Phone conversation
- Thread starter GGF NYC
- Start date
Brad S.
Well-known member
Well it all starts off with the editorial. The dialog editor will have one or two "futz" tracks for audio that needs to be messed like phone conversations, sound through a TV, etc. Whenever one character is supposed to be heard through the phone you would place their dialog on the futz track and on the regular dialog tracks when we are on their side of the conversation.
As for how to do it, phone futzing is usually a combination of extreme settings on a high and low pass filter and heavy compression. Play around with the settings on the high and low pass to get what sounds good to you, but I think have the high pass at maybe 500hz and the low pass at say 4 khz. People with more mixing experience can give you a better estimation of which frequencies to set the filters at. I also find that have a resonant peak on the low pass filter helps sell the sound over the phone.
Or if you've got a hole burning in your pocket, Audioease Speakerphone is a pretty good tool for this sort of thing.
As for how to do it, phone futzing is usually a combination of extreme settings on a high and low pass filter and heavy compression. Play around with the settings on the high and low pass to get what sounds good to you, but I think have the high pass at maybe 500hz and the low pass at say 4 khz. People with more mixing experience can give you a better estimation of which frequencies to set the filters at. I also find that have a resonant peak on the low pass filter helps sell the sound over the phone.
Or if you've got a hole burning in your pocket, Audioease Speakerphone is a pretty good tool for this sort of thing.
David W. Richardson
Chapelgrove Films
Here's another idea that might work well.
Setup your camera and boom mic to record the 'in person' side of the phone conversation. Have your actor actually call someone.
On the other end of the phone conversation, attach one of those suction cup phone pickup mics, plugged into an audio recording device like a Zoom H2 or something similar.
This gives you both the live audio and the 'over the phone' audio of the same conversation. Of course, the 'over the phone' audio will probably still need a good deal of tweaking in post to make it sound good.
Just an off-the-cuff idea. Never actually tried it. Worst case scenario, if the 'over the phone' audio was lousy, then you could use the tools in post on the 'live' audio to give it the phone sound, as Brad said.
Good luck!
.
Setup your camera and boom mic to record the 'in person' side of the phone conversation. Have your actor actually call someone.
On the other end of the phone conversation, attach one of those suction cup phone pickup mics, plugged into an audio recording device like a Zoom H2 or something similar.
This gives you both the live audio and the 'over the phone' audio of the same conversation. Of course, the 'over the phone' audio will probably still need a good deal of tweaking in post to make it sound good.
Just an off-the-cuff idea. Never actually tried it. Worst case scenario, if the 'over the phone' audio was lousy, then you could use the tools in post on the 'live' audio to give it the phone sound, as Brad said.
Good luck!
.
Brad S.
Well-known member
Well since resources are limited, what tools do you have? Every audio program out there will have a stock EQ and compressor that will work for the phone futz. I'm not a video guy, but I'd bet that every video program also has a stock EQ that you can use.
Of course if you don't even have the tools to record the audio on the set, the getting a convincing phone futz should be the least of your worries. Just please don't use the camera's mic!
Of course if you don't even have the tools to record the audio on the set, the getting a convincing phone futz should be the least of your worries. Just please don't use the camera's mic!
moonlitnite
Well-known member
As mentioned by others, a phone circuit uses a 4Khz line, or 300 - 3,200 hz at the 3 dB points. So if you have an audio editor or mixer that can block frequencies above about 3200 hertz, you're off to a good start (better yet to cut off frequencies about 200 hertz).
If you're on the cheap and can't tweak the frequencies, consider getting a cheapo mic transducer with a suction cup mount to the telephone and simply record using the telephone line itself. Heck, if you're looking for so-so sound, you could even use a speaker phone to capture the distant end; and if you want the phone circuit sound on both ends, just redo the script lines a second time moving the actors to the other end of the telephone line.
Regards, Michael
If you're on the cheap and can't tweak the frequencies, consider getting a cheapo mic transducer with a suction cup mount to the telephone and simply record using the telephone line itself. Heck, if you're looking for so-so sound, you could even use a speaker phone to capture the distant end; and if you want the phone circuit sound on both ends, just redo the script lines a second time moving the actors to the other end of the telephone line.
Regards, Michael