if you were a teacher in sound design...

2012-05-04T01:14:38Z

Hello,

Next year, I will teach the basics of sound design in Protools, how to create a good template, how to use plugins, create sound effects, ambiences, etc...

I thought to give them (students) trailers to add sound, make partnerships with schools in video games.

Do you have any other ideas to share that would be interesting for them ?

Thank you in advance !

Best regards.

Getting back into Pro Tools, Advice?

2012-05-10T14:42:09Z

I'm a musician/engineer and have not used pro tools in ten years, I'm now researching cheap ways to get up and running at home, and need advice on MP9 vs. Pro Tools SE, and how to get bang for my buck in the computer Department as well. I'm fairly well retarded with computers, and want to keep it simple and effective; a dedicated computer, only running pro tools. Any perspective would be greatly appreciated.

Analog distortions/saturation on voice - how to reduce?

2010-11-28T17:55:08Z

Hi to all

I've been asked to try to save a few days of recording (interview with boom and 1 radio mic): the radio mic is always (four days of recording, I couldn't believe it!!) saturated/distorted; to me, it seems like if the production mixer/boom operator had set up the receiver to line level but connected it to a microphone level input in the recorder.

Every time the interviewer speaks, the sound is over compressed, saturated, distorted (but it's not clipped, it's an analog problem not digital).

How can I improve a little bit the recordings and reduce the distortion? I already tried with izotope RX, with some multiband expansion, some eq... Any better ideas/workflow to try?

If I cannot save it with my tools, I advised the producer to go in another studio that have the big Cedar machine (the Cedar Cambrige): anybody has any experience with the cedar cambrige (I used only the DNS) that's willing to share and know if it could save those saturated recording?

By the way, the boom is not always an option, because lots of the interview where made in noisy places (market, on bus) and the signal to noise ratio is very poor.

Thank you in advance

davide

recording dialogue for animation

2011-11-29T20:43:53Z

I typed this up in response to a gearslutz thread, but I figured it could find a home here as well. The question was: "what tips do you have for recording dialogue for animation?"

here are my answers:

run a dual mic setup if possible. one close and one a bit back to handle yelling and wider perspectives.

I'd also try to make sure that the individual scripted lines are numbered in advance so that you can pull takes and feed actors the lines of other actors for context quickly.

pull selects as you go along if possible. Directors or actors will often run takes in sets of three, so if you hear an approving grunt come from behind you then mark the script and grab the take before moving on. This will make the edits faster and performances better later on if you're in control of those things.

also, be proactive about ref audio in advance of the session. Often, actors will have established or auditioned a particular character voice that they'll want to hear so that they can match. producers are notorious for not bringing those things and you don't want to hunt during the session anyway, so seek those things out and line them up in advance (if they exist).

route the talkback mic and actor's mics as a mono feed to a seperate recorder that just spins the whole session. Inevitably the actor will say something hilarious or otherwise amazing in between takes and you'll want to be able to say "that's cool, i got it with that rig over there" If there's no uncaught gold it'll be obv during the session, so you can wipe the media after a day or two.

when I did ADR for the ant bully we were actually running a timecode DAT with the timecode display up where the script super could see it for this exact purpose.

be sure to read the direction between the scripted lines. There will often be cues for exertions that the dialogue editor and animators will want. On a bowling animated show we did I was constantly having to make sure that we were covered for exertions the characters would need when lifting the ball, bowling, pushing each other around, etc. None of those exertions were scripted, but all of that direction was there in black and white between the lines - I just had to stay on top of it. A good script super will have this kind of thing covered, but good script supers are not a given and you'll regret not getting them if you're the one doing the editing later on. If an animator is the one doing the script supervising you really have to take responsibility and watch things like this.

get some laughter and other short exertions wild if time permits.

have a system for adlibs. comedy relies on adlibs in the moment and you'll want to be able to facilitate and accommodate that kind of thing.

any other tips?

About Backgrounds...

2012-05-16T03:35:05Z

I was once told that you always need ambience in your films. Makes perfect sense anyway, right? If there isn't any ambience, the audience doesn't feel like they're in the environment and all.

