Avoid Fake Sounding Audio
Nov 26, 2018
When we capture sound, we always to get the best, most clean signal possible. That is why we like to use lav microphones (The microphones that clip on to people's shirts). The signal from a lav is usually really clean and present because it's right against the talent's chest. It's not picking up a lot of room or ambience around them. That's a good thing is it not? The cleaner the better. Get rid of all the room tone that could pick up on the microphone, then you don't have to deal with all the nasty reverb in post. It sounds great in writing, but surprisingly, being super "clean" and dry doesn't always make something sound better.
You see, acoustics are part of the way we hear things. It's how we identify sounds in our everyday life. We don't hear things perfectly clean because of all the distracting elements going on around us (traffic, planes, air conditioners, children screaming). Luckily, our brains are smart enough to tune those things out. Unfortunately, microphones aren't smart. What you put in front of them, what they "see", is what they pick up. They are not going to just "tune out" an air conditioner. This leaves you to fight the battle of eliminating that sound so the mic doesn't pick it up. But sometimes the more you fight that battle, the worse you make things for yourself.
It's the natural sounds around us that help things feel NATURAL. So if you have a voice that seems unnatural, dry, "fake" or "ADR-sounding," then you may have recorded your voice too clean. If there is no natural reverb to help give you a sense of space with the vocal, So you may find yourself in post adding, of all things, MORE reverb to make it sound more natural. "Seriously?" you may ask, "The thing I've been trying so hard to get rid of?" Don't worry, it's ok. Done tastefully, reverb can add depth to your audio. But what kind of reverb should you use?
I recommend using something that would place your talent in the correct space. For example, if you recorded them in a room and it still sounds super "dead", try throwing on a room reverb preset and mix it in subtly. Reverb goes a LONG way, so don't overcook it. I like to bring it in until I can just hear it and then pull back a bit. For me, that usually winds up the most natural sounding. Use your ears and see what sounds best. Music producers do this trick all the time. We like to make vocals big and epic so we throw on huge reverbs, but sometimes we could have just recorded them in a naturally reverberative space to achieve that sound to begin with.
What I'm trying to say is, don't stress so much about getting the "CLEANEST AUDIO EVER!!!!1" because when it comes down to it, it can be better to get the more natural sounding audio. Audio is something that people shouldn't be noticing, it should just feel right. So if it feels right, you're doing your job.