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Audio / Sounds / FX levels in cinema and broadcast


JazzBox
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Ciao!
I'm going to shoot and edit a short: I normally just shoot music video so, no audio other then the track and maybe some spare FX here and there

How would you set the average and pick levels of dialogues, soundtrack, FX, foley etc...?

I'm a music recording engineer and I often record voice-over and ADR for clients, but I give them the tracks mastered and I don't know how high or low they use them in their editing software.

Could you please me suggest a good starting point for a nice broadcast safe audio level? 
Is it possible to use a limiter on the "master fader" of the editing software as we do during mastering? Or there are some other "rules" in video's world? 

Thank you very much for your advices :)

 

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Great question. I will enjoy seeing other responses too, but here is my experience. First, I don't know that there is a standard, it seems. Watch Netflix, audio levels are all over the place from one show to the other. Same with DVD's. Same with TV. And movies/shows can even be extremely different from one minute to the next in the same scene.

I worked on a TV show for a short period of time and we had to mix levels at around -6 to -12 db. So that's about where I start. However, I also throw on a movie into the same audio system and environment and somewhat match. That is, I know, extremely subjective. So I kind of split the difference between -6db and my ears. 

Hopefully someone else chimes in with better info. But if not maybe my response will help.

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Sent you a mail mate outlining the madness :)

Sadly still no fully unified delivery method for territories and TV/Film/Online etc.

I will send you the specs and talk you through the process when you find out where the piece is going to be delivered.

Even in this age of file delivery I'm just about to pop a mix onto SR for the BBC this afternoon, so I still have to check every project in case they've moved the goalposts yet again, so it can be confusing!

 

 

 

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I can also provide Pro Tools templates for generating all your deliverables if anyone mixes on that - could knock other variations up too for Logic / Cubase / Nuendo et al too.

I'll look at Premiere this weekend and see what's possible on that - I know stuff like TOWIE etc is mixed in AVID by the onliner, so can help there too, as is same engine and plugins as Pro Tools essentially. There are great plugins such as lmcorrect by Nugen (lovely chaps) that will take you mix and legalise it essentially to meet loudness requirements for all the formats - take a peek.

http://www.nugenaudio.com/lm-correct-loudness-correction-automatic-quick-fix-plugin-aax-au-vst_19

Also Izotope are releasing a similar solution, AFIAK it's not quite out yet.

Another handy tool, if time is of the essence, or you need a quick balance done is Waverider - essentially mixes for you to give you a starting point to reach your required loudness requirements.

http://quietart.co.nz/

Handy for providing a nice leveled dialogue premix or smoothing music cues etc. and far less intrusive than compression and limiting.

Loudness cheat sheet is in progress with all the links to metering etc. but for now I need a beer!

 

 

 

 

 

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