Nice video. And thank you for confirming something that had been driving me crazy. So, I’ve been working in audio post for a long time - mostly commercial work, talking head style videos, audiobooks, etc. Predominantly VO with not nearly as much production dialog. Talking with other engineers and reading places like Gearspace, you’d think no one ever touched a compressor and everything is done with the fader. I’d make myself nuts because I swore things sounded more compressed than people were letting on. It’s nice to know I haven’t lost my mind and these blockbuster movies and TV shows actually are being compressed.
Riding the fader live requires anticipating where the volume changes are or watching the waveforms and making a best guess at where you should be. I'd rather draw the fader moves exactly where I want them and be done with it. I don't compress individual dialog tracks unless there's something obnoxious going on. I'll ride the volume levels until I'm happy with the balance. Then I'll apply some gentle compression to the dialog bus just to tighten things up a tiny little bit. Having that really in-your-face compressed sound means having to do a lot of manual de-essing as the sibilance gets out of control as well as more noise reduction that's unnecessary. If everything is going to be loud and proud with tons of sound FX and dramatic/busy music, then yeah, we're smashing it. But for nature/leisure shows, infomercials, gentler is better.
Fantastic, as always, Thomas. Silly question that’s been on my mind - your faders are in Trim/Gold mode - is there a reason for that? Is it because in theory you’d be working to a dialogue edit which has track automation and you’re just wanting to make slight adjustments but preserve the architecture of the edit? Or am I thinking about that wrong? Essentially…why gold mode? 😂 thanks!
interesting to see you just leave a sound natural, just a pinch of EQ and a bit of dinamic correction that`s all, Almost a raw sound. I always use just nessery EQ+compressor tha same as you to tame a dinamics, but than I add coloring compression to rich with harmonics, to make it sound "bigger" and exciter to make it sparkle a bit
Yes, there are so many ways to mix. I turned to a more natural sound after working with a picture editor who kept making me reference their Avid output. The raw audio sounded better than my mix because I was doing too much. A very revealing moment in my career
I just noticed that the compressor and limiter are for 5.1 surround sound. Yikes. What does it even mean to compress audio that's coming from behind the listener? (granted the levels will tend to be too low and therefore below the 'threshold') 😎 🖋
Hey Thomas, I'm working on an animated short film. It was well recorded with mid-level gear. I cleaned up the audio a bit in iZotope and then did an A/B comparison with some shows. The difference was significant; it sounded more distant, and the voices had a lot of color. You mentioned in a previous video that "whatever sounds right is the best." So, what I did was add 3 to 4 dB of compression using a very fast attack, I think it was 0.05, and a fast release to avoid pumping. What are your thoughts on using very fast attack times ?
Hey Thomas, loving you’re tutorials. Do you use waves WLM to reference output levels ? I’m confused about going over or under the desired lufs when I’m mixing. When the level drops for to long it gives you an X to say you haven’t hit the target level. Is this something to be concerned with?
How are you dealing with the actors that only use their whisper voice? That trend that some actors do where all of their dialog is just above a whisper level. It would seem that would be terribly noisy when compressed and lifted.
Great video, I had been wondering about this. Are compressors and limiters typically used on the master bus for the final mix? What about track compressors for SFX, or a mix bus for summing ambiance, SFX and dialogue? Thanks for your videos.
No mix bus compression for the printmaster because your stems need to equal your final mix. Bus comps ok for stems though. And yes I have eq and comp on every track but I might not use either if the source is good
Hey Thomas. First of all, I'm sorry I haven't been on your live streams. I've been working on tuesdays. However, I will be on the Tuesday after thanksgiving. Your videos have been super helpful. So thank you for those. I am narrating audiobooks. And I am having a difficult time finding Clarity and presence in my recordings. I did switch from the sure sm7 DB to the rode nt1. That has helped a little bit, however I'm still suffering just a little bit. The only posted software I use is fabfilter. Any suggestions? All help is appreciated
It could just be your voice! My voice doesn’t have a lot of high frequencies. If it’s not there you can’t add it. I would try projecting more and making the performance more dynamic before reaching for a plugin
I think you said this is more for a cinematic or streamer mix. Would you use similar compressor settings for a web video release (e.g. TH-cam)? Maybe just more gain going into the compressor to engage it more? I feel like I have to compress dialogue quite a bit to reach loudness targets.
Nice video. And thank you for confirming something that had been driving me crazy. So, I’ve been working in audio post for a long time - mostly commercial work, talking head style videos, audiobooks, etc. Predominantly VO with not nearly as much production dialog. Talking with other engineers and reading places like Gearspace, you’d think no one ever touched a compressor and everything is done with the fader. I’d make myself nuts because I swore things sounded more compressed than people were letting on. It’s nice to know I haven’t lost my mind and these blockbuster movies and TV shows actually are being compressed.
