AUDIO question.. Phone effect/levels

[Justin Marx]

Hey guys.. New to the Audio world.. Had a few questions..

Scene - Answering machine playing back messages..
We have the actors saying the lines normally into the mic.. we want to make it sound like its coming from the machine.... any ideas?

Also..

SCENE - INT NIGHT CLUB BATHROOM
Dialog is going on, and club music in the Background.. I want the music to sound like its coming from somwhere outside.. I only want to hear the distant bass rumble.. THEN an actor opens the door of the bathroom, and I want to music to GET louder as he opens it..

Also..

We had two pro sound guys on the shoot..
BUT ONE OF THE GUYS AUDIO IS LOW!!!
Even if we crank the LEVELS all the way up in FCP, it's just BARELY good..
Is there anyway to boost it MORE, without boosting the whole project in the audio mixer? I don't care if it brings up the Bachground noise, I just need it louder!!!! PLEASEEEEEEEE HELPPPPPPPP

Need to get some stuff done and ready for SLAMDANCE for MONDAY ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

WERE NUTS!!:zombie_smiley:

THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH!!!!

 

[gunleik]

First: take a deep breath. This is no big deal. Relax!

OK?

Good! -

First, I'm thinking - if you have access to two pro soundguys, this is piece of cake...

Secondly:
All these problems are more easily solved in soundtrack (or even garageband) than FCP, but the way of doing it is basicalloy the same for all three apps.
The solutions are thus aplicationindependent, you'll just have more fun doing it in one app than the other.

So: To your questions

1. Answering machine/phone
Lay the audio out to a separate track
Add equalizer for this track (insert)
Cut off basically any audio up to 1khz
Gain between 1khz and 2 khz
Cut off in the top.
use your ears to find the sweetspot
(and this goes for ALL audioediting)


2. One (of many) ways for doing this
Set the music up for two separate tracks ( or two stereopairs)
On the first pair (You may call this "bathroom") you insert an eq and a reverb (in this order)
For the EQ:
Cut off most/all high frequencies
Again, play around untill you find "your" bathroom
On the reverb, find a short/hard/cold reverb (0,5 - 1 sec should be pretty nice) and run this as an insert with the mix being around 66% on the reverb (my guess, again: Use your ears)

Find a level for this

from the other stereopair, set the levels to 0 from start, and pan/gain it as the door opens to get the requested effect. You may still want to add an eq and cut off some of the higher frequencies, if you need to hear spoken words, and if the stage is not right outside the bathroom.

I would sugest to add "voices" from others as the door is opened too, if the club is crowded.


3.
Audiolevels:
You have to add a limiter (+ an eq) to gain the voice.
Again: I cannot give you exact settings, but these are the tools. Someone sugested (in another thread) that one could put down many tracks with the same sound. This should _not_ make the result sound louder, and could potentionaly introduce some other serious audioproblems. DON'T DO THAT!.

Cheers and good luck!

Gunleik

 

[Justin Marx]

Gunleik! Thank you so much!!! I thought I responded to this already! I will be printing this out and trying it later today..

How do you pull up the equalizer in all of these programs.. I had some trouble with that..

Thanks again!

 

[shawnmaddock]

There's several ways, but to pull up an EQ, select the track, then:

In STP, either command-5 or right click->show track effects.

In GarageBand, either command-I or double click the track header, then click details.

In FCP, select effects, then audio filters.