Then I noticed Family Guy. Made me start to think. Do all shows use ambience? Because Family Guy sure doesn't. Unless it's so subtle that I don't notice it.

Thoughts? How does a show like that get away without room tone?

Advice on Recording a Conference

2012-05-17T09:25:22Z

Hi all.

I've been asked by a friend for some advice on how to go about recording the audio for an event he's filming. I don't have much experience with events recording and am still a little green when it comes to suggestions for models of mic; I have some ideas on what to suggest but need some help filling in the details etc, please, and some feedback on my ideas!

The event is a publishing conference that runs over two days. The client wants both days to be filmed and edited down in to 5x 10min videos. It’s taking place in a church/town hall which generates a lot of reverb. There will be a number of people speaking throughout the day as well as questions from the audience. From what I've been told, is sounds like some of the speakers, when not being the main speaker, may be sat on-stage to one side and potentially interact with the the person currently leading the event.

I've been informed money is "no object really", but naturally it would be good to keep costs down. My friends has some of his own gear but will be renting anything else they need.

My thoughts were to, ideally, boom the audience (with Rode NTG2s, my friend has one of these already), maybe using multiple mics and operators if it's a large turnout; a short delay whilst an operator gets into position before someone asks a question shouldn't really be an issue, especially if it's all going to be edited down in the end.

A decent hyper-cardiod patterned mic should do for the main speaker, in a fixed location on the stage. I was thinking it would be a good idea to lapel-mic all the speakers, too, so that any interaction from those sitting to the side could be captured too.

Can anyone suggest and (other) models of mic to use and any other advice on how this event should be captured?

Thanks in advance!

Unable to find an Audio Interface attached to the first HD card. Please check power and digilink cables. Click OK to rescan

2012-05-15T18:41:55Z

Ok,

So I'm assisting a feature film dub and while attempting to setup the tommorow's actor's template, we experienced a DAE error, whereafter PT9 HD froze...

After a Force-Quit, we restarted, and we got 'Unable to find an Audio Interface attached to the first HD card. Please check power and digilink cables. Click OK to rescan'

We're running Mac Pro 2.8GHz Quad-core with HD 9 + HD Accel Card.

I've been through the DUC and everyone seems to suggest the usual: Deleting Prefs, Restarting, Using a different Interface etc. Nothing works.....yet

Anyone? It looks like everyone wants to go home and cry now, but we're getting the first talent in at 9:30 and we're nowhere at the moment.

And the crazy thing was we were in the middle of final checks...

Anybody?

It's now 20:40 in Zürich on May 15.

contact AT kurthuman DOT com

Fair royalties for a sound designer as a show tours

2012-01-19T04:39:11Z

Hi All-

First off, I literally started an account two seconds ago and am surprised I didn't find this site sooner. Happy to be here.

Okay, so my question. I did a sound design for a small (and tiny budgeted) one-woman show. Essentially, my design changed as her story was being workshopped over months. Now the show is finalized and is going on tour. My design has a lot of environmental cues and found music. (Mainly Nigerian high life and gospel, also some Nigerian pop.) Since the show is tiny and most of my stuff was found and not originally composed music or the like, what is an acceptable royalty fee to ask for? The director wants to know how to compensate me for my work as she takes this on tour. Is it a percentage type of situation (i.e, a certain percentage of what the venue is paying to have the show)? Or should I pitch a fixed rate?

Thanks!

Gilly

Approaching dialogue recovery with clipped audio, what to do first? (DOCUMENTARY)

2011-11-20T14:06:52Z

hi everyone,

i am currently preparing the audio post process for a (low budget) documentary. the doc isn't finished and still needs a lot of work, but i was eager to see and hear some footage. the director and had a screening (on her laptop(speakers)) and talked about the sound and her ideas, so far so good... well i also asked for the omf and am now listening through the material in my studio.

my first conclusion is that it's pretty bad soundwise. the director filmed everything herself, but is not at all audio savy out of the 18 minutes, at least 6 minutes of the audio is distorted, not very badly, but defenitely noticeable in about 30% of the peaks per region.

