Recreating Audio

R

RadioRocket

Member
Hey everyone,

I am currently working on my very first short film. It's definitely a learning curve for me. Audio is biggest learning curve for me. I read a little bit about ADR and I want to be able to dub the voices of the actresses. I have the scratch tracks of the videos, and I was thinking of getting my actresses to do their lines into my mic (Zoom H2). I would have my Zoom H2 connected to my Mac as they did their lines just for a quick playback/monitoring thing. My question is where is the best place in my house to do this? And where should I place the mic for each scene?
Majority of them look like this:
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7021/imaginary.jpg
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/6536/imaginary2.jpg
Notice how they are always sort of side by side each other. I was thinking of placing my mic in between them while we re-dub. If there are any other sort of advice you can give me in terms of what to do in post after the audio files are recorded please let me know!


Thanks everyone!


Gayle
 
Assuming your current "scratch" track was recorded while the camera rolled, what's the reason you need ADR?
 
Gohanto said:
Assuming your current "scratch" track was recorded while the camera rolled, what's the reason you need ADR?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure ADR is word I want to use. but basically, I did record with the zoom h2 while the camera was rolling but some of hte files became corrupt or I accidentally deleted them (stupid) I also just want to have the audio in a controlled environment so I can well... control it!
 
I would reshoot the parts missed and have a good sound guy on set (and good boom operator).

And start from that... good set sound

The 54040872 rules of good sound

1 goud set sound
2 good set sound
3 good set sound
4 good set sound
.
.
.
54040870 good set sound
54040871 not deleting any files
54040872 making backups
 
dre83 said:
I would reshoot the parts missed and have a good sound guy on set (and good boom operator).

And start from that... good set sound

The 54040872 rules of good sound

1 goud set sound
2 good set sound
3 good set sound
4 good set sound
.
.
.
54040870 good set sound
54040871 not deleting any files
54040872 making backups
Click to expand...
Well let's say that's not an option. How can I record this at home using my mac? I have scratch tracks (from the in-camera audio) so I know what the actresses should say and how to say it. But I want to redo those in my house in a controlled environment. Which room is best? And where would I place the mic while re-recording?
 
While I basically agree it's also not a very helpful suggestion after the fact....

Anyway what you want to do is not an "easy" thing. First your house is a much less "controlled" environment than you think, probably. Unless your ten miles up a private road ad well away from all air traffic.

The other catch is you need to put a time/ quality/ money equation on it.

What I would use is probably not in your budget and I would use cheaper solutions than a "big time" film would. Think is unless your looking to drop serious change it's the guerilla filmmakers who will probably have the best advice because the best way to do it cost an arm and a leg.

One bit advice I can give is to record it in a room/ space that sounds like the set. Don't go for the sterile studio sound or you will spend a lot of time creating the space. It's the one big advantage you have over the big guys. If I was going to do it from scratch and not spend $$$ I would hook up a second monitor to the Mac and feed the video from my NLE and record into an audio track. You can atleast see how far off sync is.
 
What you might consider trying since you're on a budget is loading the movie onto an ipod with the scratch audio. Have the actor watch the movie on the iPod, listening to the scratch audio, and then say the lines while you record on the H2.

Record outside (away from cars, airplanes, ect...) get several "good" takes, and then take experiment in your editing software later trying out and combining different takes.

Granted I haven't tried this technique, but it may give you the best final results as you'll actually be recording outdoors instead of faking it.
 
RadioRocket said:
Hey everyone,

I am currently working on my very first short film. It's definitely a learning curve for me. Audio is biggest learning curve for me. I read a little bit about ADR and I want to be able to dub the voices of the actresses. I have the scratch tracks of the videos, and I was thinking of getting my actresses to do their lines into my mic (Zoom H2). I would have my Zoom H2 connected to my Mac as they did their lines just for a quick playback/monitoring thing. My question is where is the best place in my house to do this? And where should I place the mic for each scene?
Majority of them look like this:
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7021/imaginary.jpg
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/6536/imaginary2.jpg
Notice how they are always sort of side by side each other. I was thinking of placing my mic in between them while we re-dub. If there are any other sort of advice you can give me in terms of what to do in post after the audio files are recorded please let me know!


Thanks everyone!


Gayle
Click to expand...

Do not overdub your originals, use them as a guide for a separate track and do all the mixing and replacement in post. Record the audio separately for each actress. Place the mic in the best possible position for the one person you're recording in the take. There's no reason to record both of them at the same time, indeed there's no reason the two of them even have to be in the "studio" together. The actress you're recording watches her original performance and listens to the original dialog in headphones and re-records her part in unision with the original onto a fresh recording track, then you marry them all up in post.
 
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RadioRocket said:
Well let's say that's not an option. How can I record this at home using my mac? I have scratch tracks (from the in-camera audio) so I know what the actresses should say and how to say it. But I want to redo those in my house in a controlled environment. Which room is best? And where would I place the mic while re-recording?
Click to expand...

How would we know what room is best? - we've never seen (or more importantly, heard) your house. Those two stills were outside and it might be best to go to a quiet outdoors location so as to recreate the same "feel" as the original recording. Every space has its own character and outdoors sounds quite different from indoors. As for mic placement, 8 inches or so in front of her mouth, slightly above her nose, aimed directly at her mouth is a good place to start. (High position helps keep her airway open and lessens the chance she'll mumble.) Move it from there until she's comfortable and it sounds right.
 
Hey,

don't let them discourage you. Whenever you rerecord voices you have to options:

1) you go to the original place where you shot the video and rerecord it there but now with the mic closer to the person. That only works if the noise there is not to bad. Advantage: you record part of the atmo as well and don't need to mix it in later. Disadvantage: you'd need a laptop and a headphone for the actress to see and hear her original performance so that she can copy it as closely as possible.

2) (the professional way) You record it in a sound booth. These little recording booths (could be a recording stage as well) are designed to have few audio reflections. That way the voice sounds dry (no information about the room = reflections). Normally you don't really have something like that at home.
But: there are areas in a house that work.

I recorded whole audio books in my living room. The speaker would face my book shelves because the backs of the books are not in line and thus diffuse the sound hitting them. That minimizes reflections. To the right of the speakter would be my window curtain; again an uneven surface that will diffuse sound. Carpet on the floor would be good as well. With an ok microphone that will work just fine.
Before I had these book shelves I let the speakter wrap himself in the curtain and would produce a very dry sound that way. Problem there is that she couldn't really see anything.

So when dealing with sound (which to me very often makes amateur videos amateurish) be creative, try out different stuff and judge by your ears.
 
Thanks for all the input guys! I'm going to record it 8 inches away from her mouth, slightly above her nose and aimed directly at her mouth. FixMix thanks for clarifying most of what I was trying to get at. I wanted to more or less the driest area in my house. Obviously you guys don't know my house, but I wanted ideas like the curtain one. I might try that.
If I do that I'm going to mix in ambient sound from the actual location and add a bit of reverb to the actresses voices. I might also try recording it in my backyard. But, if I record the actresses at different times wouldn't an awkward cut happen in the audio? Say a bird is cawing when the first actress says her lines and then the second one says it and the caw is cut off? Do I just record extra ambient sound and then mix it in post to cover that up?
 
When you hear a cow suddenly or mowers or train or wild car or horn or dog or cat or construction works... just re-record it.. simple...

And recording ambiances will cover also.
 
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