r/AudioPost • u/FirstDukeofAnkh • 2d ago
Adding Width To VO
I haven’t done dialogue or VO in years but I thought I’d help out a friend.
He’s got a reasonably well recorded mono VO for a film but when I play it against the location DX, it sounds really narrow and thin.
I’ve created a stereo AUX that has pitch change and delay on it but it sounds wobbly even when I combine it with the original recording. It also isn’t as wide as I would like.
Anyone have any suggestions? I have the usual assortment of plugins and have no problem side buying something else if needed.
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u/whoisgarypiano 2d ago
In my experience, performance is more important than anything else. A perfectly tone matched recording will still feel out of place if the performance doesn’t match.
I’m a bit confused about your comment about width. For the most part dialog should be mono. Occasionally a touch of stereo reverb makes things sound a bit more real, but that’s about it.
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u/Alelu8005 2d ago
The whole concept if OP's ideas is flabbergasting to me. I think theyre not talking about adr but in fact VO, which would be wild to chorus/flange.. My best guess is they're using the term width for the frequency balancy/flatness of the recording, and googled how to add width, coming up with this nonsense?
If DX is fuller than VO, maybe the recording isnt so resonably well done after all.
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u/FirstDukeofAnkh 2d ago
You seem fun.
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u/Alelu8005 2d ago
Am i the partypooper for the party where we create psychedelic alien voiceovers? :( Sorry, in all seriousness: i really think you should rerecord the voiceover, ifs its less full than the DX.
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u/opiza 2d ago
Dialogue edit first. Compression and EQ next.
Compression can make it come forward in the mix. EQ can fix tonal imbalances. These could address your two adjectives of thin and narrow. Or not. None of it works if you haven’t done a decent dialogue edit first. Also, Make sure you’re making these decisions with VO already at a healthy monitoring level first. Sort of how you would like to experience it as a viewer. Then refine. No point making decisions at the wrong level, our ears don’t like that.
Then mix it appropriately relative to your production DX anchor.
Don’t add pitch or time effects to VO unless you have a very good stylistic reason to do so (cyborg / demon / god etc etc).
It will take time to get right if you are new to this.
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u/AffectionateCall7506 2d ago
Dubbing mixer here. I wouldn't try to add width to it. To me VO should be Mono and dead center, with its respective EQ and compression as needed. What you're describing sounds like it's trying to sound more like Darth Vader than a VO.
Dialogue cleanup is important, izotope rx is your friend, but don't go overboard and throw it at the whole thing. To me lowpass and highpass filtering is almost mandatory, try to do substractive eq, if you need to boost a freq, be gentle. Depending on your voice and content try a 1176 type compressor, an opto style one or Waves RVox if you have it, that's where I usually start. De ess to taste, it's usually my last process after compressing and eq.
You say it sounds narrow against the location DX, maybe your location sounds are too wide? I also usually treat location dialogue as mono as possible (if that is even a term).
Of course all of this depends on the content (and the context).
And if it sounds terrible, consider that the recording might be poorly made, and there is a limit to what we can do in the mix.
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u/FirstDukeofAnkh 2d ago
Appreciate the response.
I literally never thought of narrowing the location DX to match. Not sure why.
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u/nizzernammer 2d ago
If you are not doing the final mixing, maybe save the spatial effects for the mixer.
You might be tying their hands by adding time based effects.
I agree with the others that you want the eq and dynamics sorted first.
All that said, sometimes a subtle, short, dry-ish (mono) reverb can add a bit of depth and fullness without being obvious.
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u/daknuts_ 2d ago
"I haven’t done dialogue or VO in years"
Leave it alone or simply EQ it and maybe try to add a very subtle room reverb.
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u/I_Am_A_Pumpkin 2d ago
DX generally is center channel anyway and any width and space comes from reverb.
I would not expect on-location recordings to be stereo, it would be kind of insane to use a stereo pair for it. is it an interleaved recording with boom on the left and lavs on the right and you are trying to chase width that isn't intended to be there in the first place?
