Mixing Audio and Dialogue

[Scott Lamoreaux]

I'm rather new to sound and on a big project I would always hire a sound professional however for doc type work or talking head interviews I have a basic Zoom external recorder and NTG-3 shotgun that I plan on using. I have a couple of questions.

1. What is an inexpensive lav that most indie films use for wide shots where a boom would be visible in a shot? Are most actors always mic'd up with a hidden lav in films or does the boom mic provide the majority of the sound?
2. What are your feelings on audio ducking in product films or doc type work where the music track ducks to allow amble clarity of the dialogue? Is this the preferred method or is it preferred to have the audio track a consistent level throughout the film/doc?
3. For a newbie, how can I ensure proper sound mixing of a background music track and dialogue without the music track overpowering the speaking parts?

I'm making a few informational short videos for my real estate business and I want to have a subtle music track playing throughout the film but I can't seem to get a proper balance that blends in nicely without overpower.

Thank you,

Scott

 

[Quinton Weiskittel]

For question 1, I would suggest this:

http://juicedlink.com/collections/audio-recorders

Combined with a:

http://www.amazon.com/Sanken-COS-11...dp/B0072ND0W8?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

This will work very well for your own projects and real estate business stuff. It's cheaper and easier than going the wireless route for a solo operator. For larger projects, you'll have a sound pro.

Check your Vimeo messages. If your interested in working on that shot, you'll get firsthand experience with this setup.

 

[Marc Wielage]

1. What is an inexpensive lav that most indie films use for wide shots where a boom would be visible in a shot? Are most actors always mic'd up with a hidden lav in films or does the boom mic provide the majority of the sound?
2. What are your feelings on audio ducking in product films or doc type work where the music track ducks to allow amble clarity of the dialogue? Is this the preferred method or is it preferred to have the audio track a consistent level throughout the film/doc?
3. For a newbie, how can I ensure proper sound mixing of a background music track and dialogue without the music track overpowering the speaking parts?

Entire books could be (and have been) written on these subjects. It could never be answered adequately in an internet forum message.

Lav technique takes a long time to master, and there are so many different factors -- costume type, relative action, whether the lav is the primary or secondary mic, budget, the available time, etc. -- a short answer isn't possible. I can say I'm a fan of the Countryman B6 for lavs hidden on actors, but DPAs are also very good. Oscar Sound Tech has lower-cost mics that can work well for some situations. I also like Lectrosonics transmitters and receivers, but Zaxcom also makes very good products. Good mics are rarely inexpensive (and the reverse is also true). Often renting mics or hiring an experienced sound person is the best recourse.

Another factor for production is to record in multitrack, where all the speaking actors have wireless lavs while a boom operator gets the best possible sound for that location. This is frequently done in TV so that anybody off camera or not positioned optimally for the boom is still recorded. Often what you wind up hearing on TV is a combination of boom and lav. Some surprising productions used a lot of lav mics; Downton Abbey is one, and The King's Speech is another. But you can make a good case that a well-placed boom mic sounds better than anything. Lavs are compromises in many ways, but sometimes they can save time and money.

Post-production mixing is another entirely separate skill that requires years of experience. It's fair to say that when you hear music and dialogue during a feature or a documentary, both of them have been adjusted to optimize the mix. In some cases (like commercials), I've seen cases where the mixer notches out the same frequency range as the dialogue to make sure it "cuts through" the music bed; that was a trick we did in the 1970s and 1980s. Compression and limiting are also major techniques.

Jay Rose's Producing Great Sound for Film & Video is a good basic text that covers a lot of this stuff.