I’m talking about actual fully fledged dubs where the original voices are completely gone and replaced with matching voice actors, NOT voice-over dubs where they lower the volume of the original audio and have someone speak over the video in a different language.
I’ve always wondered how the original voices were removed and separated from the rest of the ambient sounds. I know for animated shows, everything is recorded on separate tracks, for example for a scene where two characters are having lunch in a busy restaurant,
the conversation would be recorded on its own track,
the sound effects the characters make ( picking up forks and knives, glasses, drinks being poured, footsteps etc…) would be on a separate track
and the ambient noises (other customers talking, distant traffic sounds from the road etc…) would be on a separate track.
Now for the same scene being filmed instead of animated, wouldn’t all of these end up on the same track? The actors would be talking while creating their own sound effects by moving plates, pouring drinks and all that, the background actors would be talking in real time around them and everything so wouldn’t the microphones pick all the sounds up at the same time?
I’m rambling but I guess my question is, how are they able to isolate and remove ONLY the voices of the actors talking and leave the sounds of everything else around them intact?
Again sorry for rambling but I’m terrible at explaining
In: Technology
Here’s my take, as I feel a few others are slightly off or missing it:
Each actor is wired with a lavalier mic usually. This allows each actor to be recorded separately, this allows the On-Set Sound Mixer to control the volume levels of each person. Now, if possible Sound will also use a Boom mic as well which allows for a more well-rounded sounds but means you’ll pick up anything that makes noise. This means that when we’re filming on set it has to be QUIET, for EXT scenes this means trying to mitigate as much as possible, or sometimes recording what is referred to as “Room Tone”. Not 100% sure but I believe that allows Post-Sound to cancel out the ambient noise.
As others have said the ambient noise (sometimes also Foley) is added in post later, so the most important thing for Sound is that the initial voices of each cast member are captured as free of other sounds as possible.
Bit of a mess explaining it but I hope it makes sense.
Source: Work in film, have to provide Props that are quiet for the Sound Dept, and my cousin does post sound mixing.
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