My Recommendations To Magix to Improve Sound Forge Pro

My Survey Advice for Magix Sound Forge Pro

I am sharing my suggestions with you on my recommendations on a survey I filled out for Magix on how to make their audio editing software better for all-in-one filmmakers. They are stressing all of their efforts for music composers and forgetting the rest of the post audio world.

Small time filmmakers work with very small budgets and most of the time can't afford professional help. We often get beginners and not so talented help. Thus, lots of mistakes happen during filmmaking and as much as we try to avoid it, "fix it in post" is all we can do.

When dialogue needs to be ADRed, how often do we not have the proper background or room tone because someone forgot to spend the few minutes to record room tone in every new environment and we have to rely on stuff from public domain websites, or Sound Soap to remove noise, or buy special audio effects filters for fixing dialogue to match it's proper environment? I am hoping Magix can come up with audio filters for making ADR sound like it is indoors, outdoors, in the woods, in a cave, in a spaceship, a submarine, and a hospital.

More pitch and time duration tools to use dialogue from other parts of a film that came out better to fix unusable recordings in other scenes.

Obviously, indoor recordings are easier to control the environment than outdoor recording, except in busy neighborhoods with constant fire trucks, airplanes, and police cars with sirens passing by.

Small filmmakers either have to make friends with people who own sound recording studios, or make their own if they have the space and resources.

I also asked for plugins integration with all major NLE software on both Mac and PC platforms because they have versions for both, even though the survey was for PCs.

If you want to make better films, realize these are your shortcomings that you can't control. And, only fix what is in your control to fix. And, if you are aware of these problems, you don't need feedback on them. Because there's nothing you can do to improve them with limited resources.
 
I view them as things that are helpful to software development and things that can and cannot be fixed. Things that are beyond the realm of small filmmakers to fix should be pointed out to concentrate on the things that can be fixed.

Nothing may ever be done with audio filters for more environments and more tools to reshape spoken dialogue to fit in to replace dialogue in other areas of a film. But, it's worth a try. It is the only option left for small all-in-one filmmakers and they try their best. Some have more skills than others in forging new dialogue from other dialogue in a film
 
Time compression/expansion, or time alignment, is what you’re looking for to use alternate dialog takes. Pitch has nothing to do with it, unless you want to make the dialog sound like it’s from someone completely different.

Lack of proper room tone isn’t ever something that can be fixed with a plugin, as far as recreating it. You can try NR, but having no room tone makes dialog editing and ADR a real pain in the arse. That’s where ambient sound beds come in, at worst to try and bury the inconsisent edits.

I am hoping Magix can come up with audio filters for making ADR sound like it is indoors, outdoors, in the woods, in a cave, in a spaceship, a submarine, and a hospital.

That’s called a convolution reverb. That and EQ will get you going in the right direction. If your ADR isn’t recorded completely dry and neutral, count on a struggle in post.

There are tools that you just aren’t going to find, or at least find really good versions of, for cheap/free NLE work. That’s one of the reasons people buy the good stuff. If I had all these things available in FCPX, I wouldn’t need ProTools. But I can do much better sound work with the tools I have in PT.

If you want to make better films, realize these are your shortcomings that you can't control. And, only fix what is in your control to fix.

Or, practice makes perfect. Production sound is something that can be fixed with attention (and possibly a little financial investment). Yeah, you’re working on very little budget with volunteers. But bring someone along who wants to learn the sound side of it and who’s willing to get better and better with each production. If you just take your time on the set to get it right then you don’t have to worry about any of this crap in post. An ounce of prevention and all that.
 
If you're an all in one filmmaker, the best solution I think right now is Resolve 15. The one downside is that you need a semi beefy computer, but it should run on any mid to high range laptop bought in the last three years.

It has proper media management, editing, VFX with the built in Fusion page, audio with the built in Fairlight and of course- world class color. The Fairlight portion also comes with a bunch of effects. A click of a button moves you between the different apps and there's no conforming or messing with XML files.
 
As, I said, these are my suggestions, since they sent me a link for an online survey to fill out.

AcusticAl, it has been my experience that pitch does play a role in reforming dialogue, since anyone can change their pitch in how fast they talk. So, I stand by my method of adjusting pitch and time stretch with spoken words. I came in much closer in re-creating some words of dialogue to the way an actor said the words in the take adjusting both after trying one than the other and trying both. Pitch is tricky. For the same actor to sound like the same actor, pitch must be changed very slightly. Too much pitch, and the voice will sound like another person's voice.

I have been using both Sound Forge Pro and Final Cut Pro X to filter dialogue and sound effects to adjust the sound to mimic different environments with pretty good success. Sound Forge Pro is good for different types of rooms and halls. Final Cut Pro X has filters to make the sounds and dialogue sound like it's being broadcast over a radio, coming from a spaceship, and elsewhere.

It's great to do things the old school way from scratch. But, with new software making life easier for people with less experience to make better projects from using templates to get things done faster and more professional results than what inexperienced filmmakers do trying to old school it, they're better off with templates for effects.

In another area of the production, the Vfx, Boris Sapphire has templates for all different types of laser fire effects that are way faster than the old school way of creating the effects from scratch with Photoshop and Aftereffects with reasonably good results. That's a time saver and the templates show a wider range of laser fire effects than the average all in one filmmaker will come up with on their own.
 
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