Those guys laughing behind the cameras...
 

I see it all the time on news channels where the news anchor will say something funny spontaneously and those guys in the backstage with the monitoring headphones on burst out laughing (which really adds to the "funny-effect" of the joke). So here is the deal...

I would like to add some of these "background" laughters (just like on a news broadcast - NOT a sitcom) to some of my shoots to make it appear as though there is a rather large production crew in my studio and also to make my jokes appear to be much funnier than they actually are. :) Problem is, the fake laughter I have had some friends try for me is coming out fake sounding because it is, indeed... fake. Also my studio is not nearly as large as Studio B at FOX News and the laughter sounds like it is in a small room. Anyone know where I could find an audio track for this particular SFX? Any other ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

If the laughter sounds faked because it IS faked, I'd worry more about the jokes not really being very funny than about the techniques of recording the 'laughter.' Get the content and the performance right and the audience will never notice the size of the studio.

When I said I'd like to make my jokes appear funnier than they actually are, I was just being cute. The jokes are hilarious, but done in a way that the anchor does not find them funny the least bit. Since we don't have a large studio, or a large set of techs in the background, I was wondering if there was a solution (SFX?) out there to get this effect.

Why not just get a few people together in the studio and record them laughing?

You might try:

http://creativecommons.org/

They have a lot of different sounds, free to use, under an "Open Source" license.

My point was that if the crew's laughter sounds faked it more likely because it is faked rather than in the technique used to record it. It takes skilled actors to make it sound real. Adding FX laughter isn't really fixing it - far better to make the jokes funny enough that the crew really is breaking up and laughing genuine laughter. Real works better than acting every time. <g>

Have your pals re-record a few short bursts of laughter. Have each person do it separately, and a couple together so you have a few options in how you want your crew to 'get it' and respond with a chuckle, and this gives you latitude to play around with the timing to make it 'feel' more spontaneous.

Don't have them record it right into the mic because its responsiveness will make it sound too polished, and these crew folks are usually not near a mic. Typically, in a news scenario, the anchors are wearing lavs, and the noises of the crew are being picked up through them, so you want your laughing folks to be standing some distance away from the mic.

If it still sounds too much like a small room, you might try to simulate the feel of what I described by highly compressing your laugh tracks, remove most of the low end or muddy it up a bit, and add a little bit of slap.

Hope this helps.
-Jon

Your anchor may be a better judge. :)

Regards,

Ty Ford