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Published On: Sat, Oct 24th, 2020

Top Tips For Successful Automated Dialog Replacement (ADR)

If you’re thinking of applying ADR to your business videos, these tips can help ensure you get a fantastic end result. 

It can be frustrating, and costly, to complete a video for your business only to find there are audio issues. The good news is that there is a common technique used to rectify the issue: Automated Dialog Replacement or ADR. 

photo/ ClkerFreeVectorImages via Pixabay.com

This technique is where you re-record the dialogue featured on a video if the original recording is missing, noisy or generally low quality. It’s a common practise in Hollywood films with around 10% of all film audio you hear being ADR. 

Despite ADR being such a fantastic solution for a bad original audio recording, it can be time consuming. It also needs to be done in such a way that it produces a high quality replacement. 

If your business is considering using ADR to correct a professional video, these tips will help you ensure that the result is as high-quality as possible: 

Looping Techniques

Looping is where you record new dialogue as the voiceover talent hears the original audio. Two techniques can be used to produce the new audio. Visual looping is where the voice over actor listens to the original audio over and over until they can match the tone and style. They will then watch the original take and lip sync the audio in real time to record a new version. 

With audio looping the scenario is similar only the visuals aren’t played back to the voice actor and the original audio track isn’t muted. 

Some engineers will use a mixture of the two techniques to produce the best results. The key is to provide the best cues to the voice-over talent to enable them to hit their audio at the right time. 

Image/pixabay

Cleaner Second Recordings

If your original audio recording was low quality, cleaner second recordings rely on you treating the space you record your ADR in. There are lots of ways to do this, many of which are low cost. You can find some handy tips here

Equipment Consistency

It is important to be consistent with the equipment used in the original recording, and in the ADR recording to ensure the audio matches. All microphones are different in the way they capture sound, so it is important the voice over recording is done in the same type as the original recording. 

Audio Production

Using video editing software to edit audio will usually produce inferior results compared to using proper audio production software. You can find a list of the best digital audio workstations here

Voice Over Talent

It is important that you use a trained voiceover agency actor to deliver the new lines. Their delivery and tone should completely match the original audio, so it helps if they can fully perform the lines rather than just speak them. The professional voice over agency you use should be able to source an appropriate actor to match these needs. 

Post-Production

You can use special software to produce ADR dialogue that is in sync with the visual aspects of the video. It helps make the process of syncing the audio a little bit speedier than doing it manually, but it depends on your budget as to whether or not that is an option for your business. 

You will then need to add the audio tone from the original location, EQ and reverb which can be done well using special plugins, but again, it depends on your budget. 

Your ADR Can Be Phenomenal With The Right Approach

When you are boosting the quality of a video with an ADR it is a really good idea to hire excellent talent from a voice over agency. The experience and expertise of the actor will help so that you can get the technical side nailed. With the right approach, you can correct the original audio on your video put out a high-quality piece that matches the kind of professional output your brand is known for. 

Author: Anne Preston

 

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