I'm using Sony Vegas Movie studio 11 and the feel for one of my upcoming films is supposed to be very gritty/grainy old school black and white type look. I was wondering if there was a trick I could use in the EQ to make it sound like it was recorded via analog. With all the popping noises and everything. If not, it's understandable. thanks!
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How to Get an Analog Sound to the Audio?
- Thread starter MrJay
- Start date
It is possible in theory and some EQ band limiting (rolling off both the low and high frequencies) will get you part of the way there. As will cutting in some pops, etc., and of course doing all the sound in mono. This last could present a few technical difficulties depending on where you intend to show/screen your film. To be honest though I'm not very au fait with the sonic characteristics of optical sound tracks of the 1930's and this will make quite a difference to the believability of the sound. I've done emulations of cassette recordings, of LP playback and a number of other audio formats but not of old mono optical film sound.
If you can find anywhere online a description of the sonic characteristics of old optical sound tracks and post it here, I could try and interpret the description into something you might be able to try.
G
If you can find anywhere online a description of the sonic characteristics of old optical sound tracks and post it here, I could try and interpret the description into something you might be able to try.
G
find some source material to use as an example. Your mind might be playing tricks on you.
Its the sound from one cut to the next that is most distinctive. Also, wow\flutter causing small distortions in the playback, again, particularly around cuts..
Adding static is easy enough... just find some and record it and mix it in.
try freesound.org for some static, clicks and pops..
example ideas:
The short film at the end of "Super 8"
The sound I used in this promo (from an old porno movie) has that tonality that your looking for..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69uJxNNvZM8
Its the sound from one cut to the next that is most distinctive. Also, wow\flutter causing small distortions in the playback, again, particularly around cuts..
Adding static is easy enough... just find some and record it and mix it in.
try freesound.org for some static, clicks and pops..
example ideas:
The short film at the end of "Super 8"
The sound I used in this promo (from an old porno movie) has that tonality that your looking for..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69uJxNNvZM8
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Is this the kind of sound you're looking to reproduce?
http://archive.org/details/Exercise1949
http://archive.org/details/Exercise1949
Yeah! just maybe not so much background static. But yeah, more along those lines
This one has a longish section at the beginning (title card) with just the kind of noise you're talking about. I'd bet it could be looped pretty easily in a non noticeable manner. Combine that with some EQ and wah and you should be heading in the right direction...
http://archive.org/details/SoundRec1943
http://archive.org/details/SoundRec1943
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There is a plug-in called "Vinyl" by iZotope.
http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl/
It's free!!!!!!! Beloved words in the Indie world!
It may be more geared towards what it says it is - vinyl - but is worth a try since it doesn't cost you anything other than a little of your time.
You may also want to try, as APE said, to worldize it by using an old reel-to-reel or a cassette. Or do both - use Vinyl and then slam it to some analog tape. Or maybe not slam it; use lower levels to get more tape hiss.
http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl/
It's free!!!!!!! Beloved words in the Indie world!
It may be more geared towards what it says it is - vinyl - but is worth a try since it doesn't cost you anything other than a little of your time.
You may also want to try, as APE said, to worldize it by using an old reel-to-reel or a cassette. Or do both - use Vinyl and then slam it to some analog tape. Or maybe not slam it; use lower levels to get more tape hiss.
As implied by others, when you say "Analogue Sound" this actually covers a wide range of media types, all of which can sound quite different and many of which may not be appropriate. For example, wow/flutter and static are mainly (though not solely) associated with vinyl and magnetic tape and adding these effects would certainly help to create an "analogue sound". However, it would not be the "analogue sound" of the old type B&W films of say the 1930's, which did not use vinyl or magnetic tape to record the sound. So largely it depends on what you mean by "analogue sound" and on how authentic you want it to be. Would your audience recognise obviously vinyl type sound problems/distortions and would this damage their suspension of disbelief, as they are supposed to be watching a simulation of an old film rather than listening to an old LP and as the filmmaker how much would this bother you?
G
G
The use of Izotope vinyl as AA pointed out is a helpful tool. You could alternatively go to a sfx library and get static and/or hiss and popping sound effects. The major problem with using the sound of old vinyl records is that they spin at 33,45 or78rpm, so that the crackles and pops tend to come around at regular intervals timed to the speed of the revolution. So it will sound like a record not a film.
Getting individual sound effects and layering them is likely the best way to get the correct effect. For example, using loops of, static, hums, crackles etc, as separate sfx placed on different tracks, and mixing the levels of them to suit the film is an effective way of doing this.
Also, if you want to emulate old film audio, then the use of high pass and low pass filters to attenuate the frequency range of the low and high frequencies of the audio can help too. If you have lots of full and rich bass, and great high frequency detail and clarity it won't sound like an old movie.
I've never had to use it on a project, but I have played around with iZotope Vinyl. The parameters are Mechanical Noise, Wear, Electrical Noise, Dust, Scratch and Warp Depth. Use Wear to degenerate the sound a bit and Dust is relatively random. Electrical can add some hum to the sound. As with doing noise reduction a few very light passes works better than one massive pass.
Yes you are right it does have those parameters, but there is also a dial to set the record speed, and another one for the year. So it does have a certain pattern of revolutions to each setting. A good free plug in though. I don't remember when the last time i used it was though...I get more call for removing noise from recordings than I do for adding it to recordings !
Yup. Adding noise is usually a telephone, police radio or something similar, and they sound better all the time.