Did you ever put together a video of a special vacation, wedding, graduation, birthday party for your baby or kids, or some other special event and wish you could make it sound more like a professional production?

We're talking about really great music and terrific, realistic background sounds and sound effects so you can make your show more exciting, and entertaining; and, as a bonus, have all the dialogue and voices clear and easy to understand.

You could certainly impress your friends and family with a track like that! You would have a first rate record of the event for your archives that you would want to look at again and again! Plus, you could easily and inexpensively make as many copies as you wanted. In order to understand how this is done, let's take a brief look at how a professional soundtrack is created.




What is the Difference Between a Professional and an Amateur Track, and Why Does it Sound Better than a Home Video or a Rough Cut Student Project?

A professional sound track consists of three basic elements: Dialog, Sound Effects and Music.

Dialogue
In a professional track, dialogue is clean, clear, easily understood and is in perfect sync with the actor's lips. It is free of annoying, distracting background noise like loud traffic, hum, buzzes, wind, etc.

Music
An original score should be designed to fit the film as ideally as possible in order to enhance the emotional impact and complement and punctuate the story line and action, wherever necessary.

Sometimes, in lower budget and student or amateur films, or because of severe time constraints, a score may be built from a stock library.

I have access to one of the finest, fully cleared, music libraries in the world, so producers are free from any piracy or copyright worries.

Sound Effects
First, we have so-called 'hard effects, such as car doors,
glass breaking, gun shots, horse sounds,
tennis ball hits, basketball bounces, cow moos, etc.

Then, there are background sounds, like traffic fill; surf ambiance; barnyard sounds, like cattle or pigs; crowds, etc. These are sounds that generally fill out an entire scene in order to add realism and presence and enhance the storyline.

Finally, there is foley, where foley walkers, watching the movie on a sound stage, do all the things that the actors are doing that are not yet covered.

 

This usually includes:

• footsteps
  
  
• fights
  
  
• falling down
  
  
• cloth movement
  
  
• picking things up and setting them down
  
  
• dropping a bunch of grapefruit on the grass, etc.

   

These sounds are not always optimum when

culled from a library and sound best when the foley walker customizes them for a particular film.

In a professional track, these three elements are all in proper sync, they enhance the picture, and never interfere with voice. The dialogue is crisp, clear, easy to understand and not smothered by music or effects. Everything is properly balanced in order to enhance the emotional impact of the film and create an entertaining experience.

Over the years, I have created tracks for a great variety of amateur and student films. Feel free to contact me and tell me all you can about your video and we'll discuss what it will take to make your dream come true.

I will be happy to give you an extensive referral list on request.