interview problem
 

i hate to have to post this. but during my last wedding interviews, i have no wireless audio, only shotgun.
these interviews were money, and I need some help sweetening the audio. Is there anything I can do make it presentable to include in the video? I wlll gladly send a sample clip to anyone. I am using adobe soundbooth.

What is wrong with it? Hard to tell what might help it without knowing what's broke. If it's the typical thin, echo'y sound of a camera mounted 'gun 6 or 8 feet from the speaker there's no much to be done except learn the lesson not to do that again.

You definitely need to attach a .wav file of a typical sample. Minimum 10 seconds.

Andrew

distant, room sounding audio with ambient noise. I need to bring up the volume and try to clean it up.
file attached.

I think your audio is quite salvageable, with full credit to the quality mic you must have used and the clarity of the voice of the lady you were recording.

I have (in Adobe Audition) ....

1. Grabbed a copy of the right channel and added it to the left channel which was empty
2. Normalised the audio to -2dB
3. Applied "normal" hiss reduction
4. Used the graphic equalizer to drop out the low frequency rumbles, maxing down everything up to 88hz.

Let me know what you think. Granted, I am not an audio engineer and you may get better results from a "professional". :-)

Andrew

is there a way to show me the graphic equalizer?

For sure. (and I totally understand the need)

See attached.

Andrew

Good work Andrew
 

I learned one thing from your post Andrew and your wav file. It's that if there is an echo in the room, then there is probably no way to get rid of it without "blanking out" between sentences. If I do that though, I'm probably making it obvious that it was done.

Yes, there is no such thing as a "remove echo" filter, though some of the super-good tools out there get close (when removing harmonics of unwanted sound).

I was going to mention that I wouldn't be too worried about the remnants of noise in the recording as these can pretty much be the "colour" of the room.

If you are bothered by it, lay a gentle music bed underneath and the result might be that nobody will even notice. As far as I can tell you have good separation between the vocals and the background room noise, allowing you to do this.

Interested to know how it all works out for you.

Andrew

Andrew, thanks a ton mate! I feel like a complete turd that this happened, but at least
the interviews are somewhat salvageable, id be in worse shape if there was no audio at all.

No worries. It happens to us all.

The good thing is that you had a backup mic + recording to retrieve the 'rescue' audio from.

All the best and Merry Christmas.

Andrew


PS. Other sites are for gossip. DVinfo is for ... info. :-P

If you work in some room tone underneath, in the right ratio, it could smooth out the "blanking out" ambient you will experience from the NR. You could use the room tone from the location (assuming you recorded some?) or you could go back and re-record some when it is quiet there.

Music can cover a multitude of sins as well.

Dan