Sound design question

JoeFowler

JoeFowler

Well-known member
This post has two questions. First, what's a great way to alter the audio to sound like it's on the phone. Also I want some to sound like it's on a walkie-talkie. There has to be a better way then to put the mic next to the reciever, right? I am using FCP so if there is an audio filter built in that would be good to know.

Second, I heard that "Star quad" cables are the best, which brand should I go with? Thanks for the suggestions folks.

Joe
 
In order to get the kinds of sounds you want, it never hurts to actually know the properties of not only sound, but of the devices to record them. Here is a great site for that:

http://www.filmsound.org/

The best way to replicate "phone" sound is to remove the high and low frequencies. This replicates the very low bandwidth that phones have. that will give you a good start by having only midtones (you should use a parametric equalizer to not just lower the bass and treble, but to eliminate it entirely). You may want to grab some static and fade that in and out at a fairly low volume as well.

For a walkie talkie, same thing, but you need to have the "on & off" chirp to put at the begining and end of each sample. Walkie talkies being wireless will pick up much more noise traffic than phones, and will also fade in and out (simulating the signal going through objects and whatnot), so you could start by doing a volume envelope on the base sample, and where the voice fades out, introduce some static or garbled messages overtop to simulate either a wesk signal, or the base sound fading because it is being overpowered by another signal.

Don't know much about cables, so I cant help ya there. Lastly, the techniques above are certainly not the only way to get what you want (everything in audio and video can be achieved from multiple ways) it is only what I have done in the past and some thinking about how I would approach it in the future.

Hope that helps.
 
As said above, cut the hi and lows. Specifically use hi and low pass filters, cut everything below say, 400hz and everything above 3K, thats a place to start. Now eq will get you close but to really put the eyebrows on, find a means to distort the signal a bit, not digital distortion mind you, but some nice smooth analog type distortion. You may need to do it off line, that is to say, in another program such as sound forge or Pro Tools, sounds like that may not be available to you though. If you really want to get creative, run your signal out of your computer into a micro cassette recorder or through an effects divice and re-record either back into the computer or another source and then back to the computer. Replace or mix with original audio and you should have something usable.

Or you could just download this and go to townIzotope Vinyl. Pretty handy little plug in, guess I could have mentioned it from the start :)
 
Oh and as far as cables go, well lots of people will argue what is "best" but I really like the star quad, which is Canare LE-46S, great stuff, takes a little more time to solder but well worth it. Forget about Monster, too spendy with no benefit. If you really want to save, make your own cables.
 
JoeFowler said:
heard that "Star quad" cables are the best, which brand should I go with?
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Joe-
"Star Quad" refers to Canare StarQuad cable. Most often it is paired with Neutrik XLR connectors and sold under a variety of "brand names" They all use the same parts and general construction and it takes something extraordinary to foul up one. In other words, they are all about the same. That said, www.haveinc.com has the absolute best prices I have ever seen on cables. Cheap, cheap, cheap and with good quality parts, build, and customer service. Hope this helps.
 
Droog said:
If you really want to get creative, run your signal out of your computer into a micro cassette recorder or through an effects divice and re-record either back into the computer or . . .
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Or just have the actor speak into a telephone and record the other end. :engel017:

Dan
 
That's how I got "TV sound" for a short. I recorded the annoncer on tape, then played it through the TV and recorded from that. I don't know if that's the best way, but it worked for me.
 
vjbrennan said:
That's how I got "TV sound" for a short. I recorded the annoncer on tape, then played it through the TV and recorded from that. I don't know if that's the best way, but it worked for me.
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Any way that is the best for you and gives you results YOU like is a good way. There are always many approaches to any effect, and it ll comes down to personal taste. If you like and someone else doesnt, oh well. :evil:
 
Get a sound designer to do it. They'll make sure it's done right. I don't know what kind of plug ins that FCP has or supports.

OR.....if you can't get a sound designer to do it, and FCP can't really do what you need, you may want to check out a program called "Audacity". It's a free audio program that has some built in plug ins. That might work. All you have to do is export your audio from FCP, import it into Audacity, do your thing, and then export it out of Audacity, and back into FCP. Pretty straight ahead. I don't know the URL for audacity, but if you google search "audacity", and you'll find it.

-Dave
 
Dave_Fisk said:
Get a sound designer to do it. They'll make sure it's done right.

-Dave
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Man, dang it, I spent our last $100,000 on John Seale (Cold Mountain, Rain Man) to do the cinematography or I could do that.
 
thisiswells said:
Joe-
"Star Quad" refers to Canare StarQuad cable. Most often it is paired with Neutrik XLR connectors and sold under a variety of "brand names" They all use the same parts and general construction and it takes something extraordinary to foul up one. In other words, they are all about the same. That said, www.haveinc.com has the absolute best prices I have ever seen on cables. Cheap, cheap, cheap and with good quality parts, build, and customer service. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the link, awesome company. I think I'll be making my cables from now on. Those prices are great. I've been getting ripped off...
 
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