ADR Advice...

Hi everybody In spite the fact I work in post industry almost 10 years I always have problems with ADR. I used several mics, lots of experiments... and have been satisfied two times so far... (3-4 adrs a month) Do you have any suggestions about mics, distances, eq curves amd so on? Thank you Best regards Kuba

what kind of mics are you using?

Regarding distance... if you feel like doing some summer reading, a couple sound theorists have written a lot about 'point of audition,' based on the same idea as 'point of view.' The idea is mostly about sound perspective, but also subjectivity and where the listener is in relation to the voice. Anyway, this is theoretical stuff rather than practical, but it might help to think in different ways about mic distance, perspective, realism, and that sort of thing. Michel Chion: "Audiovision" Rick Altman (ed): "Sound Theory Sound Practice"

Thanks a lot... ... but what about legendary tips and tricks that come from proffesionals? Kuba

Well, I'm not elgendary, but I never use a largediaphragm mic for ADR. Mostly we use a neuman km81's and km82's. Shotgun mic's, placed the way that they would mic them oin set. A few feet away, overhead. I just roll off some bottom end and leave all eq-ing to the dialogue mixer.. We get good match this way. If anyhting, bad synch and a bad performance will ruin an ADR any day, and make it stick out liek a sore thumb.

I always use a Lav on one track and a 416 coming from above trying to simulate the position of the location boom. The problem I run into is that the perspective may be correct but the sound is just too clean. Last week I actually used LoFi and put like .01 percent on the nose effect. The location sound was a little burnt and I had to try and match. The thing I have found in general is that it just takes time and work. Every session is different and you just need a few tricks up your sleeve and adapt as necessary.