Yes, every mixer does things differently
Riding dial with fader moves is the right way indeed. Thank you for this video.
Great explanation, Tom. Helpful as always!
Glad to help
Hi! Thank you for so detailed explaining
Thank you as always!!
Riding the fader live requires anticipating where the volume changes are or watching the waveforms and making a best guess at where you should be. I'd rather draw the fader moves exactly where I want them and be done with it.
I don't compress individual dialog tracks unless there's something obnoxious going on. I'll ride the volume levels until I'm happy with the balance. Then I'll apply some gentle compression to the dialog bus just to tighten things up a tiny little bit. Having that really in-your-face compressed sound means having to do a lot of manual de-essing as the sibilance gets out of control as well as more noise reduction that's unnecessary. If everything is going to be loud and proud with tons of sound FX and dramatic/busy music, then yeah, we're smashing it. But for nature/leisure shows, infomercials, gentler is better.
Fantastic, as always, Thomas. Silly question that’s been on my mind - your faders are in Trim/Gold mode - is there a reason for that? Is it because in theory you’d be working to a dialogue edit which has track automation and you’re just wanting to make slight adjustments but preserve the architecture of the edit? Or am I thinking about that wrong? Essentially…why gold mode? 😂 thanks!
I like my faders silent most of the time. Trim keeps em quiet till I need to make some moves
great! thanks!
interesting to see you just leave a sound natural, just a pinch of EQ and a bit of dinamic correction that`s all, Almost a raw sound. I always use just nessery EQ+compressor tha same as you to tame a dinamics, but than I add coloring compression to rich with harmonics, to make it sound "bigger" and exciter to make it sparkle a bit
Yes, there are so many ways to mix. I turned to a more natural sound after working with a picture editor who kept making me reference their Avid output. The raw audio sounded better than my mix because I was doing too much. A very revealing moment in my career
I just noticed that the compressor and limiter are for 5.1 surround sound. Yikes. What does it even mean to compress audio that's coming from behind the listener? (granted the levels will tend to be too low and therefore below the 'threshold') 😎 🖋
It means when dialogue plays out of any channel it’ll have the same compression
Hey Thomas, I'm working on an animated short film. It was well recorded with mid-level gear. I cleaned up the audio a bit in iZotope and then did an A/B comparison with some shows. The difference was significant; it sounded more distant, and the voices had a lot of color. You mentioned in a previous video that "whatever sounds right is the best." So, what I did was add 3 to 4 dB of compression using a very fast attack, I think it was 0.05, and a fast release to avoid pumping. What are your thoughts on using very fast attack times ?
I don’t like fast attack times because they kill consonants. But if it sounds good it is good!
Hey Thomas, loving you’re tutorials. Do you use waves WLM to reference output levels ? I’m confused about going over or under the desired lufs when I’m mixing. When the level drops for to long it gives you an X to say you haven’t hit the target level. Is this something to be concerned with?
It’s only an issue if the signal is necessary for the story. Check your mix on dim or small speakers for sequences like that.
How are you dealing with the actors that only use their whisper voice? That trend that some actors do where all of their dialog is just above a whisper level. It would seem that would be terribly noisy when compressed and lifted.
Yeah that’s annoying. Especially when there’s over the top music underneath
Great video, I had been wondering about this. Are compressors and limiters typically used on the master bus for the final mix? What about track compressors for SFX, or a mix bus for summing ambiance, SFX and dialogue? Thanks for your videos.
No mix bus compression for the printmaster because your stems need to equal your final mix. Bus comps ok for stems though. And yes I have eq and comp on every track but I might not use either if the source is good
Do you usually clean up clips (noise/plosives/sibilance-wise) before clip gain?
No. I want the background noise to be as consistent as possible
Hey Thomas. First of all, I'm sorry I haven't been on your live streams. I've been working on tuesdays. However, I will be on the Tuesday after thanksgiving. Your videos have been super helpful. So thank you for those.
I am narrating audiobooks. And I am having a difficult time finding Clarity and presence in my recordings. I did switch from the sure sm7 DB to the rode nt1. That has helped a little bit, however I'm still suffering just a little bit. The only posted software I use is fabfilter. Any suggestions?
All help is appreciated
It could just be your voice! My voice doesn’t have a lot of high frequencies. If it’s not there you can’t add it. I would try projecting more and making the performance more dynamic before reaching for a plugin
I think you said this is more for a cinematic or streamer mix. Would you use similar compressor settings for a web video release (e.g. TH-cam)? Maybe just more gain going into the compressor to engage it more? I feel like I have to compress dialogue quite a bit to reach loudness targets.
Yes more compression if it’s gonna be mostly seen on small devices
Do you think production mixers hit limiters hard so their waves files "look right"? do you think there is perceived pressure from post etc?
No idea! Some of these guys are of the mindset that louder is better, or “that’s just the way I’ve always done things so it must be right”