Atmos track question

S

stringz

Active member
A sound recordist friend of mine was recently told by a director (an ex sound recordist) that the atmos tracks recorded on his film were too quiet and that they needed to be boosted by about 10-20 db in post. The recordist said that the atmos tracks were recorded at at the same level as they were recorded throughout the scenes ie the gain wasn't increased just for the atmos. Now this has always been my method and never had any complaints.
So should you increase the gain for recording wild tracks or is the way my friend and I have always done it the correct way?
 
What kind of atmos? If it's in an office and there's a bit of constant level ventilation below dialog, I'll do a quick one at the same level I recorded the scene. I can't see post needing ventilation 20db's louder. If it's outside, with a constantly varying level of trafic noise, I'll do a much longer ambiance at full level and let post ajust level appropriately.
 
There may be some confusion between "atmospheres" and "room tone".

Room tone tracks are used primarily to patch gaps in the dialogue that occur during the edit. As such, you want them to be as closely matched as possible to the dialogue. Although a recordist may choose to record them at a higher level, the recording levels are usually pretty close to the rest of the dialogue. If the room tones are recorded too hot, it'll mean a tiny bit more work to get them to match the dialogue.

Atmospheres, on the other hand, are entirely sepparate sound effects elements which are layered into a scene to fill out the backgrounds. Since atmospheres typically involve quiete and subtle sounds, they usually require boatloads of clean gain to achieve a good recording. Its not unusually for a quiet interior atmos to sit around -25 dB. Atmos also benefit greatly from longer record time; whereas one minute is usually plenty for room tone, two or three minutes is preferable for atmos.

The sound effects editor may be trying to use the room tones as an atmos track, which sounds like a better idea than it actually is. For one thing, the room tones' mic placement was chosen with dialogue editing and restoration in mind, whereas in a propper atmos track the mics are carefully positioned to capture the unique shape and texture of the space being recorded. Doubling up room tone on an effects track doesn't usually do much more than simply add more noise to a scene (this is sometimes usefull for an M&E mix).
 
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