Re: audio on videos

hank Wrote:
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> Most of the time when I watch a train video (esp
> if I re-watch one) I turn the audio off. Errors in
> narration, soundtrack obviously from a different
> engine/day/etc, music that just distracts me from
> what I'm trying to watch, all of these I just find
> annoying. I'd rather watch a silent movie.
>
> Just curious if I'm the only one with this
> (probably) weird habit.
>
> Hank

When I first got into doing videos(35 years ago now), I was doing contemporary stuff, with live audio. My first 8-10 shows were not narrated. Why, because I hated the syrupy voice-overs telling me about some shot being really great when it was mediocre at best. As time went on we tried to improve and with that we used some narration, but NEVER over good train audio, especially steam.

When it comes to vintage shows from the film era, you have to realize that 99% of those never had audio to start with. We got spoiled in that we bought some films in the late 90's, and a guy actually had been with the film guy and did audio. So we were able to use authentic sounds of those engines, and in many cases match them up perfectly. My motto is that I will NOT dub any old train sounds into vintage film shows. I don't want to change history. I have seen too many shows that had the wrong railroad sounds, wrong whistles, and maybe didn't match. Heck I have had some guys steal audio from some of my contemporary shows for old film shows. Now a few guys do a good job, but you either go with music and narration, or fake train sounds and narration. One could use today's Colorado NG engines for sound, but then whistles may not match from those on the engines in the films. If you fake it, the customers will figure it out.

We use music versus zero sound track on the shows. We try to find music that is relaxing or appropriate for the time period. Usually something generic that's not too wild. Like my dad used to say as we watch movies in the old days "These films never had sound, so why worry about it". So Hank you are not wrong in turning off the sound. The main mission is to preserve the old films, and the sound is secondary. If you want pure authentic natural sound, then contemporary is your best bet(Shows made in the video era).

Greg Scholl
[www.gregschollvideo.com]