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Topic:
The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
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keithabbott
Registered:
Aug '98
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Date Posted:
7/6/06 10:15am
Subject:
The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
- Date Edited:
7/6/06 10:29am (3 edits total)
Edited By:
keithabbott
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It's baaaack!!! I need this resource just as much as you guys so I've updated the old thread and brought it back. Enjoy!
Sound Effects Sites
Sonomic
The Sound Bunker
sound-effects-library.com
Sound Dogs
Findsounds
ljudo
More effects link sites
SoundRangers
Audio Network PLC
Sound Ideas
PSP VintageWarmer & other plugins
QSound
Hyperism & other plugins
Noise Reduction 2.0
The Wilhelm Scream
Cylon Effects
Darth Vader Voice Changer
How To Links
Sound Effects - The Art of Noise
The Art and Analyses of Film Sound
How to design Stormtrooper effects
How to add surround sound
How to extract sound effects from Jedi Outcast
Saber audio effects
How to make Jabba the Hutt sounds
Bullet Time sound effects
Helpful Tips For Voice-Overs
How to make Vader's voice effect
Humming Issues
How to extract sound files from the game Knights of the Republic
SOUND
The whine of a Tie fighter, the pulse of a blaster and the distinctive hum of a lightsaber are every bit as important to Star Wars' identity as The Force, 1138 and "I've got a bad feeling about this."
How do you get these sounds into your own fanfilm? In addition to these staple sound effects, how can you effectively record your own sounds? Check out some of the resources below....
SOUND FX ON THE WEB
The fastest and easiest way to get Star Wars sounds into your own film is to download the sounds files from web libraries. Most sounds are available in WAV format, which is compatible with virtually every video editing software package in use today.
You can start by browsing TFN's own libraries:
TF.N Theater Sound FX Library
TF.N's Multimedia Audio Library
There are also a few privately maintained sounds libraries listed in the Amateur Movie Portal's Sound Libraries Page.
VIDEO GAME EXTRACTION
Another excellent resource for sounds can be found in video games!
Many library sites overlook the subtle sounds of footsteps, switches, alarms, etc. These can be found in the support files of video games along with engines, numerous blasters, saber effects, droids and even dialog. Also, many sounds used in the LucasArts games are first generation digital copies of the isolated sound fx used in the original movies.
You don't even have to buy the games! LucasArts has free, downloadable demos of all of their most popular games. These demos include most of the sounds. Here are instructions for getting sounds from two specific games. (These instructions work on both the full and demo versions)
Jedi Outcast
The sounds for JO are even easier to extract.
After installing the game, locate a file called "assets0.pk3".
This file can be expanded with PkZip or WinZip
RECORDING YOUR OWN
Recording you own sounds can be very satisfying, (or frustrating), depending own your interests. As with anything, be prepared to go through LOTS of practice before you're able to consistently get the results that you are after.
As a very interesting tangent, take a look at this page that details how Ben Burtt collected and created the many sounds of Star Wars.
Recording Environment
Before you even make a sound, let alone record it, make sure to try and get the best environment possible. Basically what you’re after is a place with little, to no, ambient or outside noise (there is little that kills the illusion of a galaxy far, far away than the sound of a passing airplane, air-conditioner vent or the sound of the nightly news coming from the next room.) This is the really the most difficult thing to control. There is very little besides distance and/or concrete that actually blocks out sound. (Basements are a good place to start.)
The next thing to watch out for is reverb or echo. Obviously, something like a bathroom will have lots, but there is almost always some echo in most rooms, especially of all the walls and floor are hard. (mmm, sounds like the basement again) We are so used to this sound day to day, you may not notice the echo, but it will stand out if you composite your actor's conversation into an outdoor setting. Ideally, you would put acoustic foam on the wall to deaden the echo, but it can get expensive fast. For fanfilming, you can always start with some carpeting and hanging cloth or blankets on the walls.
Recording Equipment
There is as much variety in audio and recording equipment as there is in video. To qualify the information below, you should know that I'm not an expert. Until some one comes in here knowing audio gear the way ExFilms knows lights, this little summary will have to do.
