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Question about sound in post

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pianoman66

I am about to start recording the foley and background sound for my film but was wondering what this process it called.

I have a mac with a midi keyboard connected and what I would like to be able to do is record a sound, then run it through my midi keyboard to alter the pitch, mix different pitches together and mix different sounds together, then record that. What is that called - is it some form of sampling?

Also, what software/hardware would I need? I am currently running final cut. Would logic pro do this? I am kinda new to the sound side of things and could do with a bit of help :)
 
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Working with sound after production is completed is called Audio Post Production.

BTW, it's "Foley" with a capital "F". It is so named in honor of Jack Foley who put together the first facility for replacing and adding human related sounds during audio post, and codified the process we still use today. His IMDB page is rather incomplete; he probably did well over 2,000 films.

http://www.filmsound.org/foley/jackfoley.htm

If you already have Logic Pro it will work just fine for audio post work, however, Pro Tools is the standard.

Audio post is a very exhaustive topic. You may want to start with a few books:

Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema by David Sonnenschein

The Foley Grail: The Art of Performing Sound for Film, Games, and Animation by Vanessa Theme Ament

The Sound Effects Bible: How to Create and Record Hollywood Style Sound Effects by Ric Viers


You may also want to spend a lot of time at FilmSound.org, an invaluable resource.



I very rarely do sampling, although I make extensive use of plug-ins. Most sound design - and especially Foley work - is very organic; you use lots of real sounds, and, in the case of Foley, you are manipulating props in real time to picture. What you really need are a few very carefully chosen mics, a clean transparent mic pre, lots of props, an accurate listening environment, and an ever-growing sound library. A field kit for capturing sound FX is also very nice to have.
 
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Thanks!

Thanks for the info, it should be very helpful, but can you explain what a transparent mic pre is?

Say if I got Pro Tools 9, would I need to get an audio interface such as a Mbox or could I just plug the mic into my computer?
 
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In the world of audio most audio devices "color" the sound to some degree. Some mics have a "bump" in certain frequencies; this means that those frequencies are exaggerated. The Shure SM-58 is a very popular mic to use on stage with loud music. It has a very pronounced bump in the upper middle range of frequencies. This allow it to "cut" through banging drums and blaring guitars.

Many mics and pre-amps used for musical applications have frequency bumps and/or "color" the sound in one way or another; you will often hear engineers - especially in the digital age - say that certain mic pres are very "warm." When you are doing film applications you want equipment that does NOT color the sound in any way, in other words, "transparent" or uncolored. When you look at mic specs you will see a frequency chart; the flatter or smoother the frequency response, the more transparent or less colored the mic will be; the same applies to mic pres.

A perfect frequency response would be completely flat or transparent, like this:

White%20Noise.gif


Here's the frequency response of a Shure SM-58:

ShureSM58FreqResponse.jpg


Note the exaggerated bump in the 4kHz through 6kHz range.


No piece of gear will have perfect specs, and the materials used will also color the sound, imparting "warmth" (or possibly negative aspects) without seeming to alter the frequency range.

Anyway, that's the basics.
 
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BTW, if you're using Pro Tools 9 you can (supposedly) use any audio interface. I'm still using my old DigiDesign gear, so don't know how easy it is to configure third party interfaces.
 
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If you're field recording, get your hands on a Zoom or Tascam handheld recorder to capture your sounds. I use one of those to get my background tracks (wind, rain, traffic, crickets, etc.)

If you're recording in the safety of your home studio, you will need some decent mics, preamps and/or definitely some sort of audio interface (such as the MBox you mentioned which has decent enough built-in preamps). Don't EVER just plug a mic into the "Mic In" on your sound card. It'll sound like s**t. The type of sound you're trying to record will determine the right combination of mic & preamp. If you tell me what sounds are you trying to record, I can point you in the right direction.

As far as DAW software, I'd stick with either Pro Tools 9, Logic, Cubase, or Sonar. Any of those will do the things you aim to do with your sounds (sample manipulation, pitch-shift, ect) and allow for video sync.
 
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You're choice of DAW is up to you. All you need to worry about is that the visuals track smoothly and the audio stays in sync while running dozens of tracks using multiple plug-ins. The DAW should also have decent sub/buss routing capabilities so you can run stems easily. It's very nice to have the proper hour/minute/second/frame counter, but not essential.
 
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