How To : The ADR Gospel
 

While we all feel software will cure all, for good ADR you need
"The 4 P's:
"Pitch:
You need the Actors to get their pitch correctly when performing in an ADR Stage. When Actors are in front of a crew and the camera they typically have a higher pitched voice because the are the focus of the moment. Get their pitch correct by directing them on the ADR stage

Performance
This is the area where you see if you have a seasoned Pro. If the Actor can recreate his/her performance in a room while looking at a screen and matching the cadence of the original. You would be surprised how may can't repeat their performance.

Placement
This is how and where you place the mic to duplicate the original recording. Was it boomed or is it a lav? How far away was the mic?

Placement
This is the placement of the lines once recorded back into the mix session making sure they are matched for sync on the Dialog session for the Re-Recording Mixer to mix.

If you do not follow the 4P's you will have ADR that sounds or looks wrong.
If you follow the 4 P's you will have a much better chance of the ADR blending into the soundtrack and being invisible to the audience.
Good Luck.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Vocal projection is a big issue with regard to performance. Vocal quality changes significantly depending on how much the actor pushes their voice.

ADR mixers have to be very careful about giving actors direction in order not to run afoul of the pecking order, but I often was able to surreptitiously alter the actor's delivery by raising or lowering the headphone level.

Higher level = more projection, lower level = softer delivery.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Under PLACEMENT, I would also add the the type of room the mic will be PLACED in!!!

Record talent in a shoe box, you will never EQ out the comb filtering.


Speaking of shoe boxes, why do I always get ADR from NY shot in closets???
Is real estate that tight??

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Oh, pot shots from the other coast! I'd say your clients are not hiring the right places. Without knowing where your clients are working it is hard to comment except in general terms. Not everyone has "closets", but many do and the numbers are growing. I've gotten stuff from the west coast that was in a tiny room with a cheap microphone, so to imply it is only New York is not fair. I had a much longer post but I realized it will drag this thread off topic.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

A finer detail which I find very important (as i'm in the process of dubs) is breathing - if they follow when they breathe in the guide audio and whether they say a line in one breath or two truly affects performance as well and can sometimes go unnoticed.

Yush

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

This is a nice thread! Thanks dr. Sound. I agree with Yush. On lower budget projects a proper ADR script and ADR director are often non existent. Having subtle breaths , inhales, exhales, scoffs ect.. written into the ADR cues or at least recorded as a separate take for "breaths" or "vocal emotes" is very important. This is often an oversight and should not be if the ADR is meant to work!

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Hi Matt,

Apart from a breath/vocal emotives track i was implying breathing patterns during dialogue delivery - sometimes a word is said during an exhale or an inhale, sometimes a pause doesn't have a breath and the next few words are said in the same breath - it really helps in matching performance and emotion.

Yush.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Right on! ;) Tons of practical info in this thread!

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Haven't you been? It really is extremely tight! You should go, and when you get into your hotel room, try to reconcile that it isn't the entrance hall you're in, but the entire room! I once stayed at The Paramount and myself and my wife had to exit the bed on the same side.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

I say stickie this immediately.

Philip Perkins

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Good call!

Also, preparation (another P-word) can be a key element for a successful session. If you are the dialogue supervisor, make sure the ADR cues are well organized and that the paperwork is all in order. For the ADR mixer, taking some time before the session to program all the cues into markers can tremendously speed up the setup time between cues. For the ADR editor, preparing alt take tracks and splitting tracks for perspectives will speed up the job for the mixer, especially when they deal with clients that like to listen to several takes of lines at the final mix.

Hey Marti, great thread!

-Justin

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Marti, if you ever decide to write a book, I'll be the first customer... it would be on my reference shelf right next to Purcell's book!!!!

Not only is Marti a monster with the amount of stuff he knows, he's also extremely generous with his knowledge and experience... stand up guy all the way around.

Thanks as always Marti!!!

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

I wish I could convince a lot of actors to turn of their video monitor, I think it mesmerizes them to look at themselves.

I've been working with a lot of pre-teens lately, they are the best at ADR. I still haven't decided if it's because they're not acting, or they can only read it one way. But whatever it is it works . . . by the time their in their teens, they're not nearly as good at it.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

When mixing ADR for an interior, sometimes, if not most of the time, it is necessary to add some room refection to match the recorded dialog. Please make the verb you are using mono to match. I can't tell you how many times I hear this done incorrectly. I like using Altiverb with one of the classroom settings or one of the living room settings. Mono of course.

:)

Jim

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

If some one is recording ADR for me, and they use any reverb, they wont get hired for the next job. That's the rerecording mixers job.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

To be clear I was talking about mixing ADR not recording ADR.

