Setting Audio Levels for Video in Easy Way. To make good work, you may spend a lot of time setting the best audio levels for video along with the best scene on set. Editing the audiovisual aspect of your work will be challenging to do. Correcting the picture’s color needs a lot of time rather than choosing the best shot to put on your work.
However, you need more effort to make the sounds good and fit with the picture perfectly. In the end, audio is the most under-appreciated and overlooked aspect of making good videos. Even though, it perhaps is an important element in your work.
People can easily overlook subpar cinematography, still subpar audio won’t be forgiven. In advance, the subpar audio will disturb the audiences and makes them disengaged from your work. That’s why you must know how to set audio levels for video to make it perfect.
Correct Your Audio Levels
The debate about the right audio level is still discussed online until today. There’s no signal that the debate will end soon, but everyone agrees on one thing; don’t ever go above 0db. Although NLE has allowed raising to 6db, it will be better to keep the audio below 0db. More than that, your audio will be easily distorted.
Mostly, video experts agree that the standard audio for all kind of sound should be -10db to -20db. Normally, the most comfort zone to set audio is around -12db until -8db. There is no exact number agreed by the experts, but it is better to avoid 0db.
Basically, you can trust your ears to guide when you’ve complied with these rules. But, audio levels for video are depending on what kind of video/ film that you’re producing. Each genre has different but unique characteristic. For example, when making a film you may use more range level than making a web commercial. To summarize in detail, look at these recommendation level;
- Music: -18db to -22db
- Dialogue: -12 to -15db
- Overall Mix Level: -10db to -14db
- Sound effects: -10db to -20db
The Need for Using Bars and Tone
When watching TV stations, you may see color bars at the beginning of tape recording. The bars and tone there have a function to calibrate system which can optimize your playback feature. Having both of them is not a must if you just make a simple video.
Bars usually consist of various colors to cover the screen, while the tone is just a sign that sounds like a long beep. The tone itself has no standard to the broadcaster preferences. Each of them has its own default, for example in FCPX that the default is -12db and Premiere Pro that sets its default at -20db.
You can apply a nice trick to simply set your decibels at -6db to -24db. Although in most circumstances, bars and tone are not even needed to put on your video. It’s just an extra if you want to make your work looks more artistic.
Truthfully, the audio levels play a huge part in creating a pro video. A lot of things should be considered carefully to adjust the best audio. The additional elements like limiters, noise reducer, compressors, http://178.128.113.55 and EQ will definitely contribute to balance your audio levels for video.