comedy club live audio post fx

J

Josh Bass

Veteran
If you can think of a better title that gets this across Im all ears.

So I have a bunch of footage of a character playing a standup comedian that we shot against a curtain in my living room, but I want to make it sound like live comedy club audio...

What I mean is, when you watch a standup special on tv, the audio is crystal clear but has just a hint of ambience to it (room sound/reverb/delay).

What fx/settings would you recommend to simulate that ambience?

I have Logic Pro X at my disposal as well as the tools in Premiere CS6 (and God forbid, FCP 7)

Thanks.
 
So what kind of a mic did you use? Standup normally means (nowadays) hand mics or headsets - they have a particular close and comfortable sound. Do you have this, or is it a far more coloured, roomy sound from a distant mic?

By far the best way to reproduce the sound of people is to go somewhere and record hubbub. Not the sound of the act, but the sound of a large number of people just talking. If you can find a suitable group with NO MUSIC playing - record ten minutes from at least two locations, and then blend them together. One three wearers left, the other threequarters right - then do 20 second crossfades on each one to loop them into however long you want. This gives you general atmosphere. With comedy though, you need laughs and that's far more tricky. The easiest, but time consuming way to do it is to multi-track it, and gather a group of friends, and mic them up as a spaced pair. If you can get six people, you coach them. Give each 'performance' a type. 1 could be a mild chuckle, 2 a bit more, lasting a bit longer, 3 might be a sharp intake of breath when the performer says something controversial, 4 can be a good laugh with some clapping, etc etc. You then record at least half a dozen of each type - and layer them up to create your performance. Do NOT allow any individuals to cat call, or say even simple things like "yes" - I know real audiences do this, but once you use that take twice, people notice. It needs to be all on a scale of raucousness. You can go a mix of one over or one under as required.

I realise a lot of you are American. Us Brits rarely do laugh tracks on our comedy programmes, so we're very good at spotting false comedy, put in by a button to bolster pathetic audience response, or far too often, to make a feeble TV joke a rip-roarer that with a real love audience just would;t have generated a smile. My impression is American audiences must be easily fooled based on watching your TV programmes. I suspect that I'd hear your joke and select a number 2 response, but you would pick a number 5. Only you can tell. With a simple multitrack DAW - Audacity for free, even, you can build up convincing tracks.

If you have got audio that does sound like it's in a small room, then you could add distinct delay as an effect - as if there is a PA system in the room, which will sound a little odd - but could be convincing of a naff PA system.
 
I did have him use an SM58 to record.

Actually, I'm sorry, I should have mentioned but I do NOT need the laughter. . .JUST that slight room ambience/reverb you hear with live audio. When you watch Louis C.K. or whoever on his latest special. That slight ambience of the speakers in the room being picked up by the mic at a very low level, under the direct audio. Really helps sell that it's in a live venue with a PA system.
 
Ok, I think I've more or less got it. Used Logic, put 2 sends on a channel strip, one going to a tape delay and one going to a reverb (Space Designer) set to a "big club room" setting, amount/blend mixed to taste. When I've done this in the past I've found I actually need to see the video with the audio to see if I "buy it" (does it sound too big for the space it looks like? Too small? etc.). Keep tweaking, watch, repeat til done). If anyone really cares I'll send a sample when I nail it.
 
Well sort of maybe. Walla is generally more specific for crowds that are actually seen. Most of the BG crowd sounds are added in FX from recordings. And maybe you add some Walla to richen it up a bit. Walla by definition is fake crowd sounds so ambience recordings are not referred to generally as Walla. And I did qualify that with generally because specific studios often have quirks of how the refer to things so there may be some place that has been calling all crowd sounds as walla, but technically that is not correct. Walla is created by Loog Groups.

But it seems that the OP is just looking to "worldize" his recording, not add any sounds to it. The best way is to actually worldize it. Play it back in a space that sounds like what you want and rerecord it. That probably not being very practical you could try some light reverb it should help. A better "solution" is SPEAKERPHONE which is a plugin that is in essence a "worldizing" plugin. It can no only place your recording in a space but you can also add some of the other things that you really need to to sell the effect such as some very light crowd presence and some general room noise.
 
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