Matching Audio for Two Different Microphone Placements

G

Gary Huff

Carbonite Member
I'm currently working on a video that is an interview shot in pieces (one camera), so there's a wide and two closeups. The shotgun mic placement in the wide is farther away than in the closeups, meaning that cutting the pieces together sounds off because the audio tone is different enough between the two. Is there any "quick 'n dirty" point-me-in-the-right-direction advice that can help me generate a "good enough" match?

Thanks.
 
1) If you still can get your talents for a little-and-fast ADR session (using the same mic) that would be the simplest and easiest way to solve the problem. Try to find a room (or location) that is similar to the original one to record it and it should match your other recording. Or simply reshoot the scene that's problematic, that would be even simpler.
2) Other than this, as it's been recorded in different conditions (read: mic placement) you can't really get it to sound the same way (unfortunately). ADR would be your best bet for now I think, that's what I'd (try to at least) do though.
3) Or you could post a sample for us to try to work on, maybe we could help you with it.
4) For your next project, a Lav would give you best results. I'd suggest (for a low-budget) an Azden EX-503 (check my vimeo profile to hear the results). It sells for about 20$ on B&H and performs a bit better than the well-known low-cost Audio-Technica similar model (ATR-3350)
 
It depends on what suite you're editing in, or if you have an audio-exclusive DAW that you could export the soundtrack file to, to make some adjustments, and then bring it back into your film editing program to re-align with the video.

You could try EQ, however, if there is more "room" in the track, there isn't that much you can do. You can also do some volume matching, normalizing, and/or use compression, but the problem is that if you bring the level of the track that has the "farther-away microphone sound" up, you will also be raising the "noise floor" (inherent noise in the recording and any room sound in the track).

It's hard to say exactly what to try without hearing an example of what you're dealing with. You could definitey mitigate the situation and make things better, but to what degree, and whether or not you'd think the necessary solutions would be "quick n' dirty" (or, worth your time) is something else entirely.

GJ
 
Since it's an interview my only suggestion other than a reshoot is to match the close micd take to the distant, not ideal but you won't be able to do the opposite. Being an interview it would be weird to replace the dialogue.
 
Mitch.Kear said:
Since it's an interview my only suggestion other than a reshoot is to match the close micd take to the distant, not ideal but you won't be able to do the opposite. Being an interview it would be weird to replace the dialogue.
Click to expand...
That's a good point. I recently found the good virtues of using a Lav and not thinking about suicide in post when editing.
 
Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, ADR or re-shooting is totally out of the question, nor am I allowed to post any samples. The best way I can describe it is as a shotgun mic that is placed just out of shot on a medium 2-shot, then when going to a close-up is again moved to just out of camera view. The audio levels are fine but there's a different "feel" to the audio, such as the balance being slightly off and the 2-shot sounding slightly "warmer" (the best term I can think of at the moment).

It wasn't my shoot either, I'm just doing post.
 
You can use a matching EQ to get it closer and you can use a downward expander to knock back the room a bit. If your using the mic that matches the shot you probably don't have to make them sound the same gust not so jarringly different. On a narrative film the other option is to use the CU dialog and then use VocAlign to get it to match for the wider shots.
 
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