the soundtrack consists mainly of an interview with one subject, over the course of three days. everything was recorded using lavelier mic (and transmitter) direct to DVcamera. the other part of the soundtrack is ambience and city sounds. everything is mono and there are no alternate takes available. some DV tapes have ok sound, others are distorted.

to get a feel of how to approach this little monster i decided to do some tests. i've started declipping with izotope rx to get an idea of how bad it is and must say i'm quite pleased with the results so far. but i'm still wondering how and where to start when i get the locked picture and omf.

normally i don't get audiorecordings this bad and restoring bad takes is only a small part of the job. i start with dialogue editing: cleaning up the tracks (ticks, clicks, pops etc) and a few passes have them leveled out evenly. (this is overtly simplified ofcourse) but now i face the challenge of having a lot of clipped audio and some reasonably good audio. cleaning up dialogue within the clipped regions is not an option, everything is to loud and if i bring down the volume i'm still left with a audio image full of clipped peaks, distorting my vision/hearing.

i managed to boil it down into two options:

a. start first with the reasonably good audio takes, cleaning them up and getting a feel for the dialogue flow (and it's levels) and then work your way down to the bad parts

b. start with the bad parts and use ie. izotope to declip the regions first* and then start the cleaning up of all the dialogue in one pass and go from there.

*i mainly ask this because i don't know how much izotope (in my case) changes in the audio besides extrapolating the headroom, is the rest of the audio left 'untouched'? i don't think so, but will it matter with audio in this saturated state?

am i still thinking straight? what would be your approach to this?

any help would be greatly appreciated!

greetings,

arnoud

UPDATE: well the documentary premiered a few weeks ago and the director (and me) are very pleased with the results. in the end it didn't take as much time as thought necessary. the clipping was fixed very well with RX2, I love it! There was only 1 sentence that sounded a bit ugly but no one actually noticed, so that's good to know. The doc is being well received and as a result will be screening around Europe on several festivals, so I am quite happy! Thanks again for all the advice. If you want to I could post some examples (soundclips).

DCP/MXF Projection issues: Sound is pitched down

2012-05-07T16:53:01Z

Hi,

I've recently finished a theatre-mix, which I delivered as a stereo wav-file at 48 kHz/24bit. The film was shot on a RED at 4K 25 fps. Protools was also at 48 khz/25fps and everything was fine in the studio during playback and recording. Today the director had a test viewing at a local cinema and unfortunately everything sound pitched down.

At the postcompany, responsible for creating the MXF files, they've checked framerates etc and everything is runs fine at their end. I must admit I don't have any experienced with Digital Cinema Package (DCP) and MXF-files. First thing I checked was the framerate and samplerate, which are fine also.

We are a bit clueless.. What could be the problem? Could it be an issue at the cinema?

UPDATE: first of all thanks all for the responses, great to hear from you! The DCP house has checked the soundtrack again today and described it differently than the director (to add to the confusion :) But the projector at the venue is able to play 25fps files, so that's not the issue. The dcp house is researching the issue further, so for now there is not a lot I can do. I have told them that I can provide a pitched version for 24fps playback if necessary. So thanks for those tips guys, really appreciate it!

UPDATE 2: checked the new DCP file and everything was fine. except for a terribly loud hum (50Hz) in the actual screening room. technician didn't hear it but dared to guarantee that it was not a problem. yeah right. how i'd love to know how cinema routing/setup worked... i've been dissapointed so many times already :) oh and it turns out the post company made a mistake somewhere between splitting channels and rendering the audio for the mxf.

Arnoud

Do you work in some area of sound design for games? Want some free exposure?

2012-03-15T12:33:33Z

I'm writing a careers guide to the games industry, which is made up of case study profiles of people doing a range of roles at some of the big studios and smaller games developers. I've just realised that I have a gap - someone working in sound.

If you'd be willing to feature in the book, get in touch. It only involves answering some questions by email and supplying a few photos.

The book is the latest in the respected Working In careers series, published by Babcock Lifeskills.

