how to quiet room tone

[lurch]

i recently shot a scene in a warehouse in which it was hard to control the sound. the room tone in the footage that i shot is way to loud , was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction as far as audio filters in fcp4 goes to try and quiet it down a bit

[jaredalv]

What do you mean by room tone? Do you mean echo? Do you mean a 'barrel-like' quality to the speech? What exactly are you trying to do. You would almost be better off re-recording your vocals in a really 'dead' room and then marrying them with the on-site sound for ambience/feel. Play with the levels of the two audio sets until you get a nice mix.

FCP's sound filters aren't going to be what you're looking for I'm thinking. But then again, I don't really know what you're after. But my guess is that it would take a>tons of money on 3rd party software and b>tons of time getting what you're after. I don't know that FCP is gonna do what you want. Imagine getting way over-exposed footage to edit and trying to come out with a nice picture. It's never really going to happen if you don't get it right at shooting.

Sorry to sound so bleak.

[Staven]

Yeah, if you have dialogue that is overrun by loud background noise, you're gonna have to do adr. Use the existing audio as a guide track, then get your actors(if this is a movie) to redo their dialogue to the picture. If you have roomtone of the warehouse, no dialogue, just roomtone, you can then put that under your adr dialogue at a lot lower volume for background. Note, if you replace all dialogue, you'll have to replace all sounds that happen in scene from clothing movement noise, to walking, to whatever takes place.

[kai]

If you're referring to the noise floor in the audio track, if you use Pro Tools, there is a plug-in called "DINR" (Digitech Intelligent Noise Reduction), and you can sample a section of audio from your clip (section without voice), and it will flip the phase of those sampled noise frequencies 180 degrees, effectively cancelling out the "noise"...

The plugin is about a grand, plus the price of a Pro Tools rig, but if you have access to it, it's a strong tool for it...

[lurch]

i suppose i could always use another toy anyways ,time to take out a loan. thanks guys :D

[kai]

lol always research it a bit before you take the jump just cause someone recommended it ;) I think you'll find ProTools a good bet though...

[Stewartep]

Yeah, ProTools is worth the investment..

[NoahK]

If you're even asking this question I'd suggest ADR. There's no shame in it- 80-90% of dialogue in most big-time movies, especially action films is looped.

Noah

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

i recently shot a scene in a warehouse in which it was hard to control the sound. the room tone in the footage that i shot is way to loud , was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction as far as audio filters in fcp4 goes to try and quiet it down a bit

If I understand your term, 'room tone', I'd call that 'noise floor', which may not be what an audio person may use...

But for FC Express, as I recall there was a 'noise gate' filter. what a 'noise gate' filter will do, is set a threshhold, and if the sound rises above that threshhold, the filter will let the sound pass through, otherwise depending on settings, it will cut the noise down, or perhaps depending eliminate it...

The other option is when to determine that the sound has risen above the 'noise', adn so there are some paramenters about that as well...

A manual alternative would be to look at the waveform and manual make cuts around all dialog portions of your audio track (time consumming...).

The problem there is to 'feed back in' a background noise level that gives the feeling of being 'on location', or whatever, but the intensity is controlled by you, rather than the environment... This does not eliminate 'noise' while the person is speaking, just noise on either side, timewise, of when the speaker is uttering their lines. What should be evaluated is if the speaker's 'volume' is well enough above the noisefloor... otherwise adding gain to get the dialog audio will also put gain on the noise that is in with the dialog audio.

In any case, replacing the dialog with added location ambient sound, (doesn't have to be the actual original locaiton, but something that gives the audio some industrial locaiton but under your control), may be the better solution ultimately...

[adkimery]

If we are talking about ambient noise (aka Room Tone) then the OP is most likely screwed. If we are talking about a bit of hiss because the recording level was too low (aka Noise Floor) then the OP has a bit more of a chance to salvage the dialog using filters and elbow grease.


-A

[Cools]

Do you have Soundtrack Pro (maybe not if you are using FCP4)? It has a noise reduction feature.

[MikeWilkinson]

Do you have Soundtrack Pro (maybe not if you are using FCP4)? It has a noise reduction feature.

I would second this, if reducing the ambient noise is what you are looking to do.

If you didn't record it right though, ADR is def the way to go. FCP even has tools built in that will let you do it there, just make sure your edit suite is a quiet one, or go use a car (they are generally acoustically treated, especially luxury cars) Just make sure to go back to your location and record room tone to use as a bed. Good luck!