Explain plosives and syllabytes

[John Fishback]

If you look at a waveform display of the audio you can see much of what’s being discussed above. “P”s, “K”s and “S”s (and many others) have distinctive shapes. Once you get used to them you will know the sound even without listening. If you need to replace a word, or partial word, it’s often easier to cut on a hard sound, particularly if you see the same shape on your waveform in the original and its replacement. Sometimes you might want to edit one “S” to another “S” and find the cut doesn’t sound right. Try a very short fade between the two sounds to blend them and smooth them out.

If your editor has enough resolution (ie sub-frame) you can try to cut out some of a plosive if it’s a problem. Leave the beginning of the sound and edit out some of the jaggedness. Don’t go too far, or you’ll affect the word. It’s trial and error most of the time. You’ll use UNDO a lot.

John

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[Mark Frazier]

I have to agree that the edit goes where it “feels” right. As a general rule, I use the waveform to see right where the”plosive” is and put my cut one frame before that. For me, that 1/30th of a second gives the edit a sharper look.

[Todd Beabout]

Here here. Are you other guys even talking about VIDEO editing? If so then sound is certainly part of the edit, but it is only PART of the edit. I would never make a cut just because a manual said that I should cut on hard syllables or other such nonsense. Just my $.02

-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios

[John Fishback]

The sense of this thread was to address some audio challenges while editing. Of course the visual component is critical. I can’t count the number of times I’ve L-cut an edit to line up dialogue from a different take in an over-the-shoulder shot, or just replace a word or two from one take with audio from another. The best situation is having the best overall edit – visually and aurally.

John

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