I'm in the process of editing our first feature.
It was shot entirely in one location: our apartment.
We used an Audio Technica AT4053b plugged into a Sound Devices MM1 pre-amp, line linked to a Tascam DR40 (gain set to zero). We always tried to place the mic within 3 feet of the talent, pointing at their throat.
An audio issue was that the primary talent (eg 57 to 1.12) was playing a depressed person so often spoke with a low voice. I used a preamp (MM1) gain of 54 on her (the MM1 only goes to 66). Even at 54 gain her vocals were only hitting -30db or so on the Tascam, not -12. I guess that was my first mistake, I should have increased the preamp gain even further.
The other two voices are voice over. One is the narrator (eg 0 secs to 58 secs), the other the interviewer (eg 1.15 to 1.17). The narrator regularly hit around -12db. The interviewer -15 to -18.
Live sound monitoring was done using Sony MDR-7506 headphones.
For the sample WAV go to:
http://reelauthors.com/sample.wav
Do a right click and select Save Video As --> then save the WAV file and play/view on your sound editor
Or you can download the sample via rapidgator (free, no account needed)
http://rg.to/file/27d6dbd68388a39a9f277c4805b33838/sample-with-issues.wav.html
When I play the movie on my home TV, the narrator and interviewer can be heard easily but to hear the main talent (the depressed person), I need to max out my TV's volume (a new Panasonic widescreen).
You can also hear the occasional skytrain coming into the station 500 meters or so from our apartment - eg 1.28 to 1.37. Since we were shooting a pseudo-documentary we thought that would be okay as it adds some realism. That may well have been a bad call. We can re-shoot those scenes if need be if the skytrains ruin the audio.
I have never done audio post production before. We have the Adobe Creative Suite including Adobe Audition.
I presume the best bet is to simply try to increase the gain of the main talent (depressed person). I'll also try to use Audition's noise reduction tools to capture a noise print (the skytrain), and then remove that nose print.
Audition also has a Speech Volume Leveler, I'll give that a try.
We have an atmos track which we'll overlay at some point.
Any advice would be hugely appreciated.
Note: the feature is for submission via DVD to various festivals. We don't have the budget to pay for proper post audio production. I know the audio pros do a huge amount of post audio work including stripping out gaps in dialogue etc - we don't have the time to do that, and lack any audio post experience.
It was shot entirely in one location: our apartment.
We used an Audio Technica AT4053b plugged into a Sound Devices MM1 pre-amp, line linked to a Tascam DR40 (gain set to zero). We always tried to place the mic within 3 feet of the talent, pointing at their throat.
An audio issue was that the primary talent (eg 57 to 1.12) was playing a depressed person so often spoke with a low voice. I used a preamp (MM1) gain of 54 on her (the MM1 only goes to 66). Even at 54 gain her vocals were only hitting -30db or so on the Tascam, not -12. I guess that was my first mistake, I should have increased the preamp gain even further.
The other two voices are voice over. One is the narrator (eg 0 secs to 58 secs), the other the interviewer (eg 1.15 to 1.17). The narrator regularly hit around -12db. The interviewer -15 to -18.
Live sound monitoring was done using Sony MDR-7506 headphones.
For the sample WAV go to:
http://reelauthors.com/sample.wav
Do a right click and select Save Video As --> then save the WAV file and play/view on your sound editor
Or you can download the sample via rapidgator (free, no account needed)
http://rg.to/file/27d6dbd68388a39a9f277c4805b33838/sample-with-issues.wav.html
When I play the movie on my home TV, the narrator and interviewer can be heard easily but to hear the main talent (the depressed person), I need to max out my TV's volume (a new Panasonic widescreen).
You can also hear the occasional skytrain coming into the station 500 meters or so from our apartment - eg 1.28 to 1.37. Since we were shooting a pseudo-documentary we thought that would be okay as it adds some realism. That may well have been a bad call. We can re-shoot those scenes if need be if the skytrains ruin the audio.
I have never done audio post production before. We have the Adobe Creative Suite including Adobe Audition.
I presume the best bet is to simply try to increase the gain of the main talent (depressed person). I'll also try to use Audition's noise reduction tools to capture a noise print (the skytrain), and then remove that nose print.
Audition also has a Speech Volume Leveler, I'll give that a try.
We have an atmos track which we'll overlay at some point.
Any advice would be hugely appreciated.
Note: the feature is for submission via DVD to various festivals. We don't have the budget to pay for proper post audio production. I know the audio pros do a huge amount of post audio work including stripping out gaps in dialogue etc - we don't have the time to do that, and lack any audio post experience.
Last edited:
