Re: Super-clean audio - how do they do it?

Hey David!

Good points!

I'm somewhat familiar with audio and the process, and low-cut filters are definitely "standard procedure" for me when recording/treating audio. I'm pretty well versed in types of mics, patterns, responses and uses.

Here are some examples of problems I've been having:

1. Filming in an office building: we have maintenance turn off the A/C on the entire floor which makes it quieter - but you can still hear air rushing through some sort of 'building ventilation' duct that doesn't turn off. 5 buildings and they all had this vent sound. Ugh!

2. In a house filming a short: we turn off the A/C, which makes the room nice and quiet. But now we can hear traffic outside.

3. Recording outside: traffic, locusts, people, sirens, birds! I watch movies that are filmed outside and the dialogue is beautifully clean. Not a single background sound other than artificially consistent ambience. Whenever I ask someone, the easy response is always "ADR" but I refuse to believe that every piece of outdoor dialogue in every movie is ADR. Then there's the issue of that phase effect (where the voice sound changes in relation to the position and distance of the mic from the source).

We recently rented an insanely expensive audio kit containing some Neumanns and a couple of Sennheisers -- thinking the better the mic the better the sound. They were definitely better sounding but they did nothing to reduce ambient noise. In fact, indoors, the nicer mics picked up more ambient noise... from air ducts to the building settling to the interviewee breathing.

Audio has definitely been frustrating to me and there's very little information on the internet aside from common sense suggestions. I'm starting to think that there's a well-guarded secret that only audio pros know.

I've discovered that making a beautiful picture is cake compared to capturing beautiful audio. I've also found that viewers will forgive poor lighting and even a blurry picture... but they will not forgive poor audio.

My hats off to sound guys!