Interview Dialoge Help

[Scott Lamoreaux]

Hi, Guys -

I need a little help with some audio tracks I'm self-recording for a video series for my real estate business.

I'm using an NTG-3 + Zoom H6N as my recording setup.
I am recording in WAV format in the highest settings available.
I'm using IZoTope for cleaning up ambient noise and just basic adjustments

​

1. What I need is some basic guidance to make my audio sound a little more professional like you would hear on a commercial (I know I should use a real sound guy but this isn't high budget stuff just need a basic direction on what else to apply to my audio tracks to make it sound more pleasant and not so echoey)

I attached an audio file that I de-noised (what I'm speaking about makes no sense I was just rambling for test purposes)

Download Link Here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hviiydj9ncriga8/ZOOM0001_Tr1.wav?dl=0

2. Also need help with the proper blend of mixing with an underlying music track and if I should duck the music track during speaking or if it should be a constant volume throughout.

Any help on the above would be amazing!!!!

Thank you,

Scott

 

[Michael Tiemann]

Microphone position and room acoustics determines 80%-90% of the resulting sound. Microphone quality determines the remaining 80%-90%. Preamp quality determines the remaining 80%-90%. Cable quality and sunspots determine the rest.

What you really, really need is two other people helping you out for an afternoon. One of them is the talent who speaks, the other positions and points the microphone to find the sweet spot for the given talent in the given room. Your role is to record both audio and video WHILE LISTENTING THROUGH HEADPHONES and giving direction (occasionally) to the mic handler. Notice when there is too much room. Notice when there is too much fan. Notice when there are problems with plosives, proximity, clarity, etc. Also notice when, suddenly, things start sounding credible. Once you get a feel for the relationship between a microphone's position and the resulting sound, you are on your way to handling static interviews.

 

[Scott Lamoreaux]

Microphone position and room acoustics determines 80%-90% of the resulting sound. Microphone quality determines the remaining 80%-90%. Preamp quality determines the remaining 80%-90%. Cable quality and sunspots determine the rest.

What you really, really need is two other people helping you out for an afternoon. One of them is the talent who speaks, the other positions and points the microphone to find the sweet spot for the given talent in the given room. Your role is to record both audio and video WHILE LISTENTING THROUGH HEADPHONES and giving direction (occasionally) to the mic handler. Notice when there is too much room. Notice when there is too much fan. Notice when there are problems with plosives, proximity, clarity, etc. Also notice when, suddenly, things start sounding credible. Once you get a feel for the relationship between a microphone's position and the resulting sound, you are on your way to handling static interviews.

Thanks Michael - I am the talent, and I am a one man band 99% of the time where I need to be able to create as good as I can sounding audio on my own on a monthly basis. I agree with all your points above however it's just not realistic to have others helping me who know sound.

 

[Michael Tiemann]

Thanks Michael - I am the talent, and I am a one man band 99% of the time where I need to be able to create as good as I can sounding audio on my own on a monthly basis. I agree with all your points above however it's just not realistic to have others helping me who know sound.

I'm not saying you necessarily need people when doing your shoots, but you do need people in order to learn *how* to do your shoots. Once you have a general feel, your chances of doing a good job go from < 20% to > 80%.

 

[Steve Sherrick]

Michael is right on the money. I do one-man-band sometimes as well, running my own sound. I do a decent job 70% of the time. But I used to be more involved on the sound side earlier in my career. So it helps me in those situations. Placement, knowing the right kind of mic (Cardioid, Hypercardioid, etc), limiting, etc. all will help you when you need to move quickly, by yourself.

In general terms, if you have the wrong type of mic indoors, you're going to get echo. Use a hyper, within 1-2 feet of your talent and chances are you'll already start getting better sound. Get a good Lav mic on them as an alternative or when they need to walk around. Again, make sure the capsule is the right type for that situation. In rooms that are really bad acoustically, hang sound blankets where you can. Lay down carpet if you can. Do anything to minimize reflections. Get one of those boom pole holders. It attaches to C stand, that's what I use when one-man-banding. There's a lot of tricks, unfortunately just have to keep trying things until you find what works for you given your schedules and budgets.

 

[Scott Lamoreaux]

Thanks for the input however I know all of this already. I was asking given my situation is there anything that can be done with what I have and the abilities I have to clean up the audio even more via post editing?

