Practical Sound Recording and Editing Techniques For Better Video

Here are some resources associated with my session, “Practical Sound Recording and Editing Techniques For Better Video” recently given at the 4th Annual New Media Expoin Las Vegas.

Presentation Slides

Here’s a copy of my presentation slides, available in two flavors.

Sound-Better-Video-4NME.pdf
A PDF of the New Media Expo presentation (34MB).

Sound-Better-Video-4NME-notes.pdf
A PDF of the New Media Expo presentation along with some additional notes on most of the slides (34MB).

Dialog audio clips

The following files are available for download as a zip archive: dialog.zip (8.7MB)

David-123.wav
Recording made with an RE50 omnidirectional, handheld microphone, from three distances, 1 foot, 2 feet, and 3 feet. Note how the audio level falls off dramatically as we move farther away from the source, there’s also some background noise.

David-123-levelator.wav
The above recording processed with Levelator, notice how bringing up the level of the second and third recordings brings up the noise level too. Keeping the mic close the source keeps the level of the voice well above the room noise. The farther away the mic, the less difference between the dialog level and room noise level. Levelator is a good tool for quick and dirty balancing of levels of an audio track, but can sound strange when the original recording is not perfectly clean. Note how the three recordings are progressively worse, since Levelator has to deal with more noise.

Scott.aif
The baseline audio clip, recorded in a room with hard walls, note the reverberation that results, this is impossible to remove.

Scott-Levelator.aif
The Scott.aif clip processed through Levelator

Scott-3Comp-2Gain.aif
The Scott.aif clip processed with 3:1 compression and +2dB gain, zero attack, gentle decay

Scott-3Comp.aif
The Scott.aif clip processed with 3:1 compression, zero attack, gentle decay

Scott-6Gain.aif
The Scott.aif clip without compression but +6dB gain

MS audio clips

The following files are available for download as a zip archive: MSdemo.zip (11MB)

MS-1M-2S.aif
The baseline clip recorded with an MS microphone, M in Ch. 1 and S in Ch. 2. See notes in presentation for more details.

MS-M-only.aif
The mid capsule (short-shotgun) only. This is also good demo of how a source to the side and in front of a short shotgun sounds, notice how the off-axis sound is not only muted, but it’s colored. See notes in presentation for more details.

MS-S-only.aif
The side (figure-of-eight a.k.a. bidirectional) capsule only. Also a good demo of just how much side-rejection a bidirectional mic is capable of. See notes in presentation for more details.

MS-M+S-mixed.aif
The M and S channels mixed.

MS-Stereo-M+6dB.aif
The M and S tracks put through an MS matrix to covert Mid/Side to Left/Right, M channel given +6dB gain to emphasize the speaker in front of the mic.

MS-Mono-fr-StM+6dB.aif
The stereo MS-Stereo-M+6dB.aif track collapsed to mono. The +6dB gain added to the M channel messes up the stereo imaging a bit.

Join me at the Web Video Summit in New York, Dec. 10-11, 2007

I’ll be participating in the Web Video Summit to be held at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York on December 10-11, 2007. Check out the conference schedule, the event will provides a balance of technology and business topics. If your a web video practitioner or enthusiast and live in the Northeast, this is the not-to-be-missed end-of-year event. I’ll be participating on the Lights, Cameras, Sound: How to Get Great Results panel (1:00pm-1:50pm on Monday) where we’ll be discuss stratagies, tactics, and techniques for better video and sound that will not break your production budget. The session will be moderated by Asa Aarons (Columnist, NY Daily News) and my fellow panelists are Alex Lindsay (Producer, Pixelcorps) and Josh Wolf (Independent Journalist, The Rise Up Network, peralta.TV, Free The Media). Hope to see you there.

Philippe Lejeune’s video of my Podcamp Boston 2 sessions

Artist Philippe Lejeune shot and created a wonderful video page based on the two Sessions I did at Podcamp Boston 2. Thank you Philippe for creating the page, which elevates web video to a new art form (I’m referring to Philippe’s page, not my work). I would love to see an authoring tool that made it easier to create dynamic pages like these that’s easier to use than the existing Flash authoring tools and conceives of video as one of many elements in the design of a page, rather than something that’s relegated to a player like on YouTube. I’ve seen several progams written to construct pages dynamically similar to this, but none that I’ve seen are as easy to use as iMovie. Art leads technical innovation, maybe this is prescient of the next iLife tool, iVideoPage…

17th Annual Pro Video Show to be held March 9-10, 2007 at Stonehill College in Easton, Ma

If you live in the Boston area you will not want to miss the 17th Annual Pro Video Show sponsored by The Camera Company to be held Friday and Saturday, March 9-10, 2007 at Stonehill College, in Easton, Massachussetts (Exit 17B off Route 24). This annual event provides local media makers with the opportunity to check out new equipment, talk with fellow media makers, and attend a wide range of workshops and seminars. Yours truly will be presenting two of the seminars, “Delivering Video on the Web” and “Champagne Production Values on a Beer Production Budget.”

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2007 SMPTE/NE Digital Production Showcase

The New England Chapter of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) held its Annual Digital Production Showcase (which has become a mid-winter tradition) on Wednesday, January 17th at WCVB-TV’s studio in Needham, Massachusetts. My photos from the event are available on Flickr. In addition to being fed sandwiches and piping hot New England clam chowder (very appropriate given the cold snap) attendees had a chance to experience hands-on demos of the latest digital production tools in a collegial atmosphere. I thank SMPTE/New England for hosting such a delightful event in which I can catch up with what’s happening in the realm of digital production.

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Art Film Design Audio Podcast Technical Documentation

I’ve been asked what tools Colin Owens and I use for recording and editing the interviews for ArtFilmDesign.com, so I’ve put together this little document (link below) that outlines the tools we use for field production and post production. It also includes a bonus slide illustrating a formal live event configuration, which we’ve not done yet for ArtFilmDesign, but the design is based on other live events I’ve been involved with in the past. I’ve not completed the studio recording slide, that’s for a future version of the document. Basically the studio configuration includes the use of various studio microphones running through analog compressors and preamps into a MOTU digital interface, recording directly into Digital Performer in Colin’s studio.

You can dowload the document here: Audio-Podcasting-v2.pdf (PDF, 1.01MB)

Headphones

One of the best values for the money in terms of audio performance, ergonomics, and useful life are the Sony MDR-7506 Studio Monitor Headphones available from various retailers including Rule and Talamas in the Boston area for a street price around $100.00 or so. You can find many headphones that cost more, but not many that sound as accurate. I’m pleased to have these in my Sound Kit.

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Cinematic Storytelling

One of my favorite phrases is “Cinematic Storytelling,” and imagine my delight when earlier this year Jennifer Van Sijll asked me if I’d read a new book she had just finished writing that would be published later this summer (now, actually) with the title “Cinematic Storytelling.” So what’s this new book about?
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Reflections on 2005 Boston Filmmaker’s Expo

In the current issue of NewEnglandFilm.com is a report by Randy Steinberg on the first Boston Filmmakers Expo hosted by Filmmakers Collaborative back in June. This event replaced their annual Open Studio, which I think worked out as a good alternative. I like the idea of gathering together in one place with other filmmakers to exchange ideas and build community. I enjoyed talking with vendors in the vendor table area, attending some seminars, and catching up with old friends during the reception. I hope they do it again next year.

Digital Audio Tape is Disappearing

I got the following note titled “Audio Recording Alternatives” from Rule Broadcast Systems this month…
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