Sound Mixing for Game Commentary?

BennyinHD

BennyinHD

Member
Hey guys.

How do you guys mix your commentary over the game sound? For my previous videos, I just slapped the commentary over the game footage but the sound always seemed kind of off or too loud. For my latest video, I took the audio track of the video and my commentary audio and compressed them together but my voice barely seems to cut through. I could use some suggestions.

The video is called "Battlefield 4 Beta - Cool. Can I try?"
 
Before recording, make sure that in the game, the audio is turn down to a decent enough volume, less mixing will be needed later on. That's how i roll anyhow :)
I use Fraps usually so both my voice and game recording come under the same track so i need to make sure in every game i have the volume down.
 
Just use DXTory. You can create 2 audio lines, one for windows sound (your game) and one for your microphone. Then in editing you bring up both of the sound lines and lower the volume of the in game sound.
 
Like PET said DXTory auto does that. I'm using a C985 that auto records commentary but s****y AVermedia screwed up and the commentary is always roughly 1 second off. I can sync it up but sometimes it's never 100%. I'd suggest always trying to find software or hardware (even better to reduce PC strain) that allows both game audio and commentary to be seperately recorded but synced to the second. What I do if the game audio is too loud is just lower the dB in Premiere and if the commentary is too low even after editing in Audacity, I increase it usually by 10-15dB. If you have areas where it's not loud enough, or you mumble, only thing you can do is manually edit those by increase the dB at that point.
 
Thanks for your inputs! I use Dxtory and the recording isn't the issue since they come out in separate files and volume is fine for the original recordings.

I guess I was wondering if the mix quality was something I should be worried about to get better overall audio of the video. I might be over-thinking the whole thing.

Thanks everyone!
 
BennyinHD said:
Thanks for your inputs! I use Dxtory and the recording isn't the issue since they come out in separate files and volume is fine for the original recordings.

I guess I was wondering if the mix quality was something I should be worried about to get better overall audio of the video. I might be over-thinking the whole thing.

Thanks everyone!
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Yeah don't over think to too much. As long as people can hear you clearly. I was going nuts over things like subtle breathing and popping noises made by the mouth. But I realised it was mainly noticable when using my headset and not speakers, I also wore my headset to listen to other YouTubers like pewdie, nanners and 2bfp and realised their audio is pretty much the same at times lol Like I said just adjust the dB/volume of the commentary if it's too low. I checked the video, the audio is pretty clear, you just need to up the volume on the gameplay and commentary as they're pretty low. I always find having my windows volume at 20 is a good reference point and from there I increase or decrease the audio to suit. I find once it's exported and ends up on YouTube, it's a tad bit louder for some reason. So I end up having to turn it down.
 
AndrewReviewYou said:
If you have areas where it's not loud enough, or you mumble, only thing you can do is manually edit those by increase the dB at that point.
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Let me correct that, you can put an audio compressor on the commentary which will basically bring the loudest and quietest peaks in your audio file closer to each other, and afterwards you will bring the gain up a bit again resulting in an overall much louder audio file. Think about how they do that with radio, they compress the sh*t out of all the music.
 
For vocals, Normalize, compress, normalize, remove noise. Then adjust game audio down to an acceptable level.
 
Tarmack said:
For vocals, Normalize, compress, normalize, remove noise. Then adjust game audio down to an acceptable level.
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I've done something like this for my latest video and it seems to sound better overall. This time around, I've compressed just the commentary audio and then adjusted the volumes of the game and commentary. Much more simple.

Thanks everyone for your replies! You guys are awesome.
 
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