Richard Crowley
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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“Could you suggest some titles for me to check out? I just don’t know where to begin looking.”
I am reminded of a popular book that isn’t necessarily written for interviewing on-camera (or on-mike), but probably good info on establishing rapport with the interviewee…
“How To Talk To Anyone About Anything!” by Jill Spiegel ISBN-10: 0964332574
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Consider hiring a professional VO performer (announcer). Our own Mr. Ford is rather good at it and apparently too modest to toot his own horn. https://web.mac.com/tyreeford/Site/Ty_Ford_Audio_%26_Video.html
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” Most of the film was shot in doors with a boom mike set 80% left and a wireless mic 80% right.”
If that means what I think it means, then you are well and truly screwed. I don’t know of any good way of recovering anything decent from that colossal debacle. Every dialog track is effectively polluted with 20% of the WRONG mike.
Whomever recorded the sound that way should be expelled from film school and should be advised to take up some completely different (non-technical, non-creative) line of work.
“I used Adobe Audition to remove what I could and blend the two sides to make 1 half way decent wav.”
My automatic response would be the opposite. To take ONLY one or the other track (whichever one is better for the shot).
“but the hiss or camera hum, don’t match between (some) clips.”
That is a different problem. Some of it might be mitigated with noise reduction. Adobe Audition has a pretty good way of sampling the noise profile, and then subtracting it from the track. However if you crank it up too high, it will do bad things to the desirable sound (dialog or whatever). And again, using only ONE track (either the lav or the boom) may help there, also.
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Does “doing audio” mean mixing the sound tracks in post-production? Or does it mean capturing the sound during shooting? (Or both?) From the context of you questions you seem to be asking about post-produciton mixing some dialog that wasn’t recorded very cleanly.(?)
“when mixing a vocal track with ambient quite noise”.
Does that mean that you are taking a clean dialog track and mixing it with noise SFX to create the audio that goes with the visual shots? Or are you asking about mixing dialog tracks that were recorded with location (or equipment?) noise embedded?
“do you generally mix the two with the same sterio phase? For example, the vocals center and ambient sounds, wide left & right or do you just mix them all together?”
Sounds like you are asking about how to pan (position Left-Right) the various tracks. Dialog is generally recorded mono (and as clean as possible) so that any special effects can be added in post-production editing in a clean and controlled environment. The general answer is that dialog and background, SFX, etc. are mixed for levels, and panned (L-R) for whatever you want the final sound track to sound like.
If you have a significant noise (hiss) problem then it is not clear how the “db levels are good”? Sounds like at some point the “db levels” were NOT good and somebody just cranked the track up, noise and all.
I would certainly try to reduce as much noise from the dialog tracks as possible. With filtering, gating, etc. And then try to cover up the remaining problems with background noise, music, etc.
You might want to clarify your question. Are you asking how to mitigate poorly recorded location dialog tracks? Or are you asking general questions about mixing dialog and SFX together?
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Consider also that the roof of a typical white “party pavilion” tent is like a giant soft-light that you can’t turn off. When we order tents for events where video will be used, we specify opaque tops to make it dark enough for the screen to be viewed.
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You MIGHT be able to get away with it for short-duration promotional purposes for the “council” (some sort of government or para-government agency??) You might get away with using a shot or two for your “reel”. But don’t plan on using those shots for anything else that will be seen in public (whether for $$$ for free.)
But let this be a VALUABLE learning experience. NEVER go out and do that again without a clipboard of release forms. Murphy’s law states that if you FAIL to get a release for someone, that will be the very clip you (or your client) want most to use. And if you use it, THEY are the ones that will come after all of you. Very bad practice. Even “drive-by” “man-on-the-street” interviews must have a signed release, doesn’t matter whether they are sitting or standing (or walking). This is why there are production assistants: to chase down people with release forms.
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It is not the heads. The audio is recorded in the same bit-stream with the same heads as the video. If the heads were an issue you would like see video artifacts before you heard audio problems.
It is possible (but doesn’t seem very likely, either) that it is the phantom power. Phantom should always be turned OFF unless you know for a fact that you need it.
The most likely cause would seem to be the audio recording levels on the DVX100A. You didn’t say anything about how they are set, or what the audio recording levels were indicating. And what did it sound like when recording?
Excellent “differential diagnosis” troubleshooting work to try it in a different camera. Your experiment would seem to show that it isn’t overmodulating in the transmitter. (“fault-finding” can be substituted for the word “troubleshooting” for our friends on the east side of the Pond. 🙂
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A picture is worth 1000 words. Hard to imagine exactly what you are describing?
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“Thanks, it looks like it is a TRIMMER ALIGNMENT TOOL I am looking for. Anyone know anywhere in the UK which sells these, RS have them but they are $89!. I guess I may have to try with a metal screwdriver.”
Something is dramatically wrong. Over here a set of the little plastic adjuster things are closer to 89 CENTS, not 89 bucks or 89 quid.
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IF the control you are trying to adjust uses a SMALL straight-blade screwdriver slot, and IF it has an insulated shaft, THEN Mr. Zelin’s suggestion of an Xcelite “Greenie” is appropriate.
Note, however, that there are SOME adjustments, especially on CRT monitors, that will give you a nasty shock or even kill you if you use a tool with a conductive shaft like a conventional screwdriver (which is what an Xcelite “Greenie” is.)
If you are in the U.K., there is likely an equivalent generic small screwdriver. The Xcelite Greenie has the distinction of having a pocket clip attached to the handle because, as Mr. Zelin says, it is a very commonly used adjustment tool.
If you had NOT been asking about a CRT monitor, it would have been my first suggestion. But I have seen people thrown against the opposite wall from being shocked using the wrong tool to adjust something, so beware.