2 Audio-Post Production Best Practices for Videos
When it comes to audio for video, or at least when it comes to its best practices, apparently there’s no consensus on what are those; however, there seems to be consensus on one single thing: no one ever seems to pay special attention to audio in videos unless it’s utterly bad. And if it’s bad, then the project is also bad — and maybe ruined.
While video producers always try to record the best production audio they can on set, problems and issues are always bound to appear. In the end, it is always a matter of priorities and assessing the audio they have got and then work with a studio using their mixing, restoration, and dialogue replacement skills to make it sound compelling and, in the end, make it work.
With that being said, all video producers should strive to get the best possible audio so the transition between the set and the studio is a seamless one. Learn here the following 2 audio post-production best practices for getting better audio in your videos.
Pick your mic wisely
You should always pick the best sound mic for every single shot. Once you’ve got your AAF or your OMF imported into your digital audio workstation and your session is ready to go, you will traditionally find that several mics were used on set whilst recording the moving images and the dialogue lines.
Rather than choosing just one mic and using it throughout the entire video, you should assess each mic for each shot. For instance, it may be that the shotgun mic sounds way better in the first shot, but during the second shot a car drove past and it got recorded too loud.
Instead of spending hours of work trying to get rid of a loud engine in your audio tracks, it is much wiser to check out beforehand whether there’s another mic much more suitable for that specific shot. Maybe having had the talent wear a lavalier would have resulted in a much better vocal-to-car ratio than the shotgun mic.
Match different mics using equalization
Equalization is every audio professional’s most valuable, and definitely versatile, tool, and whilst it is commonly used for fixing problems such as annoying low-frequency rumble or noisy hiss in your audio tracks, it can also be used to make two and even more, audio tracks recorded with different mics sound like one another.
Continuing with the same example mentioned above in the first tip, we could assume that a shotgun mic is normally used throughout most of the scenes in the project and sounds best in general. We could also assume that a lavalier is only needed on specific shots. In situations like these, it would make sense to match the sound of both mics — the shotgun and the lavalier.
Since the lavalier is definitely much closer to the talent’s mouth than the shotgun, lines are picked up with a more sibilant and harsher sound. What you would call high-end presence. Thus, it is recommendable to loop both sections in your digital audio workstation and do some equalization on the lavalier track — low pass the lavalier, trying to bring down the brightness to make it match the sound of the shotgun mic.
It’s also a good idea to review this section a few times paying attention to the high frequencies on each line, always bringing down the brightness so the two tracks sound as close as possible. Of course, this is a rather rudimentary example, and there’s so much you can do with equalization to match different tracks and make them sound like one another, but it is a good depiction of what you can do in situations like these.
Also, there are several tools you can use to make this part of the process much faster and easier. It is always a good idea to monitor each sound through a frequency spectrum analyzer so you can get a visual representation of the tracks before jumping into the equalization adjustments. The vast majority of digital audio workstations come with a built-in spectrum analyzer, or you can simply use an EQ that also comes with a spectrum analyzer like the FabFilter Pro Q2.
This tool not only is a massive help when it comes to aiding your equalization processes, but also great when it comes to with matching several lines thanks to its built-in EQ-match function that, even though is far from being perfect, provides a massive aide to your ears when taking care of this no less than tedious task.
By following these tips you will be able to do edits combining different techniques, ensuring your cuts sound smooth. Whether you’re editing in Adobe Audition, Pro Tools, Logic, or another digital audio workstation, the aforementioned tips can always be carried out to make sure your lines sound equally consistent across scenes.
