Nobody enjoys having to record ADR<\/strong>. It\u2019s a fairly grueling process that usually occurs at the tail end of a production when you just want to wrap things up and get your project out the door. What\u2019s even more frustrating than having to record it in the first place though, is attempting to match the sound quality with your source\/location audio.<\/p>\n Imagine a scenario where\u00a0you\u2019re editing a project that was shot entirely on a busy city street. Most of the location audio sounds solid, but there are a few takes that just aren\u2019t working. Maybe the noise from the street bled through too much on a critical line\u00a0or there was a technical issue with the mic, ultimately leaving you with the reality that you need to record ADR<\/strong> for a portion of the scene.<\/p>\n Once you go back into the studio with your talent and rerecord their dialogue to match with picture, the work has really only begun. It goes without saying that clean, studio recorded audio tracks are going to sound very different from on location recordings<\/strong>, so ultimately you\u2019ll need to take some measures to get the audio to match up.<\/p>\n In a best case scenario, you\u2019ll send your edited\u00a0timeline\u00a0to a dedicated ProTools<\/a> artist who will help finesse the audio until it\u2019s perfect. But in some instances, you may very well be left with the task of tweaking the audio yourself, and if that\u2019s the case you should always adhere to these audio editing tips<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Assuming you\u2019ve done your job properly on set, you should have room tone recorded for each location you shot at. Room tone of course, is simply a track recording of ambience in your location which can be used during the audio editing process.<\/p>\n One of the most critical steps in matching ADR<\/strong> with location audio involves the addition of room tone, which can be an art unto itself. Always ensure that you are not only adding in room tone, but mixing it down so the levels are equal to the ambient levels on the rest of your dialogue tracks. Also be sure to add crossfades carefully at the top and tail of your clips to ease in and out of the\u00a0room tone clips.<\/p>\n Just with this single step alone, your audio track will start to feel far smoother, as there will no longer be an absence of natural background noise\u00a0when playing through the ADR<\/strong> segments. Here’s a quick video from Vimeo Film School<\/a> that covers the basics of room tone:<\/p>\n![\"\u221a\"](\"https:\/\/pbblogassets.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/11\/on-location.jpg\")
\nCapturing location audio via Antuan Mejias<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nRemember Why You Recorded Room Tone<\/h2>\n
![\"Audio](\"https:\/\/pbblogassets.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/11\/room-tone-image.jpg\" "\\"Audio")
\nRecording room tone<\/a> via Christopher Morris<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n