Best regards

Rebecca

Rebecca Dearden

Working in series researcher and writer

T: 07972 167945 E: info@rebeccadearden.co.uk W: www.babcock-lifeskills.com

PC builder for PT

2012-04-18T12:43:31Z

I will soon be in the market for a new pc to run protools 10. Is there any good companies in the UK that build a PC for protools? Using the correct motherboard for PT and quiet power supply /tower etc.

Cigarette smoke and mics

2012-05-16T00:46:32Z

Hi. The other day I was doing location sound in a short film.

In one indoor scene one of the actors was smoking. It was a close shot so was booming quite near.

I was just wondering if smoke can damage mics (or other gear) since some recording studios that I know doesn't allow smoking to protect the equipments. Maybe it's only dangerous for long periods of time?

Thanks!

PS: The mic was an Oktava MK-012

Matrixing and Tuning of Speakers in Movie Theaters

2012-05-17T03:44:39Z

Hello all,

I am curious if anyone here has experience configuring and tuning a speaker system in a movie theater for 5.1/7.1 playback. My recent projects have given me a lot of new experience with loudspeaker management and tuning for live theater, and now I am curious how a cinema would typically handle this. For instance, do the surround channels in 5.1 get sent evenly throughout the speakers on the side walls and the rear? I feel like this would be great info to have when checking a film mix.

Thanks!

~Matt

Recording Crowds for Game

2012-05-16T18:43:17Z

Hey everyone!

I'm soon recording some crowds for a game, for battlefield and running scenes happening outdoors. Any advice on how should I do it, regarding mic setup and placement, post and etc? I have available a studio stoned-room and a dryer one.

Thank you very much!

Christmas night SF free download!

2011-12-28T07:20:18Z

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0U8JEMT0

On Christmas night from about 4-7 pm I recorded a bunch of stuff and here it is for download. I recorded mostly in San Francisco with a Sennheiser MKH30/60 MS combo into a Sound Devices 702. This was my first time using these mics, the recorder and MS but I feel that I came up with some pretty usable and interesting stuff.

Even though I was using a pistol-grip/shock-mount, I was hearing blood flowing whenever I held the microphone so I put a high pass on the recorder at around 80 hz (though it may be a little higher, I don't remember). Also, I didn't have any official wind protection so I wrapped the mics in a felt scarf which worked beautifully for all of the less open spaces (near the water there was too much wind for good recording).

I used EQ1 phase reversal to split the side and did no other processing or mixing really. A couple of them I changed gain a little. If the mixes aren't good enough for you and you want the stems, let me know and I'll upload a full version. There are a few mic bumps and movements here and there as well. The files are in 24/48k and stereo files.

My two favorites are the street saxophone and the family (people) by the water.

Enjoy!

Sound Design on Tribes: Ascend with ProTools signal generator.

2012-05-16T17:33:57Z

Hey everyone!

While working on Tribes: Ascend I wanted to have as many unique recordings and sounds as possible for the game. As i'm sure any sound designer would obviously want. However the approach that I took to it was not just go out and record a bunch of sounds and process them. I wanted to start at the very root of sound. I would use a signal generator in ProTools to generate the frequencies that I wanted for a particular sound, layer them and then print them to a new stem. So it is now 1 track and not 5 for example. If it was only 1 or 2 layers though I would not print it, so I could have more processing options for each individual frequency. After that I began to process the sounds using various plug-ins such as GRM tools (which I used for 90% of my sounds on tribes). Eventually though I was always able to get the same end results in my sounds that I could get from programming a synth patch. Yea it might have taken more time to do this, and the general public is not going to know the difference, but it felt 100 times more satisfying knowing that I could truly sound design from scratch.

The reason why I am writing about this is because I am wondering how many other people use methods like this. If you have not tried this method I think you should give it a shot. If anything its amazing ear training, because you get so used to the raw frequencies, and once everything is layered you know exactly what is in your sounds.

If anyone else uses odd methods like this for sound design I would love to hear about your process!

-Benjie Freund

dpa 2006c or senn 8020?

