Behind The Scenes - 'All Important Audio'

12 years ago

Well, it's been a while but I thought I'd take 5 minutes away from editing to write up the second part of our Behind The Scenes look into how we do what we do.

This time I'd like to explain how we deal with something absolutely critical, something that to this day some lesser videographers totally ignore - Audio.

Having played in bands for 10 years in my past good sound quality is something that I have always had a keen ear for. Every track of audio in a wedding film (and this can sometimes be upwards of 15 individual tracks) is always equalised to ensure that it sounds as good as it can possibly sound. This might be basic things like isolating wind noise or the persistent hum of an air conditioning fan, or reducing or adding echo to suit. Playing instruments for so long has also given me a decent sense of rhythm (you'll have to ask my old band mates just how decent.. they might disagree!) which is absolutely critical when editing a song down in length or perhaps creating a loop to extend the song to allow for dialogue over the top of it, all things that happen multiple times during each edit that you'll (if I do it correctly) never hear.

One thing we pride ourselves on is producing your finished DVD or BluRay in full 5.1 surround sound. Even though this technology is now quite old you'd be surprised that the huge majority of videographers still deliver their finished product only in 2 channel stereo where as the majority of living rooms have moved on from this and if you haven't yet moved on.. there's no harm in future proofing as your finished disc will play back perfectly fine in stereo if you only have the two speakers.

So what does this mean?

Well, assuming you have a surround sound kit or even a TV with virtual dolby capabilities, the difference between one of our DVD's and that of a competitor who mixes down to stereo will be very noticeacable. In the early days when I used to deliver in stereo I was never too happy when testing discs on my surround sound kit and sometimes found it difficult to hear dialogue especially if there was music playing at the same time. This was because both the music and speech had to share the same pair of front speakers and if the frequency of the music and the dialogue come close to each other as often happens (after all, singing is just tuned talking) it would become more difficult to distinguish. However, with 5.1 surround sound the music and the dialogue are now assigned to different speakers, just the way big budget films are when you watch them at the cinema. The audio will come through the front left and right speakers, whilst at the same time the dialogue comes through the center speaker. Not only does this make everything easier to listen to and distinguish, but it gives a much more immersive signal to the ears and you really start to feel that the person speaking is standing in front of you. 

During the course of the day we use small portable recorders (sometimes up to 8 of them) dotted around the room, barely visible, but hugely valuable to the finished edit. When we get back to the editing suite and begin mixing the sound, we'll allocate the sound from the recorder from the rear right of the room to only play through the rear right speaker when you watch in your living room. This means that whilst hearing somebody speak through the center channel and some laughter and clapping through the front left and right speakers, if suddenly uncle Fred on the table in the far right corner finds something hilarious and laughs out loud.. you'll hear uncle Fred's voice in the rear right of your living room. Clever stuff eh? 

This whole process works wonders in putting you back in the situation over and over again as you watch your DVD, reminding you of not only what the best day of your life looked like, but also what it sounded like from all angles!

Now to do some research on smell-o-vision...