This last week I have been working really hard on a sound replacement project with my project partner Carissa and this evening we finally recorded all the sounds that we needed. We completed our ADR recording a few days ago and unfortunately had to re-record some things as there was spill in the background coming from the head phones. This post will high light the struggles of recording ADR and foley and some of the production techniques we used and researched to make the sounds.
Firstly, I think we were a bit ambitious with out ability to recreated the voices of the other mother and Coraline. This session turned out to be epic as I thought we would get it done easily. My bad. We did have a plan though to firstly pick what type of microphone would work best of the voice acting. The voice of 'The Other Mother" is very sound and aggressive sounding. To be honest I knew I was going to have to yell pretty much to get the right tone. I thought that using a large diaphragm condenser would be one of the best bets to even out the tone of the sound. I looked up the best microphones for recording ADR that was loud. I found that most people said that is was the acting technique used. Not getting to close to the microphone is essential. So that was a given. I found a lot of people on forums recording for horror movies and needed techniques for both recording and performance to stop distortion (voice over, 2018). The thing that most of the websites said was to try screaming at the microphone off axis. This makes sense and also captures room ambience and voice tone in a different way. This technique can be used with any condenser microphones. I defiantly gave this ago while performing the role of the "other mother" as we were having trouble initially with distortion (ahjteam, 2012)
I looked up my favourite microphones to used to record vocals such as the NT2A to see how people had used them for ADR. This video shows RODE studios using the NT2A as an ADR microphone. They set the polar pattern to cardioid and disabled the filters so that the signal was clean to begin with.
Having done no ADR recording before I was nervous to bench out and use other microphones that I hadn't tried. I read up a lot of about people using Sennhiser MKH416. I was thinking along the lines of 'oh I'm in a studio I can't use a shot gun mic for dialogue recording' But in fact apparently the opposite. We decided to try this microphone for the ADR as well. I was nervous about setting it up right in the studio and I found this method (Hibbard, 2014).
This seemed easy enough top replicate and it was. However when I yelled my line the sound was not as clear as what we would have liked. This is why people use shot gun microphone for ADR because it does capture the room sound a fair bit and makes the dialogue sound more natural. This is hard for our situation as the animation we are replacing the sound for is very much manipulated in post I thought it would be best to capture a very clean and clear sound. However I can understand why using this technique for a voice over of a movie or documentary would be ideal.
I did some research into just how you can use a condenser microphone for ADR and some of the benefits that it has. The main down fall is the the dialogue then becomes very clean. This wasn't too much of an issue for us as the tone of the voices we used were loud and scratchy anyway. We knew that we would need to use other production techniques to create reverb as the space the animation is set in in a fantasy environment. Although we could have replicated some of the ambience in the scene which appears to be set in a white void with a clanky metal spiderweb in it, it would have been hard to find the setting for it. It is easy to find echoey spaces such as stair wells, large rooms but it is hard to capture dialogue in these spaces. We are going to use a long river on the vocals when where are in the spider web and then to re create the space of the tunnel use a different EQ and and compression. This combination of effects should create a dampened sound to replicate the cloth like surface of the tunnel.
This video is what we used as our studio production technique for recording ADR with a condenser microphone. The guy in this video demonstrates the different tones of voice while performing dialogue. The techniques of performing ARD are very different between cardio and commencer microphones.
We tested the Beyerdynamic M88 as we thought that we would try a cardioid microphone in the mix. This microphone is great for capturing natural ambience and a clean sound. however needs to be shouted at off axis to get the best tone. This was workable in the studio I was able to get the clearest sound of the this mic that was well rounded and not too tinny sounding which is the issue I thought that we would have. However the sound was clean and clear even when shouting. The performance aspect also played a part in this. Microphone picks up sound sources best from this front as the polar pattern is directional. However can also be used off axis for louder dialogue to avoid plosives. We had to use the off axis technique for a few of the lines in this scene. The most obvious of these is for the deep breaths that the Coraline takes. For this Carissa had to breath juts below the front of the microphone tip to achieve the clearest but least bassey sounding breaths.
This is a technique used for discovering what microphone will be the best for recording yelling dialogue. After doing a fair bit of research about this the most helpful video I could find was
So with out further ado here is how you go about a microphone shoot out for shouting ADR:
1. work out how many characters you need to record and if they will need different microphones. There is a lot of different
2 decide if you will record on location or in a studio. This depends on the tone you are trying to replicate. There is of course ways to replicate outdoor environments through the use of processing techniques.
3. pick the microphones you wish to try in your shoot out. Do research regarding what you are trying to capture and what other people have used that has worked. It is also a great idea to try microphones you think might work and anything you want to try. This is mostly regarding a studio recording ADR recording. The main microphone used for location dialogue is a shot gun mic. However if you were after a particular sound you could take any mic to the location with a portable recorder and mixer!
4. When in the studio set the microphones up side by side all plugged into different channels. a good number of microphones to test its between 4-7.
5. once set up you are able to start your shoot out. At this stage you will hav picked a line for your voice actor to say into the microphone in character. you may wish for the to pick two or three. One loud, one soft and one with plosive sounds. This will give you a confident shoot out so you are able to hear exactly what they will sound like at the different volumes.
6. After testing the gain stage of the mics into the desk you are able to record your first take. Allow the voice actor to say their line a few times to get used to the sound and record a few takes. If there is any distortion or pops. Ask the actor to speak off axis or slightly further from the microphones to get the best tone.
7. repeat this technique for all the microphones.
8. After you have all the takes you can now decided which microphone was creating the best sound you were looking for. You may want to mix the takes a little bit or add some processing depending of the environment you are trying to achieve.
Picking which microphone you want to use is hard when you are trying something different or recording someone with a unique voice. This is the best way to test what will work and will only take about an hour.
After following this process we picked the Beyerdynamic M88 for the dialogue replacement. We found that it was the most robust sounding even for the quieter lines. It also was not as treble sounding and had little sibilance resonation. Here is a link to the other 4 microphones take we tried out. It also complimented the tone of the 'Other Mother' and we have the last trouble with clipping for this loud line also.
I will be uploading a post this week about the foley side to the production and how we went about making the fantasy environment come alive with a score, FX and foley.
REFERENCES:
Everything You Need to Know About ADR (and Didn't Know to Ask). (2019). Retrieved from https://blog.frame.io/2018/06/11/adr-primer/
How to Use a Condenser Mic for Voice Overs and ADR!. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHWOGjK3PR0&t=542s
Productions, C. ADR Additional Dialogue Replacement - Crash Symphony Productions. Retrieved from https://www.crashsymphony.com.au/adr-additional-dialogue-replacement/
Voice Over in the Studio: The Proper Distance from the Mic. (2019). Retrieved from http://www.voiceovervoiceactor.com/raise-your-voice/2013/04/08/vo-in-the-studio-the-proper-distance-from-the-mic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ISDPK16zp4
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