audio equalization help?

I'm trying to replace/add dialogue in a short film. ( hdv--looks pretty hdv- sounds baaad!)
The new dialogue was recorded in a studio- clean, close mic'd. The current dialogue is boom or lav mic'd in a house. I've added room tone to the new dialogue- and its sounds like "new studio dialogue with room tone under it"
Can someone suggest an equalization or reverb starting step ( and which filters to use) as a starting point? I'm trying random things but not with any good result.

also- any reverb/equalization suggestions to make music sound more like club background music- again it sounds a little too clean and tight.


Thank you smart people

Paul

Unfortunately having the ADR recorded close mic'd is going to make it difficult to match your production sound. What I would suggest is to start with the EQ. Use the 31 band in FCP. Roll off everything below 150hz, then boost the high mids a few db. It's hard to give an exact setting without hearing the outgoing and incoming tracks. Also adding some reverb may help but again it's going to be a matter of trial and error. Same with the music.

> I've added room tone to the new dialogue- and its sounds like "new studio dialogue with
> room tone under it"

That's because your new ADR tracks haven't yet been integrated into the surroundings.

*Sync* is the number-one priority. Make sure you use the old tracks -- sound spikes and waveforms -- to adjust sync on the ADR tracks as much as possible. Then, tame the volume on the ADR tracks, make sure they don't overwhelm the tone. Reverb often creates more problems than it solves, and good movie dialogue tends not to have much of it, unless the environment is an obviously echoey space like an army hospital, a tunnel or an entrance hall. I'd generally use EQ and High Pass/Low Pass, leave Reverb as a final desperate measure.

> also- any reverb/equalization suggestions to make music sound more like club background
> music- again it sounds a little too clean and tight.

Depends on where you are. If you're in the club, mixed with the crowd, then boost the bass -- when you're that close to loud dance music, bass frequencies take over, and the abundance of bodies in the room will also create that hot, bass-driven atmosphere, and high frequencies will take a back seat. If you're outside the club, or hearing the music through walls, you need to use High Pass with the threshold set to a low frequency to muffle the sound, leaving only bass frequencies to bleed through to create that "neighbour-dance-party-can't-sleep" effect.


www.derekmok.com

All that and you can't do any of this on computer speakers in a live, echo-y edit room.

Commercial Mix Rooms look and sound like that for a reason. Your edit "sweetening" room has to contribute zero to the work, otherwise you will be tuning your edit bay instead of--or in addition to the show.

For example that little something you can't quite put your finger on can turn out to be the really low bus rumble that your speakers can't reproduce. Top quality headphones are better than a really bad edit room.

Koz

Thanks guys-

all of this is actually helping as do an audio pass...but thats the point isn't it...

. The audio is getting a little closer. Any specifics on reverb? what seettings to try as a starting point? I tried a couple and the rooms sounded HUGE- ( even the small room setting)

thanks again for your quick and informed responses
p

Adjust the proximity of the mic when you record ADR. The "proximity effect" means that it sounds beefier and bassier the closer you get to the mic. Keep in mind that it takes about 4 reverb types to simulate a room and to simulate the "distant mic" sound. Other than that you roll off the low end of the EQ spectrum as needed. Play around with it until it matches. I work with Nuendo which puts FCP's audio timline to shame. Tough to work with a simplistic program like FCP which is VIDEO oriented.

Remember that the Type setting is just one out of four settings available on the Reverberation filter. Effect Mix and Effect Level can help tame the effect, and Brightness can determine what kind of space and proximity you're talking about. As I said, most film dialogue doesn't need or want reverb -- usually only if you're in a very bare room, or a large interior space.

I don't agree with Stu's suggestion of trying to generate distance while recording ADR. Distance is much easier to add on than to get rid of. Record as cleanly and loudly as possible, then add the distance. However, he's right about FCP not being specifically geared for sound.

Koz' notes about your mixing space are dead on. If you're not mixing in a proper space, half your work is futile -- you will overcompensate for problems that aren't really there and end up skewing the sound too far the other way. For example, if your computer is connected to a set of consumer speakers bought at Best Buy, chances are what you'll be hearing will be bass-biased (many of those speakers are for music listeners, and those tend to overvalue the bass) and you'll end up taking out too much warmth, and you'll produce a brittle-sounding mix with no bottom. Conversely, mix with a laptop with tiny little speakers or none at all, and you'll probably lapse into overkill on the bass.


www.derekmok.com

<<<The "proximity effect" means that it sounds beefier and bassier the closer you get to the mic.>>>

They can do that. Directional microphones do that because they get their directionality by messing with sound wave timing. If you change the timing by leaning forward, Really Odd things can happen. Non-directional microphones don't do that.

There is the stand-up comedy routine where the comedian simulates airplane noises or fart sounds by messing with his microphone distance. That's usually a very directional Sure SM-58 on the stage. If it was any other kind of mic, the effect wouldn't work or be nearly as funny.

And yes, it's enormously easier to put the room in than take it out.

Rooms have a lot of characteristics which is why "reverb" tools are so complicated. You just have to fool with it. Reverb, Delay, Duration, Tail, Slap, Tone, Echo, etc. etc.

This is also indirectly why taking a room *out* of a sound track is a nightmare.

Koz

Quote

don't agree with Stu's suggestion of trying to generate distance while recording ADR

Certainly it is not a good thing to back WAY off the mic to create the impression of "distance". I'm talking about not getting too close to the mic if you want to closely match up to original sound recorded with a mic on a boom. Get too close and you get all kinds of microphone artifacts like harsh "P"s and "S"s and what not. Then you'll have to spend hours sweetening and cleaning up that stuff. When a mic is on a boom there are no harsh P's and S's and no beefiness (as you would get while talking 4 inches from a mic). A lot of people say to record 8 to 12 inches for ADR. Personally I go with 12 inches distance with a Steadman pop filter angled in between. A dead room is a must.