And yes, turn fridge/AC/etc. off, whatever you have control of.
 
If you are a student and still learning and experimenting, there is no need to blow a ton of money on gear. You can get a USB mic that is decent for pretty cheap. Just start with that. It won't be awesome, but it won't be the worst thing in the world either. It's a start.
 
1: You're not even talking about ADR in this post - you're talking about adding dialogue where there was none. Two different worlds. ADR is replacing dialogue, with all the issues of performance and matching the source audio. For what you're doing, watch movies/etc and figure out what makes a voice fit a scene - the sound of the room, distance from mics, etc.

2: Moving blankes? Maybe. Google Ethan Winer and read his forum. There's much better DIY stuff to make a decent audio recording and mixing room. Owens Corning is your friend. A couple boxes of it.

3: Read up on convolution reverb plugins and download a few free trials. Kind of life changing for this sort of thing!
 
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