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Pro Audio Engineer looking to get involved!

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 (Edited)

Hey guys, I am a big fan of this community and what you guys try to do to save our childhood! Hal9000 inspired me years ago with his prequel trilogy and I have been curious ever since. I have recently started looking for some sequel trilogy edits that go as big as Hal did on the originals but in the process I have noticed how in certain fan edits they lack certain things in regards to the audio when doing replacement sounds or voice overs. I am a Audio Engineer by trade and wanted to offer my assistance to matching audio or anything related to making peoples fan edits better… for example i saw one guy was trying to replace some kylo audio and palpatine but it didnt turn out perfect… for example i could easily make that sound better with a few simple tweaks and eq to match it to the original audio levels… anyways just wanted to reach out and let u guys know ur not alone in the galaxy and i am totally down to help with small audio things to help finish ur edits off the way you see it in your head! cheers guys and keep up the great work!

a fan

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Welcome aboard, and thanks for offering help in addition to the shoutout.

I guess if this is a good place to list things, I’m currently tweaking my Episode III edit to remaster the deleted scenes that had been upscaled. One auditory thing that wasn’t perfect about the prior version had to do with Kashyyyyyk. Chewie was recolored to grey in a few shots to portray him as a different wookiee humorously credited as ‘Crunchbacca.’ But, the first scene where Yoda participates in a Council session was only able to have him painted out. However, audio as Yoda leaves his seat still has two wookiee’s conversing. It’s in a few audio channels to the point I couldn’t really remove it without it getting weird.

If you think that might be in your wheelhouse, I can send the raw audio for the sequence. Also, if you’re inclined, I’d sift through the OP for TROS:A’s thread and see if anything jumps out as something you feel you may be able to elevate.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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@hal9000 ok so i am not sure about the exact scene, its been a minute since i watched the prequels and was waiting for u to finish all 3 updates before watching again. is there music in the scene and thats why the audio is tricky? otherwise my first thought (which i am totally down to try for u) would be to recreate the audio for the clip and just bypass the wookie talk all together? if u can send me a clip of the scene and ur current audio i can have a better idea of what needs to happen to make it work!

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Thanks, I’ll send that along. Worst case it’s just what it is.

And the issue was adding a second bandolier to Chewie in that scene, I think, not so much the color change.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Oh, I see you posted something right as I did. Without doing a comparison for the moment, I still hear the Chewie voice in the places I expect it. But I’ll be able to sit down tonight hopefully and can review it more carefully and send the full audio source.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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ok ya i thought u were talking about the one overlapping mace which i was able to remove cleanly… if you could give me a little more context of which sounds exactly (like where they are in context of other dialague) i can see what i can do also not sure how it works on here so this is my email
danieldubb@hotmail.com

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I would LOVE to have some help with quality dialogue replacement/redubbing of Kylo Ren in the interrogation scene for Heir to the Force. Maybe that will help me actually do the Heir to the Force Restructured I’ve been meaning to do for some time. At the least I would need some help getting a more accurate Kylo Ren masked voice effect on the interrogation scene and following scene with Snoke.

digmodification.wordpress.com

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Hi Daniel. I’m trying to create the Italian track audio of Hal9000’s TROS: Ascendant Edit. I have to add some original lines that are not included in the original movie. Unfortunately I don’t have professional microphone to record that lines. I can use iPhone, iPhone earphones (cable and wireless) or mic from MacBook or Sony a6400. I have some questions:

  • is it possible reach a good quality with this instruments?
  • is it possible change the vocal timbre of a single voice to make two or more differents voices?
  • can you help me to create Kylo Ren’s mask voice effect?
    I’m using Adobe Audition.
    Sorry if some questions are not to your competence.
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Glad to have you on board the O.G space station 😉

Peace is a lie
There is only passion…

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@Digmod

hey man, so are you looking to create all new material or trying to work with the source material? I saw ur FE a while back and remember you did a pretty good job on the “masked Kylo” and rey scene/snoke scene. I am down to help if I can, email me and tell me ur thoughts and lets see what we can do about it

danieldubb@hotmail.com

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@Rik

hey man, big undertaking you got going! so to answer ur questions

  1. you should be able to get a decent recording off the iphone, its not gonna be as good as if you had a quality mic but i know lots of people who use the voice memo feature on iphones to get decent recordings… not ideal but possible

  2. depending on the voice yes, voice actors can do a wide range or voices, now you can also take a single voice performance and split it into different harmonies, so it all depends on the voice performer

3.I can help with creating ur Kylo mask voice if you have the material for me to work with yes… I would recreate his voice in ProTools tho, i am not personally versed in Adobe Audition.

