Designing sound for theatre,trying to get a dead sound like video booth

[Sean L]

Hi I posted here previously about play I'm designing the sound for and I'm looking for some tips on creating a sort of dead video/mic booth like sound. The scene is 3 girls recording a sort of dating video, I suppose the trick is to concentrate on simulating the sounds they might hear from outside the booth, it's quite a big space -the theatre space that is- so trying to
supply the tone from inside the booth will be nigh on imposible I suppose taking into account the thetre's inherent reflections.
So has anybody got any tips for this for example how could i EQ the outsied sound to make then realistic, roll off some of the high freq's ??
Any help appreciated
Cheers
Sean

[philper]

Originally Posted by Sean L

Hi I posted here previously about play I'm designing the sound for and I'm looking for some tips on creating a sort of dead video/mic booth like sound. The scene is 3 girls recording a sort of dating video, I suppose the trick is to concentrate on simulating the sounds they might hear from outside the booth, it's quite a big space -the theatre space that is- so trying to
supply the tone from inside the booth will be nigh on imposible I suppose taking into account the thetre's inherent reflections.
So has anybody got any tips for this for example how could i EQ the outsied sound to make then realistic, roll off some of the high freq's ??
Any help appreciated
Cheers
Sean

It's pretty impossible to make the theatre itself sound dead (good theatres are designed to be a little bit live on purpose). Remember though that the room will be quite a lot LESS live when an audience is there--a crowd of people really cuts down the reveberation in a room. You've probably already thought of this, but since the characters are in a recording session it seems like it might be ok to have live mics in front of them--practical props so to speak. You could tune your PA level so that you get a very different (but equal level) sound in the room when they are on mic, recording, and off-mic, talking to each other....if the director buys it.

Philip Perkins

[santacore]

So has anybody got any tips for this for example how could i EQ the outsied sound to make then realistic, roll off some of the high freq's ??

Try a high cut around 2-3K with a fairly sharp slope. It's very simple and can be effective in conveying sound coming through walls.