Now, I was a musician well before getting into fan films, and have been into audio recording for as long as I can remember. Like many musicians, (especially keyboardists like me), I built my own recording studio along the way, including a couple 16 channel mixers, multitrack digital recorders, a pile of microphones and a rack load of outboard effects gear. Even with all this at my disposal, almost all of the audio for my own film has been recorded using the mics built into a ZR25 miniDV camcorder.
You can simply use the mics on your camera. When you do, you generally get stereo sound, pre-synced to your action, on the same media as your video. If you're just starting out, this is a great option. It's very easy to work with, and there is no extra setup. There are a few drawbacks, though.
- Camera sounds: Tape drive and zoom motor sounds can sometimes get picked up by the camera mic.
- Distance from mic: If your camera is set too far away from a conversation, the mics won't be able to pick up the lines clearly.
- Frequency Range: Many camera mics do not have the range to pick up extremely hi or low frequencies the way that specialized mics do.
To overcome these issues, keep your camera as close as possible to your subjects and do everything you can to eliminate all background noise and echoes. This is critical when you're recording conversations. You’re likely to still have some ambient noise or even camera sounds, but these can be easily masked with the musical score and background noises such as engine hums and computers.
If you choose to add any piece of audio equipment, get a condenser mic (also called "shotgun" microphone) These have a wide dynamic range and are generally good at filtering out ambient noises by collecting sound from a focused area in front of the microphone. These come in mono, and stereo models. You can usually connect these directly to your camera's mic input, but you may need an adapter. Pro audio gear usually uses an XLR audio connection rather than the 1/8" port you find on most consumer cameras. Don’t forget to check with your camera manufacturer to see if they make any condenser mic specifically designed for your camera.
Finally, there is the question of additional outboard gear and recorders. (i.e. not in the camera)
On a pro set, there is generally a crew dedicated to sound and running separate audio recorders. Even a small interview crew usually includes an audio tech. If you have access to that kind of personnel, go for it. Having even one person totally focused on the sound quality is a big step forward vs. the camera guy thinking about both sound and photography. You must be careful to coordinate between the video and audio recording otherwise putting the two back together again will be a nightmare. If you are getting outboard gear, in addition to a mic, good headphones and the recorder of your choice, there is one additional unit that should be included on your list:
A Compressor/Limiter: These things can be a life saver. This device will automatically adjust the level of you signal from the mic depending on how loud the incoming sound is. ("compressing" the dynamic range). When your character whispers, the compressor adds gain. When your character shouts, the compressor will reduce the volume to limit swings in your sound level. Very cool stuff.
Software
Most video editors have basic sound handling abilities, but they often lack the controls needed to sweeten your sound, such as EQ, compression. There are several programs available, but one of the best is available for FREE!! (do you get the idea that I like free stuff?)
Digidesign has a full line of pro hardware and software for the multimedia industry. The demo version of their ProTools software is loaded with features. It's limited to 8 tracks, which is plenty for fanfilm use.
To download the demo, go to the Protools Free page at Digidesign.
Additional sound editing applications are listed in the AMP's Audio Software Page.
Additional Resourses
There are lots of other sound related resourses on the web. A few tutorials are available at the Amateur Movie Portal.
Don't forget the ever valuable Google search engine!
STRIPE YOUR TAPES... ALWAYS
Set your camera to VTR mode and record blank across the entire tape from start to finish... this will lay down one continuous timecode track on the whole tape... and when logging clips, you will have an absolute reference standard for what their time position is on the tape in hours, minutes, seconds and frames.
When recording video/audio on a striped tape... do NOT start recording at the beginning of the tape... instead lead with about five seconds, to prevent yourself from recording OVER the timecode and causing it to "skip"... the camera needs a few seconds to "grab" the existing timecode. Once it does so, it will continue recording using the existing timecode reference, rather than starting again at 00:00:00:00 on your new clip.
Also, I often create about 20 seconds of color bars in premiere, and record them to the tape... then I back up on the tape about 10 seconds, to grab timecode, and start recording blank from 00:00:10:00... this way I also have NTSC color bars to calibrate the color balance of each of my tapes to one reference standard in case there is any variance at all. In Adobe Premiere, this enables you to take full advantage of logging and batch capturing.
Secondly, to take full advantage of this singular timecode reference, as PadawanNick posted above, it's a good idea to record your audio to the MiniDV cassette and not an offline tape... unless you happen to have a deck that can generate SMPTE timecode to compensate for the variance in tape speed between that deck and your MiniDV camera.
