[Rob Neidig]

Heather,

I feel for you. You are in a tough situation. Here is one final? attempt to provide some info for your boss.

This is a list of the gear that a “typical” pro sound person would bring to the gig. I’ve used industry standard brands here, though there are others in use. The prices, which are off the top of my head but should be pretty close, would be similar.

Sound Devices 442 mixer with case, cables ,etc. $3000
Sennheiser MKH416P48 short shotgun $1200
Schoeps CMC-641 hypercardioid mic $2000
Lectrosonics wireless lavalier mic systems (2 of them @ $2500 each) $5000
K-tek boom pole with shock mount, pistol grip, etc. $700
Sony MDR-7506 headphones $100

We’re already at $12,000 worth of gear, and that does not even include things like sound blankets, stands, specialty mounts, handheld mics, additional cables, battery distribution systems to run the whole shooting match, etc.

Not to mention years of experience in how to use it properly to get professional sound.

So if your boss would like to set up your office with sound gear, he can go spend $12,000 to $15,000. Or he could hire a sound pro for the day of the shoot.

Just saying…

Rob

Rob Neidig
R&R Media Productions
Eugene, Oregon

[Rob Neidig]

Randall,

The “time remap” in After Effects should work. You didn’t mention what video editing software you use, but many packages offer a “speed” or “time remap” effect in the software. Usually you apply it to both video and audio at the same time, so it automatically stays in sync.

Have fun!

Rob

Rob Neidig
R&R Media Productions
Eugene, Oregon

[Rob Neidig]

Josh,

You’ve answered the questions yourself:

So basically – transparent in normal state – just the image itself in the selected state – image itself in the highlighted state

Go to the button properties window (not looking at Encore right now, so you might have to actually crack the manual to see where it is). Set the button to be transparent in the normal state, and set it to whatever transparency you want in the highlighted state. Simple as that.

Have fun!

Rob

Rob Neidig
R&R Media Productions
Eugene, Oregon

[Rob Neidig]

Jack,

I have the Marantz 660, not the newer 661, so I’m just taking a shot in the dark here. But I remember when I first got it that I checked Marantz’s website and there were certain brands of card that they recommended. With that said, I actually bought one no-name brand and it works, but it may be that that is your problem. The one issue I do run into is that one of my cards records just fine, but if I try to use the 660 as a USB device, the computer will not recognize it with that card installed. The other cards work fine.

Hope you find the issue. Have fun!

Rob

Rob Neidig
R&R Media Productions
Eugene, Oregon

[Rob Neidig]

You could also do it with the black menus you are currently using. Just set the transparency of the buttons to 0 so they don’t show up.

Rob Neidig
R&R Media Productions
Eugene, Oregon

[Rob Neidig]

Glad to hear it’s the Studio Projects C-1. I have two of them myself and know that you can get a great sound from them.

The “Compander” effect is in the {Effects} {Amplitude} {Dynamics Processing} menu. Then you will see a list of various presets, including “compander”.

I’m sure you can Google for better definitions that I can come up with, but here’s a very basic primer on compression.

For using a compressor, there are normally 4 settings to worry about:

Ratio:

This sets how much you want to compress the signal. a 1:1 ratio means it’s not compressed at all – for each 1 dB of signal that goes in, 1 dB comes out. A 4:1 ratio would mean that for every 4dB of gain in, only 1 dB comes out.

Threshold:

This sets the level where you want compression to kick in. For instance a threshold setting of -9dB would mean that for all signals louder than – 9dB, the compressor will kick in. Below -9 dB the signal will remain untouched.

Attack:

This tells the compressor how quickly to engage. A fast attack would be used where you want to make sure that the very first sound coming is always compressed. Say if you wanted to make sure that a snare drum hit was compressed immediately. A slower attack lets the initial sound come through, then starts compressing it, so you get a more natural engaging of the compressor.

Release:

This tells the compressor how quickly to “let go” of the signal. A quick release can sound unnatural – sometimes a wanted effect. A slower release gradually pulls the compressor out of the way.

Have fun!

