Hi Everyone,

I've got some amateur short film audio that was badly damaged, then repaired. Two lines were so bad they needed ADR. The rest is now fine but unfortunately, people using headphones have said these two lines still stick out like a sore thumb. So for now, it still means I can't release my film.

Can anyone blend them seamlessly to the ears of most audiences? I'll warn you now, it might be quite the challenge. Nevertheless, this is what I have to work with, with no chance of reshoots.

The first file is a portion of the audio as it exists now and you can hear when it goes wrong (00:17-00:22 and 00:57-01:00). The second is the two ADR takes. The files are lined up with the same timings - and it's all just of one actress with no music or SFX, which makes it easier. There's enough audio either side of the two lines in the main file that you can hear what she's supposed to sound like overall.

You can download the files here.

And if you can work a miracle with this and blend them both in to perfection, I have $125 to give you. PM me with a sample, and we can go from there.

Thanks for reading,

Lee

Taking a look now.

-Kai

Is the artifacting something from bouncing at a low res, or from noise reduction?

I'm wondering the same thing.

Did someone get this right already? Cause I think I might have a viable version here....

Edit: in any case, I PMed you my version of this.

Thanks to everyone who took a look and PMed me about this one.

I'm not even sure what bouncing at low res means - I'm the scriptwriter and director, and we had to do a hack job on the sound because our sound man let us down at the last minute - but I can tell you that there was some serious noise reduction on this. We had a pretty horrible file to start with, so the fact that it sounds this good and we managed to save it at all is amazing. It's taken me over a year to get it to this state and find the right people, when so many others told me I'd have to scrap all our hard work entirely.

Having listened to all the options, I'm going to go with dariva's version. It sounds incredible, but thanks again to everyone else who put themselves forward. As much as I'd love to compensate everyone for their time, I couldn't really think of any fairer way to put this task out there, so I hope the experience was still valuable to those who tried in some way. You guys on this forum are truly impressive and hopefully I can return in future if I'm in a similar pickle.

glad you found someone to work on the project. If you can, do share the link to the final project, the video i mean.

I have to write this down for the next time I need to pay for my dinner in 3 different restaurants and I just pay for the one I thought was best.

ah, the world of audio post...just so different than the real world, isn't it?

It doesn't make sense to send out an already processed file to match to. The actual process of cleaning up noise etc changes the sound and often makes it harder to match a clean line to. It's more often much easier to have the original to work on.

I recommend you consider that for the future. And pay people well so you don't end up with crap.

I wouldn't say that implication is always true nowadays.
This thread is living proof. Have X people work on solving a problem and just pay one of them for the awesome solution.

The sad thing is that the OP thinks that this is the **fairest** possible way of doing it.

Say what you want, but the OP was upfront with the process.
Everyone 'taking a shot' has to blame just himself.

Screw dinner, I'm going to try that with hookers....

Yes, that's exactly what meant.
Still sad that the outcome of this is that the OP thinks it's the fairest possible way of letting people work for you.

Just because it's upfront doesn't make it fair.

Sorry if I was unclear; I wasn't talking about people in this thread. What I meant was that I've seen numerous examples where people try to save money during production only to get screwed, then having to scramble in post to save what they can.

If you actually think your analogy through, particularly in how you've used it to try and criticise the above, you'll find it doesn't work. I didn't "eat multiple dinners" because I asked for samples - and that is all I expected to receive, all I should have received, and all I have received. The first one who could prove they could do the job is the one I'd pay money to, since no-one can afford infinite audio engineers (or infinite meals, either). How do you propose I find out who could actually do the job any other way when I otherwise have nothing else to go on but a username?

If we keep going with your analogy, it actually supports how I tried to do this in the fairest way possible for both parties. Let's say that in putting my original thread out there, I was out the street looking for a vendor, since that's pretty much what internet forums can be like. If you've ever been to any street food market, you'll know that the vendors give out samples of food.

Funny that I should mention samples again because that's exactly what I asked for - so it's a business model that exists in the real world, one that was mirrored here, and one that other people were willing to comply with. I'm very grateful they did. So three free dinners? No, sir and your accusations are unfounded.

Looking back over the thread, there was only one person who contributed nothing but unwarranted criticism. As such, thank you to the rest of you on this forum for your knowledge and patience for those like me who are not skilled in your field. You're a credit to your profession.

Weird, this is the same project that had only 48 hours to be saved way back in June.
48 hours to save my short film! $150 to anyone who can help!!

I know.

Tragedy of the commons - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

No, it's not weird and given that you and I worked together on it, and you have my personal email address, you could have asked me directly if you had any questions. If I remember, you even offered that I come back to you with any future work.

There's a very simple explanation: Then, it was 48 hours before entering the project to a particular film festival. That was made clear in the link you've provided.

