Virtual Audio Post

As budgets are stretched to the limit, it's understandable that some areas of production have to give.  Unfortunately, sometimes audio is one of them.  As an audio post production company, we'd like to see everything properly mixed and processed, but we understand the financial constraints.

More and more people are now mixing their audio within their editing platform.  Some systems have good processing tools and mixing capabilities, but do you know what they do and how to apply them? What's the best compression ratio to use?  Should you use a limiter?  How about getting rid of a hiss or a buzz?  And forget the 'auto' button.  You obviously want the best for your production master?  Fear not, Hullabaloo is here to help and you don't even have to leave the edit suite!

With Virtual Audio Post, you save money because your not doing the whole audio post process, but your soundtrack is improved and will be technically correct for any market in the world.

So here's how it works.  You can either supply your final mix on a CD/DVD, or upload it to our FTP site.  From there we will assess the audio and email you with a definitive cost (see the time guide below).  On your sign off, we'll do the Virtual Audio Post and then send it back to you.  That's all there is to it!

We're offering this service at a great introductory rate so you can see what a difference Virtual Audio Post can make.  Our hourly rate will be reduced to only $130.00.  Have a look at the table below to see how cost effective it is to have your sound mastered.

(These times are estimates only)

As you can see by these estimates, it's very cost effective to get the most you can out of your audio track.  The studio time includes download time, time to assess and apply processors, the real time bounce to make your final master and the upload to the server. Costs will vary slightly depending on work required.

The benefits you'll experience are a much more even soundtrack.  No more bits jumping out of the speaker or other bits you can't hear.  Punch.  Your sound will cut through more.  Clarity.  'Dialogue is king' as they say and clarity helps make it that way.  Loudness.  Your soundtrack will be much louder.  In Spec.  Technically correct levels for use anywhere in the world.  Find out more about the technical aspects of mastering below.

Hear an example of Virtual Audio Post in action!

Email geoff@hullabaloo.com.au for more information.

This is not a replacement for audio post.  Full audio post production will give a superior result as it allows processing and mixing on individual audio grabs.

Technically Speaking

These days everything is loud.  Compare an old album in your collection to a recent release.  They are miles apart.  Mastering engineers back then could only dream of getting so much out of something that wasn't blowing the meters apart.  It's also true of television sound.  Today's digital audio processors are very intelligent and combined with the psycho acoustic principles they employ, we hear amazing results.  It's a combination of compressing, limiting and equalisation.

So what does each processor do?  When we use a compressor, we're trying to pull down or 'control' peak sounds, which 'flattens' the audio or shrinks the dynamic range.  The effect is that the audio sounds louder overall.  We can also use a multi-band compressor that allows compression on a range of frequencies only.  A limiter does the same thing except it works on higher compression ratios and it also allows us to set a maximum level to the master format so we will always be within excepted specifications.

Have a look at the waveforms below.

This is a voice recording.  The top one is unprocessed. That's a direct record into Pro-Tools.  The one in the middle has been put through a compressor. You can see how it is more even.  It may appear smaller than the first waveform, but what we can do now is boost the level because we have controlled the peaks.  Next is the limiter.  This has been used to bring up the entire level.  Look at the difference between the small peaks from the original to the final.  They are in some cases, almost as loud as the high peaks!  Those small peaks are parts of words or small words, that are now much easier to hear.  You can even see that it's louder!

Equalisation is the process of using filters to control specific frequencies within a signal.  For example, if your recording of a voice on location is lacking high frequencies, you could enhance them with equalisation making the voice sound more natural and clear.

So what does this mean to your production?  It means it can be improved.  It's got more  'punch', clarity and sounds better on the final thing most people listen to, the 3" speaker.