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 (Edited)

This is awesome that you want to help! Your assistance is very welcomed. 😁
I have a question: How do you replicate the ‘classic’ style of sound recording in the OT, more specifically A New Hope? There’s an apparent compressed sort-of sound to everything. I don’t know if that makes sense.
I have both Davinci Resolve 17 Studio and Audacity. I’ve looked up how to make something sound like an old recording in Audacity, but it’s not exactly what I’m looking for (The tutorials are for making things sound like an old radio). I don’t know if you are perhaps familiar with either program, or some other program that I can accomplish what I’m wanting?

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Hey Y3ldarb…

so its kind of a tough question, cuz yes it is possible to make things have a more vintage frequancy response it is hard to mimic the gear they used at the time, mic quality and technique has come a long way since OT… Im not sure how much you are able to do in DR17 and Audacity but a few techniques that i would try first would be

  1. Eq- so most old films dont have a very large low end so rounding off some low frequencies might get u in the right direction

  2. vintage fx- there is a software vst called “rc20” or “vintage strip” there are others like them but they are made to emulate old tapes and analog gear so tweaking with some presets on a audio plug in like those will also help put u in the right direction…

3 referencing- while attempting to emulate old sound it is important to have a solid reference point to work off of, whether that is a scene from the OT or something of that nature

  1. sound replacement- you can find a ton of old vintage star wars sound fx out there… replacing some important sounds such as lasers or lightsaber sounds with the old ones from the OT and even the old music scores (the ones recorded for the OT) will also put you 1 step closer to achieving what ur going for…

hope that helps

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danieldubb said:

@Rik

hey man, big undertaking you got going! so to answer ur questions

  1. you should be able to get a decent recording off the iphone, its not gonna be as good as if you had a quality mic but i know lots of people who use the voice memo feature on iphones to get decent recordings… not ideal but possible

  2. depending on the voice yes, voice actors can do a wide range or voices, now you can also take a single voice performance and split it into different harmonies, so it all depends on the voice performer

3.I can help with creating ur Kylo mask voice if you have the material for me to work with yes… I would recreate his voice in ProTools tho, i am not personally versed in Adobe Audition.

Thanks Daniel. I could try to record some samples and than I could send to you, if it’s ok for you.

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Good to have you on board, dude.

I have a fan edit of episode I that’s already been released (episodes II and III are still a work in progress), and most of my audio issues are minor. Still, any updates I can make to the edit, however small, are nice.

I’m editing on Davinci Resolve 16 in case it’s important. I’ve been able to fix most of my audio problems through crossfades and cutting out unwanted lines and sound effects (you’d be amazed how much more tolerable Jar Jar is without his sound effects). However, I’ve noticed a few instances, specifically with removed dialogue, where you can hear the audio get somewhat quieter whenever there’s a line or sound effect I’ve removed.

For example, because I’m a fan of l8wrtr’s edit of episode I, I wanted to do a similar thing in which I got rid of the sports commentators and their voices. At the beginning of the race, I tried to get rid of the line, “start your engines!” However, when I tried to remove each instance of the line through the audio channels, I realized that I was cutting out most of the audio channels. Which resulted in a very odd moment of near silence. I had to keep the quieter channels in so that the audio would sound louder, but it does seem weird that it can be heard (albeit quietly) through the rear speakers. I’d like to get rid of it entirely, but I also don’t want the audio to suddenly go quiet either. I have similar issues with the quietness of a few crossfades as well. Even when I use the +3db version (the loudest possible crossfade I have in my arsenal), there are still a few where you can hear things get quiet for a brief moment.

The only other issue I can think of is that I’m trying to work on recording an audio commentary. However, it’s turned out to be a lot harder than I expected since the sound quality happens to be really bad. I’m not sure what’s going on, but when my voice starts to go into higher pitches, the audio starts to have this weird echo-ey, ringing effect. I tried using the equalizer, but the best I can manage is to make my voice sound somewhat muffled, and even then, you can still hear the ring-y-ness anyway. Simply put, I have no idea how to fix it, and I’m kind of overwhelmed by the number of audio effects that are available. I can’t find the one that gets rid of it.