Now, the festival deadline has of course long since passed, but anonymous viewer feedback I'd commissioned afterwards said that the work performed on it left the ADR in a particularly jarring state. This thread is to try and correct that, to anyone who is able, so that I have a decent copy I can pass out to everyone who worked on it and that it can be watched as it was intended.

How are multiple people depleting a common resource in this instance?

I may not know audio.. but I do know economics:

Invitation to Tender - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They are working against there own best interests. i.e 5 people do the work and 1 is picked after it is done. If that ever became the normal way of doing things the industry would be ****ed.

And you didnt do a call for bids. You had multiple people do the work and then picked from the finished products.

Now I actually don't really care that you went about it this way but it is a tragedy of the commons.

I would care if this forum became a place for low budget film makers to come and piece meal their audio post together. There is actually a subsection for that very activity

That is completely and utterly false. I asked for samples. I got samples. I didn't ask or expect anyone to perform the full job, nor know how much work would be involved to do so before a sample could be created to confirm they could do it in the first place. Indeed, extra work is taking place to complete the job.

Secondly, you've still got the "tragedy of the commons" completely wrong. You're trying to employ an economic theory which doesn't fit. Those who were willing to spend time enough to generate a sample "depleted" their own "resource" of their own time only and willingly. One technician didn't remotely affect the time that any other had to spend on doing it or anything else, so there's no common resource and the only tragedy is that you insist on contributing nothing but negatively, just as I experienced before on these boards. Fortunately, there are plenty of others who've help to improve the reputation of your industry far better.

Finally, please tell me the alternative system you'd propose for both parties to be happy and complete this work. Are you suggesting that I should simply have asked "Who can integrate some ADR for me?" and wait for someone to say yes before paying money to a stranger on the internet on the basis of having no idea if they were remotely qualified? Because foolish as it was, I've gone through that already, they couldn't do it and it's cost me several hundred dollars I'll never get back and I'm still without the work I needed.

I take full responsibility for the situation in the first place, as I should, and I can assure you that I've learned from it. But if the best way of spending your own time is to criticise that, then it's a shame you're not so sh*t hot at audio yourself to be paid to be somewhere else right now doing it instead.

You do your colleagues a disservice, sir.

sure buddy. From your initial post it appeared to me that all the work was there for all to do. Not a test and then you would pick who would do the rest. Maybe I'm not so good at reading but this:

"And if you can work a miracle with this and blend them both in to perfection, I have $125 to give you. PM me with a sample, and we can go from there."

Sure sounds like "send me back a sample of your completed work and if I like it I'll pay you and you can send the rest." But maybe your "we can go from there" meant you had more crappy adr that needed fitting.

But hey I get it. I've worked for free. Ive worked unpaid overtime. Hell I've even worked unpaid.

At any rate the commons (as I see it) is all audio post needing done. Someone commented "Everyone 'taking a shot' has to blame just himself." My response was that no, they arent to blame. The system is to blame. I wasn't even saying YOU were to blame. But feel free to make comments about my personal work if that makes you feel better. I havent seen or heard a frame of your work so I will refrain from returning that petty bs.

In the future if you dont want the general public commenting on your work offer threads you should put them in the right place:

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/post-jobs-offered/

I think you've just done my job for me. Thanks for saving me the trouble.

Whatever dude.

"$125 to anyone who can integrate THIS ADR"

links to file. gets mad.

Not sure why the OP decided to add the "ch" but the name seems fitting...

rimshot.

You stay classy now.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed as requested, and for not being one of these guys.

You saying

" But if the best way of spending your own time is to criticise[sic] that, then it's a shame you're not so sh*t hot at audio yourself to be paid to be somewhere else right now doing it instead."

Is petty bs. You then quote me calling you on it and tell me to stay classy? Buhahaha. You have some thin skin. The internet is not a place for you.

Maybe that upset you because it's true, as all you've been able (and continue) to contribute is literally nothing but timewasting snark.

Well, that or quote economic theories that don't apply.

Or post animated gifs.

Or think you've highlighted a misspelling.. when you haven't. British English, dude. I already know you're ignorant. You don't need to prove it to me any further.

And in the meantime, I'm still waiting for you to answer the question of how else I could've posted this without knowing whether anyone would be remotely qualified for the job.

If you want to have people do samples and pick from them thats up to you. If people want to take you up on that its up to them. What you should of done, to not have everyone else comment on your thread, is post it in the correct section. You didnt do this because you wanted more traffic to get more responses to the work you needed done. Well the flip side is going to be other people making comments in that thread aside from those taking the adr bucket challenge. Thats the price you pay.

I already explained why I thought the economic theory applies in this regard. In fact you flew off the handle because somehow it offended you that I was responding to someone else in your thread? Why is that? Why would you be so offended? You need to thicken up buddy - especially if you want to work as a creative.