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Filed under: Market Served •Music Composition •Podcasts •Studio •

Signal to Noise

I’m an audio guy who moved into the video world nearly 20 years ago. One of the first things I noticed was bad audio mixes (particularly in what was then called the “multimedia” world): the music could be as loud as the dialog; the sound effects were often disruptively loud as well. Oh - and the noise, hum, and room tone might also be loud. Multimedia didn’t necessarily mean people were mixing the media well…

Therefore, when teaching visually-oriented folks about the world of audio, I focused and expanded upon the time-honored audio specification of signal to noise: The item you want the viewer to focus on is the signal; anything that might distract from that message is potentially noise - and you usually want to maximize the contrast between the two. This basic concept applies to everything from choice in cables and signal levels (balanced +4, to get the signal as far as possible above the noise floor), mic placement (i.e. tieclips, shotguns, or even a PZM on the table instead of room mics or the one built into the camera), mixing (dialog above music; quite often music above sound effects; ride the levels to maximize who is supposed to be in the foreground at any given moment), and even graphic design (text sharp and readable; backgrounds blurred and slow-moving).

I’ve been writing about these subjects for over 15 years now, primarily from the point of view of a visually oriented person wishing to better understand audio. I’ve copied a selection of these articles - most focused on the use of sound in conjunction with visuals - which I consider to be timeless to the blog for their archive value; make sure you check them out and not be put off by the date. Lately, I’ve been focusing more on soundtrack composing using musical “loop” libraries, and recording for podcasts. Excuse me for posting sporadically from here forward; I have a pretty busy 2011 in front of me - but if learn anything important along the way, I promise to share it here.

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Please don’t be gone too long Chris - there are a ton of us who appreciate the training!

Posted by lightprismtv  on  01/11  at  06:47 AM

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Thanks. I am new to the site but come mostly from video training and trying to learn more of the audio side. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  11/15  at  05:09 PM

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