Again, I’m happy with the way my fanedit of episode I has turned out (although I’m getting a bit perfectionistic about the color grading). Still, it would be nice if I could fix those things for future updates to my edit. If you have some advice, I would love to implement it.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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Eyepainter said:

Good to have you on board, dude.

I have a fan edit of episode I that’s already been released (episodes II and III are still a work in progress), and most of my audio issues are minor. Still, any updates I can make to the edit, however small, are nice.

I’m editing on Davinci Resolve 16 in case it’s important. I’ve been able to fix most of my audio problems through crossfades and cutting out unwanted lines and sound effects (you’d be amazed how much more tolerable Jar Jar is without his sound effects). However, I’ve noticed a few instances, specifically with removed dialogue, where you can hear the audio get somewhat quieter whenever there’s a line or sound effect I’ve removed.

For example, because I’m a fan of l8wrtr’s edit of episode I, I wanted to do a similar thing in which I got rid of the sports commentators and their voices. At the beginning of the race, I tried to get rid of the line, “start your engines!” However, when I tried to remove each instance of the line through the audio channels, I realized that I was cutting out most of the audio channels. Which resulted in a very odd moment of near silence. I had to keep the quieter channels in so that the audio would sound louder, but it does seem weird that it can be heard (albeit quietly) through the rear speakers. I’d like to get rid of it entirely, but I also don’t want the audio to suddenly go quiet either. I have similar issues with the quietness of a few crossfades as well. Even when I use the +3db version (the loudest possible crossfade I have in my arsenal), there are still a few where you can hear things get quiet for a brief moment.

The only other issue I can think of is that I’m trying to work on recording an audio commentary. However, it’s turned out to be a lot harder than I expected since the sound quality happens to be really bad. I’m not sure what’s going on, but when my voice starts to go into higher pitches, the audio starts to have this weird echo-ey, ringing effect. I tried using the equalizer, but the best I can manage is to make my voice sound somewhat muffled, and even then, you can still hear the ring-y-ness anyway. Simply put, I have no idea how to fix it, and I’m kind of overwhelmed by the number of audio effects that are available. I can’t find the one that gets rid of it.

Again, I’m happy with the way my fanedit of episode I has turned out (although I’m getting a bit perfectionistic about the color grading). Still, it would be nice if I could fix those things for future updates to my edit. If you have some advice, I would love to implement it.

Hey Eyepainter

so in regards to ur audio commentary you say there is a “ringing” or buzz in ur track, this could be a result of a few things, mainly mic quality/room you are recording in/or possibly interface issues? did u try a different mic or recording device?

in regards to cutting audio out in spots like “start ur engine” the easiest way to deal with that in my opinion is take a part that has just ambient noise from the same section and just replace whatever u cut out with some abstact scene noise from another spot nearby. in the pod race scene there is a lot of ambience thru out the section… thats my first thought… if u are taking something away u have to replace that spot with other noise so u wont get the drop outs… might seem like the obvious thing to do but i believe in ur situation without doing a ton of work this would be the easiest way

if u need more advice happy to speak further

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rik said:

danieldubb said:

@Rik

hey man, big undertaking you got going! so to answer ur questions

  1. you should be able to get a decent recording off the iphone, its not gonna be as good as if you had a quality mic but i know lots of people who use the voice memo feature on iphones to get decent recordings… not ideal but possible

  2. depending on the voice yes, voice actors can do a wide range or voices, now you can also take a single voice performance and split it into different harmonies, so it all depends on the voice performer

3.I can help with creating ur Kylo mask voice if you have the material for me to work with yes… I would recreate his voice in ProTools tho, i am not personally versed in Adobe Audition.

Thanks Daniel. I could try to record some samples and than I could send to you, if it’s ok for you.

sure thing!

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And make sure you don’t merely mute any of the audio tracks or there’ll be a dropout. If you’re, say, removing something from the center channel, try adding a duplicate of one or more other channels to overlap in the center channel so that even the center channel remains with sound throughout the entire clip.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I think there would be plenty of interest in a surround mix for the theatrical version of ANH that includes all the additions from the mono mix.