Mixing Opinions? - Is silence golden?

I recently read an enlightening article about that in either Computer Music or Future Music magazine. The premise of the article was that total silence is unnatural, even in music, and that you can be better off keeping the "sound of the room". I would assume the same for spoken word.

Of course in film/video they get room tone - the loverly sound of almost silence to mix in after ADR in the studio.  Keeps it from sounding, as both you point out, unnatural.  Maybe try some room tone rather than noise.

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If it really sounds too weird then adding some noise could be a good thing for it. As others have suggested, try maybe just getting a still room sound rather than pink/white noise. Just turn the gain right up and record nothing so then you can pick up all the electrical noise and room noise and whatnot, then blend to taste - remembering obviously that it'll come up a bit depending on how much you like to compress your mixes.

I generally don't really like the saying "if it sounds good, it is good", but I think it's probably acceptable to use that phrase in this scenario. In many other cases the phrase may be better off being "if it sounds good, you may need more ear training to understand why it is actually sounds like arse".

Yes, an almost subliminal ambient atmosphere in the background works a treat and steers the listener into the mood you are trying to convey.

I almost think of it like those 'Hanna Barbera' type cartoons where the background scenery rotates and repeats endlessly like when Fred and Barney are driving along but it's far more effective than a pure white background. In fact it's the only thing that conveys forward motion.

Silence isn't natural and seems odd when we (don't) hear it.

Carefully chosen ambience is very effective in placing the listener in the context of what you are trying to get across, mostly it should just be 'there' but barely audible, pink noise would work but it tends to sound like somebody left a TV on with no signal somewhere as that would be the most common association that people would pick up on.

It's a key tool used in movie making, the aural ambience, although rarely noticed, often being key to the success of setting a scene.

I routinely record room tone for on location work we do. Each "tone" has it's own distinct vibe. We mainly record the tone to use for smoothing edits or hiding overdubs rather than just to use as a bed.

If your story has a theme and was recorded in a sterile studio... think about what room will be best suited.

Convolution reverb works wonders as well.

On the other hand, most listeners will have lots of extraneous noise in their listening circumstances so you probably don't want to get too aggressive adding tone.

Can't go wrong with crickets

I'm going to try to address each reply within the paragraph, as everybody has a valid point.

The silence was intentional. I have been hunting and killing off noise like it was a infestation of bugs. The result was unexpected. Like ecosystems everywhere, even the lowest of the low is an important part of the system.

I thought back to what I was trying to emulate in sound (The spoken word part in the middle of "Passion Play, by Jethro Tull) and realized that while that song is on CD, the original was on tape and there would be tape noise.

I am thinking now, that it is the silence that is making the vocals a bit thin. They are also sounding a bit nasal (I need to look at the EQ) and reedy. Part of the reasons for this, I think, is two fold.

1.  The gain is too high on the mic (I ignored my own advice), and
2. I was too close to the mic. This gives it a reedy sound (its not a great mic).

With the gain higher on some of the later takes, I was of course picking up more room noise and its absence is now very much more heard (and amplified by compression).

I think I should retrack at a lower gain and be a bit further from the mic (I will adjust the pop filter). I should then be able to bring the volume up in the daw while keeping the noise floor low.

I will then also record the room noise (at 3am and praying the dog doesn't decide to "participate" I have had to remove soooo many barks from tracks LOL).

SongCraft, you must be a painter. Negative space is often more important than positive in conveying drama in a drawing. I agree its juxtaposition in music is just as important, which is why I use pauses and silent passages in a lot of my music.

In this case I think its just too much and addressing Jeff's (very good) points in the song thread itself will probably make it even more apparent. I fear that will become the unintentional focus of listeners and that is not the desired result.

Thanks for the input guys.

Shad,
I've got a suggestion that i'm going to use on some of my intense and quietly sobering heart break pieces of hopeless jilted desperation.

Giggling females in the background.   Just a bunch of s****ing and giggling young women unable to contain their scorn and derision.

I think it will add another dimension to my broody artistic sentiment.
You could try it.   I've not patented it yet.

1. The gain is too high on the mic (I ignored my own advice), and

Are you suggesting that your pre-amps sound bad on your vox with high gain compared to volume matched low gain recordings? Cause as long as you're not clipping and recording at 24bit, it would sound exactly the same - provided your preamps sound the same at low and high gains - which may not be the case. Or is there something I am missing here?