Rob Nokes - Sound Seminar

Rob Nokes, a sound recordist and supervising sound editor gives a seminar on sound for film.
He answers the following questions:
What is the job of a sound editor?
In your job what audio is expected of you to deliver?
What happens if you steal sounds?
How do you prove copyright?
In your job what audio is expected of you to deliver?
What bit depth do you record at?
Detail the sound equipment you actually use.
How did you make monster sounds sound real?
What makes a good sound?
Why is it best to record clean?
Is it better to have actors do adr?
Is there another way to avoid adr?
What is 'smoothing' or EQ?
Do you process while you record?
Is it better to have actors do adr?
Is there another way to avoid adr?
What is 'smoothing' or EQ?
Do you process while you record?
What is a series?
How best to record gunshots?
How do you make a sound bigger?
How close to the sound or actor do you record?
Do you change your levels while recording?
How best do you cut background sounds in?
What mic technique would you use to record a room?
How can you control loud sounds?
What is your underwater technique?
How did you create your favourite sound?
Do you record everything?

stereo mic techniques

audiotuts has put together a concise round-up of some of the most commonly used stereo mic techniques.
There are nice little diagrams to help you set up your mics.

Audio Restoration

electronic musician has put together an overview of the most common forms of noise and other forms of damage that can occur within a recording. The article, as well as describing the form of damage, also explains some of the theory behind the methods used to remove/fix it.

This is probably a useful read for anyone who has some less than perfect recordings but is unable to re-record and so needs to 'clean up' their recordings.


Following on from the above article EM has a related article here which looks at how to use audio restoration software correctly to get the best results.
Techniques covered:
Broadband Noise - Spoken word & Music
Hum
Pops, Clicks & Crackles
Distortion

The article goes into pretty reasonable depth and contains advice from 'professionals'.

Some of the key points:

* Always preview before applying destructive processes. Make sure you have a backup copy of the audio.
* If your software allows it, pop the AR processing in and out to compare it with the unprocessed audio.
* Don't rely strictly on automatic settings, especially in broadband-noise reducers. Experiment with the threshold and reduction sliders (or equivalents) as well as parameters like attack and release. If you start hearing artifacts, back off on the amount of the effect.
* Try to find as long a sample of noise for the “learn” function as you can. It will help with the accuracy of the settings.
* Use the “noise-only” monitoring feature to check the part of the audio being removed by the software.
* In heavy noise situations, consider a multiband expander or an EQ boost set to the frequency range of the target audio to help bring it out.
* If the audio contains rhythmic material, make sure the AR software isn't degrading the transient response.
* If you don't have declipping software, try de-essing in the area of 2 kHz (and higher) to minimize the distortion artifacts of clipped audio on spoken-word tracks.
* When editing out an anomaly from a file being used in a soundtrack situation, don't delete audio, or you'll change the timing. Eliminate it by reducing level instead.
* Don't edit out time when cleaning up a video soundtrack, or you'll likely affect the sync. Use attenuation to get rid of glitches instead.

guitar sound without an amp

audiotuts has a brief tutorial on how to create thick and crunchy sounding guitars without an amplifier.
In essence you simply use some form of amp-modelling software, some double tracking and a bit of reverb.
Fairly basic stuff really, but maybe worth a quick read for ideas.

Homemade parabolic microphone

Make has an excellent video tutorial on how to make your own parabolic microphone on the cheap using an umbrella.
It looks pretty simple, and seems to work fairly effectively.

This would be a useful addition to any field recording kit.



Umbrella Parabolic Microphone - video powered by Metacafe