Re: [microsound] voices and equalisation

[Kerry Uchida <kerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joel Stern wrote:

> hi. sorry if this is too off topic.
> someone asked me to help them clean up some documentary sound for a video
> project. the audio consists of an outdoor interview, group of
> about 8 kids, voices very quiet, and a fair bit of background noise. i
> haven't delved too deeply into different equalisation techniques in the
> past. can anyone reccomend a plug-in or any sustem for isolating quiet
> voices and bringing them further out against a background. the platform is
> mac, and they are using a finalcut system. project is tomorrow so any hasty
> advice would be greatly appreciated.
> cheers.
> joel

Just as with music, there are no set rules.  What EQ do you
put on a voice? Well how does the voice sound to start with?
Where are you trying to go with it?  What type of music is it?
How does the voice sit with the rest of the soundscape? etc...

There are no set rules here.  There also is no magical plug-in
that will save your audio.  You must capture clean audio to
start with.

No matter what EQ, compression, cleaners, magical plug-ins
that you apply it will probably still sound like crap.  The thing
that you should aim for is getting the dialogue at least understandable.
Even if it sounds like crap, at least you hear what their saying.
Use your ears.

Depending on your background noise (which will probably
be broadband so you just EQ out the noise) you could start
boosting EQ in the 1k -> 4k range. Again use your ears.

Another tip that might help you out is to lay music overtop
of the scene.  This will help mask the "noise".  And then
EQ the voices like your EQing vocals to get them to cut
through the music.

If you have access to more gear I could step you thru
how it is attempted in the film world.  (using 565 filter set,
Dolby CAT NR etc.   there is also some pretty cool
Cedar boxes that do some wild stuff)

I've actually being playing with adding "noise" elements
to my mixes kind of like how dither noise is added to your
digital audio on the D/A conversion stage.  I've gotten some
pretty cool results. You don't actually hear the noise, but
when I mute the "noise" track, you notice something is missing.
Put it back in and something happens to the track.
Some cool psychoacoustic stuff happening.

good luck


Kerry
--
Kerry Uchida
Vancouver,Canada

"Whatever you do will be insignificant,
but it is very important that you do it"
    -Mahatma Gandhi

Now Playing:

DJ Aural---- http://www.mp3.com/DJAural
Technomorph-- http://www.technomorph.com
Morpheus Project- http://www.morpheusproject.tv