 

[Chris Henze]

For mixing,

Mix loud to hear the way the frequencies interact and mix very soft to hear how the levels relate. The better your speakers, the better you can do this. I actually have 3 different sets of speakers in my studio for mixing. Also take your mix and play it on a bunch of different systems, computer, home, car etc. You'll most likely hear that it sounds different adjust until it sounds the same on different systems and you be in the pocket. Dialog should never compete against music bed. Most importantly realize that sound is actually more important that picture.

I didn't hear anything I could specifically comment on for the supplied audio file. It's more than enough to work with.

 

[Steve Sherrick]

On the WAV you uploaded, I can hear the noise reduction working. It also sounds heavy on the S sounds. You can use compressors, De-essers, deverb, etc to get the dialogue clean. If it's noisy, use multiple stages of NR if you have to, try not to go too heavy in one pass. Some people use duckers when they are mixing narration and music. You can carve EQ's to fit dialogue and music together so they mesh rather than compete. So many things go into these really good sound mixes. One of the reasons I backed away from doing it was I was never really great at it. I could get by at times, but then I would hear mixes from the really good sound mixers in town and I was ready to throw up in my mouth hearing my own mixes.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Michael is 100% correct. It's far easier to get the sound right on the shoot than to use dozens of hours of processing and tons of software to try to coax better audio out of poorly-recorded material.

If you're asking for advice:

1) I'd completely ditch the Rode mics because I don't think they're good enough.

2) I'd also ditch the Zoom because I don't think it's good enough.

3) If you're doing primarily interviews, I'd rent or buy a couple of Lectrosonics wireless mic systems (transmitters and receivers), and use an affordable lavalier like a Tram or an Oscar Sound Tech (around $100-$150 each). Mics like these have been standard on news and documentary shoots for many years. There are better mics out there, but these are small, easy to hide, and are fairly durable.

4) if you can't afford wireless systems, you can always hardwire the lavaliers to a reasonable mixer with phantom power. Sound Devices makes several good ones, and those are often available affordably on the used market.

5) if you have more than one person being interviewed at the same time, I would try to put them on separate tracks if possible. If you can't afford a good sound recorder, you can record directly to camera provided you're carefully monitoring the camera tracks and check levels as often as possible.

6) note that if you can't afford to buy new or used gear, there are all kinds of companies that will rent you pro sound gear affordably.

One thing that EQ and processing can never do is to make a microphone sound like it's closer to the subject than it really is. 90% of the technique is simply to get it in the right position. A mic 15 feet away is never going to sound good. Shotgun mics can work under some circumstances, but you can make a good argument that recording a backup on a lav is cheap insurance. And there are also cases where a hypercardioid will sound better than a shotgun, particularly indoors.

 

[Tony M]

About your No.2 question:

There are two ways to go about it when dealing with music that plays with dialogue.

1. You have to choose music or find the part of the music that is not too busy rhythmically. If it is an underscore, then your composer would have figured this out, and written music that plays well with dialogue. But if you are your own music supervisor, then you have find something that is "smooth" for e.g long tones, instruments with frequencies not within the vocal range, e.t.c

2. Like Steve said, you can carve out frequencies.
For example: If it is a male voice, you can find the frequency range for male vocals and then cut that out from the instruments, or if it is female vocals. Or you could just isolate the general frequency responsible for intelligibility and clarity in dialogue and carve that out of the music.
This is actually a valid mix technique. But be careful with how you do it, or your music might end up being thin. And also, you have to do it only when the dialogue is on.


With the above two, you can get away with keeping the volume constant throughout the dialogue. But you might still need to use the volume level up/down.

To get that professional finish, you have to be versatile with compressors, EQs, mastering limiters, de-essers, e.t.c.

 

[Tony M]

Also, forget about speakers....(at least for now). You can do great work with decent headphones. JUST WATCH YOUR LEVELS!!!.. That is matters with sound editing.
If you want something to be twice as loud,use the meter levels to crosscheck it with your ears.

If i remember correctly, dialogue is about twice as loud as music i.e i think during mixing, dialogue is usually around -6dbFS - 10dbFS, and music is usually around -12dbFS to -18dbFS or even lower.
Although, those are still tinkered or raised or reduced, during the final mix of mastering with the limiter.

Also, compress your dialogue. Dialogue is usually very compressed. At least not less than 2:1 ratio or even more.

 

[Med D]

Thanks Michael - I am the talent, and I am a one man band

If you are the talent why not just ADR the whole thing? It's not that hard to do, usually the hardest part is getting the talent back to do it.

