Syncing outside and interior sound

swiperstopswiping

swiperstopswiping

Well-known member
Is this typically done in post? Using a shotgun outiside and the hyper's inside obviously offers two completly different volume levels when set to the same setting (depending on closeness of the mic, yada yada). I was just wondering the most typical/practical way to get these two different sounds of indoors and outdoor to similar levels of volume when the footage is played back. Mainly so the viewer watching the flick doesn't have to turn the volume up on the interiors and down on the exteriors (for example).
 
Your production sound mixer should be adjusting their levels to keep the tracks consistant, and your re-recording mixer should be fine-tuning the levels in the final mixing pass.
 
Two basic options in your setup, Swiperstopswiping:
1) compensate for the microphone difference on the camera (ie. more gain on the quieter mic)
2) leave the camera levels as-is and adjust the levels in post.

As the old saying goes, "never boost when you can cut." Your better off adjusting your on-camera recording levels to ensure a uniformly full and consistant level in your production sound than piling on the gain in post. Set your on-camera mic inputs so that the dialogue averages around -20 dB (or -12 dB if you'll be riding the levels as your shoot) regardless of the microphone used.

If you run out of gain on the camera's mic preamps, start looking for a small ENG mixer with more mic gain. Some models will mount underneath the camcorder using the tripod mounting screw and can prove to be surprisingly convenient when shooting as a one-man-band. Some ENG/EFP mixers even sport convenient remote faders that can be easily attached to a boompole or the handle of a video tripod.
 
Yes. The trick is to have a point of reference. Use your editing software to create a "reference" tape for your camera. This tape should contain (at least) a 10 second stretch of 1kHz sine-wave tone at -20dB, 10 seconds of -20dB pink noise, 5 seconds of -20dB 1kHz tone on the left, 5 seconds of -20dB 1kHz tone on the right, 5 seconds of 100Hz tone at -20dB, 5 seconds of 10kHz tone at -20dB, and a section of uncompressed dialogue that sits at the desired level.

Use this tape to adjust your headphones at the start of each day, and don't touch the `phones volume after that. Experience will tell you how loud that 1kHz refernece tone should be sounding, but I like to set mine at the point where its almost annoying. The dialogue is often a more useful indication of your monitoring level, especially if your not used to using the tone.

If you really want to get your levels to match accross the board, you should calibrate your post-production environment so that -20dB pink noise reads as 84dB on an SPL meter from the standard monitoring position. With that as your reference, you can adjust your headphone settings to match. Different facilities use different reference points, but 84dB seems pretty common in film audio post.
 
dude, just set the phones loud enough that you are hearing only direct volume (i.e. no sound from outside the cans), and record all your dialogue at the correct METER levels - this could be different from place to place and job to job, but the norms are -20 average, -12 average, or as close to 0 as possible without clipping.

Set your audio to your METERS, not your EARS - your ears are quality control, not level setting equipment.
 
Although I know where Timapter's coming from on this one, I must respectfully disagree. Unless you're using high-quality PPM meters, the meters will only tell you half of the story. The low-resolution averaging VU meters found on most hardware that isn't specifically dedicated to audio recording or mixing will average the signal intensity. In this way, sudden percussives or transient peaks can slam the track with the needle barely wobbling. Also, the meters won't tell you a thing about the quality of the audio on the track or if the signal chain is distorting before hitting 0dB. Your ears are infinitely more accurate when it comes to judging signal intensity, although it takes discipline and experience to be able to listen critically.

Of course, I'm assuming that you're using a pair of high-quality headphones such as the Sony MDR-7506's. If you're using the headphones that came with your iPod, then you certainly are better off relying on the VU meters until you can get a propper pair of `phones.
 
swiperstopswiping said:
I don't have an iPod.
Click to expand...
An ill-executed joke on my part. My point is that headphones intended for consumer use will be inadequate for critical monitoring purposes. I actually have seen entry-level video professionals who were so enamoured with the sound quality of their iPod earbud headphones that they were using them to monitor on-camera dialogue recording. Needless to say, they always wondered why they were hearing things in post that they didn't notice during production.

Never leave home without a pair of MDR-7506's.
 
SMuir said:
An ill-executed joke on my part.
Click to expand...

I understand the point you are trying to get across. I merely just wanted to see how people would respond to my brief and extremely pointless statement. Thanks for all your help though.
 
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