Any good mixing tips?

L

L1N3ARX

Well-known member
I'm having some fun with my new recorder / amp combo- recording better sounding dialog than I ever thought would be possible on such a low budget. So now in post, I'm just trying to do the super basics, a bit of EQing, compression etc. to get the dialog sounding a bit more crisp- like what you might hear in a film. I've found some decent videos / tutorials on youtube, but was wondering if there was anything valuable you guys had to pitch in with regards to getting dialog sounding good for film work?

I'm currently working in Audition since I can't afford pro tools ATM, but Audition seems to have a lot of great tools especially for a noob like myself. So with regards to EQ / compression or other effects, anything stand out in your minds as a good tip to get crisp clean dialog?
 
Sage said:
Really informative on this exact niche, from the best:
http://www.amazon.com/Dialogue-Editing-Motion-Pictures-Invisible/dp/0240809181

Before
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpF6JPO1u9Q
After
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS-4H21O2Iw

Izotope RX is pretty neat.
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Cool, I'll be checking it out after work. Just screwing around with a few compression settings, I was able to get something sounding pretty nice. Granted, I had no idea what I was doing or what settings I was adjusting... but it sounded good : )

Audio may be a whole different beast than video.. but it seems just as fun to play around with like you might do with color grading etc.
 
It depends on what you are aiming at for end format. Film has a pretty dynamic sound track. It can because the audience is sitting in a (theoretically) quiet room and doing nothing but watch the story. TV is usually pretty compressed because it plays in a non controlled often distracting environment. Video swings between those two depending on who and where folks are going to be watching your work. If it's for YouTube I think it's safe to aim at a TV mix.

Limiters are more common than compressors for dialog. They are doing effectively the same thing a lot of the time but you more ability to not boost quiet stuff you don't want to with a limiter, where a compressor is more likely to bring up background noise.

Dialog also generally rolls off the top and bottom of the spectrum. The high cut gets rid of some tape hiss/ high noise and the low will cut out a lot o rumble and handling noise and some low mud that can get in the way. After that it really depends on the voice and the recording.

Rx as mentioned is a great tol for fixing problems but it's not a general purpose mixing tool. I have heard of folks just putting it on tracks "because". To me that is a bit like taking asprin every day because you might get a headache. I use it when it's needed and not otherwise.

Rx should work with Audition, but the limiter I like wont.
 
"I'm currently working in Audition since I can't afford pro tools"
PTs will not make a mix sound any better.... all other factors being equal.
 
Something I saved from a while ago from another site that I utilized:

Some times compression is used, but not too often. If anything, a little bit of limiting for dialog that is all over the place is more likely, and more helpful. Lots of fader rides are more common and more effective than a bunch of compression

One of the biggest things I learned is that even with awesomely recorded dialogue/vocals, compressing or limiting won't work as well as using those tools but riding the faders (automating).

Just for reference's sake; A limiter is technically just a compressor with a high ratio (10:1 or higher) and hard knee, so you can use a compressor like a limiter. Although I'm sure you're aware every plugin/outboard compressor/limiter has it's own character and 'sound'.
 
No - I read it as using faders. Compression is also very difficult to actually hear until you are used to it, and far too many people add it almost automatically.

To hear subtle amounts of compression needs good quality monitors, a very quiet room (as in NO fans) and educated ears. When I was teaching in a college plenty of students simply could not hear compression until they'd been there a while and educated their ears. I too still use manual fader moves sometimes when I know the material, giving push and pull just where needed - something a compressor can't do for you. Proper EQ that sounds musical and noth mathematical. I'm a Premiere user and hate the sound of the eq, so I always process outside of the editor.
 
L1N3ARX said:
Hmm.. so like a manual EQ ? What is the "fader" exactly controlling? Just frequencies like EQ?
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Maybe a trip to some audio basics would be a good start...

The faders are controlling level. Compression, limiting and EQ have nothing to do with each other for all practical purposes.


Compressors generally work a bit like an auto gain control and you will hear them bring up the gain when the signal gets low. Limiters only compress the higher volumes and don't bring up the gain when the signal gets low, which is why they are used more in film than compressors are.

People slap compressors on to do the "mixing" for them, and that never works well. Limiters act as a safety net so you can mix by ear keep your levels up and push more of your track into higher levels with out clipping, and they don't touch the lower level sounds so you don't get that nasty sounding noise floor rise as the track gets quieter. In the right hands all are used to good effect.

But OP I think you should get some basics down first. At least read the stickies, but probably something more basic. Home Recording for Musicians by Craig Anderton (if you can find a copy) has some good basics in very non technical language. This is important because people are giving you some very basic and simple bits of advice and you are not understanding the basic terms. So it's going to be near imposible for someone to tell you useful information if you don't know some basics.
 
One of the biggest things I learned is that even with awesomely recorded dialogue/vocals, compressing or limiting won't work as well as using those tools but riding the faders (automating).
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This is my experience too - I've seen finished dialogue tracks for features that sometimes had automation points for every syllable of a line. After you've balanced the dialogue manually, you can then use a soft compressor to smooth it all out a bit. Sometimes you don't need it.
 
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