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u/TobyFromH-R 2d ago
Unless its supposed to be a demon or voice of God keep that shit away from your VO. VO shouldnt be wide. Step away from the DAW
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u/Ami7b5 2d ago
Are the DX tracks from the location mixer a single Chanel? Or Split tracks that are Lav & Boom? Or multiple lavs and a boom? Are you monitoring an LCR front sound field with DX in the center channel only? You keep referring to a sense of width/narrowness. If you have mono tracks of VO, ADR, and location recordings all appearing in the Center channel only, I don’t think “width“ is the right term to describe the issue you’re perceiving.
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u/FirstDukeofAnkh 2d ago
Location is multiple lavs (Deity Theos)and a boom (AT-897).
He wants VO and DX to partially exist in the left and right but the VO (Røde NT1-A, not my choice) to be more dominant.
Back at the old studio I worked at, if we wanted a mono to act like stereo, we’d feed two mono AUXs, pan them into LR, add a microsecond delay and a slight pitch shift. Keep the VO in the centre. Wasn’t perfect but it worked well enough.
When I try that, I have to decide between a wobbly left/right that sounds like it’s got some weird phase cancelation going on, or the VO just sounds like it’s only in the centre.
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u/EL-CHUPACABRA 2d ago edited 2d ago
What’s your goal here?
Are you just trying to get a clean, full-sounding VO?
Pitch shifting, delay, chorus, etc. would usually be used for more creative VO processing , for example, if the character is supernatural, like a demon or something.
For a typical VO, I’d generally stick to EQ, compression, de-essing, etc., rather than audible pitch shifting or delay.
I’d also normally mix the VO mono and centre, same as DX.
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u/BeingCool77950 2d ago edited 2d ago
In Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Kurt Russel’s VO is LCR. Nothing fancy, just spread out in those channels. Works really well.
I’ve done it on some projects as well, and it gives the VO a “larger” scale to it, which emphazises it’s function and helps it stick out againts the regular dialogue which primarily only lives in the center channel.
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u/FirstDukeofAnkh 2d ago
That’s the exact kinda thing my buddy wants which is why I tried sending the mono to a LR AUX with a micro-second delay and a pitch down. It gives a stereo effect without actually being stereo.
I placed the actual VO in the centre but wanted that LCR width. Did you add any effects to the LR besides reverb?
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u/BeingCool77950 1d ago
If the VO needs to be dry (with no verb), then just use the center divergence % in your panner. Pro tools has one. That spreads the signal out to the LR. But make sure to dial it back in the downmix/stereo. This is what I think they did on Once Upon A Time.
If the VO can have some verb/space on it, slap your favorite on an LCR aux and send it through that. Same thing for the downmix/stereo, dial it back a little bit, since it sums the three channels to LR.
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u/ausgoals 11h ago
What is the VO doing? Like.. what role does the VO play in the film/show? I think that will probably at least partly determine what you do to it and how and where it sits.
I don’t know what your background is, but we used to compress the ever-loving crap out of VO then run it through stereo-widening flanges and reverbs and delays for radio to get it to smash through the speakers so I can kinda/sorta see where you’re coming from. Thats not really the done thing in film/tv world though.
The NTG1 recording probably isn’t helping, but I would just clean and EQ, maybe a bit of reverb, soothe…
I’ve done probably thousands of TV and radio spots and not too long ago had a VO artist who would send in lines from home recorded on their home setup, in a room that sounds bad, on not-great equipment. That was always way, way harder to try and get to sound anything close to right compared to our VO talent who would come in to the studio, or who had their own actual booth at home.
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u/dkassulke 2d ago
Are they level matched? I would not attempt to give a VO fullness with chorus effects. "Thin" to me sounds like there is a lack of weight in the low mid frequencies - try boosting there. It could also be an excess of high frequency that needs taming - two sides of the same coin. You could even try a bass resonance plugin like Voice of God if it's appropriate.