2012-05-04T00:18:58Z

Hey everyone,

I am in the market for a pair of compact omnis for BG recording. I am looking specifically at the DPA 2006c or Sennheiser 8020. The 8020 set is about 600 more than the dpa's though, you're getting better frequency response and lower self-noise with that money. What do you choose?

Project Management Software

2012-05-16T00:46:01Z

So I'm on a mac. And I love Bento. But then I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if there was software for project management specific to film?!"

Then I thought of coming here. So...is there any film-specific project management software a la Bento?

Soundfile descriptions are only in the Metadata - Is there an easy way of working with these?

2012-05-01T12:52:46Z

I've got a bunch of sounds which only have descriptions in the Metadata of the file. The actual file names are mostly just numbers - S0100583449.wav or similar. Searching through this part of the library is fine, but when I copy them to my work folder and import them into protools it's pretty confusing.

Is there an easy way to work with these?

I'm on PT8, working on Windows 7.

ac3 encoders any free or poor man priced ones?

2012-05-15T21:10:27Z

I have just finished my first surround mix and after supplying the 6 channels for a DCP creation I was asked to create ac3 files to use on a dvd. Nuendo 5.5 does not offer this as an export option. From research it looks like I need pretty expensive software for that, anyone have any price friendly or free options that could work, I would really hate to just supply a stereo mix because that is the only thing that the dvd creation software I think will allow without already encoded audio.

boxing ring feet

2012-01-10T10:59:54Z

Need to foley some feet on a boxing ring in the studio in the next couple of weeks, anyone done this before? boxing rings have a very specific sound, dont think i'll have time to go to the local boxing gym and record a wildtrack (busy schedule), anyone got any ideas on how to build my own canvas in the studio? or something that sounds right! much appreciated.

Getting Foot in the Door - Game Tester?

2012-02-28T01:22:20Z

Hey guys,

I've just finished uni and am looking to get my career started in the game audio. Just a quick question to ask any Game Audio people who have worked in QA or as a Game Tester: Is this a path worth taking? Or should I focus on building up experience as a freelance?

Or Both?

Thanks, Eric.

Recording Vehicles passing at high speed: which type of microphone 4 the job?

2012-05-15T13:42:04Z

I have been tasked to capture the sound of various vehicles racing past me at high speed on a circuit.

My question is, what sort of microphone would you all recommend for the job?

At the moment all I have is an original Zoom H4 with a rycote windshield.

I have been looking into purchasing a sound devices location recorder for a while now. But I do not know what mic set up would be best suited to this task...

Its a big project with many recordings required, so I don't mind investing a lot of money into getting a decent semi pro/pro set up, specifically suited to this task.

any help is greatly appreciated.

I guess I need something directional to record the sounds of the vehicles and eliminate unwanted ambience/crowd noise at race events etc. But it also needs to handle high SPL I think... please correct me if Im wrong in thinking this any guidance is greatly appreciated.

Nuendo and Printing Stems with Tone Bleeps

2012-05-15T01:57:49Z

This last project I have done in Nuendo for its built in surround capabilities. What I cannot figure out for the life of me is how to properly export a Mixdown and all the stems.

I know how to export it, but I cannot figure out how to send tone and 2 pops to the stems, and not have the stems send it all to the Printmaster. In pro tools it is simple, I just mute the stems at the time of the tone and 2 pop and the stems will record their input without it being effected by the output side. Am I missing something?

I have a separate set of tracks that I am using to send tone/2pop to the PrintMaster. I want to have 1k @ -20 on all the stems and print, but if the stems are summing to the print, I no longer get the -20 but the sum of all the stems at -20.

tascam hs-p82 8 ch recorder mixer for prod recording and field recording

2012-01-22T19:51:42Z

I'm considering this vs the zaxcom nomad. Has anyone had experience with the Tascam?

Cheers

GDC 2012 -- Meeting Up, Sessions of Interest

2012-02-10T03:58:10Z

Editing this post as the whole thing starts tomorrow -- check in here if you're at GDC or have any good parties to go to, would be cool to meet up with some of the SSD crowd!

