kurtvanzo
Capt. Zorro
UVI: The three updates that would be great to Walker would be separate output selection for cloth with a pop up EQ for cloth, and the ability to slide the keys up or down the keyboard, so multiple instances can be laid out side by side on the keyboard.
After going through Walker and Edward's FoleyArt Footsteps, they both can work well, or well enough, for most productions. If you have a Hobbit sequel or other fantasy situation, neither will cover it, but you should be recording anyways.
Let me just start by saying a great artist with shoes in hand and a decent mic (a Senn 416 or other similar) and preamp can get more accurate foley, in many cases better sounding, and do it quicker. Most pro artists I work with nail most of it in one pass, real-time, sight unseen. No joke. It's all they do and the best are great at it, but it's why they get 600+ a day (and you still need a studio and a mixer). So if you want it good, and fast, it don't come cheap.
But many indy films either don't have money for a foley stage or they have very little foley to do. And if it's a commercial or a TV show, you may just need to fill in a bit where the wind fans are blowing on set or the director is screaming over the take... again.
So I've used FoleyArt on a couple of indie films so far and it's worked out. Normally $79, less on sale.
https://tovusound.com/shop/edward-foley ... nstrument/
Scenes where I'm not only filling in. but replacing whole scenes of footsteps due to denoising. That's right RX is awesome, but man times the noise I have to remove comes at the expense of the footsteps. But thankfully I can take the original track, get a close match on the shoe and surface, match midi notes to the audio steps in the track and boom, good to go. I do find it faster to perform the steps (much like an artist) and just correct where necessary. But it's great to be able to adjust the sound (or change shoes) AFTER the steps are in. How all the steps work together really makes a difference, and being able to correct one in a crowd is great. The foley artist does this instinctually, but like with music, sometimes we have to insert expression and "a feel".
FoleyArt recorded 4 different speeds of walking laid out on the keyboard. Fast, Med, Slow, Crawl, plus scuffs, lifts, lands. I got use to working that way pretty quickly. With the extra scuffs, turns lifts, there is enough there for variety. And the different speed walks are for the most part recorded well and have a real walk feel. Even the crawl is useful for those characters that barely move. And there seems to be some movement built in on the slower steps which helps. I could use more surfaces and shoes, but I suppose that is were you decide if you want to pay for Ultimate ($400). Perhaps this smaller one was just designed to wet your whistle, but I've done a few projects with it and no one had questioned it (usually they are background levels).
Now there's Walker from UVI. On intro price at $99 until Nov 19th.
(broken link removed)
Cleaner, clearer recorded steps than FoleyArt, but out of they box they needed some tweaking. Comparing them to FoleyArt they sound a little more mechanical, but this might be due to the seperated toe and heel samples, and adjusting each to get a slow or fast step (the harder you press the tighter the step) where FoleyArt are recorded at different speeds, to get you in the ballpark (which works 95 percent of the time). On both instruments tuning up or down helps, and sometimes the on board eq is helpful . Walker has stops and lifts, but could use more turns and halfsteps. Even slower walking (like on FoleyArt) would be helpful.
On Walker turning the resonance all the way down (off) and only adding a little room reverb seemed best, otherwise for me the distance adds too much of a slapback, which is only helpful in a slappy, livlier room. The reverb IR collection is nice, with many rooms, halls, alleys to choose from, though I' might still go to my Altiverb, they are not a bad option. Having mic choices and clothing that works with the track is great (many cloth types to choose with a level and solo) but would be nicer if cloth could be routed out another output. Many mixers like to control the cloth level themselves, so this output would allow you to give them a separate audio track of just cloth, without soloing the track. For now a workaround would be to add an extra workstation instance and solo the cloth (turn it off on the steps instrument) then use workstation to route to record tracks. It just takes up twice as many instances, and on a movie with many steps, it can get a little nuts.
Walker has more shoes and more surfaces (snow and mud for instance, always good to have). Yet FoleyArt has some combos that Walker doesn't, And after working on both I could get them to sound workable and similar (a little high end added to foleyArt, turning off the compressor and some of the extras on Walker) so they can each be used for their strengths/ sounds in tandem. FoleyArt also is NKS compatible, which I like on my S61, but to be fair, Walker is just a few keys, so it's not hard to figure out. I liked the different speeds of walking laid out on the keyboard in FoleyArt. Fast, Med, Slow, Crawl, plus scuffs, lifts, lands. I got use to working that way. But having different speeds on just two keys is not bad either, certainly less to think about when your performing. I'm just not sure if I'll like it more since I would change midi keys in the scroll to get a slightly different sound (where it sounded too robotic) but you can't do that here. I suppose you could change velocities instead. I'll see how it works on my next project this week.
With FoleyArt I didn't tweak as much, find a close shoe and surface, a little ambience if needed, go. With Walker I you do need to check mics and settings for each shoe and surface type. The settings in Walker that work for one shoe may not work well on another. Grass and Forest need the leaves turned up (lower right) and sand or snow need more dirt, where most other surfaces should be cleaner. Even adjustments on dynamic range or pitch or auto scuff can really help make the shoe more believeable. So perhaps setting up the shoes in a templete how you like them in advance (then saving presets) would help sessions go a little faster. You may just need to make a dozen or two presets.
In a nutshell I would say UVI Walker has got more bang for the buck at intro price, but FoleyArt is a close contender (I'm still waiting for a decent sale on Edwards Ultimate), at $79 (or better on sale) it can cover most basic steps (or you can fake it) and have NKS control/light guide. Both are worth a look if your interested in playing footsteps in fast and have enough options (though more in an expansion pack would be great).