Rob

Rob Neidig
R&R Media Productions
Eugene, Oregon

[Rob Neidig]

Hi Carly,

The keys to getting “that announcer sound” are in order:

1. The Voice Talent
2. The Voice Talent
3. The Voice Talent
4. The Voice Talent
5. The Voice Talent
6. The mic
7. The preamp
8. The sound card

Obviously the voice talent is the most important. If the talent does not sound like you want, no amount of effects are going to polish it up enough to really be good.

So let’s assume your voice talent sounds great on their own. When you say “C-1”, is that the Behringer C-1, Studio Projects C-1, something else? I am not a fan of Behringer at all, but even with their mics, good voice talent and a decent preamp, you should get at least good voice-overs. Finally when you say you plug the mic “directly into the sound card”, do you mean you are adapting a mic cable to a mini jack and then plugging in to the built in sound card of your computer? Most built in sound cards have marginal sound quality to begin with, and their mic inputs are not that great. You could improve them with using an audio interface. There are many of them available from M-Audio, Presonus and others. Google is your friend here.

O.K., with all of that said, let’s just stick to what you currently have and not suggest spending any more money for the moment. Again, if your voice talent is good, you should be able to get a clean recording (depending on how bad the mic input to your sound card is, how much hiss or noise it adds, etc.). Once in Audition you can apply compression, EQ, etc. after the fact. I have found that the Compander preset can work well for voice-overs. What is is doind is compressing some of the peak levels (adjustable if you want to play with it), and expanding the low levels (usually background low level noise, sometimes low level breathing noises, etc.) downward so that you don’t hear them. Try that first and play around with the “THRESHOLD” settings. That determines where the effect kicks in. Otherwise just use the Compressor in AA. I would not normally suggest using higher than a 4:1 ratio, with a fairly quick attack (maybe 20ms or so) and a medium release (maybe 100 ms). These settings are just a beginning and off the top of my head, so please experiment! As for EQ, it is TOTALLY dependent upon the talent’s voice, but for the human voice, you might want to start by first finding any frequencies that DON’T sound good to you and then lowering them. If it’s the Behringer C-1 you are using, you may find cutting frequencies down below 800 Hz may help. I remember that mic as being kind of muddy. Just open up the EQ effect and boost various frequency bands. When you find the ones that make it sound WORSE. cut those until it sounds better. You could also try small boosts at 2 -4k or so. That generally boosts intelligibility a little. But be careful about overdoing it, it can sound pretty nasal and biting in a hurry.

Hope this helps. Have fun!

Rob

Rob Neidig
R&R Media Productions
Eugene, Oregon

[Rob Neidig]

Marc,

Double check your end action jumps. I recall that Encore sometimes confuses the buttons in that setting window. That is it will list in the drop down something like:

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

But Encore is confused (nice way of saying has a bug) and when you select Video 2, it actually sets the routing to Video 3, for instance. The only way I’ve found around that is to check the end jump of each timeline, and through trial-and-error if necessary, change the end jump so it goes to the right one.

Have fun!

Rob

Rob Neidig
R&R Media Productions
Eugene, Oregon

[Rob Neidig]

Jeremy,

That Wikipedia info is quite old. Maestro was a contender maybe 10 years ago (and you still find a few people still nursing their systems along). Spruce sold it to Apple, who discontinued it and turned it into DVD Studio Pro (sort of). The standard for Standard Def DVD authoring in Hollywood is Sonic’s Scenarist and a few proprietary systems. But it’s not the authoring software that’s your problem. Your problem is the converting from HD and encoding to MPEG-2. There is the Cinemacraft encoder for Premier Pro that works well, but for HD you would need the full version that costs around $1700 -1800. I hope others can provide a lower cost option for you.

Have fun!

Rob

Rob Neidig
R&R Media Productions
Eugene, Oregon

[Rob Neidig]

Bob,

Right you are. Why is it that inanimate objects seem to know when we’re recording audio? I just returned from a corporate shoot where without fail every time we said “Action”, a big truck would drive by, or someone would start up a leaf blower somewhere! As soon as we’d stop, all would be quiet again. Oh to have a sound stage available, and an unlimited budget, and all the time in the world…

Rob Neidig
R&R Media Productions
Eugene, Oregon