Jim

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Back in the mid 80s I did some ADR sessions for a very old-school dialog editor using actual 35mm mag loops with no picture. I would play the loop through the stage monitor 3 times, and then mute it and record the actor saying the line in rhythm. We kept repeating this over and over without stopping the loop until the actor got it right. It was incredibly fast and the actors wound up matching the original rhythm and reading perfectly, but it's no good for changing the performance. Also, my recordist was exhausted at the end of the day from loading all those loops on the dummy.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Ahh. Much better. You had me worried.:o

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

In my experience, if you don't have Performance, everything else is immaterial.:( And I totally agree with the concept that you either get the ADR process immediately, or you never will.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

I might want to add three things which dramstically improved the quality of my ADR:

- This one is obvious: Get exactly the same mic(s) the location sound guys used.
- Get a boom operator !!!
- If possible and budget and times allow for it: Record on location.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Really?

I always did that in the past, because I didn't have a studio, but I assumed it was amateruish ....

That said, it worked beautifully, and didn't sound like ADR at all.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

This is all great stuff!
I do a little bit of ADR here and there (probably 1 session every couple of months) so its good to hear from the people in the know.
I don't have a lapel mic at all, and generally work with a couple of 416s, one close, one about 4 feet back. (Or swap the close mic for a U87 if requested)
One thing I was wondering, how many takes do you guys average per cue?
and does the recordist do any editing on the fly. (I often cut and finesse takes on the go.)

Personally I think there is nothing worse than bad ADR. I was watching a show last night and the opening scene was all ADR, and it was out of sync, it didn't sound spacially right, and the preformances were wooden.
No matter how good the pictures are, if the dialog isn't working, then the whole scene falls on its butt.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

That's the reason a lot of people are doing it! I first heard of that from the guy who did the sound for "Sacrifice" by Tarkovsky. It helped getting the actors (who hated looping) into the mood. You might have more control over the sound in the studio though, and it's a bit of a pain to setup your rig on location, but I found it really worth it.

Here's a fun clip from the ADR sessions on "The Fantastic Mr. Fox":
http://www.defactosound.com/?p=919

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Amen brotha.

Also - matching mics is always a good idea if possible.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Re. Fantastic Mr. Fox, that's a brilliant clip!

Its probably obvious but I thought worth mentioning - I think it's vital to get the actor in the same situation as they are in vision. So for instance if the actor is lying down or sitting, the actor should replicate this position during ADR where possible. In the past when I have mixed what I recorded, sometimes I have got actors to turn off mic or move away from the mic to match the action in vision... obviously this leaves you with a more inflexible recording but sometimes it makes things feel more natural.

Will

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Hi friends,

I'm new to ADR, I've done it twice successfully but I'm always wanting to learn better and more efficient ways to work. I'll have a big session soon, so I'm loving this thread right now.

I've seen in bigger stages they have a visual cue that helps the actor with timing. I'm wondering about some different techniques you guys use as far as visual and audio cues goes.

What I have done the last few times is to create 3 beeps, 3 seconds apart before the dialogue. It worked but left me thinking, is there a better way?

Does anyone use anything like VoiceQ?

Thanks in advance!

AL.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

You can use EdiCue to log your cues within a Pro Tools session. EdiCue uses these cues to create your PDFs as well as midi files to generate beeps and vision commands that can be sent to EdiPrompt. EdiPrompt can display a variety of visual cues including the text of the line. There's a video on the EdiCue page that gives you an overview.

Regards,

Mark

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

I always make an attempt to contact the sound recordist and find out what mics they used (if they aren't noted in the sound reports) and then hire them in.

Every little helps :)

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

I think this is one of the most important and mostly overlooked factors in good ADR.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

I still use this technique a lot for ADR. It takes some time to talk the actors into working that way but once they are convinced most of them love it.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Even though I am not a dedicated ADR recorder, I made quite allot of ADR as part of my job.
I adapted all the recommendations described above (long ago it was posted here) but some thing are still mysterious for me.
I always have a problem with ADR in the car or even in big buses.
No matter how close and good the actor performs, good mic placement (even tried with lavaliers), same mic (not just the model but the very one used on location). I even use same mixers as pres. Lets say if I recorded with SD788T on location, I will record in the studio through the same one.
I use Altiverb as my main verb or Revibe or VSS3.
Of course I add foley upper body, sfx such as rattling, engine, traffic wheels if needed.
But I never feel that I am satisfied 100% and to me it always keeps sounding ADR.
In fact I can always hear the ADR in the car when watching others movies in cinema.
Being said I can easily achieve nice results for other locations e.g. rooms, corridors, gyms, halls e.t.c.
What are you guys doing for car ADR to sound right? Or whats wrong with me?:confused:

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

I guess its the heavy comb filtering from the car windows that makes such a specific sound. I have had some success recording in a very dead room which sounded a bit car-like. I reckon for anything heavy duty Id try to run a session in a car - they are normally quiet enough for it to work, especially when combined with car engine fx.

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

Here's what I've been doing lately, and it helps a LOT with the tonal quality of my ADR. After recording and comping the take, I grab a frequency analysis of the original line with Bias' RepliQ, then I grab a frequency analysis of the ADR take and 'morph' it towards the original. Definitely helps place the ADR in the same sonic space as the original.

Of course I'm doing my own mixing on smaller projects. Wouldn't do anything like that for another mixer unless cleared in advance...

Chris

Re: How To : The ADR Gospel
 

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