make sound sound great!

C

c.g._eads

Veteran
I wish I knew how to do this. I would've posted this in the sound section, but it would've taken four days for anybody to even go there so...

In the clips section there's a piece ("Tolerance" trailer) that doesn't have "bad" sound. The sound is clean. But the actor's voices sound dead. Like they're barely there. And the question being raised was "Is this just the actor's fault?" or are there tools that all sound editors use to 'punch up' an actor's voice? The studio movie's actor's voices all have that deep bass-y voice and the women's are always alive and crisp. Is this just luck in the voice gene pool, or a good sound editor?

c.g.
 
Most Hollywood movies have a lot of A.D.R., its the process of rerecording dialog in a sound booth.
 
Also, you can boost the eq around the 80hertz to add a little punch. the movie November had all of it's sound captured live on set. It sounds great, but allot of skill is necessary to accomplish this.
 
There are a couple of things you can do in post in addition to EQ. Maximizers like and Compressors (not compression like MP3 or .jpg) as well as Normalizing can help. There are also Presence effects and both time and tone based effects you can use as well. ie, Chorus, delays, reverbs. You can also get into pitch altering effects and layer your sound, and create or expand/contract/tweak stereo fields can bring some "color" to the party.

Subtlety is key though. You don't want your talent to sound like he is from Mars.
 
I’ve never really done a lot of pro video sound and when I have messed with it I always spend my time trying to get rid of background noise and enhance the stuff I want using filters in post. This year I’m determined to make at least one short of the drama kind. I have given the audio some thought and this is my plan of attack. First I’m going to use the right mic for the right job. I’m going to try and work in environments where I have maximum control over ambient noise levels, where this is not possible I’ll try A.D.R. ambient noise floors and foley. I am also going to try feeding the mic’s through a mixer and EQ on set before going into the recording device so I can get as close to the levels I want during the take. Audio has always been one of my weak areas but I think I’ll get a handle on it this year. Seems to me that QUIET, EQ and the right mic for the job are perhaps the key….If that doesn’t work, I’ll just google the ****er!
 
c.g._eads said:
I wish I knew how to do this. I would've posted this in the sound section, but it would've taken four days for anybody to even go there so...

In the clips section there's a piece ("Tolerance" trailer) that doesn't have "bad" sound. The sound is clean. But the actor's voices sound dead. Like they're barely there. And the question being raised was "Is this just the actor's fault?" or are there tools that all sound editors use to 'punch up' an actor's voice? The studio movie's actor's voices all have that deep bass-y voice and the women's are always alive and crisp. Is this just luck in the voice gene pool, or a good sound editor?

c.g.
Click to expand...

A lot of it is mic technique. The deep bassy voice is often the result of what we call "proximity effect" - an increase in low frequency response as one moves closer to a directional mic, especially a large-diaphragm. The right mic can similarly enhance voices (such as women's) in different ways. This can be approximated in post, but is best of course if captured the right way.
 
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