Good Sound - Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish - page 119

Borrowing Better Equipment Than You Can Buy
Here's a hint for fi nding a great resource for audio knowledge and equipment without spending a
cent: Do you know someone in a band?You almost certainly do. Band members traditionally spend
ridiculous amounts of money on audio equipment and equally ridiculous amounts of time learn-
ing the arcane ins and outs of high-end recording and sound reproduction. Ask the band what they
recommend and if you can have an hour with their recording equipment. If you can appeal to their
audio geek sensibilities, they will not rest until you have the cleanest, best recording possible.
Another resource to consider is that of local churches. Many churches have invested tens of
thousands of dollars in audio and recording equipment. If you are a member of that church,
they might let you use it just by asking. Churches of which you are not a member or don't
attend could be persuaded to let you use their facilities for a small donation.
Where to Record
The location and portability of the recording equipment at your disposal may determine your recording envi-
ronment. If you'll be using your desktop computer and a direct microphone, then you'll be recording in your
computer room. Because the point of your project is to produce a short animation and not learn every aspect
of audio engineering, you should try to make your dialog recording as “live” as possible. This means that if a
bit of dialog takes place in a kitchen as in The Beast , you should try to actually record in a kitchen. Nothing
that you and your amateur audio skills can do to a pristine studio sound will result in anything as realistic as
actually recording on location.
Of course, you will need to minimize nondialog sounds when recording. Put the dog outside. Ask the neigh-
bors to save their very vocal fi ght for another day. If you live near a busy street or highway, you'll have to
wait until a low traffi c time. If the people you live with and your voice talent can stand it, the early morning
hours (3:00-5:00 a.m.) are a great time to do this sort of thing. The ambient sounds of daily life will be at a
minimum. One last thing to do before recording is to unplug (not just turn off ) any electrical equipment in
the area. Refrigerators, televisions, and all sorts of appliances make noise that we generally fi lter out as we go
about our daily lives, but that will appear as annoying background noise when put through a sensitive micro-
phone. If your actors will be reading from a script, beware of the sound of turning pages. Actors should also
be careful if they are sitting on squeaky chairs or standing on a creaky fl oor. One last source of unintentional
noise is fl uorescent lighting. Turn it off if there is another source of light.
Making the Recording
To make proper use of them, your sound fi les are going to have to be as organized as the other assets in your
production. The easiest way to keep track of what dialog is in which fi le is to take notes with paper and pen-
cil. Here are some guidelines for recording your dialog:
● Do several readings of any piece of dialog.
● Multiple readings can be recorded into the same sound fi le with a small bit of silence before and after each
one. This will make it easy to listen to the different readings when you are trying to decide which to use.