Music or Real Audio for Videos

[Mabuku1]

I prefer the ambient sound. I watch them to feel like I'm there. Escaping to the outdoors for an hour. There are too many disc golf videos I have to mute because of someone's music taste was not compatible with my ears. For ex. The dgcr meet at flyboy. Some odd choices that made a great video almost unbearable to finish watching.

 

[Jimb]

I much prefer live sound.

If videos just have music, I normally mute it and play something else to listen to in another tab.

If videos have a mix of music and actual sound, it depends on how much the music annoys me if I mute it or not.

Very interesting how the poll is turning out, btw. Good job with the thread.

And on a side note... I'm not really fond of video "clips." I much prefer full rounds. The DG Monthly format is OK with "previous round highlights" and then the full video. But I just don't appreciate a bunch of random clips thrown together.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

Just trying to help the DG community. Agree with you on the clips Jen- It builds suspension watching the card battles even if its for 3rd or 4th.

and they say?!:

your muzac is wack bro. . . and why the NFL mic's up players on the field' They get tons of soundbites to use through the REAL audio.

 

[scarpfish]

Tell me which of these two videos showing the same shot captures the feel of the action better.

Music

No Music

There you go.

To me, video makers who add needless music to otherwise good video are kind of like webmasters about 10-15 years ago who thought you needed to see a needless flash intro before you got to the homepage of a website (which doubly sucked for folks on a dialup connection), that seemed to be there for no reason than they're the webmaster and they want you to admire the cool stuff they made with Flash before you got to the content that you wanted.

So those of you who make videos have to ask yourself, "who am I making this video for?". Do I want to present content that my viewers would enjoy, or am I just saying "Look at my cool creation", which translates to your viewers "look at me", which from your viewers end, kinda looks narcissistic.

 

[Jimb]

Tell me which of these two videos showing the same shot captures the feel of the action better.

Music

No Music

There you go.

To me, video makers who add needless music to otherwise good video are kind of like webmasters about 10-15 years ago who thought you needed to see a needless flash intro before you got to the homepage of a website (which doubly sucked for folks on a dialup connection), that seemed to be there for no reason than they're the webmaster and they want you to admire the cool stuff they made with Flash before you got to the content that you wanted.

So those of you who make videos have to ask yourself, "who am I making this video for?". Do I want to present content that my viewers would enjoy, or am I just saying "Look at my cool creation", which translates to your viewers "look at me", which from your viewers end, kinda looks narcissistic.

In this short video, I actually enjoy both versions. The music is appropriately dramatic in an odd and funny way for the situation. It really helps you focus on the sadness of the situation. But then when you hear the wind blasting the microphone as everything is blowing all over the place, it's very appropriate, too.

A long length video with that much wind noise would, undoubtedly, get annoying. But most music won't work that well with a video either for an extended period of time. So... I still vote for natural sound.

 

[scarpfish]

The music is appropriately dramatic in an odd and funny way for the situation. It really helps you focus on the sadness of the situation.

See to me, that's not sad. It just one of those crazy things that happens. I would have just as soon preferred to hear "Bad Moon Rising" or the Mission Impossible theme than something that sounds like a piano recital.

Different strokes I suppose.

 

[Jimb]

See to me, that's not sad. It just one of those crazy things that happens. I would have just as soon preferred to hear "Bad Moon Rising" or the Mission Impossible theme than something that sounds like a piano recital.

Different strokes I suppose.

My wife watches Downton Abby all of the time and I think that the music reminded me of that theme song. So there's some sort of underlying, Freudian, thing going on here. And I didn't really find it "sad." I just couldn't think of a better word.

As far as your song selections go, I think that they would work out well, too! Again, in this short format. Maybe even the Star Wars "Empire/Doom" music? Or Hammertime? Can't touch this. Just Kidding on that one!

 

[JTacoma03]

It all depends on the context. If it's a highlight reel with lots of quick cuts, then music. If it's more documentary style following a group, real audio.

The goal is effective communication which is a combination of video and audio information.

These are the crux of the issue, you need to define what you're doing before just arbitrarily deciding "music" or "no music" - i.e. respectfully, I think the question you asked will not result in an answer that will help you.

People tend to mix in simply terrible music into amateur video in general. Rather just hear a cleaned up version of real life sound.

This is a great case here (sorry to pick on you grungedude, nothing personal), of how the average person has no idea how difficult a seemingly simple task is. "Cleaning up audio" - if it's even possible, which most of the time it isn't - will end up costing more than the budget of a shoot, especially in disc golf terms.


The point is. Audio is a tremendously important part of conveying the message (like Chuck said), don't decide based on what random X user likes, decide based on your purpose and tone of the project you're working on.

With all that being said, I do agree with most people that round coverage style videos with a random track playing in its entirety is a cop-out in terms of making a quality video. So...don't take the easy road, but don't blast a round coverage with awful wind-and-hand clipping noise while trying to go "natural" either.

 

[inscho]

Why no option for both? Most movie making programs allow you to mix a music track with the ambient audio. That is what I'd prefer.

Agree with Jukeshoe. A good mix of both. Especially for those sweet shots.

 

[The Roc]

Definately listening to the players and what they are saying as opposed to some (usually) annoying rap song.

 

[dtuba]

Real sound (or "nat sound" as we call it in the TV biz) . much more enjoyable than that pseudo grunge rock source music.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

Looks like its a landslide yet we still see lots of music overlays in DG videos :|

 

[Kodachrome]

i think if more people listened to good music, the poll would reflect differently.

something ambient and non-obtrusive that lets you focus on the what the disc is doing and sorta zone out. mike C had some good examples.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

I don't think that's true at all if anything it distracts unless you enjoy what you are hearing and even then its distracting in that sense. Im not really talking about quick snap shot videos either but rather tournament productions.

 

[Kodachrome]

Im not really talking about quick snap shot videos either but rather tournament productions.

oh goodness, then yeah. in a full-on tournament video i don't want to hear anything except natural sound.

 

[DavidSauls]

Looks like its a landslide yet we still see lots of music overlays in DG videos :|

Because we're polling more than just videographers.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

oh goodness, then yeah. in a full-on tournament video i don't want to hear anything except natural sound.

I personally enjoy the chatter between the players and sounds of the area from nature to city it always makes me feel more a part of the course.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

Because we're polling more than just videographers.

You realize these people watch the videos, right?

 

[DavidSauls]

Yeah. I suspect the people producing the videos are more enthralled with their artistry of mixing music with video. And, of course, using music they like. My guess is that the viewers keep watching because they like the disc golf, and tolerate the music.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

Right which is why when you produce a publically watched video it needs to be realized its not art. If you want to sell remixed DG videos go for it but there already is no $ in this crap and adding rap/rock music to a round vs commentary or natural sounds doesn't help anyone involved really. It makes some of the videos impossible to play without being on mute in presence of those who could be offended. Seems like a waste if im going to go to the effort to make a video in the first place which is hard as hell.