Soundbooth CS3: Too much static:

[Simon Zimmer]

Hello,

I am working on narrating a video I made. The quality of the actual voice is good but there is too much static in the background.

I am using PPCS3 and Soundbooth CS4. My recording level using the Samson COU1was set at 37 (vista) (Control Panel -> Sound->Record Level).

The audio clips when I normalize them jump up to 10 to 13db. As you can imagine, when I render out the video, the static in the background for audio is a bit much. Fortunately, there is music in the background so it makes it listenable.

I read some posts on this forum and it seems like I should NOT use normalize and audio gain to make my audio louder.

If I do not add audio gain or normalize to the audio cilps, they are too quiet.

What should I do then? I am a newbie to the audio world but fully understand I need to learn a lot to improve the situation.

Any tips that could lead me in the right direction would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Simon

[Don Xaliman]

Originally Posted by Simon Zimmer

Hello,

I am working on narrating a video I made. The quality of the actual voice is good but there is too much static in the background.

I am using PPCS3 and Soundbooth CS4. My recording level using the Samson COU1was set at 37 (vista) (Control Panel -> Sound->Record Level).

The audio clips when I normalize them jump up to 10 to 13db. As you can imagine, when I render out the video, the static in the background for audio is a bit much. Fortunately, there is music in the background so it makes it listenable.

I read some posts on this forum and it seems like I should NOT use normalize and audio gain to make my audio louder.

If I do not add audio gain or normalize to the audio cilps, they are too quiet.

What should I do then? I am a newbie to the audio world but fully understand I need to learn a lot to improve the situation.

Any tips that could lead me in the right direction would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Simon

Check the loudest peaks in the waveform and see if they get close to 0db. If they are below 0db then set the normalizer to up the audio gain by a bit more than that amount.
ex. if your peaks are -5db and the average level is -10db then set the audio gain for +8db so as to keep the norm a bit less then the peak of 0db.
If there is audible static then it is something in your hardware or mic settings that is causing it.

[Simon Zimmer]

I tried it and it worked!

Cool. Much better quality.

Thanks!

Simon