Jean-christophe Boulay
Forum Replies Created
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What you suggest takes a bit of work, but can be done very convincingly. I’ve had to do it for a few ads for a certain sports beverage that shall remain unnamed. You need enough different starting points, so tape each person using different voices. I processed the individual voices using Antares Harmony Engine, which lets you add duplicates, pitch shift them, pan them… a little goes a long way and it’s easy to go overboard with this plug, especially on non-musical stuff. I then combined the individually treated voices together, panned them out, offset them in time, added reverb and delay to place everything inside a stadium and that was about it. The result worked very well in the midground, with music on top, but I wouldn’t be comfortable pushing it to the foreground too much, as I can hear the processing. If I was to put it up front, I’d combine it with some crowd noises from the sound bank. If you put an expander on the generic crowd that is keyed by your recorded chant, the background will pulsate in unison.
So it can be done entirely in post, but there’s no one plugin that will do everything for you. And a shame it would be if there was, as this is the really fun stuff!
JC Boulay
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com -
Most definitely get your install guys back in. And you should not be charged for this. Their setup should work in actual usage conditions.
JC Boulay
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com -
Hi Tom,
For all your DIY guitar trinkets needs, I suggest hopping over to http://www.diyguitarist.com where the true geeky axe-gurus hang out. There’s a large archive of projects and a forum to quizz the whizzes.
Happy building,
JC Boulay
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com -
ISO is the International Standards Organization. You could use the acronym ISO to describe any number of processes in any given industry, as the letters alone mean nothing without the number of the standard they relate to. For example, ISO disc images are files based on the ISO 9660 filesystem. Exposure values also relate to an ISO standard. Heck, the window frame manufacturer close to my home is ISO 9002-certified.
The three letters themselves mean pretty much nothing, which is why it’s a very good idea not to use “iso” as an abbreviation for “isolated”. Someone somewhere is going to be really confused. When requesting sound elements separated from the rest of the mix, ask for “split tracks” or “mixouts”. Pretty much every sound person should understand that.
As for channels and tracks, on most gear and in most software a “track” is an audio stream which can have one or more channels. Channels are independant components of the track, usually allocated to speakers. So a stereo track will contain two channels, a 5.1 track will contain 6 channels, etc… Hence, one mono track can not contain two channels, left and right. That would necessarily be a stereo track. Most production sound I’ve worked with comes on two channels, but they are not left and right. They’re usually Lav and Boom, the separate mics. Some production sound also comes in with a stereo mix on two channels, but we rarely use that in post. That would be your “production sound mix”, but your audio post guy will need “production split tracks” to work. Don’t take this differentiation of tracks and channels for granted, though. In many instances, the terms are used as if they meant the same thing.
IHTH
JC Boulay
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com -
In general, you should address those issues before hitting the preamp, on the mic itself.
JC Boulay
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com -
You’re getting more into the sound design field when attacking complex, unreproductible sounds like that. Go crazy with the layering of different sounds, keeping only what you want from each.
In my mind, without seeing picture, the arm would be a combination of the chicken carcass smash, some kind of snappy vegetable (probably a cucumber) being cut slowly by a knife (really close-mic’ed to get that “smooch” sound), some kind of liquid squirt and, of course, a resonating metal sound to emphasize the blade.
The skull is more straightforward. In my experience, head injuries get more of an “ouch” reaction if the sound consists mainly of a “thump”. A real heavy, dry “thump”, with a bit of crackle in there. If you go too far with the crack, it’ll sound fake very fast. Aim for the sound you’d hear if it was your own head hitting. That’ll be more terrifying for the listeners.
Above all, Have fun. This kind of sound design is what makes this job the best.
JC Boulay
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com -
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If you can’t have a mic in front of a singer, you’re only ever going to be limiting the damage. Lav’ing a classical singer will probably give you a chesty, mumbly track that will probably be unusable on its own. The sound of a classical singer’s voice develops fully about 3 feet from his mouth.
Once you have made your client fully aware of the limitations he is imposing on the quality of the finished work and he’s told you to work with it, the only really viable solution will be to hang trees from the ceiling. You’ll need some time during repetition to find the best mic placements. The shotgun mics will give you range, but they colour the sound a whole lot and are usually avoided for music. The 4050 is a nice-sounding mic that should be used to give you the body of your sound if at all possible. Of course, the hung trees should be stereo arrays. Besides, if you can’t mic the piano, this is the only way you’re ever going to record it too.
Good luck on what sounds like quite a puzzling gig
JC Boulay
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com -
Thanks for the response. I will reinstall drivers and see where that gets us.
Ref signal is rock-solid.
JC Boulay
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com -
In general, whenever you have to line up a sound with an event that happens between two video frames, you should place the sound on the frame where the event has already happened. It will look more natural, as sound travels slower than light and so every sound we hear in our life is late relative to the visual source, at a rate of 1 millisecond per foot separating us from the source.
In three words: What Brian said.
JC Boulay
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com