Hello all and welcome to the Post Production Sound tutorial. My goal is to expand on all 18 points of the workflow listed above keeping in mind that some of you have limited knowledge of the subject. This means that the overriding principle guiding my approach is to discuss concepts/techniques that have a PRACTICAL use and to not get involved in, or encourage tedious discussions about, the minutiae of theory or one product's merit over another. I will make every effort to remain gear/software agnostic so that whatever we cover here can be implemented on whatever gear/software the reader prefers or has access to. However, when I do upload a video to emphasize or demonstrate a point, I will necessarily have to use the tools (i.e. software/gear) I have at my disposal; in no way should this be taken as an endorsement of the tool being employed.

The 18 points of the workflow above will take time to write about and elaborate on. My aim is to update each item on the list as the core overview of the subject is written and follow up with posts containing videos/illustrations/samples to illustrate those points I think might be more readily grasped by visual demonstration. I plan to cover the subject in the order of the workflow so would ask that you refrain from asking questions about topics not yet covered as I do not want the thread to bounce back and forth and becoming a chaotic mess; it will be much easier if the conversation progresses linearly relative to the workflow.

A note about posting etiquette: Should anyone have a disagreement with any of the content of my posts, please present your opposing view and supporting arguments in a rational and civil manner; don't jump into the conversation with guns blazing. This has happened in the past and I find this behaviour unproductive and unnecessarily hostile, doing nothing to advance our collective knowledge base. I have no issues being challenged and will happily modify the wiki linked to in the OP to add important new info/methods or to rectify my errors. That being said, don't expect me to answer or address your post if it is rude or obnoxious in tone and/or spirit. The wiki link will always contain the latest updated version of the tutorial since the timeframe to edit posts in this thread is only 24 hours.

OK, let's get this ball rolling. Have fun learning, and fire away any and all questions as topics start to populate. Don't forget that I'm doing this on my spare time and simply cannot dedicate the time required to cover each section in a thorough and thoughtful manner within a short period of time. I strongly encourage those of you working in the industry or with relevant knowledge/experience to contribute to this thread to enrich its content and refine the information base with your expertise - I'm looking forward to learning myself as this tutorial evolves.

Cheers!

Looking forward to it!

Good list. The one thing I don't see is the dialogue re-recording and editing. In narrative films and series there's often a dedicated dialogue editor who finds the best sounding takes for various lines and makes them work together. The dialogue editor then suggests lines for ADR/looping.

Thanks, @spacewig !

I guess I would add open source software to the list since if you use commercial software it does not generally speaking include a commercial license. It gets very complicated if you are using loops, samples, EQ, algorithms, convolution, impulses, NR, mixing, etc., etc.

You have to read the license carefully for each and every aspect of each software program. Sometimes a single program contains many licenses. Most of these allow you to use the software, but not commercially. It is a personal use license. By using open source software, you then are free to use the resulting video commercially.

@DrDave

Small addition, I think it is also not really proper place for discussion.

For this reason, I recommend using Audacity or similar products for your workflow.

I recommend to ignore such recommendations and use best tool the job, not the open source one. If you are a company single call to lawyer and sending him license text will get rid of all strange ideas.

As I said, I never really heard anything you talk about. Who knows, may be somewhere it exist.

Worth checking some of Michael Coleman's videos

1) The gear list above is the minimum you need in your sound kit to properly record audio for your narrative film project, assuming your standards exceed what your camera’s internal mic can provide. The reasons have less to do with the quality of your camera’s internal mics than the fact that they are static, i.e. fixed to the camera, and not terribly directional. The problem this creates will become obvious once we cover recording levels.

Do you need a preamp, a recorder, or both? This all depends on whether or not you plan on recording the audio to camera, or to an external recorder. If you record straight to camera (BMCC/PC/PCC, GH4, etc) then you obviate the need for an external recorder and the need to sync in post, making it the most economical option, time and cost wise, as all you need is an external preamp to amplify your mic signal to line level [excellent preamps exist to achieve this such as Sound Devices mix-pre, Juicedlink, etc] and your audio will be perfectly synced to your footage.

If you are recording to an external recorder (or both) then you will need a recorder, and, if the recorder’s built-in preamps are not sufficiently quiet, an additional preamp. Ideally you want an all-in-one device [Sound Devices 702, Fostex FR-2, Tascam DR-680] as this reduces the overall footprint of your recording setup by half (i.e. preamp, batteries, cables, bags).

