Editing audio with video reference

-Tom-

-Tom-

Active member
I'm doing a little experiment (I'll post it later) where I need to add specific effect (I presume some sort of echo, don't really know the laws of acoustics and how they translate in Audition...but I'm learning) at a specific time in the timeline.

I've finished with the edit but the audiotrack sounds a bit...flat. It's much too even to be realistic. So what I want to do is to cue to a point in the edit where the scene ambiance changes, and then edit that part of the sound with proper sound effect for that ambiance. (I don't think I can manage it with Premiere's set of effects).

Is there a way to do this and make the audio smooth in on the effect rather than just jump in - while I'm editing in reference to the exact part of the timeline?
 
1: Did you record 'room tone' with every take?
2: Can you return to the locations and record scene ambiance?
3: An excellent tool to recreate the 'feel' of a location is a plug-in called a 'convolution reverb.' It involves recording an impulse - a bang or a clap - in the location which the tool then analyses to make a model of the acoustic properties of the site which it can then apply to the dialog recording.
4: It sounds like you are trying to work with only one track. Film sound is made up of many layers of sound - many tracks - added on top of one another to produce the final result. Room tone is espacially useful to bridge cuts in order to avoid those sudden entrances and exits you are experiencing. Without it you have the sonic equivalent of a 'jump cut' in picture editing.
 
-Tom- said:
Hey Steve, this is the video I'm trying to improve, to make the car sound more...believable.

http://youtu.be/3LKNGh02h9Y
Click to expand...

From what some people have written on this sort of thing, I think Noise was one... you need to put the mic in the engine compartment.

As it is you have a radio in the background, some thing 'buzzing/flapping' as the car accelerates, and mostly 'bass' and 'muddied' through the wall between the engine and the interior of the car.
 
What I'm hearing is I think car keys jangling, Very little low end and the radio?

You say "realistic" but to you mean documentary realistic? Because that is pretty much what you have.

A feature or ad though has a very hyped up sense of "realistic".

On that kind of film you would add a bunch of stuff and loos this production completely (or close).

First off you need some better engine sounds. Could be the same car but we would rig it with a mic under the hood and one in the rear to pick up the exhaust If you have the tracks you would also get one in a wheel well and an interior. Then you go out and make the moves you need for the shots. you also want "engine working hard" sounds and you really need some hills to get it (not actual speed but higher RPM's agains some strain) these you will add in when the car is accelerating. You also want to get some Wild "Foley" sounds of the drivers hands on the wheel and shifting etc. You should also probably get some standing Rev's since you want some of those. And since we are talking a car in a movie, you can't go around turns with out some tire chirps, so you need to go get or record those as well. And if you can imagine some dirt/ gravel/ whatever - get some tires on "stuff" sounds also. That is what the wheel well mic is all about, the tire meets the road sound.

Now your POV is inside so your going to need to loose a lot of high end ,but that is OK, in fact for your "action" car you probably want to boost the base a bit.

When you mix, some of the engine compartment motor sound with a bit of exhaust "throat" should beef up the car. All the little extras like tire cheaps around a turn or two and some tire noise will sell the speed and effort of the driving.

If you take a look at the BMW ad here top row third from the left it's all exterior but it was built the same way. No production sound at all except the dialog at the end. We rented the actual car and recorded the motor etc. (on public roads never getting over probably 35 - 40mph and that only to get the stop skid).

You are looking at probably 80 tracks on that one but that is mostly because we break things out a LOT. But with ambiences for your clip you probably want 20-30 tracks. You could probably compact it down but then you would have a hell of a time finding the sounds when you needed to adjust things.

Tracks in sound are a bit like layers in After Effects, a lot is often easier than a few.

Actually I just listened to it and the dialog at the end is us also, so no production at all.
 
Thanks for the helpful insight guys!


The jangling sound is from the camera mic, the suction mount has a small metal washer that jangled all the time, not very loud though, so I decided to put it in the vid, to make for a more realistic "in car" sound.


My goal was to make it feel like a part of a film, sort of like a cut in a drive-through scene…but since I don't have the proper car to shoot exterior, Ive made a long in-car sequence.


Maybe its the quality (and my poor mixing skills) but on my headphones I can actually hear my hands sliding on a steering, and Ive added gearshift clicks and headlight switch clicks…maybe I should crank their levels in the mix. But I have to be honest Im not a fan of audio HDR, you know those scenes where you hear people breathe, scratch themselves and talk - all on a same audio level.


The BMW ad sounds really great, very precise…would you use the same production approach on a movie scene?


Also, here's test number 2...




HD available, but I dont know how to embed it to autoplay, make sure to switch :)
 
We both came out of features so yes, depending on the film. Also in a film you don't necessarily use the same car. A feature with a budget will generally try to record the same car but it will also add sounds from other cars if it fits. We had an Astin Martin (like the James Bond car from Goldfinger) in one film and the engine sounded great but the body is all aluminum and sounds very "light" so all the door closes etc. were from other cars.
 
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