Here at VoiceOver LA, we often inherit TV and commercial location sound that needs a ton of work. Poor audio quality requires more editing and restoration time. Dialog editing isn’t just about editing ADR or voice over and swapping in lines that replace bad production sound. The better the production sound, the easier the ADR is on your workflow and your wallet. Several factors contribute to a professional quality recording. It’s not just about expensive equipment. It’s really more about your boom operator than his or her gear. A great boom operator has great technique, is familiar with the script, and anticipates cues from the director. The angle of the microphone matters. The distance from the talent matters. It’s about keeping the boom out of the shot but not too far away from the talent. The consistency of recording quality matters. The proper labeling, organization, and transfer of files matter. When our audio post engineers receive files from picture editors, the condition of audio varies wildly and there’s not much they can do when given poor production sound. We can tell that there was a basic attempt from video editors to level out production sound with temp effects and not much more. That’s OK. We’ll still make it sound great. But it can take our editors hours to fix poor production sound that was simply the result of mediocre boom microphone operation. Boom microphone technique can make all the difference and we hope take care of you on your next audio post project.