The Lecture

Lucy Mitchell is a freelance sound editor and pre-recorder mixer. She makes sound for television and has worked on shows including Eastenders, Top Gear and The Voice UK. She stated that working in the audio industry relies on two things: good technical knowledge and communication skills.

She discussed some useful skills that she regularly applies to her work. firstly, she talked about editing voiceovers. It’s important to have dialogue synced perfectly to the visuals. Every syllable must match the lip-movements of any characters seen on the screen. It’s also important to remove breaths and lipsmacks, and to smooth over any clicks. Next, she talked about music. It’s important to cut music to shot changes within films. Crossfades/transitions between music and musical parts can be hidden behind other sound effects.

She also talked about sound effects. Sound editors must make reasonable decisions on when certain effects should be mono or stereo. most often, distant objects would be best suited in stereo (or at least their reverb would). If you render an effect, always keep the original unedited audio file as well in case any alterations have to be made. In some scenes, it might be best to use as few sound effects as possible – less is more. It all depends on what the scene is and what kind of a mood you’re trying to portray.

How might this lecture apply to my audio project?

I’ve learned some good skills on cleaning vocal tracks. These will certainly help me edit my vocal recordings.