UVI: The three updates I would like to see on this are separate output selection and a pop up EQ for cloth, AND the ability to slide the keys up or down the keyboard, so multiple instances can be laid out side by side on the keyboard. A custom layout as a workstation multi would be excellent!
After going through Walker and Edward's FoleyArt Footsteps, they both can work well, or well enough, for most productions. If you have a Hobbit sequel or other fantasy situation, neither will cover it, but you should be recording anyways.
Let me just start by saying a great artist with shoes in hand and a decent mic (a Senn 416 or other similar) and preamp can get more accurate foley, in many cases better sounding, and do it quicker. Most pro artists I work with nail most of it in one pass, real-time, sight unseen. No joke. It's all they do and the best are great at it, but it's why they get 600+ a day (and you still need a studio and a mixer). So if you want it good, and fast, it don't come cheap.
But many indy films either don't have money for a foley stage or they have very little foley to do. And if it's a commercial or a TV show, you may just need to fill in a bit where the wind fans are blowing on set or the director is screaming over the take... again.
So I've used FoleyArt on a couple of indie films so far and it's worked out. Normally $79, less on sale.
https://tovusound.com/shop/edward-foley ... nstrument/
Scenes where I'm not only filling in. but replacing whole scenes of footsteps due to denoising. That's right RX is awesome, but man times the noise I have to remove comes at the expense of the footsteps. But thankfully I can take the original track, get a close match on the shoe and surface, match midi notes to the audio steps in the track and boom, good to go. I do find it faster to perform the steps (much like an artist) and just correct where necessary. But it's great to be able to adjust the sound (or change shoes) AFTER the steps are in. How all the steps work together really makes a difference, and being able to correct one in a crowd is great. The foley artist does this instinctually, but like with music, sometimes we have to insert expression and "a feel".
FoleyArt recorded 4 different speeds of walking laid out on the keyboard. Fast, Med, Slow, Crawl, plus scuffs, lifts, lands. I got use to working that way pretty quickly. With the extra scuffs, turns lifts, there is enough there for variety. And the different speed walks are for the most part recorded well and have a real walk feel. Even the crawl is useful for those characters that barely move. And there seems to be some movement built in on the slower steps which helps. I could use more surfaces and shoes, but I suppose that is were you decide if you want to pay for Ultimate ($400). Perhaps this smaller one was just designed to wet your whistle, but I've done a few projects with it and no one had questioned it (usually they are background levels).Now there's Walker from UVI. On intro price at $99 until Nov 19th.
(broken link removed)
Cleaner, clearer recorded steps than FoleyArt, but out of they box they needed some tweaking. Comparing them to FoleyArt they sound a little more mechanical, but this might be due to the seperated toe and heel samples, and adjusting each to get a slow or fast step (the harder you press the tighter the step) where FoleyArt are recorded at different speeds, to get you in the ballpark (which works 95 percent of the time). On both instruments tuning up or down helps, and sometimes the on board eq is helpful . Walker has stops and lifts, but could use more turns and halfsteps. Even slower walking (like on FoleyArt) would be helpful.
On Walker turning the resonance all the way down (off) and only adding a little room reverb seemed best, otherwise for me the distance adds too much of a slapback, which is only helpful in a slappy, livlier room. The reverb IR collection is nice, with many rooms, halls, alleys to choose from, though I' might still go to my Altiverb, they are not a bad option. Having mic choices and clothing that works with the track is great (many cloth types to choose with a level and solo) but would be nicer if cloth could be routed out another output. Many mixers like to control the cloth level themselves, so this output would allow you to give them a separate audio track of just cloth, without soloing the track. For now a workaround would be to add an extra workstation instance and solo the cloth (turn it off on the steps instrument) then use workstation to route to record tracks. It just takes up twice as many instances, and on a movie with many steps, it can get a little nuts.
Walker has more shoes and more surfaces (snow and mud for instance, always good to have). Yet FoleyArt has some combos that Walker doesn't, And after working on both I could get them to sound workable and similar (a little high end added to foleyArt, turning off the compressor and some of the extras on Walker) so they can each be used for their strengths/ sounds in tandem. FoleyArt also is NKS compatible, which I like on my S61, but to be fair, Walker is just a few keys, so it's not hard to figure out. I liked the different speeds of walking laid out on the keyboard in FoleyArt. Fast, Med, Slow, Crawl, plus scuffs, lifts, lands. I got use to working that way. But having different speeds on just two keys is not bad either, certainly less to think about when your performing. I'm just not sure if I'll like it more since I would change midi keys in the scroll to get a slightly different sound (where it sounded too robotic) but you can't do that here. I suppose you could change velocities instead. I'll see how it works on my next project this week.
With FoleyArt I didn't tweak as much, find a close shoe and surface, a little ambience if needed, go. With Walker I you do need to check mics and settings for each shoe and surface type. The settings in Walker that work for one shoe may not work well on another. Grass and Forest need the leaves turned up (lower right) and sand or snow need more dirt, where most other surfaces should be cleaner. Even adjustments on dynamic range or pitch or auto scuff can really help make the shoe more believeable. So perhaps setting up the shoes in a templete how you like them in advance (then saving presets) would help sessions go a little faster. You may just need to make a dozen or two presets.
In a nutshell I would say UVI Walker has got more bang for the buck at intro price, but FoleyArt is a close contender (I'm still waiting for a decent sale on Edwards Ultimate), at $79 (or better on sale) it can cover most basic steps (or you can fake it) and have NKS control/light guide. Both are worth a look if your interested in playing footsteps in fast and have enough options (though more in an expansion pack would be great).
UVI: The three updates I would like to see on this are separate output selection and a pop up EQ for cloth, AND the ability to slide the keys up or down the keyboard, so multiple instances can be laid out side by side on the keyboard. A custom layout as a workstation multi would be excellent!
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