Audio Needs Love, Too

I must confess that I have committed the sin of giving the visuals of a project all the TLC while audio just gets a cursory level check. The truth is, the sound of a project needs to be just as good as the video. If the audio for a montage is just a song, there isn't much more to do than slap it onto the audio track. But once you've done one of those videos, you're ready to enhance the audio for even a summer camp montage.  This church documentary demonstrates the following suggestions to explore the use of audio in church video projects.

Liven up your video with source audio.

If you're cutting in a shot of an audience reaction or children at play, why not use the audio? If you have some nice shots of a guest speaker at day camp, dip the music and let the person speak for a moment. The children's pastor announces the winner, the crowd cheers, and then the music track takes over again as the montage continues. Now what would have been a run-of-the-mill montage music video has the feel of a professional documentary.

Then clean up the audio.

Once you are happy with the timing of your project, give every clip of audio the attention it deserves. If there is background noise during an interview clip, apply an EQ filter and clean it up. Professional editing suites like Final Cut Studio enable the editor to export an audio clip to the audio software for sweetening. It is worth the time to even just learn how to isolate background noise and clean it out.

Mix well before serving.

Make sure the music dips far enough to let the voices be heard. Ambient sounds from ocean waves to cheering crowds should be nestled comfortably beneath the foreground audio. One-second fades will seamlessly transition the sound from one clip to the next even if the video uses a straight cut. Even a two-frame fade will soften an audio cut. Perhaps there are times when there should be no music at all. A daring choice, but when the music returns, it has all the more punch.

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