One possible solution is to connect your mic in port on your camera to a small multichannel mixer, and connect all the mikes to that. If you have a two mic setup, for easy stereo channelization, just pan the mic on your "stage left" to the L channel on the mixer, and the mic on "stage right" to the R channel... if you don't have a mixer, get a splitter that splits a stereo port into L and R mono ports...
IMPORTANT: If you use a splitter instead of a portable mixer... make sure your two outputs aren't simply duplicates of each other... be sure to find a splitter that separates the L and R mono inputs... so your two mics use the L and R audio channels separately. Then, you can mess around with the pan dynamically in your video/audio editing program with two clean and separate channelized audio tracks.
One more thing... good idea to, if you can afford it, get a clapboard slate... for the same reason the pro's do... to mark scenes and create a visual reference point to which you can synch the audio... useful for offline audio insertion.
The markerboard slates are the new thing, as opposed to chalkboard... they're made out of plexiglass usually, and are kind of pricy... about $50-60.
The Writer's Store has one for $60.
Panavision Panastore has one for $50 (EDIT: Their site says $42, but I called the NY Panastore to get a current figure.)... at this site you will have to click on the Panavision New York link to see the Panastore catalog... but you may have to call New York, Los Angeles and Hollywood offices to see who has one in stock. They can ship by FedEx overnight if you're in a hurry.
Sometimes, you might do offline audio insertion simply because of a multicamera setup... shooting with several cameras, but recoding the audio to one source. This is where timecode becomes really critical. It's also critical for foley (sound fx), scoring using specific musical cues synched to actions, and ADR (automatic dialogue replacement).
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Apparently, there is a new "scumm" utility to extract from the "Battle Front" game. I don't know if it does audio.
From:
http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=136083
says:
Hi!
I wrote a little utility to view and extract all background images, room objects, costumes, animations and fonts from most of the LucasFilm/LucasArts games. It is still in beta version, but maybe someone is interested. Some stuff can of course also be achieved using the various editions of ScummRev, but I wanted to have one handy tool just for this purpose.
You can download my LucasRipper from this page:
http://www.tobybear.de/stuff.htm
-----signature-----
Producer, Rise of Nobility: http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/riseofnobility.html Sound Engineer: Eclipse SE, Return of Pink Five volumes 2-3, Star Wars: A Rising Threat Personal: http://www.myspace.com/keithabbott TK1210, Garrison Tyranus
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ObiJuan2080
Registered:
Jan '04
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Date Posted:
7/6/06 10:16am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
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Much needed, thank you kindly Keith.
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Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. NEW SITE: http://www.mindscapefilms.net http://www.sabercomp.com "Idiots: It's a world-wide phenomenon" - Master_Cormyn
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TrowaGP02a
Registered:
Dec '04
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Date Posted:
7/6/06 10:17am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
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Wow you read all that in 1 minute 
-----signature-----
There must be some way out of here.
Said the Joker to the Thief.
There's too much confusion here.
I can't get no relief.
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ObiJuan2080
Registered:
Jan '04
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Date Posted:
7/6/06 10:37am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
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No. Sound is just something I'm not all that good with. Soon as I saw the title of the thread and who wrote it, I just had to thank him.
-----signature-----
Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. NEW SITE: http://www.mindscapefilms.net http://www.sabercomp.com "Idiots: It's a world-wide phenomenon" - Master_Cormyn
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keithabbott
Registered:
Aug '98
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Date Posted:
7/6/06 10:38am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
- Date Edited:
7/6/06 10:38am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
keithabbott
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You're welcome ObiJuan.  Anyone can feel free to post pertinent links and share information.
-----signature-----
Producer, Rise of Nobility: http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/riseofnobility.html Sound Engineer: Eclipse SE, Return of Pink Five volumes 2-3, Star Wars: A Rising Threat Personal: http://www.myspace.com/keithabbott TK1210, Garrison Tyranus
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YodaSmeagol
Registered:
Mar '05
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Date Posted:
7/6/06 10:58am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
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I have a few bits of advice to contribute here.