Your microphone clip MUST be shock-mount. A mic used handheld or with a standard clip will transfer all movements, vibrations, thumps, slides, etc... to your microphone capsule resulting in low frequency rumble and other noise pollution over your precious dialogue which is an absolute pain to remove in post. Neglect of this simple attachment will incur a steep time penalty further down the production pipeline.

Make sure you have plenty of spare batteries charged and ready to be swapped out when necessary. Have enough to cover 12 hours of recording with phantom power turned on at all inputs. The only penalty of having too many batteries is a little extra weight; not enough stops production dead in its tracks (npi) and has everyone on set wondering who hired the unprofessional bozo to handle recording duties.

Cans: The most important aspect of your monitoring earphones is they MUST BE CLOSED-BACK. Open-back cans will bleed sound onto the set, which can be a distraction and might be picked up by your boom/lav mics. Avoid at all costs.

3) A lot of people neglect to do this. But please, check your gear BEFORE you arrive on set, preferably some time during store hours the day PRIOR to the shoot. Wire it up and record a minute of yourself talking, singing, farting, etc. Something’s not working? You’ve got a few hours to troubleshoot then buy/rent/borrow/steal the items necessary to resolve your issues. Showing up to a set with everyone eager to start filming but forced to wait while you try to find out why you’re not getting a signal guarantees you get schwartz-listed.

5) Find out where -20db is on your recorder/preamp’s sound level meter. If that spot is not already clearly indicated (and it usually is) make your own mark using whatever means necessary (tape, marker, scratch). Turn all your gain settings to zero, plug in your microphone (switch on phantom power if required) and gradually increase the gain (microphone volume) so that the average sound level displayed on the meter hits that mark (-20db). Why? Headroom and noise.

Headroom, in this context, is the amount of extra loudness a signal can have before it starts clipping. In digital audio, clipping (distortion) occurs when the signal coming into the recorder exceeds 0dbfs, (zero decibel full scale). Clipping sounds awful, is just about impossible to fix, so must be avoided. How do you know your signal is close to clipping? Look at your meter, that's what it's there for. If the average level of two people speaking (John and Jane in a cafe) is -20db on your meter, you then have almost 20db’s of headroom (~4x the perceived loudness) your recording device can handle before the signal clips, i.e. Jane throws steaming coffee into John’s face, John jumps up, grabs his face and starts screaming. Please remember this: headroom is what YOU decide it will be. When you record with an average of -20db, you are giving yourself 20db of safety in case your actors become louder. You can choose an average of -12db, but if your actor really gets into his/her part and starts yelling his/her lines or moves closer to the mic, your signal might clip = ruined take. Further, you’ll never have a final mix with an average loudness of -12db, so what would be the point. Why not just record everything at -40db, you ask, and never worry about it?

Noise. And here we’re not talking about background (BG) noise but the noise inherent to your recorder (and all electronic devices). This noise, often referred to as self-noise/noise-floor/signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), is typically quite low but if the dialogue you record is too low (i.e. under -25db), when you raise the level back up during post you’ll also be raising the volume of your recorder’s self-noise by an equal amount. Dialogue recorded at an average loudness of -40db then raised to -20db in post will have a noise floor 20db (around 4 times) louder than it would be if the recordings were made at the -20db target level to begin with. Your tracks will probably be plagued by an audible hissing that will be a pain in the ass to minimize.

To summarize: You want to record dialogue at a level loud enough to mask your equipments’ self-noise, but not so loud as to breach the clipping point = distorted audio. Make -20db your target average recording level. Additionally, you’ll appreciate the benefit of this when you mix your tracks using the EBU R128 standard.

7) Just as objects get smaller as they move away from the camera, sound will appear quieter as the source of the sound moves away from listener, i.e. the camera. When watching a scene with multiple shots, you’ll notice the level of the dialogue from the close-up shots will always be louder and drier than the level of the dialogue spoken from a character relatively further away from the camera (as in a wide shot). This is how we experience sound in reality. A person talking to you from another room will not sound as proximate as someone talking to you from a foot away. So don’t be afraid of allowing some loss in loudness from a character moving away from the camera or whose position within the frame implies a distance further to the listener than alternate shots (not takes) of the same scene. What is much more important is intelligibility, i.e. that the dialogue be clear enough for the words to be understood. How do we achieve this If we cannot get the mic close to the actors for logistical/optical reasons?