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I'm working on a 5.1 feature and the whole film was redubbed with dubbing artists and original cast of the film(usual practice in China). My client showed me another movie mixed in another studio. That movie was also redubbed. He claimed that both recordings were from the same recording studio. He want the dialogue sound exactly to the previous one. However, I can't EQ it to the same. I think the one I'm working on is too boxy and close-mic.

ADR Clip THe 'ADR clip' is the one I'm working on.

Sample The 'Sample' one is that my client wanted.

Both female voice are from the same actress. I also suspect that the male voice are from the same actor too.

I'm here asking any help and advice about EQing. I hope anyone can give me some suggestions of this. Please Help.

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  • Re: comments that the samples are identical - they are. They both link to the same URL. You can tell by hovering both, or look at the post in edit.
    – Tetsujin
    Aug 14, 2016 at 6:35
  • Sorry, I reedit the link now, if you have time you may take a look drive.google.com/open?id=0B6perOq-V19zd21jSDNUcG5KNGs
    – Ah Kei
    Aug 14, 2016 at 7:26

4 Answers 4

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I might be wrong but it looks like the samples you provided are identical. Regardless, if you want to match the sound of one recording to another you can try Izotope RX5 which has a really good "EQ match" function.

If you'd rather do it manually try an EQ with a built in spectrum analyser and tweak the ADR until you're happy with the sound (A/B between it and the original). Fab Filter Pro-Q2 works great for me, the pre/post analyser function can help you visualise the problematic areas.

Of course your ADR will only fit if the performance matches the original as well.

I hope this helps

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  • Thank you! They are not the same. The sample sounds much less boxy and more natural.
    – Ah Kei
    Aug 14, 2016 at 4:51
  • I have reedit the link for the "sample" one, if you have time you may take a look. drive.google.com/open?id=0B6perOq-V19zd21jSDNUcG5KNGs
    – Ah Kei
    Aug 14, 2016 at 9:15
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I wasnt able to hear your samples but sometimes a little reverb or distortion will help a lot. That and some good EQ can usually get yhou close.

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  • Well, you should listen to the sample first, it is quite different
    – Ah Kei
    Aug 14, 2016 at 4:53
  • They wouldn't play on my browser for some reason but downloading them and they are the same exact clip. It sounds very closely miced, its hard to adjust proximity bu I would probably dip some highs slightly, add a little reverb and do a fairly large cut on the the low and low mid as a starting point.
    – coaxmw
    Aug 14, 2016 at 4:58
  • I have tried to large cut on the low too. I tried high pass around 160hz and low shelf around 250 with -5 db. The female voice sounded better, but the male one was still awful. You mentioned that you may dip some high, why's that?And in what frequency?
    – Ah Kei
    Aug 14, 2016 at 6:21
  • I have reedit the link for the "sample" one, if you have time you may take a look.
    – Ah Kei
    Aug 14, 2016 at 7:28
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The sample reference you provide is nearly linear in the speech frequencies, where the ADR version has some quite unique "bumps". The bright green is your ADR, the dark green is the original:

enter image description here

The 200 Hz peak is probably the boxyness you're talking about. The high end is lower and you also have a lot going on in the sub region which is of no use at all (add a high pass / low cut around 100 Hz).

Using Har-Bal I tried evening out your ADR version so it is closer to the original. This is the frequency response - i.e. what you have to "dial in" on a parametric EQ to get there:

enter image description here

Which makes it sound like this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0YJ-mawU-NzSkVMMXIwcVlnUUE/view?usp=sharing

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  • Nice, practical example of 'EQ Matching'. I can't help feeling like I'm cheating myself when I've used it.
    – n00dles ♦
    Aug 15, 2016 at 19:38
  • Well, the cool thing about Har-Bal - as opposed to many of the other auto-match tools - is that you actually get to do this manually and deliberately leave certain peaks/valleys as is, because they represent something unique in your main source. What I did here was a rough match on a 3 octave resolution. Much better than "blind" hit-n-run match EQs
    – Michael Hansen Buur
    Aug 16, 2016 at 6:14
  • I have EQ it and I think it is better, you may take a look if you have time drive.google.com/open?id=0B6perOq-V19zX0pvZ3ItcDY1TzQ
    – Ah Kei
    Aug 16, 2016 at 16:42
  • @AhKei - it sounds good :-) I do miss a little high end though - but to get that right you need to add a de-esser - in my version the SSS are very annoying (I simply EQ'ed, nothing else).
    – Michael Hansen Buur
    Aug 17, 2016 at 6:32
  • I've use WAVES Renaissance DeEsser. I feel now it sounds a little bit to much 3-4khz??
    – Ah Kei
    Aug 17, 2016 at 18:47
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First, I listen to these audio clips through my headphone which I'm not recommended anyone to do premix or mix the dialog, except editing.

What I would do (with the female voice) is find the right HPF and LPF Freq to cut, gain High Freq with wide Q ( around 6kHZ ), control the Low and Mid Freq.

Also, from what I hear the sample (processed) audio. It is not only EQ but also DeEsser (you need this for Chinese language), Compressor which applied as insert.

You could find a Roomtone sound to help you shape with the tone while you are EQing.

Hope this help.

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  • Thank you for the advice. I believe the female voice is not a really problem, but the male one is a mess. You have mentioned deesser, what plugins do you suggest? And which frequency range should I focus on for Chinese language? I tried to use C6/ Avid multiband to control 6-8kHz, but the result is not good enough. What I noticed through EQ analyzer plugin was mine dialogue always had higher peak between 6-8khz. And the sample one had more average high end. It looked like an flat line of high frequency, but of course, it didn't sound dull and muddy.
    – Ah Kei
    Aug 14, 2016 at 18:53
  • You can use the same approach with the EQ for male voice, treat Hi freq bright enough for the scene but more focusing on muddy and low freq. C6 is good choice for levelling (tone) it out but won't do good enough on deEssing Chinese "S". I usually use DeEsser from Waves with hardcore threshold or Dyn3 De-Esser to save the cpu power. I automate EQ a lot on the dialog just to make it smooth though out the scene.
    – BASS
    Aug 14, 2016 at 19:20

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