Making Sound Clip as Loud as Possible

[Will Hanlon]

What can I do aside from boosting an audio clip's levels to make it as loud as possible? Say I want a gunshot to be extremely loud and shock the audience. What can I do in mixing? Any ideas? Thanks.

[Mike Peter Reed]

It's all about the dynamic range of your soundtrack. There can be no loud if there is no quiet.

[Damon Gaskin]

Hi Will, I am sure some of the experts can chime in, but I would think, raising the level of say a mic close to the gunshot versus the other sounds being lowered if you wished to go the mixing route(I must admit I am a novice, but this is sort of just common sense thought to me).

I would think though, that doing it in post and isolating the sound and boosting its amplitude, but not to the point of distortion would be better... If it were me, I would probably record the gunshot separately with a very near mic so it would be really loud for shock value, and then in post or the editor, simply drop it on the timeline. You should then be able to adjust it to fit your needs I would think. If need be, you could boost it a little in an audio editor also(once again, just my thought process as a novice...)?

Damon

[Jim Boda]

Originally Posted by Will Hanlon

What can I do aside from boosting an audio clip's levels to make it as loud as possible? Say I want a gunshot to be extremely loud and shock the audience. What can I do in mixing? Any ideas? Thanks.

As previously stated...you want things to get quiet before the shot to enhance the contrast. You want the listener to almost lean in to hear and then... baammm!

I would also want to enhance certain low frequencies so that the listener could also "Feel" the shot. Make it fat.

[Giroud Francois]

energy of sound is contained easily into high frequency than low.
so make it sound like a "clap" more than a "boom". Loudspeaker from TV set are anyway more effective in medium/high range than in low.
Dynamic also is the key. You need to keep sounds preceding the shot with low dynamic (and preferrably medium level).
low dynamic can be obtained by cutting high frequencies or using compressor or limiters.
if you ask , dynamic is the amount of modulation of a signal, while level is the average between the lowest and highest level. So you can have a high level audio with poor dynamic (modulation) or medium audio level with high modulation.
This trick is often overused in advertising for voice (especially radio) , at the point it is now regulated to avoid transmission problems.

[Glenn Davidson]

Waves Ultramaximizer does a fine job of making a normalized file sound louder.

[Glenn Chan]

Use compression to make it sound right (Waves Ultramaximizer is one).

See this article:
http://www.dv.com/columns/columns_it...cleId=19202270
registration may be required.

His book (audio post production for digital video) I'm pretty sure has some good info on doing this.

[Bob Grant]

Gunshots are very brief, I doubt compression is going to help, in fact it could well work against the aim here. A better approach to making impulse sounds like gunshots or things crashing onto the floor scary is to turn everything else down, i.e. leave enough headroom.
An old trick in horror movies is to get the dialogue down so everyone is straining to listen or turned their TVs up, and then the gunshot or something metallic hits the floor or the unseen cat lets out a wail. Gets 'em every time.
Also if you can get a good gunshot sound helps too, so your audience hears the bullet zing past.

[Will Hanlon]

Thanks for your help guys.

[Glenn Davidson]

I made a before and after using Waves Ultramaximizer. Files are posted below

[Glenn Davidson]

OK...here are the files. Both are nomalized to .2 db below digital 0.

[Glenn Chan]

Compression helps bring out the tail end of the gunshot sound... all that roar that comes after the initial bit/impulse. Glenn has a good example in his two clips (and I'm not just complimenting him because he has the same name as me! honest...).

[Bob Grant]

To me the first one sounds like a far away gunshot, after the compression has stretched it out it becomes a small explosion. Both are loud but neither sound close by and I think that is the trick to making an FX sound loud, it has to sound close if you want your audience it jump.
Not the fault of the compression, the original FX sounds like it was recorded from a good distance from the gun and probably not in front of it either. Which is interesting because in my brief look for good gunshot FXs they all seem to have this same problem. I've heard very realistic gunshots used in Hollywood productions and I think they're recorded with a stereo mic close to the path of the bullet. I guess those guys can afford to loose the odd mic or two.
Our perception of how close a sound is has as much to do with its spectrum as it's volume, muffled sounds seem further away even if they're quieter than less muffled sounds. Both of those sounds seem far away, the quiet snap of dry twig would sound closer and depending on the scene more troubling than the distant booms.

[Jim Boda]

Originally Posted by Bob Grant

...I've heard very realistic gunshots used in Hollywood productions and I think they're recorded with a stereo mic close to the path of the bullet. ...

If the Gunshot were in the initial recording phase, I'd definitely want to close mic it at the Hammer, at the barrell and also have a few versions with the mic at selected distances (also use different mics). The acoustic environment would effect any distant mic sounds. A plethera of mic techniques would give you something to work with when it comes to mix time.

We don't really have any information on how this gunshot was recorded or what kind of gun is used. We also don't know who the audience is...film or video? And we don't know if it's a closeup shot for how "close" it needs to sound to match the image. All we know is that it needs to be exaggerated and sudden. It needs to be punched up w/ a little EQ and a little compression. It can't be thin or toyish.

[Cole McDonald]

To trick the audience even more, you can slowly ramp the volume down over several seconds to get quieter (not too quiet though)...their ears will adapt to the new volumes slowly, then BANG!