Need urgent help on Post Audio

R

redherring2049

Member
I am in a film production class and I am editing a short that is due tomorrow. The footage is not amazing, but I can make it work. My biggest concern is audio. For some reason it was only shot on the Left channel through the external mic. Other than that, I need to add audio. Mostly scenes that take place in an alley, and it just doesn't sound right. I need footsteps, I need to pick the right music, I'm just having a lot of trouble with it and its due in 8 hours. Can anybody help me out?
 
Most external mics are mono, so it is expected they will only record one channel.

Beyond that, you should probably be asking at the school if this is for an assigned project.
 
In your NLE split the stereo files to two mono files, delete the right channel file then pan the left to center. For sounds try freesound.org.
 
As uncle Bob says and part of the learning process of working in media and film is forward planning, too many peeps thinking you just get a DSLR and off you go and make a movie.
 
Well, how is this being graded? I could easily do the sound and have it done quickly, but I know what i'm doing. It would be great if you could use pro tools or some other DAW to do the post audio in and get the results you want, but you have to know how to use it and how to get at least a stereo mix. If you don't have the ability to do that on such a short notice, then you'll have to make do with what's available, and freesound.org might help, but they tend to not have specific things like footsteps or foley sounds. You can find those things on sounddogs.com, but they aren't free.
 
I'm sure for the next project you will think about

- having the sound right already during shoot

- start earlier and not the day before you have to deliver it

- being prepared, wright everytging down, make a kind of "drawings" of the scenes to know which shots you need


The mistakes you made this time, you'll make only once...
 
This is probably too late to help you, but in Sony Vegas you can just right-click on the audio channel and set it to "Left Channel Only" or "Right Channel Only", and it turns your stereo audio track into a mono audio track. I suspect most decent NLE's have the same option.

Then you can add in the other sounds and balance them -- and your dialogue -- however you need to in order to achieve the audio feel that you want.
 
David W. Richardson said:
This is probably too late to help you, but in Sony Vegas you can just right-click on the audio channel and set it to "Left Channel Only" or "Right Channel Only", and it turns your stereo audio track into a mono audio track. I suspect most decent NLE's have the same option.
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I think the OP only has one channel now, if I read the post correctly. I don't know sony vegas, so I could be speaking out of ignorance...but is it possible to create a mono track and then copy the left channel of audio from the stereo track onto the mono track, and then just have that panned center? I know you can do this in pro tools, which is why I'm guessing this is possible in Vegas.

To the OP...I know people are kind of bagging on you, but please don't take it too harshly. I clearly remember being in college, and when you are at that stage, you don't know what you don't know, and that's always what bites you in the rear in the end, but you are still learning, so this is ok. It doesn't mean you aren't good at what you are doing. The fact that you are asking for help shows you realize you need to learn more and recognize that there may have been some mistakes made that you didn't know were being made at the time. This is what school is for. To learn how to do things, and to learn from mistakes. No project I ever did in college was perfect, but I learned a lot, and that is what is most important. When it comes to pre production planning, production, and post, this little niche of DVX user is a great resource, especially in the audio stickies and by searching topics. I hope everything has worked out for you.
 
davefisk said:
I clearly remember being in college, and when you are at that stage, you don't know what you don't know, and that's always what bites you in the rear in the end, but you are still learning, so this is ok.......
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What I really object to is not that he started so late doing the audio, but that sound-for-picture and its complications is never a part of the filmmaking curriculum; it's treated as an afterthought.
 
unclebob6958 said:
What I really object to is not that he started so late doing the audio, but that sound-for-picture and its complications is never a part of the filmmaking curriculum; it's treated as an afterthought.
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This is true. I was lucky in that I was a sound engineering major, so we did sound design projects and learned the pitfalls of not doing proper pre production, production, and post. There are classes out there, but I have yet to see a really good comprehensive overview that follows the whole process from production through post.
 
From what I hear from media uni's here in the Uk you are just handed a camera and told to get on with it, we now have zillions of grads who have a media degree and call themselves self shoot producer directors but know jack **** about anything whist us seasoned pro's sit at home struggling to get work as the grads will work for lo/no pay!
 
If you have 100 people in a class, about 60 are interested in doing camera, 35 in doing editing and 5 only in sound.

Most people think sound is: "naaaaah, it's damn easy, it's just swinging around with some mic...and if they're all wired (wireless mic) it's more easy".
But still, nobody wants to do it.

When you give a camera to someone... he/she will know how it works without someone explaining it. They'll also find things faster when reading the manual.
But when you give a soundmixer or soundrecorder to someone... They're totaly lost....

And that's kinda funny :-p

Even camerapeople don't know anything about the "soundcompartment" on there own camera.
 
Yep. Pan to center, and freesound.org has an amazing variety of sounds for sound effects. I like the MusicBakery for buy-out music. Easy to search, not too expensive.

And guys, I know it's tough given the number of these queries that show up here, but give the guy a break -- at least he's asking somebody. It won't hurt us (much) to give a tiny little bit of help, yes?
 
Sound is actually very easy all you need to do is record the dialogue/location sound as clean and close as possible in mono, add your stereo effects/sound stage, spot effects and extra music in post and mix it!

as for what you add is up to you but that is where the skill and learning comes into effect, sound is a parallel process with lots of sources that need to be considered where pictures are serial with only one source most of the time, therefore you actually need to think about the sound far more than the pictures but sadly people want all the glamour of being a DOP or a director first and don't consider the whole movie making process.
 
GaryNattrass said:
Sound is actually very easy all you need to do is record the dialogue/location sound as clean and close as possible in mono, add your stereo effects/sound stage, spot effects and extra music in post and mix it!
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LOL yep simple. Kind of like the "how do you get a great lawn?" "Simple, cut it and roll it. Repeat weekly for three to four hundred years".
 
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