The placed voice

A studio-dry voice in a wide street shot is the clearest tell of artificial sound. Place each on-screen line at the distance and in the room the picture shows, and keep every word clear [proven].

The placed voice, with the dry take kept underneath (decided): a placed copy of each on-screen line plays in the timeline; the approved dry recording stays untouched, muted beneath it. The route below is [best available, not yet validated].

1. Write a space note per scene from the location sheet: the room's size and surfaces (a small tiled kitchen, an open street, inside a car), and the distance each shot implies. Close-ups stay close and nearly dry. Mediums get a little room. Wides get more room, less direct sound and a slightly softer top.

2. Make the copy. Add a short room, mostly early reflections, and for wides a gentle high cut. Keep the dry signal in the effect's mix (never 100% wet), so the direct sound stays on the same sample and the copy stays in sync with the dry take; line the two up on the waveform before you place the copy. Keep the file's exact length, and match its integrated loudness to the dry take's measured value (steps below). Never write over the locked file.

3. Words first. Subtle early reflections, never a heavy reverb. If the room costs a consonant, use less of it. Check the placed copy's words against the canonical line with a transcript (see Voice and Arabic dialects → Measured checks and the back-check).

4. The room tone under the line stays on the ambience track: the shot's own sound, or a neighbouring shot's for a sound-off plate.

5. In the timeline, the placed copy plays on the DIALOGUE track. The untouched dry take sits beneath it on DIALOGUE ALT 1, at the same start, switched off (decided); alternate takes stack from DIALOGUE ALT 2 down (see Editing → The editable timeline).

6. Lip sync always uses the dry take, never the placed copy (see Speaking shots and lip sync → Route 2, the Arabic default).

7. The voiceover stays close and dry by default: it is the film's voice, not a voice in the room.

8. On the first scene with on-screen dialogue, hear the dry and the placed versions blind on the cut, and choose. It costs nothing.

The copy is first made for the rough cut's assembly, and revisited in the mix where the mix needs it.

Do it yourself

Make the placed copy (Audition or Premiere)

1. Add the room: in Audition, Convolution Reverb with a small room; in Premiere, Studio Reverb with a short decay. Keep some dry signal in the effect's mix, never 100% wet.

2. Match the copy's integrated loudness in Audition's Match Loudness panel, set to the dry take's measured value.

Sources

• Randy Thom, distance contrast (essay); Walter Murch, worldizing and sonic depth of field (filmsound.org); Sonic Union, Rob Ballingall (LBB); Mark Mangini, processing that sounds electronic fails (StudioBinder interview).