Quote:
Originally Posted by soundguydave  I'm not talking very drastic eq or compression, but if it sounds good now, why wouldn't it sound good later? If the VO sounds great during your recording, the client won't start second guessing themselves and get down on the VO. The auditions they heard we're probably eq'd and compressed too. |
I´m talking film here:
This discussion is similar to an older argument about wether loacation mixers should EQ or compress their audio on set.
Their main point was:
-If it sounds good to them on set why do it later?
-If you can do it on set why forward the work to post?
-The director will be happier during the shoot when he watches the dailies with a scratch-track.
All similar to what you´re saying.
My point is:
-When you´re recording single raw elements (be it VO, FX or location sound) there´s no way for you to know in what sound-context in the final mix the elements will end up like or sound like. You are doing EQ and cmpression "al gusto" to your taste in a situation where all other sound elemets are in a rough stage at best, if at all there.
This is not about you being skilled or not. You simply can not know how much compression or EQ could be too much. We all know the effect when you listen to a great music-mix and then you solo the kick-drum and it will sound like butt on it´s own but awesome when you un-solo.
-About the director being happier during the recording: He might turn into the exact oposite later on the mixing stage when the compression you added turns out to be unusable.
-About the time-saving aspect: Where´s the time saving when you have to reverse-enginieer an unusable compression during the mix compared to compressing the VO for the first time spot on during the final mix?
Like someone pointed out earlier: At least record an untreated second track to give the final mixer a chance to fall back to that if necessary. if the treated track is good, fine, everyone will be happy and come back for the next film.
Your milage might vary here depending on what kind of branch you´re recording for.
The above was strickly referring to film work.