Production Sound Mixer Video Interviews

Underneath all this typing it's sometimes nice to have a few videos to just watch and listen. Some of the rarest to find in the masses and masses of rubbish on youtube are some interviews with sound mixers (there the guys with boom operators) and sound recordists (they do both)


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Heres another great one from Vimeo,

Quick Note About Digital Microphones...

As we know, or should by now, analogue microphones are based on the same concept as our ears, this is the most effective way to actually hear because sound waves have no formula when it comes to multiple sources and are all added together depending on so many different circumstances that it is impossible to hear digitally, unless we get a chip in our brains to convert it some how it is a long long way off....

So what are digital microphones?

These beauties like the Shoeps SuperCMIT are really the future. They still are not completely digital for reasons above but have a digital transducer instead of going all the way down analogue cabling to be converted. This allows the signal effectively at source to be effectively set up so then your mixer/recorder can do even more with it in terms of collecting that sweet sweet sound.

So keep a look out for them because they will slowly become the norm, after all your not recording onto DAT tape i bet.

Thanks,

Matt

Reverberation Time

A reverberant sound in any closed space like a room or concert hall diminishes as the sound energy is absorbed by multiple interactions with the surfaces of the room. Though the speed it takes to diminish depends on the variable of the rooms surfaces, for instance a reflective  or "live" room will take longer than a very absorbent or "dead" room. The time for the sound to completely die away will depend how loud the sound is at the start and how well the observer hears. 


The standard reverberation time has be established as the time it takes for a sound source to diminish by 60 dB below its original level. This is established at 60dB from testing in auditoriums where the loudest crescendo in an orchestra is 100dB and typical background noise for a music-making area being around 40dB. 60dB is also roughly the dynamic range for orchestral music.


In terms of time it depends on the rooms use. In a classroom you want the room to have low reverberation time to keep articulation clear and reduce build up from people talking. In an auditorium you probably want a bit more so you can really feel the music. As a general rule you wont get long reverberation time in a small room because of how fast the energy is bouncing off the surfaces and being absorbed a bit each time.


Reverberation time is just one part in creating pleasing environments for sound, you also need to consider the absorption in terms of frequencies.


Thanks,


Matt Price

Inverse Square Law Of Sound

Hello All,


This blog is on the inverse square law of sound which is a very important law that not many really know about (we will get onto that later) Sound waves propagate spherically and so distributed over and ever increasing surface of diameter at the front surface of the wave. The inverse square law tells us that every doubling of the distance from the sound source in a free field situation the sound pressure level will diminish by 6 decibels.


Why many may not know this law is that it is hard to get a free field situation such as an explosion of a bomb in mid air. Though not perfect for real life situations it is a very important guide to sound sources and how they diminish over distance. 


As an example lets say a person shouts at 70dB at 3 feet away from you in a room, at 6 feet it will be 62dB and at 12 feet 56dB and at 24 feet 50dB. This example on works as a guide not taking into account reflections from any walls of a room and any other sound in the room at the time of shouting.


Thanks,


Matt Price

World-a-lies-ing

Instead of you having to read everything like back in the 1800's i thought i would indulge all your senses to a quick video interview with Walter Murch. I will write up another blog that will go into more detail about different types of reflections of sound off surfaces and all of that jazz later today as i have just a few more days till im back on several shoots. Enjoy!

Manipulating sound until it seemed to be something that existed in real space. This refers to playing back existing recordings through a speaker or speakers in real-world acoustic situations, and recording that playback with microphones so that the new recording takes on the acoustic characteristics of the place it was "re-recorded." [via filmsound.org]

Thanks,

Matt Price

Q+A: What is difference between room tone, ambience, wild sound?

Hey,

These definitions vary depending who you are so this is ONLY a guide =].

Room Tone: This is the natural sound that a room "makes" from the natural reflections in the room. This is important for being able to patch over areas of sound so make sure you GET IT AFTER THE SCENE and hold your microphones ideally in the exact same locations.

Ambience: This is similar to room tone as it is the natural environment. However what makes it more specific is can be illustrated with an example of a scene in a restaurant where people are in the background, you will want to collect the general ambience (atmos) to again be able to patch over any gaps in post production.

Wild Sound: This can be any sound that doesn't need to be recorded in sync and is usually an object such as a fridge in a kitchen.

Feel i have missed anything? Then just comment =]

Thanks,

- Matt Price