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Producing Great Sound on Location
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Producing Great Sound on Location

on Aug 2nd 2010 with 6 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Difficulty: Beginner/Intermediate
  • Time: 18 minutes
  • Requirements: None

This video tutorial begins the series Producing Great Sound on Location. In this and future video tutorials, Jonah Guelzo will cover different topics that relate to production sound, what equipment is needed, and the techniques essential for getting the best sound for your next film, or video production piece.

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Jonah Guelzo is SoundCandy on Audiojungle
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Jonah has worked for and collaborated with many different production companies across the East Coast, working on numerous short films and independent feature length films as well as documentary work and countless commercial productions for the local, regional, and national levels.  

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  • http://www.hellomarketing.net kevin

    Nice tut. Well rounded for beginners like me. :)

  • Bershal

    if you record the audio separately what is the best way to sync it with the video?

    • http://hellostudios.net/ Jonah Guelzo
      Author

      Bershal,
      There are a few different options for syncing the audio with the video later in post when shooting double system productions.

      The simplest way, but not necessarily the most enjoyable is by purchasing an inexpensive slate board to keep track of the scenes and takes visually as well as having your clapper boy (or whoever is manning the slate board) audibly slating the scenes and takes and then striking the clapper creating a sharp visual spike in the audios waveform of which can then be easily synced up with the picture either by slipping the video until the frame shows the upper arm of the clapper meeting the lower arm of the clapper. However, even if you are shooting on a DSLR, it will still capture audio via its internal mic, so you can sync the good audio with the DSLR audio by quickly identifying the sharp spike in the waveform of both waveforms, syncing it that way.

      If you are on a tight budget and don’t have time-code stamp-able equipment to make things much more convenient in post, you also can invest in a plug-in called PluralEyes (http://www.singularsoftware.com/pluraleyes.html)
      which is a plug-in that automatically synchronizes all your audio and video clips without the need for timecode, or clapper boards.

      Essentially as long as you have one audio track recorded for every video clip recorded (along with the internal mic audio track being recorded along with the video as well) the software will automatically analyze the waveforms of your video clip audio and sync your separately recorded audio to the picture. At that point, all you need to do is mute or delete the poor audio track leaving the separately recorded audio synced with the picture.

      As I alluded to earlier, the nicest way of syncing audio later with the visuals in post is through using more expensive cameras and field recorders with time-code functionality… With this type of equipment, you can “stamp” a time-code being generated by the video cameras internal clock into the portable field recorder. Later in post, after hitting some buttons, the audio is able to be automatically synced to the picture.

      Bershal,
      I hope I did an ok job of answering your question. Feel free to ask me anymore questions if I failed to mention something you needed to have answered.

      -Jonah Guelzo

  • alkis

    This is great. It’s also so nice seeing audiotuts expand and getting better and better every month! Thanks!

  • Jaxson

    Good tut, I’d be interested to know the target demographic as it seems like its not geared towards beginners.
    Especially as a first part of the series, the focus on field mixers is interesting..
    I agree with using a high quality field mixer, however I personally would rather have a high quality microphone going straight into the camera than a lower quality microphone going into a field mixer..
    Just seems a bit ‘cart before the horse’ to me, and whenever I have people ask me the best way to get better audio, ditching the onboard mic and getting an external mic close to a person’s mouth is my first piece of advice, with field mixer further down the list, especially for those who are a ‘one man band’.
    I’d even rather spend more money on a nicer mic and go into my M-Audio Microtrack than sacrifice mic for mixer.
    That said, I do agree with everything mentioned, and there is quite a benefit and having a field mixer. Whilst it would be one of the things I would mention, I’m just not sure it would be the first thing I’d be mentioning to someone who was looking to get better location sound.

    • http://hellostudios.net Jonah Guelzo
      Author

      Jaxson,
      I produced this tutorial with more of the movie enthusiast in mind… someone like myself who wanted to produce short films with a much higher quality soundtrack.

      If all you were producing is mainly commercials or interview style documentaries etc that does not consist of lots of dynamic dialog and more than two individuals talking at any given time, then running straight into a Panasonic HVX-200 or DVX-100 will be just fine… However, if you ever underwent the task of producing a higher level short film with lots of dynamic dialog sequences and possibly multiple talent speaking within a scene, you would quickly find that having a dedicated sound person with a field mixer would be enormously helpful and honestly just plain necessary.

      A field mixer allows the sound professional to maintain exclusive control over all the audio, while you let the camera operator only worry and concern himself over the picture. I hope this makes sense… I appreciate your comments.

      In future tutorials I will be talking about different types of microphone polar patterns, which mics to use in certain circumstances, mic placement/techniques etc.

      -Jonah Guelzo