GDC 2012's only a few weeks away and I've managed to get a pass as a volunteer / CA. I'm curious as to who from the SSD crowd is making the trip out to San Francisco -- would be nice to put some faces to names. Let's see a show of hands!

And also are there any panels that you're specifically looking forward to? I remember seeing the Spore panel in 2008 and having my mind absolutely blown.

What are your favorite headphones and why?

2010-03-03T05:18:49Z

I have a number of headphones that I use for different purposes:

The obligatory Sony MDR7506s: Love these, they're like the NS-10Ms of headphones. I use them for as much as possible when external SPL allows. I use them for any critical listening I might have to do.

Sennheiser HD280s: I have 4 or 5 of these. I use them when the external SPL is too loud for my 7506s (because they isolate so well). I also use them in the vocal booth because they limit bleed so much. I try not to use them if I can help it, since I think they sound fairly "muffled"

When listening to classical music or the such, I love my Grado SR80i headphones, but they get uncomfortable after a while. Great natural sound though.

For in-ears, I have a pair of M-Audio IE-40s (made my Ultimate Ears, distributed by M-Audio). They don't have traditional drivers - they use a triple armature driver system, and have an amazing bass response, and incredible isolation. I can be listening to my iPod at half volume and a subway will go by, I won't even hear the subway in New York City (NYC). I use these for listening only while biking, walking, all the time in NYC, etc...

I've saved my favorites for last. My Beyerdynamic DT880 PRO cans. Pure bliss. Amazing. Slightly hyped, but amazing low end response, super smooth high end, and AMAZING localization. Almost sounds like you're listening to speakers. I like using these for listening to a final product. Its my equivalent of pumping the mains for a client versus critical mixing on the near fields. Also one of the most comfortable pairs of headphones I've ever worn. 6, 7+ hours no problem. They're semi-open back, so they have nice ventilation, and of course they have the famous velour ear pads. Fuzzy! Gotta love these guys :-)

What's your headphone collection like?

Loop and release sections on Wavs

2012-05-14T12:51:40Z

Hi All

I was wondering what, or if, there is a programme on osx I can use (free would be a plus) that will let me export audio files with looping sections.

I.e. A wav that will end at one point if it is repeatedly triggered and will end at another point when it is left to play out.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks so much

Spottin outside ProTools

2012-05-13T11:27:28Z

Dear sound Designers, I need to know if exist a way, using softwares like soundminers, basehead or similiar, to spot a region outside pro tools and drag it at the beginning or at the end of an audio file storaged in a network hard disk. I need the opposite feature of spotting audio into a daw because my need is to update files with new regions recorded and do that on the fly! Thanks for the answers, Bye Giorgio

Top Questions - Social Sound Design

if you were a teacher in sound design...

Getting back into Pro Tools, Advice?

Analog distortions/saturation on voice - how to reduce?

recording dialogue for animation

About Backgrounds...

Advice on Recording a Conference

Unable to find an Audio Interface attached to the first HD card. Please check power and digilink cables. Click OK to rescan

Fair royalties for a sound designer as a show tours

Approaching dialogue recovery with clipped audio, what to do first? (DOCUMENTARY)

DCP/MXF Projection issues: Sound is pitched down

Do you work in some area of sound design for games? Want some free exposure?

PC builder for PT

Cigarette smoke and mics

Matrixing and Tuning of Speakers in Movie Theaters

Recording Crowds for Game

Christmas night SF free download!

Sound Design on Tribes: Ascend with ProTools signal generator.

dpa 2006c or senn 8020?

Project Management Software

Soundfile descriptions are only in the Metadata - Is there an easy way of working with these?

ac3 encoders any free or poor man priced ones?

boxing ring feet

Getting Foot in the Door - Game Tester?

Recording Vehicles passing at high speed: which type of microphone 4 the job?

Nuendo and Printing Stems with Tone Bleeps

tascam hs-p82 8 ch recorder mixer for prod recording and field recording

GDC 2012 -- Meeting Up, Sessions of Interest

What are your favorite headphones and why?

Loop and release sections on Wavs

Spottin outside ProTools