out post sound blog

We are sure all you clever audio type people have heard of dynamic range and, alongside that, the so called 'Loudness Wars'.

Dynamic range is really a sacred thing. It is what music is all about. Subtlety, passion, depth, emotion. Crush it all so that it is just loud and what have you got apart from bleeding ears and a headache.

That's why mastering engineer, Ian Shepherd, started Dynamic Range day some three years ago in an attempt to educate both the music industry and music lovers around the world.

As described on the Dynamic Range Day website, this high level compression introduces "...limited crest factor, low RMS variability and in the worse cases, distortion." Couple this with the added bitrate compression introduced by the nightmare that is MP3 and it ends up heading towards digital noise, but that's just our opionion!

This Loudness War is not only prevelant in the music industry in our opinion. Commercial's mixed for television and radio as well as some computer games all suffer from the same basic problem. Why do you always reach for the remote when the commercials come on? Because they have been mixed to a higher overall level with a lower dynamic range. In broadcast and film this is something that has been under discussion for many years with many broadcasters introducing strict limits on loudness - however this does not directly affect Dynamic Range - you can turn it down but still have the dynamic range squeezed out of it like juice from a lemon!

So, what can you do to support Dynamic Range Day and help educate the music industry into letting music (and mixes in general) 'breathe'?

Well for starters you could accept the Dynamic Range Day challenge, which amongst other things encourages engineers to, keep at least 8dB of dynamic range in their next mix. For more information on tools you can use to understand the dynamics of your mix check out the information on the Dynamic Range Day website here.

Also, pop their logo on your website thusly:

What could be simpler. Oh, and sign up for their newsletter and more importantly - tell your friends!

out post sound has been working closely with the team behind the Batman Live World Tour for several months to create fully syncronised dubbed version of the show for foreign language audiences.

Ros Cranmer, General Manager for the production said: “Having never even seen a live theatrical performance dubbed into another language, I was nervous about how it would work for our arena production of Batman Live.  The final result, however, was fantastic, and it became clear that a foreign language voiceover actually translates incredibly well into that entertainment medium, making our show accessible to audiences all over the world.”

Working closely with production company Water Lane Productions, sound designer Simon Baker and sound engineer for the show Simon Fox, out post sound developed a unique workflow process that enables the English cast to perform to a fully syncronised dialogue track in any language.

Fox commented: "The challenge of making Batman Live accessible for audiences where English is not their primary or even secondary language has been immense but also essential to ensure the ongoing commercial life of the show. The greatest challenge has been to maintain the realistic audio quality of the piece and continue to ensure that audience feel the action is coming form the stage. Additionally, it's been really important to enable the actors to continue have control over their performances. By breaking scenes into sections of dialogue, we've been able to ensure that the performers can dictate the pace at which a scene is delivered as they would have if they were delivering the dialogue themselves.”

Although other productions have used similar techniques before, it is believed that this is the first time that a show of this scale, with so many characters and such complicated automation and flying sequences, has been successfully dubbed.

The spectacular production, which sees the caped crusader battle against his darkest enemies with the help of newly found sidekick, Robin, uses large amounts of automation to control the flying, lighting and video systems, all of which are triggered via MIDI timecode from a DiGiCo SD7 by FOH engineer Simon Fox.

After being contracted to work on the show, out post sound worked with it’s team that includes translators and casting agents, to bring together experienced actors to re-create the performances brought to life by the UK cast. The dialogue was then recorded and edited at out post’s Brighton and London studios and delivered to the production team. After a successful initial run in Switzerland, France and Germany out post is now working on a Czech version and several others for the South American market.

Using techniques normally found more at home in post production out post were able to ensure that the lines recorded matched the pacing and delivery of the original performances, coupled with some skillful programming from Fox. “Of course, none of it would be possible without Rob from Out Post Sound and also the show's sound designer, Simon Baker. Rob has done a superb job in delivering the dialogue to our requirements and ensuring that the vocals remain dynamic and interesting for the audience to listen to. Incorporating these vocals with Simon's initial sound design has resulted in what, I think, is a highly polished product that retains the original intended drama of the piece,” Fox concluded

ENDS

out post sound – Background Information

out post sound is an audio post and production studio based in Brighton and London, which specialises providing unique audio solutions to the film, television, radio, theatre and games markets.

The company is part of the out post group which also includes out post distribution, out post script services and the out post agency.

For more information please visit http://www.outpostsound.co.uk or http://www.theoutpostgroup.com

Editors:

For more information contact Rob Speight on:

0845 528 0369

info@outpostsound.co.uk or visit http://www.outsound.co.uk

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I was inspired to write this post after reading a news story on the BBC website about a trillion frames per second camera that has recently been unveiled at MIT.

After sitting in on an video edit today with some clients and an great editor and grader Darren Mostin at Online Creative, with whom we do a lot of work, we had the usual audio/video discussion of whose file sizes were bigger. It all gets a bit tedious to be honest because as an audio chap it is pretty hard to win that argument - but you have to give it a go. Don't let the video boys win, ever! That's my motto...

Anyway, petty squabbles aside I was intrigued to read the afforementioned article. What a totally awesome concept. The frame rate is so fast it can capture light moving! That is something very hard to comprehend.

However, if the camera works faster than light, does that mean it is possible to travel in time with it in some weird visual way?

Suffice to say, this has nothing to do with audio, but the disk space required to store that many frames must be truely mind boggling.

Check this footage out of a pulse of laser light that lasts one nanosecond (less than a billionth of a second) and yet the camera captures it in amazing detail!

How they back all those frames up I have no idea. We however recently started using Gobbler as an off site backup solution and, even though it is still in beta, it is a revolution. Check it out.

A new organisation, The Sound Editors Guild, is to have it's inaugural meeting on the 14th December in London.

The SEG....stands for Sound Editors Guild. A UK based Guild for all Sound/Music/Dialogue/FX/Foley Editors. If you are interested join the Facebook page here