I'm in the middle of this same thing right now but ADR is not an option for me.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Very good advice from Tony above on the mix. There's a real art to mixing dialogue and music (and SFX) together. Some mild compression, EQ, and limiting may also help the dialogue in some cases, particularly when you're trying to make it very audible in the mix.

 

[Joseph Boyle]

Regarding ADR, I think it's always best to get the original sound, if possible. ADR creates a whole other world of complications.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Regarding ADR, I think it's always best to get the original sound, if possible. ADR creates a whole other world of complications.

And yet: every major studio picture and TV show ever made uses extensive ADR, sometimes to rewrite and replace new dialogue originally recorded on set. I've worked on very low-budget pictures that still found a way to afford a couple of days of ADR. It's not as expensive or as complex as you might think, particularly if you plan and prepare for it.

The greatest microphones, recorders, and sound mixers in the world can't overcome a bad location. All you can do is record the best "reference audio" you can, then plan to replace it all in post with ADR. If it's an interview situation, don't record there or just accept the need for subtitles, which is sometimes done in reality TV shows.

 

[Joseph Boyle]

And yet: every major studio picture and TV show ever made uses extensive ADR, sometimes to rewrite and replace new dialogue originally recorded on set. I've worked on very low-budget pictures that still found a way to afford a couple of days of ADR. It's not as expensive or as complex as you might think, particularly if you plan and prepare for it.

The greatest microphones, recorders, and sound mixers in the world can't overcome a bad location. All you can do is record the best "reference audio" you can, then plan to replace it all in post with ADR. If it's an interview situation, don't record there or just accept the need for subtitles, which is sometimes done in reality TV shows.

I have heard that ADR is done quite a bit but there seem to be varying figures regarding the frequency/percentage on a major film or TV show. I'm sure it depends on each situation. I have done some minor ADR work myself and like you said, it worked decently. If it is done poorly, it is also easily noticeable and distracting.

I was listening to an interview (maybe it was an article) with Mark Ulano, who constantly works with Tarantino, and he was saying that for the last 20 years or so, they haven't done a single line of ADR. I found this astounding and I admire the attention to detail that they must put into this.

 

[Elsie N]

Hi, Guys -

I need a little help with some audio tracks I'm self-recording for a video series for my real estate business.

I'm using an NTG-3 + Zoom H6N as my recording setup.
I am recording in WAV format in the highest settings available.
I'm using IZoTope for cleaning up ambient noise and just basic adjustments

​

1. What I need is some basic guidance to make my audio sound a little more professional like you would hear on a commercial (I know I should use a real sound guy but this isn't high budget stuff just need a basic direction on what else to apply to my audio tracks to make it sound more pleasant and not so echoey)

I attached an audio file that I de-noised (what I'm speaking about makes no sense I was just rambling for test purposes)

Download Link Here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hviiydj9ncriga8/ZOOM0001_Tr1.wav?dl=0

2. Also need help with the proper blend of mixing with an underlying music track and if I should duck the music track during speaking or if it should be a constant volume throughout.

Any help on the above would be amazing!!!!

Thank you,

Scott

I can't offer you any rocket science answers like all the above, but it seems to me what you are planning is not rocket science at all.

If you have an ear for sound, trust that sense. From my personal experience, I once shot an outdoor oration of me by putting two directional mics on stands to my left and right... about 6 feet away. It was a still day so no wind noise, but if there had been any I would have used the foam wind protectors or even dead cats on either mic. I got really clean sound (recorded directly into my DSMC1 Epic) and needed no tweaking other than normalizing in Premiere Pro and adding some crickets as background.

I've added a music track in other instances and if you are fluent in editing, you'll "see" on the timeline when to taper off or bring up the volume. That is, become separated from content producer to content consumer. It may help to give yourself a day or two between the doing and the watching to cleanse your critical pallet.

I've done this type of editing for a number of years so it comes as second nature to me. If it does not come easy to you, I would suggest a few short dry runs to become more at ease with the process before embarking on the mission.

I know it seems like the process could be overwhelming, especially with some of the advice given (all good advice for many circumstances) but I think if you approach it as something you are biologically equipped to handle, you may find it is not so difficult as you first thought.

Just to be clear, I'm not dismissing the procedures outlined by the more professional posters in this thread, I'm just saying for anything that isn't going out to a wide theatrical release audience, your audio doesn't have to look perfect on scopes and screens.

EDIT: Just realized this thread was started back in August... I assume the OP has long since finished his project, so nevermind. '-)