For ADR and effects recording: If you cannot find anywhere that is totally silent or perfect for recordeing, then just try to get a recording from a position that is as close as you can get to the original camera, or in the same location. Example: Footage is filmed of you in the garage, but the audio doesn't come out. You can then go back into the garage, set the camera up right where it was, and stand right where you were in the original take and give a good dialogue performance. Then, when you edit this ADR in the movie, it will sound natural to the environment, rather than a line recorded in the bathroom 3 inches from the camera.
Also, if you want a clapper at a cheap price...
Buy Guesstures!
It is a board-type game that comes with a nice, plastic clapper that should be decent enough for your purposes!
-----signature-----
Not if anything to say about it, I have! My precious. If your friends were all named Cliff would you jump off them? Like cloning special effects tests? Watch my Obi vs. Greivous remake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZAuPA7QdlE
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keithabbott
Registered:
Aug '98
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Date Posted:
7/7/06 8:31am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
- Date Edited:
7/7/06 8:34am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
keithabbott
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I've got a question for you guys. Anyone know if there's a set of Ewok or Wookie walla in any of those zipped files at the bunker?
-----signature-----
Producer, Rise of Nobility: http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/riseofnobility.html Sound Engineer: Eclipse SE, Return of Pink Five volumes 2-3, Star Wars: A Rising Threat Personal: http://www.myspace.com/keithabbott TK1210, Garrison Tyranus
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VaporTrail
Registered:
May '02
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Date Posted:
7/7/06 8:37am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
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There's one way to find out..
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keithabbott
Registered:
Aug '98
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Date Posted:
7/7/06 8:38am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
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Yeah download everyone of them. Would rather not have to do that if at all possible.
-----signature-----
Producer, Rise of Nobility: http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/riseofnobility.html Sound Engineer: Eclipse SE, Return of Pink Five volumes 2-3, Star Wars: A Rising Threat Personal: http://www.myspace.com/keithabbott TK1210, Garrison Tyranus
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keithabbott
Registered:
Aug '98
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Date Posted:
7/15/06 4:09am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
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The Free Sound Project
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Producer, Rise of Nobility: http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/riseofnobility.html Sound Engineer: Eclipse SE, Return of Pink Five volumes 2-3, Star Wars: A Rising Threat Personal: http://www.myspace.com/keithabbott TK1210, Garrison Tyranus
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keithabbott
Registered:
Aug '98
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Date Posted:
7/18/06 5:27am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
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Music Composition programs
-----signature-----
Producer, Rise of Nobility: http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/riseofnobility.html Sound Engineer: Eclipse SE, Return of Pink Five volumes 2-3, Star Wars: A Rising Threat Personal: http://www.myspace.com/keithabbott TK1210, Garrison Tyranus
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keithabbott
Registered:
Aug '98
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Date Posted:
7/21/06 6:56am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
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Bump for those who look but cannot find.
-----signature-----
Producer, Rise of Nobility: http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/riseofnobility.html Sound Engineer: Eclipse SE, Return of Pink Five volumes 2-3, Star Wars: A Rising Threat Personal: http://www.myspace.com/keithabbott TK1210, Garrison Tyranus
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keithabbott
Registered:
Aug '98
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Date Posted:
9/10/06 6:34am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
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bump
-----signature-----
Producer, Rise of Nobility: http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/riseofnobility.html Sound Engineer: Eclipse SE, Return of Pink Five volumes 2-3, Star Wars: A Rising Threat Personal: http://www.myspace.com/keithabbott TK1210, Garrison Tyranus
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Shadow_of_Evil
Registered:
Nov '01
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Date Posted:
9/10/06 6:54am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
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STICKY!
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I love climbing, because it feels so good when I stop....
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DVeditor
Title: Evil Overlord (manager)
Fan Films & Icons
Registered:
Dec '01
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Date Posted:
9/12/06 12:08am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
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I would if I could - it's at the top of the list in the resource thread. 
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keithabbott
Registered:
Aug '98
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Date Posted:
10/14/06 4:54am
Subject:
RE: The official how-to Audio & Effects Thread (newly updated)
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More VST Plugins: http://www.sonicspot.com/effects-other.html
-----signature-----
Producer, Rise of Nobility: http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/riseofnobility.html Sound Engineer: Eclipse SE, Return of Pink Five volumes 2-3, Star Wars: A Rising Threat Personal: http://www.myspace.com/keithabbott TK1210, Garrison Tyranus
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