"live" sound

[Ctrl_Alt_Dlt]

Is there an appropriate or right or best/worst way to record the "someone is entering a room and then walks towards something" type of sound?

I tried to capture the sound of the keys at the door, the door opening and closing, then the footsteps walking (panned) from left to right....then drops the keys on the table.

I know, it sounds lame. It seems to fit the beginning of the song.

thanks.

 

[bozmillar]

If I were to do sounds like that, I'd mic it the same way I'd mic a drum set. I'd do a stereo pair of room mics and use these to get the majority of the sound, then close mice some of the sounds, like the lock, footsteps and desk just to beef it up a bit.

I wouldn't pan anything too much, just enough to make it sound more natural.

At least that's where I'd start. I've never actually done this before, so I'm sure there'd be a bit of trial and error.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Is there an appropriate or right or best/worst way to record the "someone is entering a room and then walks towards something" type of sound?

I tried to capture the sound of the keys at the door, the door opening and closing, then the footsteps walking (panned) from left to right....then drops the keys on the table.

I know, it sounds lame. It seems to fit the beginning of the song.

thanks.

Things like the keys, door and footsteps are usually the domain of a foley artist when done for radio, TV or movie soundtrack production. This is a guy whose job it is to create such sound effects by specifically miking props designed to create such sounds.

If I were doing it, I'd probably search the net for such pre-recorded public domain sound effects - there's a ton of them out there - and use those.

I agree with boz that panning (and possibly gain automation) might work better if you don't completely over-do it. But I'm not in your head, so I'm not sure just what you have in mind, but I would probably be careful about exaggerating the effect.

G.

 

[gecko zzed]

How I would do this depends on where the perspective of the listener is.

For example, if you imagine the listener to be the lens of a camera, tracking this person as he is going through the actions, then I would take Bozmillar's approach, or indeed, the foley approach.

If the listener, though, is not following the movement, but is sitting passively somewhere while this action is happening, then I would set up a stereo pair where this position is and just go through the actions.

I had to produce some sound effects for a play. This called for similar: car coming up driveway, stopping, driver getting out, shutting car door, opening screen door etc. I spent some time scouring the web for sounds. But in the end, I set up a pair of mikes, started recording, then hopped into the car, drove it down the road a bit then came back and did all those things. It worked a treat.

 

[pistachio]

I once had an idea almost exactly like the one you are talking about.

I wanted to have someone knock at a door and then have them be invited in and walk in and sit down and have this conversation while pouring water and flipping through papers and shuffling chairs. (Basically anything I could do that would make noise.)


This is what I did.

I set up 2 condenser microphones facing away from eachother on a microphone stand and treated that as an actual "person". With microphone A being the left "ear" and microphone B being the right "ear".

Then I set up a room with all of my props and had the participants act out the skit while I recorded both microphones. I moved the mic stand around to simulate where this invisible listener would be moving in the scene.

For example, the person stands behind the desk in the beginning, but swings around to the side of the desk once the people enter the room.

Once the session was done I just opened it in Audition 1.5 and smoothed it out and I was done.



You really have to plan things out like this carefully if you want to do it well. But, it's completely doable, so let us know if you record anything.

 

[Chili]

I'd break the scene down into its elements and focus on each one at a time. The keys in the door, the door squeaking open and closing, footsteps, keys on the table. Each one requires a unique approach to micing and I'd consider them as different parts, then edit them altogether.

 

[Ctrl_Alt_Dlt]

great ideas and tips! thanks all! going to try it tonight to see what works best with what I got.