Sound for Video Session: Dialogue Audio Ear Training & Q&A

In this week's session, it’s time for some ear training. When working with dialogue audio, I find it helps to train your ears and so that's exactly what we'll do here. We'll use an equalizer and compressor to help you HEAR how these change the quality of sound. After that, we answer your sound for video questions.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. We have a course on sound for live-streaming with the ATEM Mini and just added Introduction to Izotope RX for Dialogue Audio.

Gear I often use or that we mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, DVE Store, Waves, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:

- Mackie DLZ Creator — B&H, Amazon

- Earthworks ETHOS microphone — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Sound Devies 888 field recorder/mixer — Trew, B&H, Sweetwater

- Sound Devices MixPre II Series Recorders - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Panasonic GH5 camera - B&H, Amazon

- Teleprompter Ikan 17" high bright — B&H

- Canon C200 Camera - B&H

- Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 lens — B&H, Amazon

- ATEM Mini Extreme & Extreme ISO - B&H, DVE Store, Amazon

- Allen & Heath SQ5 Digital Mixer - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Rupert Neve Designs Shelford Channel, pre-amp, EQ, compressor - Sweetwater, B&H

- Universal Audio 6176 channel strip pre-amp, EQ, compressor — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

The intro and outro music for this episode is from Musicbed. Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.

Copyright 2023, Curtis Judd

Sound for Video Session — Sweeten audio in Fairlight & Q&A

In this week's session, we demonstrate some simple things you can do in DaVinci Resolve Fairlight 18.5 to make your audio sound better. We'll cover EQ, noise reduction, de-essing, and compression. Then we'll answer your sound for video related questions.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. We have a course on sound for live-streaming with the ATEM Mini and just added Introduction to Izotope RX for Dialogue Audio.

Gear I often use or that we mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, DVE Store, Waves, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:

- Earthworks ETHOS microphone — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Sound Devies 888 field recorder/mixer — Trew, B&H, Sweetwater

- Sound Devices MixPre II Series Recorders - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Panasonic GH5 camera - B&H, Amazon

- Canon C200 Camera - B&H

- Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 lens — B&H, Amazon

- ATEM Mini Extreme & Extreme ISO - B&H, DVE Store, Amazon

- Allen & Heath SQ5 Digital Mixer - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Rupert Neve Designs Shelford Channel, pre-amp, EQ, compressor - Sweetwater, B&H

- Universal Audio 6176 channel strip pre-amp, EQ, compressor — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

The intro and outro music for this episode is from Musicbed. Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.

Copyright 2023, Curtis Judd

Indoor Boom Microphones: Oktava MK-012, RODE NT5, Audio Technica AT4053b

In my efforts to help you choose a microphone for recording dialogue indoors, here is another comparison of three cardioid (to hyper-cardioid) options: The Oktava MK-012 (cardioid), RODE NT5 (cardioid) and the Audio Technica AT4053B (hyper-cardioid). We take a closer look and listen with female and male sample clips, demonstrations of off-axis sound rejection, off-axis phase issues or coloration, handling noise, self-noise, and my overall impressions. I hope you find it helpful!

Links to gear discussed and used to record this episode:

Oktava MK-012 (cardioid capsule)

Oktava MK-012 (hyper-cardioid capsule “Movie Set”)

RODE NT5

Audio Technica AT4053b

Sound Devices 633 Audio Recorder/Mixer:

Blackmagic Design Ursa Mini Pro Camera (talking head shots were filmed with this:

Panasonic GH5 Camera

Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 OIS Lens

Copyright 2017 by Curtis Judd

Sound for Video Session: Process Dialogue with Izotope RX and Nectar

In this week's Sound for Video Session we cover some of the tools in Izotope's RX app and Nectar plugin which I often use to process dialogue audio.

Gear used to record this episode:

Electrovoice RE20 Dynamic Microphone

Antelope Orion Studio Audio Interface

Sound for Video Session: Richer Dialogue, Reporter's Mics, Lip Smacks, Recorders for Ambience

This week we answered sound questions from several of you including the following:

• How can I make dialogue sound fuller?

• Recommendations on “reporter’s” microphones?

• Is there a faster way to remove lip smacks and other mouth noises?

• Recommendations on handheld stereo recorders for capturing ambience and foley?

Gear discussed and used to produce this episode:

Sennheiser MD46 Cardioid Dynamic Reporter’s Microphone

Zoom H5 Handy Recorder (for ambience and foley)

Electrovoice RE20 Dynamic Microphone (Voiceover for this session was recorded with this)

Antelope Orion Studio Audio Interface (Voiceover for this demo was recorded with this)

Demo: Mixing Sound for a Short Film in Adobe Audition

In this week’s sound for video session I demonstrate how I mixed a recent short film from my friend Levi Whitney with Uphill Cinema - http://uphillcinema.com

I recorded the production sound. Levi directed and DP’d.

In this demo, I quickly demonstrate the overall idea of mixing dialogue, music, and effects for a short film. For serious projects I would definitely spend more time on the details but wanted to give you a quick example to show the basics. I hope you find it useful!

Gear Used:

Audio Technica AT4053b Hyper-Cardioid Microphone (the dialogue and effects in the film were recorded with this)

Sound Devices 633 Field Mixer/Recorder (the film sound was recorded with the 633)

Electrovoice RE20 Dynamic Microphone (Voiceover for this demo was recorded with this)

Antelope Orion Studio Audio Interface (Voiceover for this demo was recorded with this)

Sound for Video Session: Recording Dialogue in Mono vs Stereo vs Surround

Should you record your dialogue audio in mono, stereo, or surround?

Short answer: Record dialogue in mono to save yourself a lot of headaches. You can still use a lavalier and a boom for each person, but in your final mix, generally just use one or the other mic (i.e., use the lavalier as the backup just in case the boom track has a problem for that particular dialogue line).

Why record mono? Phase issues are much more likely to arise in stereo and surround recordings. This can result in constructive or destructive interference - comb filtering. It doesn't sound good.

Huh? Are you serious? What about every movie that has been produced in stereo or surround in the last several decades? They actually record 99% of the dialogue in mono and then mix that into the overall stereo or surround mix. And in most cases, they mix the dialogue to the center front speaker in a surround mix or equally to both speakers (center) on a stereo mix.

Links for the articles we looked at on constructive and destructive interference as well as comb filtering:

https://www.nde-ed.org/EducationResources/HighSchool/Sound/interference.htm

http://www.phys.uconn.edu/~gibson/Notes/Section5_2/Sec5_2.htm

http://www.audioholics.com/loudspeaker-design/comb-filtering

SoundWorks Collection: Dialog Editing & ADR Featuring Gwen Yates Whittle

If you haven't heard of the SoundWorks Collection and you are an audio for film enthusiast, you might like to have a look at the great content they create for film sound students like us. One of the things I've found very interesting and informative is their Conversations with Sound Artist Podcasts which is sponsored by the Dolby Institute. In this episode, for example, Glenn Kiser interviews dialogue editor Gwen Yates Whittle who has worked on a number of large films that you have probably seen.