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Sound Advice

In the early years of your education, being a good listener meant not disrupting the classroom. In video production, it's all about disruptions - the good ones and the bad ones.

Most people have two functioning ears with reasonable hearing. Further, they can tell the difference between "good sound" and "bad sound," but rarely can they explain why. Our goal this month is to help you recognize the components of good sound and how to get the best sounding video projects. Armed with this knowledge, you'll be a better recordist and mixer, building soundtracks that draw the viewer into the project rather than making them suffer through a bad sound experience. So clean out your ears and let's start listening.

Listen Up!

Here's an exercise to try. Step outside and close your eyes. Listen carefully to the sounds around you and count as many as you can. In preparation for this article, I did this last night and came up with eight distinct sounds. First, there were crickets coming from various directions and distances. Then, there were the louder cicadas and their noisy racket. Next, I heard the waterfall splashing in the flower garden. Next door, the neighbor's pool pump turned on. In the distance, there were traffic noises from two different roads - each with its own sonic character. Toward the West, a couple of dogs were exchanging pleasantries and, about a mile away, a train began its trek through town. All these sounds were discovered in just a few seconds of critical listening. Learning to isolate individual sounds, their relative volume and direction will give you more perspective when mixing. This is very helpful when creating a sonic environment from various recordings and is especially helpful with surround mixes.

Critical listening is very different from listening for pleasure. Let's do another exercise. Who is your favorite musical artist? Why? "I like their songs" and "they have a good sound"don't count. What is it about that particular artist or group that draws your attention? Is it the sound of the vocals or harmonies? Perhaps the lyrical content or the subject of their songs? Maybe they're highly skilled musicians. It may even be a combination of all these options. Let's go further: what's your favorite song? Why? If you're not sure, take a fresh listen or two. But this time, pick the song apart, paying attention to specific instruments, voices and song structure. Make note of the balance between the various instruments and the vocals. You may even hear something you've never noticed before. This art of sound discovery is the first step to a better understanding of mix components. Once you can isolate and evaluate the individual pieces, it's easier to choose and balance similar elements in your own productions. Musicians seem to come by this skill naturally - the rest of us have to lea…